Backup .tib files are invisible

Sorry, should have mentioned I'm using Win7 - 64 bit.

Hello Victor,

Thank you for posting. I will do my best to help you with your question.

I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but it appears that your backups have been deleted because of a known issue in build 7154. The logs show that the backups have completed successfully but they are actually deleted if you have specified the following option: full->overwrite previous backup and do not have validation enabled. We have a discussion in this thread.

We will keep you updated about this issue.

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

Anton wrote:

Hello Victor,

Thank you for posting. I will do my best to help you with your question.

I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but it appears that your backups have been deleted because of a known issue in build 7154. The logs show that the backups have completed successfully but they are actually deleted if you have specified the following option: full->overwrite previous backup and do not have validation enabled. We have a discussion in this thread.

We will keep you updated about this issue.

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

That's not totally true! Even if Validation is enabled, the backups are deleted quite often - but not always. What a horrendous bug!!

I have upgraded to TI2011 because I was having this and other problems with scheduling. Now that I've upgraded I'm having backups dissappearing.

You can see from the screen shot the the backup completed yesterday, however when I went to look for it today it was gone and I noticed the task is saying "not backed up yet". WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? I have problems with 2010 for ages then I upgrade to 2011 and have even more, "serious" problems. If you can't make a product that works correctly, I will ask for a refund and start using one of the free products.

I have submitted a support request since I've only had the software for a week, but I thought I should let you know that even with the newer version this bug, albeit in a slightly different form is still around.

Windows7 Pro 64 bit. TI2011 update 1, build 6597

Victor,

Is drive H a drive not attached?

Also scroll down the backup list to those not shown in your picture and see which other backups are listed.

Noticed two tasks pointing to same folder. Less confusion if each task has its own folder.

GroverH wrote:

Victor,

Is drive H a drive not attached?

Also scroll down the backup list to those not shown in your picture and see which other backups are listed.

Noticed two tasks pointing to same folder. Less confusion if each task has its own folder.

H drive is my external usb drive. I'm not sure what you mean by each task having its own folder? Ever since I started using TI years ago, I've never used folders to separate images. As a matter of fact, I keep 7 different backup images on the same drive in the root directory. Each of the images is in its own file. Nowhere does it remotely suggest to keep each image file in a separate folder. Where did you get such an idea?

Victor,

The green banners under each backup cannot be trusted. There is a UI bug by which they don't update correctly. Don't read too much into them. For example, you might start a backup manually, and then they will update to the previous status... Always check your log to verify what happened or not.

If the TIB files are gone from your H:\ destination, they are probably...gone. This can happen because the UI is somewhat confusing and some users delete backups (that deletes everyting including the archives) when they want to remove them from the list (that deletes only the task).

If the TIB files are still in your H:\ destination , your are in good shape. Maybe you removed your backup, and set up new one, for example. The new one will not see the previous archives. Hence: not backed up yet.

Finally, it is possible that ATI lost track of things: the scripts, the database and the scheduler are not in sync any longer. This can happen if the user has edited the task too much (whatever that means): renamed, moved or deleted TIB files manually, etc... The simplest way to fix is to create a new task, with different task name in a different destination. If you want to keep the same name and destination, you have to clean up before setting it back. Let us know if you need help cleaning up the scheduler, database and the scripts

Pat L wrote:

Victor,

The green banners under each backup cannot be trusted. There is a UI bug by which they don't update correctly. Don't read too much into them. For example, you might start a backup manually, and then they will update to the previous status... Always check your log to verify what happened or not.

If the TIB files are gone from your H:\ destination, they are probably...gone. This can happen because the UI is somewhat confusing and some users delete backups (that deletes everyting including the archives) when they want to remove them from the list (that deletes only the task).

If the TIB files are still in your H:\ destination , your are in good shape. Maybe you removed your backup, and set up new one, for example. The new one will not see the previous archives. Hence: not backed up yet.

