Windows 8.1 and Acronis 2014 bootup problem Event ID: 1002

Derrell,

Did you install for all users or single user?

What video card do you have and is the driver a W8.1 version? In the past there have sometimes been conflicts between the video driver and TI.

I don't remember it asking me all of single user but I guess what ever was default. I have installed on two computers...one a laptop with AMD video and one intel...both did the same thing. Both were up to date drivers.

I have a similar problem with Acronis 2014.

With it loaded, Windows Explorer cannot copy or delete files. It gives an error balloon that an illegal operation has been performed and Explorer must shut down. Uninstalling Acronis 2014 eliminates the problem. During two different chat sessions with Acronis, this problem could be repeatedly demonstrated.

When I remove Acronis 2014 in control panel, add/remove programs, it mostly gets removed. When control panel is exited, both ZoneAlarm and Roxio drag-to-disk windows have opened.

I tried to reinstall Acronis 2010, which has been working fine all along. It refused to install saying I had to remove Acronis 2014. Catch 22! Acronis 2014 has been removed.

Acronis was going to send me some diagnostic software to help understand the problem. That software never arrived.

I finally restored my hard drive with the image made before Acronis 2014 was initially installed.

During the chat session, Utpal (the Acronis chat person), asked me if I had ZoneAlarm installed. I replied affirmatively. He asked me to turn it off. No improvement.

Acronis 2014 is the new kid on the block. It is up to them to ensure they don't conflict with other software already in existence.

I had previously upgraded to Acronis 2012, but that software failed during the installation process. I went back to Acronis 2010.

I am interested in Acronis 2014 because I intend to upgrade from XP to Windows 7, 64-bit to gain large ram and HD space addressing capability.

Anybody else had this problem?

What was the fix?

b.Murdock,

Have you tried disabling drag2disk? The driver for this, and incidentally for InCD, can cause conflicts with the TI filter driver. Disable the drag2disk service, reboot and see if this solves the problem. Make sure that you have added TI 2014 to ZoneAlarms exception list.

Additionally, is Roxio the version that is W8.1 compatible?

Why does the solution to Acronis' problem fall on me?

Why should I disable software that had been working fine all along, and in concert with other software, including Acronis 2010?

I finally received an email from Acronis asking me to load even more software AND reinstall the problem child: Acronis 2014.

If I do this favor for them, I'm looking at at least three hours of work to again remove their buggy software, and its remnants, to get my system functionality back.

I get no compensation for this endeavor.

I think Acronis rushed a product to market without adequate testing.

I am not running Windows 8.1.  I run XP SP3, as do 51% of Windows users worldwide.  The software suite I have is in concert with SP3, and several years old.  I'm not going to upgrade or disable other software just so Acronis' software will run.  Acronis has a problem to fix.

Coincidentally, I purchased the Acronis 2012 upgrade, but was unable to install it.  It failed during installation.  I got no satisfactory help from Acronis.  I gave up and went back to Acronis 2010.

After Acronis 2014 install, I was unable to make a recovery disk.  Probably because Acronis interfered with both Windows Explorer and Roxio drag-to-disk

After removing Acronis 2014, I downloaded the iso file for the Acronis 2014 recovery disk, and successfully burned it to CD.

Will the Acronis 2014 recovery disk work with 'tib' files created by 2010?

I'm considering migrating my system to Windows 7. 64-bit using LapLink.

Will Acronis 2010 work with Windows 7, and larger than 2T drives, and more than 4G memory?  I have no interest in "cloud" computing and other new geegaws present in Acronis 2014.

b.murdock,

You either want to see if you can resolve the problem and get it all working or you don't. If you do, then some work on your side is needed. Once (if this is the problem) a software clash is found, often there can be ways of working out how to make the two like each other, it also gives Acronis coders the chance to see where a problem is.

The fact as you now reveal you've had problems with prior versions of TI points to possibly something specific with your setup, assuming this is the same PC and edition of Windows. Unlike Apple, Chrome, where the OS and its' Apps and hardware or closely controlled, Windows users can have all sorts of combinations including non standard versions of the OS itself, let alone registry cleaning programs which aren't always infallible with what they remove or leave.

Yes, the recovery CD will work with prior versions of TI images.

