Full Backup file Unreadable!? Inaccessible!? ~ & Cloning Problems...
TrueImage (v.11) continues to raise frustration & anger here, more reason not to use it. We've had it on our computer for years, regularly updating it despite it NEVER managing to meet our needs or expectations, and generally causing more headaches and problems to clean up after it makes one of its messes. So we've been avoiding it, ignoring it but leaving it present on our desktop. But this time we decided to give it a try again, with a FULL backup, selecting 'All Files' with the hope this time it would do as it promised and produce something we could access, including via other computers, as visible files and data, something useful.
You'd have expected that, since it took twice as long as it originally promised to copy about 400 gigabytes of data on to an external drive, and then a few more hours to validate that. We were patient. Then, et voila, it says it is finished and all was successful ~ BUT ~ checking out that external drive we find some kind of unrecognized file, the right amount of gigabytes, except we can't open or view it ~ USELESS!?! So yet another mess made by this software we'll have to clean up. And, further frustration, nothing on this website we were directed to on repeat searches in either the knowledgebase or the forums had any answers for us. Yes, we spent time checking there before adding this here, after two days waiting for TrueImage to create this large bit of digital waste. Yes, sorry, but we are angry...
I take it all back, no celebrations as True Image remains true to itself, a pain in the backside. No other computer can see or access any of what was backed up, but there's now a new and very large file added to the hard drive and taking up almost half again as much space in gigabytes, clogging what is a hefty external drive. Worse, as I plugged it back in to this desktop I find the same headache, now two files, the original and a second with the same name, half the size, and a "2" following it. I think we need to retire True Image to the digital bin and find something that will actually do the jobs we'd hoped this software would do, without generating more useless junk files or headaches. As it has performed over the years doing it by hand is actually proving to be better.
Yes, fed up, angry, whenever something promises to be of use and instead wastes a considerable amount of time. It isn't user friendly, nor is the support it seems, basically non-existent... Sorry, as I would much rather have a good opinion and be able to recommend something than not. I can see no redeeming qualities in this bit of software, wasting time and harddisk space, repeatedly...
Dani,
A backup will produce a TIB file. ALl you data is in the TIB file. It looks like you have one. It also looks like your can mount it. You can mount a TIB file only on a computer that has Acronis installed. I am not sure about V11, but you might also be able to double click on the TIB file to browse it in Windows Explorer (it is the case with 2011).
Finally, it seems you are doing a file backup. YOu should have a disk and partition backup available because it is only this type of backup that can help you restore your computer to its previous state in case your disk completly dies, for example.
Thanks for the considerate reply, appreciated, and apologies that I am less able to be positive.
The hopes we've had for this software, to create bootable partitions and to have openly accessible backup have so far not been realized. Those hopes were there to help aid me when working on our few computers, at home and away, and if and when they crash. But, there's worse. When I opened up to view the Acronis backup file on one of our laptops, to see if it was accessible, for whatever reason, 'IT' caused the laptop to crash, leaving me with over 6 hours of work last night trying to resuscitate that. Curiously, we had actually created a TIB backup for that lapto but Acronis would not let me restore it. So, yet again, I had to abandon that hoped for option and resort to doing things myself.
Still unexplained is why Acronis, on using its 'mount' function, creates a second very large file, same name as the first, followed by a 2, about half the size of the original. These two files now take up more space together than everything on the source drives.
Dani,
Acronis allows you to create reliable images of your system disks, including all partitions. YOu can then restore these images on the disk. Restoring will erase anything on the disk to restore to.
You can also edit the contents of an archive. When you do this, ATI creates an addendum to the archive as an incremental backup to capture these changes. THis could be why you have a second file. Or it could be because you launched an incremental backup from ATI.
I've tested it twice, deleted the extra #2 file, but everytime I 'mount' the main file to view it this second file is created...
As to the other disk and considering a 'restore' after trying to view the file caused a crash, which I'm still dealing with, Acronis True Image would not allow me to restore it at all, though it did see the TIB file.
Hello Dani and Pat,
Thank you for your comments. Pat, thanks a lot for your help.
Dani, I entirely understand your frustration, I would feel the same way if I'd faced such situation. I'll try to help you here, but I'll be honest: there's not much we can do as Acronis True Image Home 11 is an outdated product, it's not updated, supported or developed anymore, so there's not much we can do.
I would advise you to download the trial version of the Acronis True Image Home 2011 and perform the below steps with the Acronis True Image Home 2011 trial, as it's fully functional (the only limitations are: 1. 30 days of work 2. clone feature not available 3. bootable media can restore only) and compatible with the images made by the previous version of Home software.
Of course you can also proceed with the troubleshooting using Acronis True Image Home 11.
