backups just stop
Okay, I really am trying here. I know I had a lot to learn. But about a month ago, I felt I finally figured it all out. I set up three backups to run daily (my C drive, my E drive (most data), and a single big project on the C drive separately). They run at different times during the day, and send me an e-mail. Everything was fine for about three weeks. And now I find I'm getting e-mails for only one (incremental). The other two (differential) have simply stopped, a week ago. Now when I go in to look at how they are configured, they both say the backup was done a week ago and the next is scheduled for tomorrow in one case and a week from now in the other.
So, of course, I checked the settings > options and both of these are set to run daily at a certain time and send me an e-mail. There is tons of space on both of the target drives, hundreds of gigabytes for backup that takes 4GB when a full backup runs and hundreds more for a backup that takes 52 GB when a full backup runs. And besides, I ought to get an e-mail if there's a problem.
This is my major concern with this product. It doesn't talk to me. It runs into trouble and just retires silent. Every time I tried to fix it, I had to create a new backup; it didn't seem like I could edit a backup. I blamed myself until I figured out setting up the e-mails and everything ran for weeks. But now I'm back to feeling that this is an awfully flawed product.
Can anybody advise me? Why have these stopped? How can I fix this?
Thanks for any help,
Jeanne
Dell machine, Win 8.1, Acronis True Image 2015 build 6613
I tried generating a system report but after Acronis showed me a progress bar for well over a half-hour, I gave up. Naturally, the program froze when I clicked cancel. Had to go close it with Win Task Mgr.
Thanks for your quick response. But if "log file" appears in the Help file, I can't find it. I really wish I could say that this is a surprise, but it isn't.
Scanning my hard drive, I found only a syncagent.log (which I didn't think was relevant) and empty folders named VSSComLogs and VssRequestorLogs. I looked in program files and application data for all users, default user, and my user name. (Microsoft is no help here.)
I don't find any in the backup location(s) either.
Help? (And the thanks really is sincere.)
Jeanne, the log files are held in the C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Logs folder but this may be hidden if you cannot see it directly in Windows Explorer, in which case you will need to change the default File and Folder settings to show hidden files and folders.
Uh... no, they were all perfectly visible. Now that I've wiped the egg off my face.... (Don't even ask! But you must admit that it should be find-able in the Help file.) A text file attached lists the files.
I think the afcdpsrv.log file I've attached looks the most promising, but I still don't know much. There's a lot about devices, but all of my devices are available in Win Explorer. I have a service*.log for the one successful job every day and once again Acronis says the other two will run today (as it did yesterday). But I have to go back to the 14th for service*.log files for the other two.
That's also when NSB*.log files start re-appearing. They just say service has stopped, but they are nowhere near the time the jobs were scheduled.
Then there are console*.log files which also don't seem to say anything other than that I'm not using the cloud. I went back to be sure I hadn't changed the destinations and I haven't.
Can you see anything in the attached logs? Should I be looking for something else?
Very grateful,
Jeanne
Jeanne, thank you for the log files but it is difficult to know where exactly to start looking without knowing more information on the dates & times that your backups were scheduled to run, plus what type of backup you have configured and the target of where these backups are to be stored?
I would suggest taking the following actions:
- Copy all the current log files from the Logs folder to a temporary location so the Logs folder is empty.
- Pick one of the failing Backup tasks and if it is not scheduled to run very soon, take the option to run that backup now.
- Assuming that the Backup task fails when run on demand (rather than by schedule), collect the new logs that are in the Logs folder and attach them to a reply, but also browse through them yourself to check there are no obvious message to indicate why the backup failed.
Good news, both failing backups ran and I got my e-mails. I had to shut down a number of programs/services in order for Windows to let me move everything out of the log folder, but on re-starting Acronis, BACKUP NOW worked.
I closed the window and waited for one of them to run as scheduled (in just a couple of hours). Success again. Moral is to clean out the log folder sometimes?
However, the files in the backup locations raise questions:
- Job Sys_2T has a full backup 2/12 (52 GB) and two differential backups today, 2/23 (7 GB and then 5 GB).