TI 2010 will work with W7 (the help file when read, states - Vista from SP2 onwards and W7 all editions)

I don't know though whether the Laplink PCMover makes all the necessary registry adjustments. I do have the software, but have never used it.

Colin,

I sent you a followup post, but it doesn't appear here.

You said a little effort on my part would be needed to help solve this problem. How about 11-1/2 hours of effort!

I first made a Windows restore point. I had a very fresh backup image of my system made the over previous night, as well as a cloned hard drive image (D:) which was an concurrent mirror of C:.

I uninstalled Acronis 2010, and installed Acronis 2014. The interference problem with Windows Explorer was present again. I did a screen capture as requested.

I ran the requested diagnostics, and ftp'ed the created files, including screen capture, to the ftp address provided. The complete request from Acronis is appended to the end of this post.

I uninstalled Acronis 2014, and the Windows Explorer interference problem was gone.

I tried to reinstall Acronis 2010. The initial welcome screen said Acronis 2010, but the install screen said 2014 was being installed. I terminated the install process.

I used the Windows system restore function to restore my computer to what is was before I started this troubleshooting exercise.

I again tried to reinstall Acronis 2010. The initial welcome screen again said Acronis 2010, but the install screen said 2014 was being installed. I again terminated the install process.

You said the Acronis 2014 recovery disk that I had made from the downloaded iso file would restore backup images made with Acronis 2010. Not so!

With the Acronis 2014 recovery CD, the restore process proceeded without problem. When I rebooted, many error messages appeared. I was able to get to Windows, and scheduled a chkdsk to be run upon reboot. Rebooting, chkdsk started reporting many many security errors in various sector descriptors (maybe not the right terminology). After watching these messages swim across the screen for more than 10 minutes, I reset the computer.

I again tried to restore C: from the image using the Acronis 2014 recovery disk. The recover failed, with a red balloon in the middle of the screen saying the image was damaged.

I decided to use the D: clone of C: to restore the cloned image by reversing the C: and D: hard drive cables so the boot would be from D:. Upon reboot, I ran Acronis 2010, but it could not see C:

Under control panel, disk management, C: was absent (drive 1).

I ran Acronis 2010, and had it prepare C: as a new drive. After that , Windows control panel, disk management saw C: as unallocated.

I ran Acronis 2010 again to do the clone operation. It proceeded. Reversing the HD cables made C: the boot drive, and it worked.

So far, I had spent over 8-hours in this endeavor (not full time, as the computer was doing its thing, but the computer was not available)

I then ran 'Validate' on the image that Acronis 2014 recovery disk reported as bad, and went to bed. In the middle of the night I woke up, and came to my office. The validate had successfully finished.

I then ran ZoneAlarm deep scan, and went back to bed. Deep scan takes several hours. This morning, ZoneAlarm reported no viruses found.

I think Acronis 2014 is buggy software. Others on this forum have also reported problems with 2014 and Windows Explorer.

Here is the email sent from Acronis with the diagnostics requested:

Hello,

Thank you for your email. My name is Amardeep.

We apologize for the delay in sending you a follow up email.

Please provide us another opportunity to troubleshoot the issue. Kindly install Acronis True Image 2014 and provide us the below mentioned reports to investigate the reports:

- Acronis System Report (http://kb.acronis.com/content/44345, if this did not work then http://kb.acronis.com/acroinfo)
- Process Monitor Logs (http://kb.acronis.com/content/2295);
- Process Dumps with ProcDump (http://kb.acronis.com/content/27931);
- Screenshot for the error message;

Once the information is generated, kindly upload the reports to the below mentioned Acronis FTP Server:

KB article on how to upload files:
http://kb.acronis.com/content/5991

Direct upload/download link (for FTP clients):
Username yzzmqvjzrh
Password: btkinlclyx

Please let us know if you have further questions. We will leave this case open until it is resolved up to your satisfaction.

-- Best regards, Amardeep Singh, Priority Support Engineer, Acronis Customer Central

You shouldn't be posting ftp access data on an open forum.

Crashed module pdshext.dll on a screenshot is not related to Acronis product and doesn't look like TrueImage's fault. A bit of googling - pdshext explorer crash - reveals that it is a rather common problem. I checked the ftp and there is no crash dump that was requested, but now it doesn't seem to be necessary.

I'll reply to Colin first.

