ATIH 2012 - A Day Never to Repeated, EVER! - Part 2
Well, thanks to Richard, I got rid of Acronis TIH 2012 on my laptop. It was still on my main computer, affecting my flash drive recognition, and I had planned to wait for my new computer, expected in a month to install Paragon on it.
I had a non-public build (6097) on my workstation that had sent to me by Acronis Tech Support in an attempt to see if it would fix my online backup issues (it didn't). The build was not really stable and I was being reminded of the new build (6131). So I decided to upgrade my workstation to the new build.
It wouldn't upgrade - returned an error message saying there was a version installed, and check this KB article for more info. KB article was empty and thanked me for checking it because Acronis would know that they actually have to create a KB article! The error dialogue recommended uninstalling ATIH 2012 via the Control Panel, so that is what I did. Made sure that I had the Startup Recovery Manager deactivated before trying the uninstall as I had been burned on that before.
BSOD on boot. Out comes the Windows 7 Install disk, try repair (no success) and finally found a Restore Point that brought my computer back to life. Thought: this is it - Acronis is coming out.
Download their ATIH2012 cleaner tool. Run that. Computer tries to reboot - gets to BSOD nowhere near loading Windows. I had tried unsuccessfully to deintegrate ATIH2012 from the Windows Backup and Restore on the Control Panel BEFORE attempting both uninstall attempts..
Out comes the Windows 7 Install disk again. Repair attempts unsuccessful, though it did at least get the computer to the point where it knew I had a hard drive with Windows 7 on it. Restore points selected and run. No success. Check the registry from the DOS prompt and can't find any of the keys and services mentioned by Richard - the cleanup tool obviously removed those, so I am thinking the cleanup tool must have messed with my MBR.
Bring out the Acronis boot disk and restore my last partition backup. The irony was not lost on me that the Acronis boot disk and backup was the only way to fix the damage Acronis caused. My only other option, if that failed, was a Format C:\ and complete reinstall.
Then consult Richard's most excellent Registry hack article. Follow the instructions and am successful in booting each time. Run Revo Uninstaller Pro, before removing the actual Acronis driver files, and do a normal uninstall of DD11, reboot, and do a forced uninstall of ATIH2012. Then start cleaning up the Registry of all other Acronis entries and wipe all Acronis junk off of my computer.
Elapsed time: 8 hours.
I find it very ironic also that Acronis says they have dumbed down the software so ordinary users can start using it successfully with a minimum of a learning curve. Gotta tell you, you need to be a power user to get the sucker out or even do an upgrade from the build I had.
Now have Paragon installed and a full Paragon partition backup and recovery disk.
My Acronis days are over. All we consumers want is a relatively simple and STABLE backup and recovery solution. With versions 2011 and 2012, Acronis has missed that target by the proverbial country mile.
My sympathies to all who continue to expend time, energy, and money, not to mention the frustration involved, in sticking with Acronis. Time to bite the bullet and get rid of it before it gets even worse and that has been the pattern with the last two releases (2011 and 2012).
If this is what Acronis considers "computing with confidence", then they are very deluded.
I am a very happy camper now (thanks again, Richard) and there will be no Acronis "issues" in my future, I can assure you.
Just thought I would finish the story for you all. Perhaps this might help someone avoid the serious problems that I encountered.
Have a great day, despite Acronis.
Regards,
-Phil
Handle device class filters.. that's like asking them to do error trapping. Structured programming.. sigh.. an all but lost art (that USE to be a standard). Where DO people come up with these programmers.. right out of high school? Personally I blame it on Microsoft and their propencity for making wildly unstructured programming languages. Everyone should just go back to C.. if it's in C and it ain't structured, it simply won't work.
.NET has set computing back at least a decade. "Cloud" computing.. another word for "terminal server".. something that was the norm until M$ tried to do everything in one box. Now, decades later, they're finally admitting that the original mainframe/terminal model was actually the right way to go. Meanwhile we end up with junk like this (noticed how almost ALL software has turned to junk the last 10 years?).
Just my opinion.
It's handling those REG_MULTI_SZ filter values that seem to have the Acronis gang really stumped. Horrifically complicated stuff, don'tcha know -- especially if multi-product versioning issues have reached the stage where it seems they can no longer keep track of what should be there and what shouldn't from one "upgrade" to the next. The less said about the added confusion of non-public sub-versions (a.k.a., post-release beta tests) the better.
The fact that their data management skills aren't exactly stellar doesn't help the situation much either. Relational DBMS? What's that?! Whadda ya mean it won't save the backup settings? It saved them. Somewhere. It just can't find them again!
I'd be willing to bet that various registry "leftovers", component mismatches and consequential errors (even to the extent of multiple driver version loading in at least one case I've noted!) are responsible for more problems than any other single factor.
I just went through my registry for a different reason and was APALLED at the amount of registry entries my installation of ATIH *2011* uses. I am not surprised to read your take on this matter at all. Though I've had many, my biggest issue with this software has been when trying to use it with NAS save locations. And when going through the registry I discovered part of the problem. Old save locations are entered into the registry and when ATIH 2011 starts up, or when one tries to edit previous backup schemes, the program tries to connect to those locations. If it can't, instead of giving up and moving on, the program goes into a "loop" of some sort and you get the "not responding" message. Eventually, sometimes, the program will come up with a box to enter credentials, which obviously won't get you out the loop since that's not the problem at all. I assume ATIH 2012 works exactly the same way.
When I deleted the bad entries, ATIH 2011 started running better than I've ever seen it run before. By the way, I found entries for PREVIOUS INSTALLS of the program - test installs I'd done in different locations to try to fix some of the many problems I've had. So, as noted, the uninstall routine does not work properly either. (But that's no secret.) Some of the entries I deleted which I described fixed the problem were created before the last time I even installed this software.
The problems will return, obviously. I can't help but balk at the lack of internal testing. Does Acronis start with a freshly cloned computer each day when they test? That won't provide real world end user results.
I keep getting emails with sweeter and sweeter deals to upgrade to 2012. The last is for $30 w/ free PP, or even $40 for an upgrade, a 2nd license and PP for both. But so far I can't bring myself to pay another penny to Acronis.