- Job Tenant_Assn has a full backup 2/10 (4 GB) and one differential today, 2/23 (15 MB).
Yet I got e-mails and there were logs saying there were differential backups on both of these jobs on Feb. 14. Should I worry? Or is Acronis just managing the process/space?
I will soon power down and hope for the best going forward. With luck this has been a bit of a re-set, and a lot of other problems I've had will not recur.
Thanks so much.
Hello Jeanne, I am glad to hear that your backup tasks did run successfully though I doubt that just clearing the Logs folder was the reason for doing so! It is more likely that your stopping the other programs / services did this.
This makes me wonder whether you are not performing a full shutdown when you 'power off' your Dell system with Windows 8.1 - the default is to perform a Hybrid power off, which in essence is a form of Hibernation where all the programs / services are retained in their current active state and resumed when you power back on in order to give you a fast startup of Windows. The issue with this is that any problems which would normally be resolved by terminating and restarting these programs / services are not resolved in this hybrid power off mode.
If you do see this problem again, then take a look at your Power Options and try disabling 'Fast Boot' or Hybrid sleep (sorry am not sure exactly how it is phrased for Windows 8.1 as upgraded my systems to Windows 10 long ago).
For me, power off means all the lights go off and I shut off the power strip to which everything is connected. And my start-up time is one of those just awful things I keep promising to get around to trying to fix.
I was running 24/7 with no shut down or restart for very long periods most of the past 14 months until very recently. In the past few weeks, I was powering down most nights. But I haven't been paying attention to Acronis since I thought everything got settled Jan. 25 when my e-mails started coming regularly ('til Feb. 14).
Ironically, as I'm writing this, BitDefender just popped up a message in the sys tray about something that does not require my attention. I wish it would stop doing that and will have to check out how to make it stop. Acronis's sin is worse, however. It just stops working with no messages at all. I thought I was just dumb for not setting up the e-mails, but you can't even count on getting an e-mail that the thing didn't run. It keeps rescheduling itself for "today" without running or communicating in any manner.
Well, continue this only as it interests you. I'm hopeful that I won't be back. I'd rather know exactly why things improved, but I've learned to live with this sort of thing.
But very sincere thanks for your assistance.
I don't know how much history to give here. I thought my backups were working but then they stopped very quickly. E-mails and logs said things like error opening file, file corrupted, possible poor media quality. I eventually started three new backups to a different external drive. They are all set to run once a day.
Only one ran Feb. 25-29 and then three ran on March 1 for reasons I can't explain. Really out of the blue. All three ran for three days, March 1-2-3. But then two stopped and only one has run for the last few days.
There are no e-mails on the failing jobs and it seems there isn't even as much info in the logs as I've seen in the past.
The Acronis interface says that the two jobs ran last Thursday and are scheduled to run today, just as it said yesterday. If it continues true to form, every day it will tell me that they are scheduled to run "today" as if the program is running properly, but they will never run.
I did find "hybrid sleep" and turned it off. But I've shut down completely every night recently as described.
I'll be ever so grateful if anybody shed any light on what I should be looking at here.
Thanks,
Jeanne
Jeanne, at this point I think we need to make a fresh start and work on getting just one of your backup tasks working for you. To do this I recommend uninstalling ATIH 2015, running the Acronis Cleanup tool, (link in my signature below) and then reinstall a fresh copy of the product - you can download a new copy from your Acronis Account if needed.
Note: Please ensure that you install ATIH 2015 as Administrator.
Once you have performed the clean install, then just create your first backup task including sending yourself an email notification with the task log, but carefully selecting your backup scheme and scheduling options, i.e. try to keep these as simple as possible.
With the clean install you will have a new database, logs and scripts folder, all empty ready for your new tasks.
Let the new backup task run for a time to check that all is working fine, but if there are any problems, please collect the logs and a copy of the backup script and zip these / post in this forum so that we can look at what is happening.
Note: Folders are in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\ - Logs, Scripts.
Thanks. Note that one of the three jobs is running currrently, but it's not a big surprise if re-installing is advisable at this point. Even the job that runs sends an e-mail that says it has errors before it succeeds.