There was nothing in the Acronis email that said it was private, nor was it sent secure. Noting that, I wanted my message to you to be complete. One of my pet peeves is someone sending me something that is incomplete.

Fedor,

When I use my FTP client (CuteFTPpro), and go to the ftp site shown in the Acronis email, four items are present:

.ftpquota, 12 bytes
Acronis 2014 Windows Explorer crash message, 0.43 MB -- This file is the Windows Explorer error message screen dump
Acronis System Report.zip, 0.58 MB
Logfile Acronis 2014, 120 MB.

CuteFTPpro shows the 'Host' box with cftp.acronis.com
I did not have to use either the username or password provided to log in. I logged in again with the username and password provided with no change.

If pdshext.dll is crashed, why does Windows Explorer only crash when Acronis 2014 is loaded, and not Acronis 2010, or any other old or recent software I have loaded?

I'll run sfc (system file checker) to see if it reports pdshext.dll is damaged, have it repaired, and report back.

Regards,

Bruce Murdock

I'll reply to Colin first.

There was nothing in the Acronis email that said it was private, nor was it sent secure. Noting that, I wanted my message to you to be complete. One of my pet peeves is someone sending me something that is incomplete.

Fedor,

When I use my FTP client (CuteFTPpro), and go to the ftp site shown in the Acronis email, four items are present:

.ftpquota, 12 bytes
Acronis 2014 Windows Explorer crash message, 0.43 MB -- This file is the Windows Explorer error message screen dump
Acronis System Report.zip, 0.58 MB
Logfile Acronis 2014, 120 MB.

CuteFTPpro shows the 'Host' box with cftp.acronis.com
I did not have to use either the username or password provided to log in. I logged in again with the username and password provided with no change.

If pdshext.dll is crashed, why does Windows Explorer only crash when Acronis 2014 is loaded, and not Acronis 2010, or any other old or recent software I have loaded?

I'll run sfc (system file checker) to see if it reports pdshext.dll is damaged, have it repaired, and report back.

Regards,

Bruce Murdock

Fedor,

I ran sfc.exe/scannow, and it completed without problem. I think the problem remains with Acronis.

I don't want to reload Acronis 2014 to test out the problem remains unless you can provide a way to remove all traces of it so I can reload Acronis 2010. As related above, Acronis 2014 uninstall does not remove all traces, and causes problems when Acronis 2010 is attempted to be reloaded.

Regards,

Bruce Murdock

Fedor Lorin, Senior Developer said: "Crashed module pdshext.dll on a screenshot is not related to Acronis product and doesn't look like TrueImage's fault. A bit of googling - pdshext explorer crash - reveals that it is a rather common problem."

I did Google "phdshext explorer crash, I find many posts. In particular, one under Microsoft.com: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-desktop/…, which says the crashes are caused by 3-rd party shell extensions.

Acronis is a third-party software supplier, and evidently has made some shell extensions, as the crash problem goes away when their software is uninstalled. I think Acronis has software bugs that need fixing.

Else, why would the problem be absent with Acronis 2010 running, and only present with Acronis 2014 running?

pdshext.dll is also a part of third-party software, and not a part of Windows. So system file checker won't check it. Why it crashes on your machine only if 2014 is installed - I don't know. Not sure there will be a definite answer even with a help of crash dump. There are reports that it pdshext crashes when some other third-party shell extensions are installed - e.g.
http://support.sourcegear.com/viewtopic.php?t=10353&f=33
There seemed to be a fix on its manufacturer's website (avanquest) but now it apparently not there.

If you uninstall the third-party software which contains pdshext.dll then explorer most likely will stop crashing too.

Then, neither of four items on ftp is "crash dump" that was among requested items. Crash dump produced by procdump will have .dmp extension. (and as the process to be dumped is explorer.exe, it will contain 'explorer' in its name, with timestamp). I understand that if you decided not to reinstall 2014 it will be impossible to collect it.

Normal
0

pdshext.dll was a file mentioned by you (Fedor Larin), not me. I only repeated the reference to make my comment complete.

To my knowledge, I don't have any Advanquest software installed.  How would I determine this fact?  Nothing having the Advanquest name shows up under 'start - programs'.

I certainly didn't install any Advanquest software from the time I uninstalled Acronis 2010 until I installed Acronis 2014.

I don't know what other software uses Advanquest, nor do I know how to determine that use.

