The whole 2014 product is mostly broke in some way or another
Warning, long post with rant!
I saw another one of these kind of posts maybe last month and I'm on the band wagon. I don't know how Acronis can mess up a product so badly. I've used their product maybe in 2007(?) but certainly got on board with the 2012 product when I had a computer crash. Let's go through the pain!
I backed up with 2012 for over a year. A couple of months ago I was going to make a big change ot my system so I decided to verify my backup. OMG, it didn't work! So for a year I was thinking all was good. The problem was I never got the auto delete backups to work so I manually deleted the TIB files every month. Basically TI was confused when trying to find a file. I had all these "good" TIB's but no way to get to the contents (more on that later). That's when I dumped 2012.
I then decided I really needed Sync so updated one of my computers to 2014. Sync didn't work hardly at all and that's when Tech Support said you can only Sync between the same version of TI. So long story short I wound up buying 6 licenses to handle all my scenarios. Sync was still acting really flaky. I wouldn't put out new files, wouldn't grab new files. Finally a reboot seemed to make it better for the moment.
But then came the kick in the pants. I was checking my sync logs and found out that it wouldn't copy my .SQL files to the Cloud. Long story short, Acronis decided that these were database files and therefore cannot be copied in Sync. Well, sorry to inform Acronis but they are nothing more than a simple text file that happens to have a .SQL extention. So one of the main reasons for buying 2014 was Sync and now I can't use it. Sheesh.
OK, so let's go back to the fact that I couldn't get into the TIB files from 2012. You can backup to ZIP files! Perfect. Um, except that doesn't work either. It will back up to a ZIP file only if you hunt down the Acronis Script and manually change the format from TIB to ZIP. A known issue in the software since the release of 2014 (9 months ago?) but they say it's hard to fix. Gimme a break. It's 3 letters in a text file that YOU create. Another feature that's now unusable.
Now for speed. I ran 2012 everyday to do an Incremental backup on my drive. Most days it was a 30 minute process. Once I went to 2014 that 30 minutes took 2-3 hours! So...I only backup once a week now for disaster reasons and use my other backup product to do my file backups.
Now on to Online Backup. I've had a plan with another company for over 2 years. I want to backup more computers online so I'm looking to TI because the pricing is better. Setup online backup and it actually worked really well for the first 2 weeks it was running. I only backed up 6gb of files to start with. Two days ago I said time to stretch it out and grabbed another 5Gb. The next day it wrote them out just fine. Every 4 hours it would check my files and update the cloud. Super! Until I went to bed. I put my computer to sleep but when I got up in the morning it was ON. I then unchecked all the options to make sure it wouldn't wake up at night but last night it woke up again. Tech Support had me check Wake, Save and then uncheck Wake and Save. That didn't work. At 4am it woke up again BUT it did go back to sleep when it was done.
But that leads into the next problem. Online backup doesn't work anymore!
18 Information 8/15/2014 10:22:45 AM Connection has been lost. Trying to reconnect.
20 Warning 8/15/2014 10:23:50 AM There is a problem on the server. Please wait while it is being
22 True Image 8/15/2014 10:23:50 AM Failed to upload data, because Data server is not available. Please try again later.
That's all I get now. I tried the "rename the ProgramData folders" trick but no go. I rebooted and tried it. No go. Now my online backup shows 7.2Gb online instead of 11.2. What did it delete?
Bottom line now is, every single feature of the application is broke. It's pretty disgusting. I've been round and round with Tech Support and we've either confirmed that the feature is broke or they don't know why I'm having problems. They've connected to my machine at least 3 times.
I'm done. Totally frustrated and not very happy. TI is now relegated to Disaster backup. And god knows if that will actually work when the time comes because most everything else is broke. Just sad and I had to vent.
The core functionality of creating disk images and restoring this is actually very robust on Acronis, and probably the easiest to use and manage over time compared with other products. This type of software is still depending on your own hardware though, so trying and verifying it works is important. In particular over the recent years, the changes towards UEFI/GPT/Secure Boot, new types of disks (SSDs) and new type of interface for disk (PCIe) have introduced a new series of challenges for disk imaging software, that are being worked out, more or less.
The thing though, is that you should never tinker with TIB files, and you need to monitor what ATI is doing. When things go wrong, you should do a new backup task in a different directory. THis is the most fool proof approach.
Other features of Acronis have been flaky (Try&Decide, Non-Stop backup, sync), but decent. Backing up huge amount of data is also a challenge...
I also have the perception that performance (speed of backup and restore) have gone down over the last 3 versions. A full disk backup that was taking less than 15mn for my system SSD is now taking 25mn plus. I am not sure what I gained in exchange for the loss of speed, but it is still OK.
The core functionality of creating disk images and restoring this is actually very robust on Acronis, and probably the easiest to use and manage over time compared with other products. This type of software is still depending on your own hardware though, so trying and verifying it works is important. In particular over the recent years, the changes towards UEFI/GPT/Secure Boot, new types of disks (SSDs) and new type of interface for disk (PCIe) have introduced a new series of challenges for disk imaging software, that are being worked out, more or less.
