Problems backing up C: drive from dual-boot Linux/Windows SSD
I have two problems with ATI2021 which might be related (or might not!), both involving backing up my C: drive. I encountered the first problem last month but found a workaround; the second problem breaks even the workaround. For reference, this is an SSD I use to dual-boot both Linux and Windows 10; "C" is really just the Windows-only partition. Backups involving only an internal HDD and multiple external HDDs all work fine, but the two backup plans for C (a daily backup to the internal HDD, and a weekly backup to an external HDD) recently started bugging.
Here's the first problem: Last month after I first installed ATI, when I tried to create a new backup, chose "Disks and Partitions" and selected the C drive, the backup ran for around 20 minutes, then gave the error message: "The latest backup has been stopped. It will be restarted at 3:02 PM. File system error is found. Consider checking the disk using Check Disk Utility." If I let it run though all five attempts, I was also given a "Check for a solution" link ... which very helpfully linked to a kb.acronis.com support article saying, "We don't yet have a dedicated article for the issue you are experiencing."
Of course, I ran "chkdsk C: /f /r /x" multiple times and let it run before Windows booted. It sometimes found and fixed minor glitches (I have the most recent log to share, if needed), and sometimes found nothing ... but either way, ATI still choked on the backup. I also tried the "Show all partitions" option and manually unchecked everything BUT C, including Linux AND the recovery partitions, but had the same result.
For the record, Acronis is the ONLY application I've ever had that has claimed something is wrong with my C drive. However, I managed to work around the problem by instead just creating a "Files and Folders" backup of everything on C, which worked up until a few days ago.
The second problem appeared while fine-tuning plan settings. Starting today, when I click on "Options" for either of the two plans for C, the ATI GUI crashes about five seconds after opening the options panel. (Note that it DOES open, but I don't have time to interact with it.) The tray icon is still there, and I can launch the GUI again, but the problem repeats. I can get into plan options for other drives just fine.
I tried repairing my installation -- no difference. I then tried a clean install (albeit with a re-import of my settings) -- no difference. I then deleted the two plans for C, moved the backup files to a different directory, and tried to create the plans from scratch. Now, when I am given the "Backup source" wizard and choose "Files and Folders", clicking the checkbox next to "Local Disk (C:)" in the right-side panel has the exact same effect as clicking the "Options" button did for the plans: it appears to be working for about five seconds (during which time it also auto-selects the checkboxes for the Windows libraries found on C, like Pictures, Music, etc), but then it crashes the GUI.
I've tried looking at logs via the Windows event viewer, Sysinternals Process Monitor, and MVP Assistant 1.0.1, but there's an overwhelming amount of data and I don't really know what I'm looking for. (Also, MVP-A itself crashed on me multiple times, which was special.) Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks. FYI, your link to the Intel tool is dead, and it takes a bit of poking at the Intel site to find the replacement; you may want to update your help template. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/30262?v=t
As it happens, I'm having trouble with that tool as well (the "Full Diagnostic, one-hour" scan finishes in two seconds and finds no problems), but I'll follow up on that with Intel...
Ben, thanks for the feedback about the Intel tool, have updated my notes for the new tool! Good luck with identifying the issues with the new tool and SSD!
Okay, I'm still in a dialog on the Intel forums, but so far I'm being told that the diagnostic results are accurate and really do imply a healthy drive. In the meantime, I've thought of some potentially relevant things that might affect Acronis:
- The C: drive has a few junctions to my F: drive, on a separate internal HDD -- notably from inside AppData, to work around programs with a large unconfigurable storage footprint.
- I've also taken advantage of Windows' ability to host libraries (for me, "Documents", "Downloads", and "Music") on the F: drive.
And just in case, here's some more details on my dual-boot setup: The SSD is home both to a Linux partition (~165 GB) and a Windows partition (~280 GB), plus a Linux swap partition (~30 GB) and three other small partitions (~1 GB, total) whose purpose I've lost track of -- I assume they were made automatically when I created the dual-boot setup. I only really care about backing up the Windows C: drive (the 280 GB partition).