"crash dump" was not among the items requested by Amardeep Singh, Priority Support Engineer, Acronis Customer Central. From post #7, above. 

He specifically asked for:

-     Acronis System Report (http://kb.acronis.com/content/44345, if this did not work then http://kb.acronis.com/acroinfo)

-         Process Monitor Logs (http://kb.acronis.com/content/2295);

-         Process Dumps with ProcDump (http://kb.acronis.com/content/27931);

-         Screenshot for the error message;

Once the information is generated, kindly upload the reports to the below mentioned Acronis FTP Server:

These items were gathered and ftp'ed to your server as requested.

The major point, from my perspective, is Acronis 2014 it the last kid on the block.  My system was stable and functional using Acronis 2010.  When Acronis 2014 was loaded, Windows Explorer crashes.  The crash problem goes away when Acronis is 2014 is uninstalled.  Other people on this Forum have noted a similar problem with Acronis 2014.

If you don't like the message, don't shoot the messenger!

Acronis 2014 installer leaves trash behind once Acronis 2014 is unintalled, such that , Acronis 2010 cannot be re-installed.  As I related in previous posts, recovering from this problem required my hard drive be restored from a previous image made before Acronis 2014 was installed.

I have asked how I can install Acronis 2014, do the requeted tests and dumps, upload the information, remove Acronis 2014, and then reinstall 2010.

The answer I got from Tulsi Saha Support Engineer Acronis Customer Central, basically, the vry time-consuming process I had discovered on my own.  She said:

Please follow the KB article and download the ISO image for the Bootable Media from your Acronis Web Account:  http://kb.acronis.com/content/4828  

Once you have downloaded this ISO file, you may refer to instruction in following KB article to burn it on to a blank CD/DVD  http://kb.acronis.com/content/1810  

Please create a complete backup of the machine using the Bootable Media.  Then boot to Windows and use the cleanup tool to remove all traces of Acronis from the machine. 

Please follow the KB article for assistance:  http://kb.acronis.com/content/34876  

After please re install Acronis True Image 2014 Premium Upgrade. 

Please follow the KB article to install AcronisTrue Image 2014 Upgrade:  http://kb.acronis.com/content/44725  

Please let us know if the issue persists.  For further assistance, please feel free to contact us. I will keep this case open till it is resolved to your satisfaction.

The recovery CD made from the iso restored my C: drive from image.  Upon reboot, many many errors occurred. 

I scheduled chkdsk to be run.  upon reboot, chkdsk did run and started streaming error messages across my screen relating to securing descriptor errors that were each repaired.  After about 10 minutes of this non-stop error message streaming, I terminated chkdsk.

I ran the recovery CD again, and it now reported my image was damaged, and it quit.

I restored C: from D: using clone.  D: is a mirror of C, with the mirroring being done on my command via a batch file that uses xcopy and looks at the archive bit to only copy those files that have changed..  I run this file anytime I have done work I don’t want to lose, and it only takes a minute or two to execute.

I ran Validate (under Acronis 2010 from the restored hard drive) on the drive image.  After about 3-hours it completed successfully, i.e., there image was not damaged, contrary to what the Acronis 2014 recovery CD program had reported..

I concluded there were additional software bugs in the Acronis 2014 recovery CD that are not present in Acronis 2010.

My system has four 2T and two 1T drives, including the 2T C: root drive. 

For me to make the backup image takes about 3-hours.

To do the requested software reload, and requested tests, including a crash dump (which I don’t know how to obtain), assemble and do the ftp upload, will probably be most of another hour.

To restore my system to before Acronis 2014 using the image will take about another 3-hours.

I have been through this time-consuming loop twice.  I don’t wish to repeat it again.

I asked for a SIMPLE way to restore Acronis 2010 after uninstalling Acronis 2014, i.e., something that takes 15 minutes, or less.  If this method can be provided, I will be more than happy to reload Acronis 2014, do the requested tasks (including a crash dump if you provide directions), assemble, and ftp the information.

I await your instructions.

I had nicely formatted my reply, but upon looking at how it finally was posted. many extras were inserted in the posting process.