Finally, it is possible that ATI lost track of things: the scripts, the database and the scheduler are not in sync any longer. This can happen if the user has edited the task too much (whatever that means): renamed, moved or deleted TIB files manually, etc... The simplest way to fix is to create a new task, with different task name in a different destination. If you want to keep the same name and destination, you have to clean up before setting it back. Let us know if you need help cleaning up the scheduler, database and the scripts

Thanks, but this sounds like an extremely poor and "Mickey Mouse" solution to a problem that should not exist at all. What exactly does "remove from the list" mean for a backup task? Does it remove the task? Remove the task from the list, but still stores the task somewhere? Does it remove the task AND the backup file? When I removed the task and "re-created" it, the name of the task defaulted to the previous name. This must mean the TI stores the task somewhere else 'out of view' and 'out of reach' of the user. So once a task has been created, it can never really be deleted. Even if I unistall and re-install the software, the old tasks are still there. I'm getting quite tired of this.

I have been using TI for years and with each new version I encounter more and more problems. At my office I'm still using the old version 10.0 on an XP system. It works like a charm and I've never had any problems at all with it. I wish I could re-install it on my home Win7 system.

Hi Victor,
I agree with you. I wish the software were perfect and there was never any malfunctions. Alas, that is not the case. If you review any of the postings on the forum, 99% are problem issues. Almost never does anyone take the time to share their good fortune about their backups saving their important data.

With version 2009, Acronis began tracking the backup creations using a Metafile database system. If this file becomes corrupt, strange things have been reported as happening. Keeping the backup archives in their own folder (each task pointing to a different folder and with a different task and different backup file name) has been the cure for many users who have adapted this procedure. Acronis does not suggest it but many of us consider it a good safety practices to follow. When you are stopped at a stop light and light turns green, I'll bet you look both ways before proceeding into the intersection. The reason you are careful is that you know people are sometimes in a hurry and do not stop for the red light. Sometimes, regardless of any instructions, it just pays to be aware of the need for safety. Why would I want to take an unnecessary risk about mixing my backups when their is no disadvantage in keeping them merged all together.

Acronis does not suggest that an new install is necessary when upgrading but for some, an uninstall is the only way they can successfully get it installed. Some have no issues with a upgrade while others do not. Some computers have more issues than others due to the combinations of hardware which comprises their hardware.

Acronis will not tell you should not mix your files. If fact, their features indicate that you can mix them. My experience on the forum has shown keeping the backup separate is a smart choice but it is a choice.

I do not know the cause of your lost backups. Based on his experience, Anton gave you his best guess. It is also within the possibility that your backup got merged or consolidated with others and not identifiable. My suggestion was to remove some of the risk factor.

My reason for asking about whether drive H was attached is that postings have indicated that sometimes the backups do not display properly when the drive is not connected. Also, there has been reports of the tasks being duplicated and the proper task is not visible and can be seen by scrolling up or down the listing of tasks. It my not be true for you, but it a place to look.

As with any guidance offered to you on this forum by any of other forum members, you can accept or reject the advise offered.

I hope you find you solution. Regular and duplicate backups enable you to recover should you have a need to restore.

Andrew Sowerby wrote:

Anton wrote:

Hello Victor,

Thank you for posting. I will do my best to help you with your question.

I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but it appears that your backups have been deleted because of a known issue in build 7154. The logs show that the backups have completed successfully but they are actually deleted if you have specified the following option: full->overwrite previous backup and do not have validation enabled. We have a discussion in this thread.

We will keep you updated about this issue.

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

That's not totally true! Even if Validation is enabled, the backups are deleted quite often - but not always. What a horrendous bug!!

Hello Andrew,

Thank you for replying.

I apologize for the confusion, I wanted to say, that backups are deleted even if validation is disabled - it's just the logs with disabled validation do not show any errors.

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

I have taken your advice and put all my usb backups in their separate folders. I've deleted all of those backup tasks and created new ones. The tasks still do not work. They are to overwrite the previous backup (single file), but when they start, it tries to create a new file and I get the error message that the disk is full. I can't even run these manually as it still tries to create a new file even though, as you can see, it's suppose to overwrite the previous weeks backup. At this point all I can do is delete last weeks file and the run the task again. Not very convenient.