First of all please follow the steps for troubleshooting issues with corrupt backups. One of the solutions described may contain an answer. Should the problem remain, please gather Recovery log from the bootable media, Acronis Info from the source machine, submit a case with the information attached, and let us know it's number.
Should you need anything else or have any further questions - feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, we will be happy to help you!
Thank you!
dani,
Did you try
Open Windows explorer and browse to the most recent of the your backup files.
Right click on the x.tib backup file and choose the "Explore" option from the Right click context menu.
If successful, then work from the left pane of the open window and browse inside the backup file until you reach the desired files. Then you can copy or drag and drop to a folder of your choice.
With any backup software or backup plan, it is always prudent to test your restore procedures so you know they will work when actually needed. Am a TI user over several years using several versions (V8 to current) and it has saved me a lot of grief.
Good luck.
Thanks for the responses all, but I think we're now at the point of considering other options and removing Acronis True Image completely, too much bother, time lost and money wasted. Why? Well, aside from the repeated hassles, it just does not and has never done what we'd hoped for. Doing it ourselves may be time consuming but gives us more satisfactory results.
Currently we have a computer with three hard drives on it. I'd hoped to clone the whole thing on to a new and much larger drive and then swap that. The main drive that has the system on it is showing its age. But Acronis True Image will not allow me to clone a drive to a partition. When I tried to clone it all to the larger drive True Image didn't allow me the flexibility of adjusting partitions, such as assigning more space for the C-drive, the system drive, which is currently a tight fit in the partition of the old drive it's in. Such a limitation is idiotic, in all senses defeats the reason for the change, needing more free space.
Next I thought I'd try to clone a bit at a time, the C to a created partition on the new drive, a much more generous and healthier space, but True Image would have nothing to do with it. Even considering using that disk merely for backup, True Image has problems with sizing partitions. The idea that 2011 will do any better, I don't think so, and the suggestion to give the trial version a go, well, it doesn't allow cloning, so we can't test that feature. Besides, the MAJORITY of the personal reviews I've read, except a few, are moaning about how awful and what a disappointment the 2011 version is, more trouble than it's worth, and said with harsher words and more anger than I'm showing here. So, I think we'll go elsewhere and be glad to be rid of a bad program and poor customer service limited to 30 days. Maybe they'll start listening to the needs and responses of their customers and sort things out, and if not ~ enough said...
dani,
The TrueImage Rescue CD does provide the necessary tools to create duplicate or larger disks via either Cloning or Restoring a backup with user controlling the partition sizes but how to use these tools is not always easy to implement.
When cloning, if you choose the manual/manual mode, the user is provided with options for the resizing of any or all partitions during a cloning procedure. Depending upon the arrangement of partitions, it may be necessary to take some free space away from one partition in order to have more room in another. Click on my signature below and check out index item #3-CC. This may not exactly match your partition arrangement but the guide will show you how each partition can be resized as part of a cloning operation.
On easy way to create a duplicate but larger disk to to use the disk restore method where you check mark the disk as to what is being restored, TI will restore the active partition correctly but there is no option to control partition sizes. TI will resize the partitions proportionately and may assign the space differently than you want which is why I prefer to control the sizes myself as shown in 3-BB discussed next.
If you goal is to create a duplicate/larger disk via the restore a full backup method, index item #3-BB illustrates how this can be done and user is provided the capability to control partition sizes and which partitions are to be active. User may have to override some of the default selections but the opportunity to make your own correct choices does exist.
As stated in prior posting, the ability to practice or simulate your procedures helps to make the process much easier and you can practice as many time as you wish until you get it the way you want. Performing the process is practice as long as choose the CANCEL button and do NOT click the Proceed button.
User does have the responsibility of making sure the default selections made by the program are correct and if not correct, to make the necessary changes. This does require some advance planning on part of the user to gather all the information needed prior to the proceeding. Practice simulation can help to determine if changes are needed.
Thanks for the patience and reply Grover. I haven't given up yet. However, I did go the manual route, more than once, and no matter what I did, even trying to merge to empty space, True Image would not let me resize the C/system drive. I'll give your welcome comment more time tomorrow. It's now going on 2 a.m. here. While I'm losing it with True Image, but willing to give it another go, I've fallen in love with another bit of just acquired software ~ "Advanced System Optimizer". It's brilliant and does what it says on the tin, and then some. If only True Image were as useful and friendly. But, I'll give it another go tomorrow... Again, thanks, diolch, go raibh ma'agat, trugarez, merci, danka, grazie...
In order to resize any partition, there has to exist sufficient adjacent free space in which to expand. Maybe show me a screen capture of your existing disk management and I may be able to offer suggestions.
Does your system look like any listed in the attachment?
Windows XP Professional, and there's a lot of space on the new Terabyte disk, while the collective drives are half that and not filled. But, after doing a slew of scans I'm about to try to clone this problem drive again, and hopefully only into half the available space, allowing me room for partitions to backup the other drives in. Some of the other backup software I've checked into allows multiple drives, both ways, but True Image does not seem to allow that in cloning. That might have allowed me to move all three drives on to the new drive simultaneously?