Crash dump is the item referred as
* Process Dumps with ProcDump (http://kb.acronis.com/content/27931);

There is no procdump-generated files on ftp. Other 3 items are there. However, as I said, I believe that crash dump is not required here as the reason of crash is not True Image.

pdshext.dll is mentioned on the screenshot of explorer crash you uploaded on ftp . According to internet, it's a part of PowerDesk software by Avanquest. There are also numerous reports that explorer crashes with reference to this dll after installation of some other software. Try to find where pdshext.dll is located (most likely under c:\program files or c:\windows ) - maybe its full path or properties contain name of manufacturer or software piece that you can identify in the list of installed programs ( e,g, if it's some OEM rebranded version).

As for problems with 2010 reinstallation after 2014 - I have no idea why it is happening and I'd try to fix the problem with explorer crash first instead of reinstalling 2013.

Thanks for you patience.

I have some bad news and have some good news.

First the bad news. I removed Acronis 2010 using control panel > add/remove programs. It did remove, and required a reboot, which was done.

I then tried to reinstall Acronis 2010 from the install file that Vishal Vij, Priority Support Engineer, Acronis Customer Central sent.

The welcome screen clearly said Acronis 2010 Home. THe next scree, the install screen, said Acronis 2014 was being installed. I didn't read the small type at the top of the screen that said that fact, but the install was rejected when I entered my Acronis 2010 serial number. I closed the install, and tried again. Same result.

If I want to go back to Acronis 2010, I am into the same many-hour process of re-imaging my hard drive from an image containing Acronis 2010 installed.

The good news, by searching C: for pdshext.dll, I did find PowerDesk was installed on my computer, including pdshext.dll. I hadn't used PowerDesk in over 7-years, and forgot it was on my system. I used control panel > add/delete programs, and removed it.

It didn't cleanly remove. It still showed up under c:/Program Files, and under 'start'. I deleted it from the start menu, and renamed VCOM to $VCOM$, which is the subdirectory in which PowerDesk resides.

After running Registry Mechanic, it found DLL cross coupling, and shortcut errors. PowerDesk and pdshext.dll are now gone. BTW there is also Wpdshext.dll, but Microsoft Corporation is shown as the publisher. I left this DLL alone.

I then installed Acronis 2014, and the Windows Explorer hangup is gone. It is presently doing a backup.

I hope this is my last transmission.

Unfortunately, the last comment was not to be my last transmission.

Acronis 2014 did a backup. Previous backups under Acronis 2010 put the backup where I specified under the name I specified.

Acronis 2014 did not put the backup where I wanted it under the name I specified. Instead, it made a subdirectory under the backup name I specified, put a subdirectory beneath that with the partition name, then a long file name having nothing to do with the backup name I specified.

If I move the actual 'tib' backup file to where I want it , and rename it to what I want, will Acronis 2014 still recognise it and do a proper restore?

Is there a way, when doing the backup, to suppress all the above fanciness, and have it create a backup file with the name I specify in the location I specify?

Also, when Acronis 2014 started the backup, the time for backup shown was 6-hours, 59 minutes. This time was reminiscent of the extremely long times Acronis 2009 took for a backup. As the backup progressed, the time shrank faster than clock time. IN the end, it took about 3-hours to do a backup of 1T information, which was about the same time as Acronis 2010.

When being started, Acronis 2014 reported the backup size to be 535 GB. I was impressed, as this would be a substantial reduction over the Acronis 2010 file size.

In reality, the backup file size created by Acronis 2014 is only 3% smaller than that created by Acronis 2010 (835.5 GB vs. 862.6GB).

The upshot of both these previous comments, is the time and size estimating routines in Acronis 2014 don't work very well.

Hi there,

To choose a specific file name for the backup file, you have to click on the proposed destination, choose browse, double click until you have opened the target directory, then you can enter the desired file name in the box. Note that ATI 2014, unlike 2010, will automatically add extensions to the name you have chosen. Also note that the archive TIB file name can be different from the task name.

Remember that in 2014, backups are backup tasks. You set them up as full, incremental or differential backup tasks (unlike in older versions). The first backup is always a full backup. Then the following backups created when you run the task again is either a full, incremental or a differential..

If you tweak your task settings, you should create a new task and move the existing TIB files to some other directory on the same disk (to avoid a long file copy). This will avoid confusion or errors at restore time.

Time estimates in ATI are not accurate at all as you have seen. You shouldn't expect big changes in file size either compared with the older version.