The thing though, is that you should never tinker with TIB files, and you need to monitor what ATI is doing. When things go wrong, you should do a new backup task in a different directory. THis is the most fool proof approach.
Other features of Acronis have been flaky (Try&Decide, Non-Stop backup, sync), but decent. Backing up huge amount of data is also a challenge...
I also have the perception that performance (speed of backup and restore) have gone down over the last 3 versions. A full disk backup that was taking less than 15mn for my system SSD is now taking 25mn plus. I am not sure what I gained in exchange for the loss of speed, but it is still OK.
The core functionality of creating disk images and restoring this is actually very robust on Acronis, and probably the easiest to use and manage over time compared with other products. This type of software is still depending on your own hardware though, so trying and verifying it works is important. In particular over the recent years, the changes towards UEFI/GPT/Secure Boot, new types of disks (SSDs) and new type of interface for disk (PCIe) have introduced a new series of challenges for disk imaging software, that are being worked out, more or less.
Yep. This is really where I'm at now. It's more or less just a Disk Backup in case of a meltdown aka blown drive or a nasty virus that's unshakable.
The thing though, is that you should never tinker with TIB files, and you need to monitor what ATI is doing. When things go wrong, you should do a new backup task in a different directory. THis is the most fool proof approach.
I had no idea when I was manually deleting them that TI needed to keep track of them. I know that now though AND I have finally got the auto delete part to work so I'm on a good path now finally.
Other features of Acronis have been flaky (Try&Decide, Non-Stop backup, sync), but decent. Backing up huge amount of data is also a challenge...
And that's the problem I think I have. I'm not sure how normal I am but I have just over 1.1 Million files in my 600Gb of files. The shear number of files seems to play a bit of havoc in the file compare and restore. On a system with virtually no restore is virtually instant to show me the file tree. On this computer though it took about 8 minutes to show the Folder/File tree!
I also have the perception that performance (speed of backup and restore) have gone down over the last 3 versions. A full disk backup that was taking less than 15mn for my system SSD is now taking 25mn plus. I am not sure what I gained in exchange for the loss of speed, but it is still OK.
I compared the TI vs. my "file backup" product. They both took about 20 minutes to figure out what files needed to be copied in the Incremental. TI shows this as Calculating... Once it's done calculating though it takes almost 2 hours to write out anywhere from 1 to 5Gb to my external. That should take just a few, and I mean a few like 5 minutes or so, to write out. Heck if I know why it takes hours. My file backup product copies them pronto.
The 2014 version differs from the 2012 as some features work differently--especially the creation of a non-scheduled backup.
I dont't use online backup nor sync so I will not comment. Acronis has posted that the 2014 has improved performance in the creation and deletion of backups.
Over time, we have found that your best chance of success is set the task once and leave it alone. Make no further configuration changes. If configuraton corrections needed, or a restore made, start a new task pointing to a new storage sub-folder.
The 2014 version of creating and deleting old backups does work successfully for me and many others when you set upo the scheme as per one of these illustrations. I don't know whether you are using full only, or full plus x incremental; or full plus x differential so there is an example of each. Don't use the option based on elapsed days, or disk space limit. Instead, use the option to "store no more than X recent chains and the program will delete the old backup when it reaches your preset limit of what to keep. Old file deletion will be automatic by the program but if you do need to perform a delete, use the program as per the example below GH5 below.
Backup schemes:
GH11. Create Custom Full Backup Scheme.Keep 4 versions (chains). The 4 is user choice.
GH12. Create Custom Incremental Backup Scheme. 6 Inc, Keep 4 chains. The 6-4 is user choice.
GH13. Create Custom Differential Backup Scheme. 2 Diff, Keep 2 chains. The 2-2 is user choice.
The program will not perform the delete until AFTER the replacment full has been created so you MUST ALWAYS allow storage space for the one extra full being created prior to the deletion of old.
Failure to allow this extra space may result in a "diskfull" message.
An assortment of links. My signature link 2-A may be of assistance.
GH5. How to delete backup files using Acronis Backup 'Explorer'
GH1. How to change a backup task from scheduled to "Do Not Schedule".
GH2. How to enable a backup task schedule or change a schedule time..
GH3. How to create a non-scheduled backup task on the first try.
GH4. Illustrate Manual Backup Now option or Repeat backups.
GH7. How to create a desktop backup shortcut from an existing backup task.
GH8. How to view or set somewhat hidden advanced scheduled backup settings.
GH9. How to view or change error timeout settings frequency.
Well in a stunning turn of events... I was researching StorageCraft and it looks (and also by user accounts) awesome. I decided to get the Trial and boom, it won't install because it's incompatible with Acronis' snapman.sys. So now I hedging because I don't want to totally ditch TI. I decided to attempt the Online Backup again and boom, it went through! Maybe I put the fear of god in it? Sheesh.