So, how to sort this one out?

I have opened a support case with Acronis since this is an upgrade to TI2011. They have yet to address the issue as I suspect they will stall until my 30 day free support plan expires and then tell me that I no longer qualify for free support. I hope that is not the case. TI2010 has a serious bug which deletes backups and now with 2011 I find it won't overwrite backups. I'd say it's gone from bad to worse since neither one is reliable enough to use for regularly scheduled backups. I shudder to think what is going to happen if I ever have to restore one of these backups. Maybe it's time to start looking for another solution.

Any suggestions?

Victor,

On your backup, you have selected "single version". ATI will try to do a new full backup and *then* delete the older version. So you need enough space to accomodate this process (which is safer for the user). So, it doesn't overwrite the previous one.

You know, if you backup only files like movies, the files don't change a lot (presumbly). So you could consider the following ATI options:
- choose "incremental" as backup scheme,
- choose "do only incrementals",
- turn on auto-consolidation, and keep only zero incremental.
- turn on validation after backup.
- turn off compression (there is no gain in trying to have ATI compress files like mkv, avi, mp4, mpg, etc.)
ATI will maintain a single backup and add the changes to it.

Alternatively, you could use free replication software to make a plain copy of your content (if don't have to keep old versions of the files): synctoy, karen's replicator, syncback, etc.

Alternatively

Thanks, makes sense. I'll give that a try and let you know.

I deleted and re-created all the tasks with the settings you advised. Each was identical except for the destination file name. I've just finished making all of the backups starting them manually so I wouldn't have to wait till next week to see the results. All of them completed successfully. I've opened each task again to double check everything is ok, and the settings have changed! Instead of the custom scheme they have all magically changed. Some of them have reverted back to single version or version chain. I have actually gone through and changed them back to your suggested settings again. Five minutes later I check again and the settings have all changed once again except one. And it says "not enough space" even though it's supposed to do an incremental backup. All the others don't retain the "Custom" setting. Backup scheme is changed, Compression level is changed and automatic consolidation settings have changed!

This is infuriating! How can this be happening? How can I get this software to work as it should?
Your recommendation that ATI will maintain one backup file and add the changes to it, is obviously not working.

Unless I can get this working TI2011 is pretty much useless to me except for backing up my system partition.

If not then I'll have to re-install 2010 and see if Acronis will fix the bug where it's deleting the backup files after completion.

Victor,

In the current build there is a bug by which you lose your scheme setting if you don't close the backup options windows when you are on that particular"Backup scheme" tab). So whenever you edit your settings, always come back to the "backup scheme" tab before clicking OK.

If you still have problems with your tasks, you should create some new ones. There is a simple way to do it:
- once your backups are set the way you want, go to tools and export the backup settings,
- uninstall 2011 completely and use the Acronis cleanup tool for good measure,
- make sure the c:\programdata\Acronis\TrueImagehome\Scripts folder is now completely empty (this is where Acronis stores the backup description)
- If you can hide the folder where all your images it, do it before you launch ATI. Otherwise ATI will find all of them and you will have to remove (not delete) them from the UI
- reinstall ACronis
- start it
- reimport your backup settings.

Voila!

Thanks Pat, but I'm going to scrap ATI and use PureSync for my film directories. It seems to be much better suited. I'll just keep TI for backing up my system partition, a task that it seems to do adequately.

Victor,

That makes sense. File replication works just fine for content that doesn't change much and for which you don't need to track versions.
Be sure to review the changes your tool will apply to your backup. One day, I corrupted all the MP4 files on my computer by applying some metadata changes through a tool that was targeting pictures. These videos were priceless home videos, not films. I didn't see it for a while. In the meantime, my file replication software happily propagated the problem to one of my backups. I was able to restore from my online backup, that keeps older versions.