Another wrinkle.

I attempted to make a recovery CD from within the Acronis 2014 application.

I put a blank CD-R in the G: CD-RW device. Upon selecting 'proceed', Acronis brings up a window "Please open drive G:".

I terminated the CD making process, and put the blank CD in H:. Upon selecting 'proceed', same error message.

The G: and H: CD-RW's are on SATA ports 5 and 6 on the Asus P6T motherboard. SATA ports 1 through 4 are my hard drives. I made the Acronis 2014 recovery disk from the downloaded iso file on H: without problem using Roxio drag-to-disc.

Windows Explorer, and Roxio drag-to-disk work fine on these CD-RW drives.

After running the recovery CD maker option, and having it bomb, I notice three of my system tray icons are missing: Garmin GPS hot sync, Intervideo WinCinema manager, and Roxio drag-to-disc. Remaining are ZoneAlarm, Realtek HD audio manager, volume, and safely remove hardware.

Rebooting restores the normal system icon population.

In hardware manager, there are three Acronis devices shown: Acronis TIB monitor, Acronis TrueImage Backup Archive Explorer, and Acronis Virtual Disk Bus.

The second item: Acronis TrueImage Backup Archive Explorer, has a yellow exclamation point showing. Under 'properties' for this item, 'device status', is the report: "Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)."

I ran Registry Mechanic, and it reported 1 file extension and 10 deep scan problems. Among the deep scan problems was "Hkey_local_machine\software\Acronis\SyncService\settings. As far as I am aware, I don't use Acronis SyncService.

Using the Acronis 2014 install file, and did a repair, then rebooted. The yellow highlighted Acronis item remains.

After the Acronis reload completed, and I closed the application, both ZoneAlarm and Roxio drag-to-disc applications opened automatically.

What gives?

You might want to revisit my answer to you in post #4 - drag2disk and True Image sometimes don't behave well with each other. I believe (but not certain) this may be down to the way both programs access the Windows disk mechanism and when D2D grabs a handle it doesn't release it when not in use, so when TI searches for drives available its' filter mechanism sees D2D has assigned itself a handle, and so TI finds the next available drive and assigns that one to itself.

Why this happens on some systems but not on others I don't know.

Registry Cleaners are not infallible, as far as the Sync service is concerned you can disable this in Services.msc, however if you at some time wish to use Sync or Cloud based imaging the task will fail until you enable the service again. Standard imaging and backups will still work.

The archive explorer problem needs to be solved. I suggest running the TI installer again and select 'Repair', if it still will not install properly, suspend the D2D service temporarily and see if the Archive Explorer will now install and start. If it does, you could then see what happens when D2D is reenabled. Doing it in this order may make them play nice together.

Colin

Thank you for a prompt response.

I'm getting tired of typing the following, and Acronis is probably getting tired of reading it.

I had a stable and operating suite of programs, including Acronis 2010. None of the recent problems were evidenced with that program suite.

Acronis 2014 is the new kid on the block. It has conflicts with existing software. Acronis seems to take the position that the problem lies with the already-existing (co-existing) software, rather than in its new creation. Hmmm!

I unchecked D2D in the start menu and rebooted. Acronis still won't make a recovery CD. it pops up an error balloon to open the drive. I checked msconfig, startup, again, and find drag-2-disk is still unchecked. It appears drag-2-disk is not the problem.

What is you next suggestion as to the problem cause?

Regards,

Bruce Murdock

Bruce,

Check that there is no service(s) attached to Roxio, unticking in MSConfig doesn't always disable the service, it just stops part of the program being loaded into protected memory at OS startup.

After that, I think only Acronis and or Roxio can help you as they can see where conflicts (if any) are occuring from your system reports. It might be an idea to rereun the Acronis System report and see fi you can see any differences now that you have resolved the shell problem.

Colin,

How do I check to see if no service(s) are attached to Roxio? I don't want to uninstall Roxio. If unchecking it in MSCONFIG doesn't do this task, what is the procedure?

I did re-run Acronis System Report, and there is voluminous information. I wouldn't know where to start to see any differences.

How do I engage Acronis on this problem? I think it is up to Acronis to engage Roxio, as Roxio was here first, and their software was not conflicting with others until Acronis 2014.