Wish me luck...
Curiouser and curiouser ~ this time the cloning steps, all manual, resulted in the partitions I was hoping for, but they're all empty, nothing on them, just blank partitions... I'll give it another go later tonight.
If the partitions were empty, you probably did not choose the correct source disk which is the disk which is to be duplicated.
Double checked, but I'm going in for another try. After the computer shuts down and True Image takes over it finishes the task in a few minutes, nowhere near the time to fully copy everything. Just in case my eyes were deceiving me I did try entering the new drive as the primary, but only get and OS loading failure. The partitions are blank. What's weird is that when it wasn't allowing me to resize the primary partition, it was taking its time to copy. I just hope all this doesn't end up ruining the new disk. Here we go again... Thanks again for your time and patience GroverH... I'll let you know how it goes, but I am sorely tempted to try something else and give up on True Image...
After you make your last partition sizing and just before you get to the final screen, you should see a screen like this attachment which projects what the final sizes will be for each partition.
Click image for larger view.
Suspecting the possibility of hardware associated disagreements I disconnected all but the two drives involved and restarted the system. Et Voila! This time it did everything, allowed me to resize the partitions and it went through the lengthy process on reboot of copying everything from the two partitions on the old drive on to the new SATA drive. I then removed the old drive and tried another reboot, alas, the new SATA drive threw up our old friend again "Error Loading OS". And I tried a few restarts that still gave me the same results. I then disconnected the one other drive and left only the SATA drive, and there was a change in the message ~ "Drive Not Ready - System Halted", and a couple more restarts gave me the same result. I did check out F2 to make sure the boot was set for the hard drive, but no luck. I've checked the disk externally, in a drive bay, and it all seems to be there this time, but something is obviously missing, despite the cloning appearing to be fully successful this time, and also having allowed me to set the sizes of the partitions. So, positive progress, and feeling a need to think 'glass half full'...
The previous problems were occuring between booting up after following all the True Image steps carefully. Some problems may have been using an external drive bay to clone to. I've come across a few comments suggesting that True Image has problems with external drives, USB, etc...
I'll have to see what I can find online in regards to this latest brick wall ~ "Drive Not Ready - System Halted". :-/
Consider doing the clone again and this time boot with only the single new drive attached.
Can you answer my question in post #12? It might help to understand your system.
Be extremely careful. On the partition resizing screen is where you make the partition which is to be active. It is possible that you may need to override the default Acronis choice. Look in the Windows Disk Management for the old disk and see which partition is marked as active and you must reproduce the same setting during the clone resizing.
Another possibility might be if you have a backup and know which partition is supposed to be the active partition. You could boot from the CD and restore the active partition only. Then, in a separate pass, also restore the MBR/track0 plus checkmark the "Recover Disk signature" on the same screen where you choose the target disk.
Sorry, I thought I had, Windows XP Professional, and no shortage of space - Terabytes...
Resizing problems can also be caused if there are any file system errors. TI won't resize a partition with errors since it can cause data loss.
What is the brand and model of the computer?
Do you know for sure the computer's BIOS correctly supports a 1TB drive?
Is the new 1TB SATA drive connected directly to a SATA port or is it connected using a USB adaptor or enclosure? If non-standard drive geometry is being used on the computer, the new drive should be connected internally when cloned.
Does the BIOS list the new drive with its model number or is it a "generic" name? What do the other drives show?
Does the boot order in the BIOS let you select the booting drive by its model name or is it a generic title (like "Hard Drive")?
Questions I like, appreciate and welcome, and I will set aside some time this evening to answer what I miss here.
This is an Intel system, self-built, but not 'new', RDRAM will tell you something about its origins, 1 Gig's worth and a 1.7 chip. The BIOS is another inspection, to be revisited, as I remember when this construction first faced 'large' drives of a few hundred Gigs worth. Going through F2 the option for boot order was generic 'hard drive'. As well, revealing by this information the age of the computer, the SATA drive is made possible with an added card, but there have been no problems accessing the drive, except, it seems, for True Image via the use of an external drive bay. Windows' Device Manager recognizes the SATA drive as 'Hitachi HD5721010CLA33 SCSI Disk Device'. I have detached all other drives for the moment and am just running it off of the old 300 Gig Maxtor IDE/PATA drive. I have been considering chasing up another IDE/PATA drive to clone to, 500 GB...
I did check for errors before attempting to clone, and a general clean up too, not wanting to copy problems over to the new drive. While most scans come back with 'healthy' for the old drive, there is a small amount of fragmentation and there have been problems I know are signs of its age and eventual demise, having to rebuild the System files a few times in the last month, reason for turning to True Image to swap drives.