I don't dare do this until the weekend so I'll ask one question: Do you think I should start new backup directories? I'm guessing that that can't hurt and might help. I can then delete the old ones someday. (I've got lots of space.)
Will report back whatever the results. The more time that goes by, the more that indicates success.
Sincere thanks,
Jeanne
Jeanne, it wouldn't do any harm to start new backup directories, and as you said, it will make cleaning up the older ones easier in the future.
Uh.... this gets more painful every day. The instructions don't exactly match what happens (admittedly not unique) but I soldiered on and got it installed.
But I can't register this program. The website says I'm using an upgrade serial number and need to enter the original number. I got Seagate DiscWizard with a Seagate drive and quickly realized it was pretty minimal, so I bought the full Acronis. I'm quite sure I never had a serial number for DiscWizard. If there was a request to register I would have done it; I always have. I have five e-mails from Acronis all dated in the first week of January 2015.
Plus, when I go into my Acronis account only the upgrade product is listed; I do not have two products in my account. And when I click to get all serials, the file has only this one serial number.
You buy an upgrade and you can't re-install? Do I have to go thru Seagate? I don't even know how and who's to say that some of my problem did not originate there?
Any help?
Jeanne, I am sorry to hear that you have now hit this registration issue when trying to reinstall ATIH 2015.
I have sent a private message to one of the Acronis Support Engineers to ask if she can help resolve this issue with registration for you given that you had the product registered and working prior to trying to reinstall.
So now I will uninstall again, go thru that cleanup process again, download and install the Seagate DiscWizard, and then upgrade and register that (and hope and pray that DiscWizard wasn't part of the problem to begin with).
They can't set up a dummy emergency serial number or tweak something or other? I couldn't be lying because I have the serial number for the upgrade and the serial number for the Seagate drive. Or is my problem is so widespread that that is not feasible or practical to be helpful? Neither alternative is very satisfying.
It will be days before I get this done and let it run for a test period. I don't have the energy to seek out a replacement program right now and I know that things can always get worse. I've held back saying this, but now I must: I couldn't possibly recommend this product to anybody. Acronis probably doesn't need me. We're all used to that. But it needed saying. Nobody wants to spend time on this category of software, not even sys admins, let alone somebody whose life lies elsewhere.
Don't feel awfully obliged to respond. I will be back and I continue to thank you for your efforts to help.
Jeanne
Jeanne, have you heard back directly from Ekaterina (Acronis Support Engineer) who was going to look into this problem with your upgrade registration?
Yes. I can't fault you for not knowing I would not have written that unless I had gotten blown off. But I wouldn't. The sender did not sign his/her name, but here is the message:
Steve informed me about your issue. You do not need to have a serial number for Seagate DiscWizard to upgrade to Acronis True Image. You only need to have Seagate DiscWizard installed on the machine (Build 8142 or higher). You can download it here: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/ Please install Seagate DiscWizard first and then Acronis True Image 2015. Let me know if you have further questions.
On re-reading, it does sound like s/he had no idea what the question was. This too is nothing new with tech support all over the planet. (I'm going to have to keep a diary of how many times I have to write at least twice to get any answer out of any company. I think it will be 100% of the time.) Not comforting either. I didn't hallucinate the refusal to register Acronis True Image.
I'm not doing this today so if you think someone can be more helpful, that would be wonderful. You do need two serial numbers to re-install the upgrade; you do need a Seagate DiscWizard serial number even if there never was one. The marketing department and the info sys department have to have some minimal communication between them. Knock their heads together, figuratively speaking of course.
Steve, you are becoming very special.
Sincerely,
Jeanne
Jeanne, I am sorry that the answer you received was not an easier one but I guess it is correct in terms of not needing the second serial if the Seagate DiscWizard software is already installed, though perhaps we both had hoped to avoid having to reinstall that before the ATIH 2015 upgrade! Ekaterina would have understood the full story here as I sent her the link to this full thread of conversation but again, perhaps this is the 'official' answer for this type of upgrade registration question.
I hope that you are successful in performing these actions and that the end result is the one we are both seeking - a working and satisfactory application that meets your backup needs.
Best wishes, Steve