Regards,

Bruce Murdock

Press the Windows button + R then type in Services.msc - see if any service belongs to Roxio. Ah yes Windows 8.1 , not sure if that key combo works, but what you can do is click on the Windows Start button and this will bring up a list of Windows utilities Services is on this I believe.

From here you can disable and enable services.

Conli,

My computer's keyboard doesn't have a "windows" button. Us electrical engineers can keep alive older equipment, like my beloved keyboard, for over 20-years, by replacing key switches as required (I have another keyboard which doesn't work, but uses the same key switches, i.e., spare parts). It has the legacy function buttons on the left, and duplicated across the top. I love the function buttons on the left as much can be done left-handed alone.

Is there a control sequence to accomplish the same consequences as you describe using the Windows button?

Regards,

Bruce Murdock

It has been a long time since I've seen nice solid Hall effect button keyboards or repaired one - 2000 was the last time I repaired one of those and that was for bespoke equipment.

Unfortunately there is not a complete escape code for the above sequence. CRTL + ESC will operate as the Start button, but the 'r' won't be recognised. However, if you have the 'Run' option on your Start menu, you don't need the 'r' option as all that does is open up the 'run' text box (some people don't have the 'run' text box enabled so the Win + r sequence will bring it up temporarily) other than that you can right click on the 'My Computer' on your desktop and select 'Manage', a form will open, and on the left side will be an index - go to Services and Applications (it is at the bottom of the list), click on it to expand the sub headings, select Services.

The screenshot below should help. Note this is W7 yours in XP looks slightly different and my entries are for ABR11.5, again yours will have different Acronis entries.

Colin,

Thanks for the 'run' info. Remember, I am running XP SP3. I ordered 64-bit Windows 7 today and LapLink.

Under XP, start, the run command box is easily accessed. Typing services.msc as you suggest does bring up the services (local) screen. Roxio is not shown on that screen.

Any other suggestions as to why Acronis 2014 can't talk to either of the CD-RW drives.

BTW, my two CD-RW drives are of different manufacturers: LG and LiteOn.

On the services screen, I do notice that Acronis Nonstop Backup Service is running. I don't want or use this service, nor do I remember selecting it during Acronis 2014 install. I find no way in Acronis 2014 to either enable or disable this service.

I don't want non-stop backup. It is too easy to accidentally overwrite a backup file.

I wrote a simple batch file using xcopy to make my mirror drive (D:) be updated with recent file changes on C: (by using the archive bit). I run this backup batch file after I am through working on something, and/or before I shut down the computer. It only takes a minute, or less, to run. I like having an archive copy of files, as I have more-than-once inadvertently overwritten a file, when I really wanted to store it out under a new name. No problem. I simply rename the file to the new name, then go to D: and retrieve the original file and copy it back to C: to where it belongs.

Regards,

Bruce Murdock

Colin,

Making the recovery CD problem solved. With Roxio disabled, and ZoneAlarm snoozed for 5 minutes (internet physically turned off also), Acronis 2014 was able to burn a recovery CD.

Thanks again for your help and patience.

Bruce M.

I should add, with Roxio back in the start menu, it shows as a system tray icon, but does not show in services.msc. ZoneAlarm does show in services.msc.

Even with a Roxio applet showing on the screen (from clicking the Roxio system tray icon), Roxio does not show up in services.msc.

ZoneAlarm may have been the conflict all along, not Roxio.

The problem remains: Acronis 2014 has been around for far less time than ZoneAlarm. It is up to Acronis to make sure their software works amiably with other commonly used software.

Another software collision with Acronis 2014 and Windows Explorer.

I find the search function in Windows Explorer is extremely slow in opening, like 15-seconds. Once it opens, it works fine.

If I go into services.msc, and stop Acronis Nonstop Backup Service, the Windows Explorer search function opens promptly.

I don't want nonstop backup as explained in post 29. I find no way to terminate this unwanted function within Acronis 2014. Can you please provide guidance.

Regards,

Bruce Murdock

Unfortunately, if not being used, you can either leave it alone and let it run; or,
go back into services.msc and
Right click on non-stop and click properties
both stop the service and change "startup type" to disabled.

If not using the Acronis sync agent service, you can do the same stopping on it as well.

This action will show as errors in the log file console sedtion but can be ignored.

Grover,

Thank you. I had made these functions 'manual', but 'disabled' is more direct.