Any other thoughts or suggestions?
UPDATE: I just did some additional testing by trying to create a "Files and Folders" backup and, instead of checking the box for the C: drive, manually checking the box for each item inside of C. I found out that the GUI only crashed when I checked the box for the Recycle Bin -- and then, only when it was the first item I checked. So, I emptied my RB and tried again ... and now, magically, when I check the box for C (without the tedium of checking each sub-item), the program behaves as expected! No more crashing!
I do not know how to reproduce this, because I no longer know the state of my RB that caused the problem -- but I can say with high confidence that there is a bug in how Acronis scans the Recycle Bin.
I'm about to run a whole-partition backup and see if the other problem was fixed, as well. I'll report back later.
Ben, my main thought is that you should try to isolate the issue to a specific partition if possible. To do this, try doing a separate backup of each individual partition, one by one to see which, if any give rise to the file system error?
If you can identify one or more partitions that give the file system error, the next question is 'what file system is being used for that partition?'
Note: when selecting a partition for the backup task Source, click on 'full partition list' near the bottom left of the panel so as to ensure you can see exactly what is selected, and you are only selecting one at a time, not including any hidden / system partitions.
Thanks for the quick reply, Steve. (It looks like you posted just a few seconds after my update re: the recycle bin; did you catch that one?) That was a good idea! Of the six partitions I listed, five of them complete successfully. The only one that fails is ... the C: drive (LOL), which is NTFS.
I've checked that a whole-partition backup of C fails whether or not it excludes any files, and whether or not it uses "sector-by-sector" mode. However, I have managed to get my "Files and Folders" backup of C working again, so I'm back to where I was for the first half of this month -- i.e., I have a workaround that saves most of my important data.
In your first post in this thread, you told me a F&F backup wouldn't preserve locked system files. I assume that's true even if "exclude system/hidden files" is left unchecked? If I lose this drive, how difficult would it be for me to do a clean Windows install on a new drive, then copy over Program Files, AppData, etc, etc, from the Acronis backup?
EDIT: Just realized that "etc, etc" has to include the registry, which seems like a bigger ask. Still, though ... how much could I salvage, given a clean install and a F&F backup of everything that isn't locked?
Ben, glad that 5 out of your 6 partitions can be backed up without issue!
For the C: partition, that is still a real concern because a Files & Folders backup of the OS data & applications on that drive is simply not good enough to recover anything other than your user data.
I would suggest a couple of options that you can consider!
If you have an older version of ATI registered in your Acronis Account, then download the ISO of the bootable rescue media for that older version, burn it to a CD/DVD or else use a tool such as Rufus to convert the ISO to a USB stick for booting from. Boot the PC from that media and try doing a Disk backup of C: from that media. ATI 2021 looks to have tightened up on checking disks / partitions so an earlier version may not flag the same issue!
Alternatively, download a copy of Macrium Reflect free and install it, make a backup of C: using that application. Again, does it flag any issues with C:? Any other similar backup application could also be used where they offer either a free trial or version.
I don't have any older versions; I bought ATI 2021 on a perpetual license in February.
Macrium can image C: without any errors. When Macrium mounts the image, I can view the backed up partition, and it looks like everything is there. This means the problem is definitely with Acronis, no?
I've already written a script to call Macrium via a "post" command attached to an Acronis plan that happens to have the same schedule as my old C plan; it's running as I type. Pretty sure THIS time I have a viable workaround -- so, thank you for your help!
However, if Acronis really chokes on a C: drive ... why did I pay for it, and not Macrium?! The only reason I'm not clamoring for a refund is that I don't want to spend all the time needed to convert my other Acronis plans to run Macrium, instead.
Mind helping me dig into the log files, so I can file a proper bug report?
Ben, good that the alternative backup was successful!
If you want to post a zip of the backup logs, I am happy to help you review them!
There is a new MVP Assistant log viewer tool that has now been made available by Acronis via the Community Tools page..
If you have Disks & Partitions backups created on ATI 2020 or later using .tibx files, then look in the Backup Worker logs.
