How many errors can Acronis TI 11 actually cope with?
Have a hard disk which is in really bad shape. Trying to clone it but clearly TI has trouble due to the sheer number of disk errors. In the past, I've had disks with several bad/unreadable sectors, and TI has been able to ignore 'em and successfully make a clone.
So exactly how many disk errors tips TI over the precipice, and prevents a clone (or a backup .tib file) from being created?
Roger
I don't have any experience cloning a damaged drive so I don't know the answer.
I do know that there are some programs out there that are only "file copy" programs however they can be told to copy the file even if there are errors. The results will be questionable but the copy happens anyway. Maybe something like that could help you?
Fungus
The most probable way of making an image is the secto-by-sector image since it is intended for unknown of damaged filesystems. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it will not get unhappy if it gets a load of disk read errors. The whole scheme sounds a lot like, "garbage in = garbage out".
Hello Roger,
Thank you for using Acronis Products
Have you tried chkdsk utility?
- Go to the Command Prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd)
- Enter the command: "chkdsk DISK: /r" (where DISK is the partition letter you need to check) for every partition that is visible in My Computer. Please note, that checking the C: drive may require you to reboot the machine.
I would also recommend you to use Acronis bootable disc to clone/backup the drive. Let us know the results.
Many thanks for the replies.
I'm trying to use CHKDSK only as a last resort. My concern is that it would make irrevocable changes, whereas making a clone or backup with Acronis, or using something like GetDatBack, makes no alterations to the block or sector structure of the hard drive so one can have another go at retrieving data if the first try doesn't work.
However, since this drive is in REALLY REALLY bad shape, I'm currently running Spinrite on the sections where it comes to a complete standstill when trying to access data. I've had a reasonable degree of success in the past with this method - ran Spinrite on a local farmer's HDD for nearly three months, then managed to clone it, then repair the damaged files!
This is a bigger disk than the previous one I saved, but I don't believe it's more than a third full of data. I'll report back in 3 months!!
Sigh. Yet another "copy 'n' paste" answer from Acronis Support that doesn't answer the question.
In fact, it seems remarkably similar to Dmitry's post at http://forum.acronis.com/forum/4210. Same answer to a different question. Nice work if you can get it.
So who's going to start another "Worst Support Ever" thread, like we had at Wilders?
Perhaps Bailey Everett who has waited patiently for 18 days for Acronis Support even to respond after supplying them with the requested information:
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/3630
Any advances on 18 days?
Martin
Chkdsk might not make things better but it won't make them worse. If it finds a bad sector and tries to move the data therein to another sector, you weren't going get a good read with that sector with another program anyhow. You could try a more flexible disk fixer utility that lets you specify more retries but if the disk is physcially failing, every revolution of the disk brings it closer to its inevitable and critcal failure. Ignoring bad reads/sectors works okay for some music files (it helps if one lacks a critical ear for music) or some simple files like text files -- but on almost anything else, a bit here or there results in terribly, even unforgiveably corrupt file.
Also, iirc, if you do a sector by sector backup so it includes bad quality sectors, then the comparable sectors are going to be marked bad on the target drive when you restore.