[RESOLVED] Love ATI but time to move on
Long time user of ATI, V 6 actually, became acquainted with it over at Wilder's, GroverH may remember FanJ's guide, and I have watched Acronis support dwindle and bloat increase. Now, I only use the Recovery CD for full backups and have done hundreds of restores, V 7 & V 9 were best IMHO, but now restores with V 2010 & V 2011 are causing freezing issues in the middle of restores making a hard reboot necessary & destroying Windows (7) in the process and have been for 2+ years. Yesterday, took 8 attempts to restore, the previous record over 2 years has been 5 and now I no longer trust the program, not sure what to do with previous images, would like to image them to another program but no longer trust ATI to restore them. The freezes are never at the same point, anywhere from 1 second in to 1 second to completion and I was told my HDD could be failing but that was 2 years ago and that HDD is still working fine plus this is another now. There is also a very occasional rebooting during restores and this doesn't seem to be a driver issue. ATI was an awesome program but when it fails, it' does so in spectacular fashion. Sorry to be so long winded, just disappointed.
Edit: there is also the issue of ATI showing any tib's on C and refusing to restore to the same drive but got around that.
Issue resolved here.
All the restores were attempted from the Recovery CD, I haven't had the program installed for years. Never have used the WinPE bootable media from the Plus Pack. The years seem to have a way of rolling together, the guide was for V 6 and must have been around 2004; yeah, have learned a lot about security and computer maintenance at Wilder's. I'll look more into the WinPE media from the Plus Pack, thanks, don't really want to go but this can't continue.
I started with version 8 so never saw the guides. I saw your are fan of Karen's utilities. Sad at her passing at such an early age.
If using a desktop, plug the usb external into the rear usb connector. I you have some spare usb cables, try using a different cable. Do not use a usb-hub for your backup.
More info about the PE disk at index item 7-G via my signature index below.
If using a desktop, plug the usb external into the rear usb connector. I you have some spare usb cables, try using a different cable. Do not use a usb-hub for your backup.
The OP's problems do truly sound hardware-related to me. I found some heavy-duty USB cables in my cache and ordered a few more--heavy, and SHORT, and connect to the rear mobo as GH suggests, and all my problems went away. I also have a couple of drives that work nicely using eSATA.
I have you both beat--I first started using True Image before the paint was dry on their US office, having been turned-on to it on linux-hacker.net. Dunno what version exactly, probably 0.1. ;-)
Been mostly very reliable thru-the-years but then I use almost exclusively the boot.iso version(s), and only rarely have I installed the full app (or used other features) on a PC.
Hello Victor,
Thank you for using Acronis Software.
- Please make sure, that you use the latest Boot Media every time. You can download it from your Acronis MyAccount. Find more Information about here.
- Please note that the Linux-bootable media is based on a public kernel that is provided by a community which decides which hardware is supported. In some cases it may therefore happen that Linux medium does not support your hardware.
- If you run into any restore issue, you can contact our Acronis Support. Find our Customer Handbook here.
Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Thank you.
Thank you for the reply, a case has been opened and Acronis Support is working on this.
Just an update as this is still an ongoing support issue. Contrary to what I have read for years, there has been no way support could be more responsive or helpful. It was suggested to install the trial of 2012, create its Recovery Disk and attempt a restore. I did, first restore froze, windows gone, second restore froze, so chose the entire disk including MBR which has always caused problems in the past (a successful restore without MBR always fixed this) which did complete but booted to a black screen saying I needed to effect a repair from the Windows Installation Disk. No problem, I'd seen this before and a successful restore without the MBR always fixed this. Not this time, so used the Repair option, still nothing, tried numerous restores, completed but nothing, decided to reformat and then restore, the new installation completed but same black screen. I was going to remove this HDD and reformat to another but tried one last restore (no MBR) and it booted fine, no idea why. Color me stupid but I have continued with a dozen restores with different images so far and all were successful with no freezes seen beyond the initial 2 with 2012. Never went more than 2 attempts before and may not be but seems fixed so far. Very strange but I can't complain if it works but I also can't say why, maybe someone or Acronis will.
Victor,
I have experienced results where after the target disk has become used or partition info written to, that often times it takes a clearing of the old partition info to enable the disk to be written to properly. That method is just one of the ones I try when all else fails. Acronis has the skills. Sometimes it is just finding the right technician.
For whatever reasons, sometimes a newer version CD will complete a good restore whereas the older version would not. It is just something more to try when having issues.
Grover
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for your posts and thank you for your help Grover.
Victor, according to your last e-mail from your support request you mentioned that this issue could be caused by a hardware problem and that you will run additional tests and get back to us.
Could you please let us know about your progress?
Thank you.
Still investigating but not sure there isn't more than one problem, ATI 2012 is probably a 90% improvement but still have seen 2 freezes with it on Windows 7. I've ruled out heat, GPU, RAM but a test called Prime95 for checking stress fails every time by 20 minutes, it runs the computer at 100% and should run half the day so now I'm suspecting my PSU or Mother Board. My mouse may even be involved because I know until I got a new one, ATI 2010 and 2011 used to freeze at the loading screen 40% of the time and never have since and that was quite a while ago. Presently, I'm looking into getting a Power Tester and checking Cables and PSU. Frankly, I'm surprised my computer may be the culprit as I would have thought a defective part would have failed in the 2 1/2 years this has been going on. Anyway, thankyou all for the help, much appreciated and I'll let you know what I find.
It would seem an apology is in order to Acronis, not sure what yet but this is definitely a hardware issue and nothing to do with ATI. I have used support twice, around 2005 and now, in 2005 support was good but saying it was excellent this time would be a gross understatement, my thanks to all involved, especially Vikas Mann. Can't say I'm glad to find my machine has a problem but sorry Acronis, awesome program and support.
Hello Victor,
Thank you for your update and we appreciate your feedback.
We are glad to know that the issue has been resolved.
Thank you.