I suspected that there was a problem with the initial attempts, via an external drive, which allowed USB and SATA. Eventually it allowed a full backup via USB 2, but that was when there were problems with partition allocation and a tight fit that couldn't be worked around. So, into the box, and that was successful all around, except when swapping drives and ending up with that repeat message - "Drive Not Ready - System Halted".
With some recent tragedies I must admit less patience that I'd like, and lost sleep is likely also contributing to me operating at a lower consciousness than needed here.
I don't know if you can boot the drive connected to the SATA add-on card using the computer's BIOS (F2). Check the BIOS of the add-on card and see if it has an option for booting. If you post the brand and model of the card, I can try to find out the details (if you don't know them).
Otherwise, connecting a different drive to the onboard controller may be the way to go.
I still have an RDRAM computer in use (upgraded from 1.3GHz to 3.06GHz). It's been a very reliable computer.
Advance's PCI-ST101 SATA Control Card, SATA I & II compatible, with three SATA ports, two internal and one external, and one internal IDE port. No accompanying literature, the only other item included with the card was a SATA cable. As said previously, now it's 'basically' internal, the system recognizes it and assigns letters, and now it seems, for the third time, cloning is not a problem, and having control over partitions, never a problem with other software, is now no longer an Acronis True Image problem. But, third time isn't lucky. The cloning went well, everything as hoped, all there, but despite removing anything else that might distract from the hoped for boot, the same results persist, including making repeat and different approaches. All I get is, as before ~ "Drive Not Ready - System Halted"...
I don't like giving up on things, preferring to keep them going for as long as possibly. As for friends in Ireland, their old and no longer working washing machine and refrigerator, I managed to clean them up, sort a few electrical problems, parts replacements, and suceeded in giving them a few more years of life, however much fuss and time that took. So too with this old RDRAM Intel system, though any inclination for more upgrading is under control, other than the hoped for additional life of a new drive. It handles most of what I need it for, if at times making me wait, or letting loose a gremlin or two. I realize this old Intel D850GB motherboard has reached it's limits. But, I am considering building anew, if my wife will allow me, and when I'm confident that Intel has sorted out the faults with the new Intel Sandy Bridge processors, and if I can maintain confidence in my own limited skills... Old washing machines, refrigerators, stereos and tractors are easier to work on and make more sense, usually suffering physical ills and not digital ones.
In the meantime this may mean trying to chase up a PATA/IDE drive, though, today, out and about, no one had anything, nor did anyone know about there being more than one type of SATA plug, another problem I'm hoping to sort out...
Thanks to all who've tried to help and succeeded in at least calming the beast created from circumstances beyond my control, or anyone else's...
What brand and model is the 1TB drive?
Does it have a jumper to force it to SATA mode (instead of SATA II)? If so, you could try that.
Some add-on cards will display their own message when the computer boots. This message may display a key to press to enter the card's BIOS. Does the card do this? If it does, what options does it give you?
Howdy again MudCrab, from one who knows the joys and risks of crabbing, and the pleasure of crab salad and other delicacies, preferring crab to lobster. But, back to this, hoping it will help distract me some from my torn right shoulder.
First, here's a link dredged up that shows the card in question:
http://www.rsssim.com/images/Big/232001-005_BIG.jpg
I don't see anything obvious for making a jump. Also, nothing shows up on the screen while the system is booting up. I'll have to check F2 again next time I power up, but I don't remember seeing anything there either.
The beautifully quiet drive I was hoping to swap ~
Hitachi 0F10383JPT39C0C03 -
HDS721010CLA332 - SATA 3.0 - 7200RPM
That's the same card I found in my search. I did come across some booting problems with it. In some cases, the card would not allow the computer to boot from a drive connected to the card because it didn't interface with the BIOS correctly. It sounded like the problem was actually caused by the BIOS in the computer (probably too old). Is there a BIOS update available for your computer?
They stopped BIOS updates for this old drive in 2001, the last one being October, version P17. But, I had missed that, the last update I'd ran was the same year, April, P12. I'd mistakenly taken that as the last one. There have been 3 in succession after that, P13, P14, and a leap from there to P17. I've just updated to that. Thanks for the reminder. I regularly check for and update drivers but had missed those last few steps for the BIOS. 2001, will it make any difference? I'll check things out in the week. But, for now, with doubts, I've gone ahead and ordered one of Western Digital's 500 GB PATA/IDE drives. I can still use the larger SATA drive as a data drive, primarily audio files, some of the work I do with this antique.
Thanks for the help. It has had a definite calming effect, and has also served as a positive distraction from my aching torn right shoulder and a cold or flu that has taken hold of me. Maybe that's me empathizing with this computer, both of us showing our age...
I'll report back later on this BIOS update, whether or not there's any positive outcome...