Grover, your description of set it and forget seems to correlate with what I've seen. However I can't do that with the Online Backup as that's a bit more fluid.
As I said, I do have the backup removal now working. Essentially the issue I had previously was that I did a Full backup with 15 incrementals and then said make another Full. I then said keep 15 chains which basically says keep 15 SETS or 175 files which is why they never deleted. Now I think I keep 2 chains and off they go. But it only worked when you set it up from the start. If you change it on an existing set it seems to completely ignore it.
TI lives to see another day!
But it only worked when you set it up from the start. If you change it on an existing set it seems to completely ignore it.
This is the message I have been trying to convey in my postings. Making changes confuse the program.
Create the task and make no further changes. Using one of these examples will work for most users if they use the "STore x number of recent version chains" option.
GH11. Create Custom Full Backup Scheme.Keep 4 versions (chains). The 4 is user choice.
GH12. Create Custom Incremental Backup Scheme. 6 Inc, Keep 4 chains. The 6-4 is user choice.
GH13. Create Custom Differential Backup Scheme. 2 Diff, Keep 2 chains. The 2-2 is user choice.
Well, I must add my situation to the list... I have been using ATI for several months, do partial and full backups, etc.
Last Friday windows did an update to my win7 system. I turned off my computer, went to some meetings, cam back, and turned on my computer. BSD!!! Couldn't load in safe mode - nada. I said to myself "Self - at least you have Acronis True Image 2014 that will save the day."
I change the bios to boot with CD drive, Acronis loaded, just like it should, I pointed to the backup folders (I use a network wireless drive that is also plugged in via USB), issued the password, checked the connection - said connection worked. I couldn't find anything that said "Recover Folders" but did see a "Refresh files/Folder", hit that key, watched the symbol spin for several minutes. Once it stopped, I restarted my computer. NADA - Nothing had changed.
After contacting ATI support, I tried again, still didn't work.
Support then said to burn a new CD - I did - still didn't work.
ATI support then said to download the iso file, burned to disk, restarted computer, but computer didn't recognized the MBR (Master Boot Record)?
After several more episodes with support, I get links to the same things to do.....
I reinstalled windows, hoping that would make things easier - waste of time.
Looks like I will have to take to a computer repair company to try and salvage my system. I am self employed and the computer has MANY, MANY, MANY programs and serial numbers/codes that have probably been lost, so reinstalling all of the programs is a very last resort.
Why can't Acronis have better support? It is like they "care" about your problems but don't know how to solve the problems!!!!!
I am very nervous about losing all of my data that I thought was PROTECTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I change the bios to boot with CD drive, Acronis loaded, just like it should, I pointed to the backup folders (I use a network wireless drive that is also plugged in via USB), issued the password, checked the connection - said connection worked. I couldn't find anything that said "Recover Folders" but did see a "Refresh files/Folder", hit that key, watched the symbol spin for several minutes. Once it stopped, I restarted my computer. NADA - Nothing had changed.
I wouldn't expect that anything would have changed, because you did not recover your system. "Refresh files/Folder" does not recover a system image.
If you had created a full disk mode backup (which is what we recommend), you could have restored it and thus rolled back your system to before the Windows problem. You need to learn how to do such things, how to use ATI.
Check out the many user guides and tutorials in the left margin of this forum, particularly Getting Started and Grover's True Image Guides which are illustrated with step-by-step screenshots.
In particular, 29618: Grover's new backup and restore guides http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618
There's also a full on-line user manual, and a downloadable user manual.
Grover's How to Create a "Disk Image" or "Disk Mode" Image: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/38691
Tuttle, your response is both arrogant and does not address the issue at hand. I am somewhat computer savy and I followed the instructions to a t!!
I did a full backup and had incremental backups also.
When I purchased this software, I was led to believe that it is such a wonderful program and allows easy restore of system files. I had no idea that I should visit the various web pages that acronis has to "learn" how to backup my programs. I am now facing thousands of dollars worth of software program re-installs plus many that can never be reinstalled due to age and lost keys, etc.
I do know what I need to do, since you so eloquently told me what I need to do.
First - Get my computer fixed (is presently in a shop being repaired)
Secondly - purchase another backup program
Thirdly - remove ACRONIS FROM MY COMPUTER
Fourthly - inform everyone I know of the tremendous support from Acronis.
Thank you for your volunteer comments, which I think is a joke.
All system imaging applications have a learning curve. I've used several, and they all require users to learn how best to use them. You did not follow the normal steps for a system restore.
All I know is that I followed the very weak instructions provided by Acronis.
Mr. Volunteer, it is apparent that I am not alone in frustrations with the program, so please inform us of the "normal" steps in creating system backups.
Also, as posted by someone previously, if this isn't backing up system files, why does it take so long and such a large amount of space to back up? /I have 4 partitions on my disk and use C drive only for raw2 program and system files.
I suggest you volunteer sending Acronis a suggestion to improve their user "manual" and help links. Acronis has no interest in hearing from us peon patrons.