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Incrimental / Differential backups not working with USB in version 6868

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Intel i7 975 with 24 GB ram. Win 7 x64.
ATIH ver 11 build 6868

Initial backups to external Seagate USB drives work fine. However, incrimental/differential/version chain backups are not working. (The scheduler will launch but the backup seems to stall. "Time remaining: calculating...".

The HDD LED on the PC flickers periodically and the LED on the USD drive flashes periodically but the progress bargraph does not changes. After 2 hours the following error occurs...

"Error occurred while writing the file. Click Browse to specify another location."

The log says, "The specified file does not exist." function="WriteFileNoCache"

Once this occurs, the Acronis True Image Home application seems to stall for a minute or so.

I have 3 Seagate USB drives and they all exhibit the same issue. I have used the "Seagate Dashboard" utility to ensure that the power saving mode of the USB drive is turned off.

Version chain backups to the secure zone on a SATA drive works fine. The problem only occurs when saving to USB drives.

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1 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:16 PM Operation MegaPC started.
2 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:16 PM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
3 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:17 PM Analyzing partition '1-1'...
4 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:17 PM Analyzing partition 'C:'...
5 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:17 PM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
6 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:18 PM Analyzing partition '2-5'...
7 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:18 PM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
8 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:19 PM Analyzing partition 'D:'...
9 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:21 PM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
10 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:22 PM Analyzing partition 'E:'...
11 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:24 PM Analyzing partition '0-0'...
12 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:24 PM Analyzing partition 'F:'...
13 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:26 PM Priority changed to Low.
14 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:27 PM Create Incremental Backup Archive From: System Reserved (1-1), NTFS (C:) Compression: Normal
15 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:27 PM Pending operation 147 started: 'Creating partition image'.
16 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:27 PM Locking partition 1-1...
17 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:27 PM Backing up to file: "D:\My backups\MegaPC.tib"
18 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:28 PM Pending operation 147 started: 'Creating partition image'.
19 Information 8/20/2011 2:22:28 PM Locking partition C:...
20 Error 8/20/2011 4:15:40 PM Error occurred while writing the file.
function="WriteFileNoCache"
22 Information 8/20/2011 4:15:40 PM Error occurred while writing the file.

Click Browse to specify another location, Retry to try again, or click Cancel.: ⎂Retry//⎂Cancel/
23 Information 8/20/2011 4:19:25 PM Error occurred while writing the file.

Click Browse to specify another location, Retry to try again, or click Cancel.: ⎂Retry//⎂Cancel/: User response: ⎂Cancel
24 Information 8/20/2011 4:19:25 PM Backing up to file: "D:\My backups\MegaPC.tib"
25 Error 8/20/2011 4:19:25 PM Canceled.
26 Information 8/20/2011 4:19:25 PM Canceled.

Click Browse to specify another location, Retry to try again, or click Cancel.: ⎂Retry//⎂Cancel/
27 Information 8/20/2011 4:19:29 PM Canceled.

Click Browse to specify another location, Retry to try again, or click Cancel.: ⎂Retry//⎂Cancel/: User response: ⎂Cancel
28 Warning 8/20/2011 4:19:29 PM Terminated by user.

The backup operations would work with earlier versions of TIH.

Tonight, I pulled the HD out of the Seagate External USB device and plugged it in to a SATA port. Windows recognized the drive and even assigned the same drive letter. Now, the backup works as before.

Something is causing a compatibility problem with the Seagate USB devices.

It looks like the USB connection is dropped somehow. Is the USB disk directly connected to the computer?

The USB drives were attached directly to the USB 2.0 ports on the motherboard. (EVGA X58 SLI Classified with the latest BIOS). The Universal Serial Bus controllers are "Intel ICH10". All of the ports are functional. The USB backup would work prior to the TIH update.

It's impossible to say definatively that the problem is with the upgrade. (MS issues so many service packs and security updates!) What I do know is that I have many different USB drives and TIH won't create an "incremental" update on any of them. (The initial backup works!). All of the USB ports are functional. I do not have problems with any of my other USB peripherals. Finally, the backups work properly when saving to a SATA drive. (I have a slot that holds a SATA drive on the front of my PC. I use this like a "cartridge" drive. I have created a Secure Zone on this 2TB drive.)

Thanks in advance.

Did you try to uninstall, reboot and reinstall ATI 2011?

I had this symptom with a Seagate USB drive. It turned out Windows Vista was recognizing my 320 Gb FreeAgent Go as "Initio Default Controller" (the USB-to-SATA hardware on the drive). When I switched power supplies on the USB hub to which the drive was attached, Windows once again recognized my drive as "Seagate FreeAgent Go USB Device" and the symptom went away.

If your drives are similarly susceptible, the problem might be caused by variations in line voltage. I can't explain why it would occur only with the differential backups. Try attaching your drive through a powered hub.

Check here for more about the "Initio Default Controller" issue.

I was not using a hub. And, Windows 7 was detecting the drives as Seagate drives. Ultimately, I gave up on this problem and ripped the SATA drive out of each of the USB housings. I now use the drives as "cartridges" for backup purposes. It is faster than the USB interface as well.