If you have Files & Folders backups using .tib files (or Disk backups from earlier versions using .tib files) then look in the Demon logs.
Other logs are shown by the MVP Assistant under the 'Active Logs' heading of the Log Viewer page of the Assistant.
The log files should be zipped to preserve their original file names if sharing in the forums and would need to be less than 3MB in size, otherwise you would need to share the zip file via a Cloud share service such as OneDrive, Dropbox etc.
Funny story: I ran one more partition backup, so I had a fresh log ... and it worked, with no error!
Great news, right? I figured I'd changed some setting in the plan options, so I saved all my plans, then imported settings that I know were broken. It still worked. Does this imply something outside of Acronis changed? Is it possible Macrium automatically fixed some minor issue? Or maybe the act of mounting a new volume (so I could see the Macrium image) triggered Windows to fix something?
My problem is fixed as of right now, but since I don't know why the error came or went, I'm concerned it'll come back in a few weeks or months.
I've attached logs for both broken and working instances of the partition backup. If you can make any sense of them, I might rest easier! (And/or, maybe Acronis can avoid headaches for other users who hit the same bug.) But for now, the issue is low priority. Thanks for all your advice, Steve!
Ben, from the 3 logs, the key difference that I see between the working and broken logs is that in the latter, sector-by-sector mode was being used, which ATI will switch to when file system errors are identified.
One request if you need to upload any further logs, please backup the original Backup Worker parent folder to keep the original log file naming convention for the individual files, which then allows me to also use the MVP Assistant tool to parse the logs and render them easier to read.
Hi Steve, thanks again for all your attention to this.
In my last post, I just included the last failed backup's log -- this happened to be a case where I was trying out sector-by-sector mode. I think it's the only log in the folder that uses that mode. This time, I've attached a lot more of the backup_worker folder, including 10 logs from broken runs (experiments w/ different settings, all on March 31) and 8 logs from working runs (April 2nd and later). Hopefully a quick look at one or two of the former will be enough to find some clues!
Again, figuring this out is a back-burner priority for now; it's basically just a preventative measure, to keep the problem from coming back!
Ben, thanks for the new logs, the main errors I am seeing from the March 31 logs are as shown in the snippets copied below, which only looks to be shown at the end of the log when the task fails.
31/03/2021 02:35:03:249 PM Pid: 5324 type=log; level=inf; message=ar#1: seg=1544.52 MB avg=51.79 KB user=3496.29 MB ratio=42.26% pad=63020380 (4.08%);
31/03/2021 02:35:03:249 PM Pid: 5324 type=log; level=inf; message=ar#1: slices=2 user=130091MB data=28648MB meta=32MB unused=205MB/0.71% deallocated=0MB/0.00%;
31/03/2021 02:35:03:249 PM Pid: 5324 type=log; level=inf; message=ar#1: archive close (commit=8/8, file_size=30289731584, uuid=76e81212587a6de7d9cde242320826c2, user read=0MB write=59379MB) rc=0 (Success);31/03/2021 02:35:03:249 PM Pid: 5324
type=commonerror;
value=Read error.
$func::PartitionBackuper::ReadDrive
$line Failed to read the snapshot. See VSS logs for details.
$func win_snapshot_volume::IoOp
$line CRC error.31/03/2021 02:35:03:249 PM Pid: 5324 type=retcode; value=4095; id=1;
31/03/2021 02:35:03:249 PM Pid: 5324 >>> exit
There are 2 related aspects to the above error data. One is the Read error but what makes this more serious is that it occurs when reading the snapshot data created by Microsoft VSS as an important part of the backup action.
It is likely that MR caused the snapshot / VSS issues to be resolved or reset.
I would suggest downloading a copy of the Acronis VSS Doctor tool (link in my signature) and give this a run to see if it identifies any further issues in this area?
Thanks, Steve. VSS Doctor only finds one "issue" right now: it thinks one of my unlettered Windows recovery partitions has too little free space. (82 / 507MB free) I'm guessing that's a spurious result.
If Acronis reports errors in C again in the future, I'll be sure to run both the VSS Doctor and Macrium.