Failed to read data from the disk during backup...which file??
ATIH2011 build 6696 in use here...I just ran a backup on an old disk. It ran uneventfully except at one point I got a message that it couldn't read the disk. Multiple retries, still couldn't read. I eventually clicked "ignore" and the backup continued.
Okay, so it's an old disk and it has a bad sector or two...that's understandable and certainly not Acronis' fault. But my question is, which file was it trying to read when it gave the message? I'd like to at least know if it was an important document, or just some unimportant jpg file or whatever. Acronis only gives the sector number (274,957,804) but that doesn't help me to identify the file residing at that sector.
Here is an excerpt from the log:
To be safer, you might want to check both disks for disk errors.
From a command prompt,
CHKDSK X: /R (where x is the actual drive letter being tested.)
I did read about doing that in another thread, BUT, chkdsk /r causes writes to the disk, and before I do that and make irreversible changes, I wanted to check out other options. Besides, as I said, it's an old ATA disk and I'm going to trash it as soon as I have it backed up. But if I am not going to be able to retrieve the file that lives at sector 274,957,804, I just want to know what file it is.
The Windows installed version of Truemage 2011 has a feature inside Tools & Utilities titled
View Current Sate of Disks.
Perhaps this Disk Editor can help you read the contents of your designated sector.
Thanks for the tip...tried it...just uninterpretable binary data. Most likely part of an .MPG file as the disk contains a lot of videos.
Funny, Norton waaaaay back in the day used to have a utility called Disk Editor which easily allowed you to jump to an absolute sector number, and with the press of one of the F-keys would tell you the name of the file whose data resided there, or another F-key to bring you to the FAT or Directory sectors corresponding to said file. Highly functional. Those were the days, eh? :)
I guess I will try chkdsk /r and see what I get
Okay, ran chkdsk /r and found exactly 1 error on the disk, which it "fixed". God only knows what data chkdsk inserted where into the part of the file it couldn't read...this is why I would rather have avoided it. In this particular case it turned out to be an MPG file as I suspected, so if I ever try to play it it will probably just hiccup at some point in the video. But anyway....
Commentary with regard to Acronis TIH 2011...I am pretty disappointed that Acronis didn't handle this error better. Obviously, I cannot expect it to read an unreadable area of the disk, BUT, I do expect more than just a cryptic message and a "retry or ignore" option.
In my opinion, ATIH should have identified the file it was attempting to read, not just give the sector number...what the hell good is the sector number to anybody anyway?? THAT WAY, I would have known which file was unreadable during my backup and therefore that I should not rely on the integrity of the file if and when I do a restore from that backup image at some point in the future.
For example, let's say the file residing at sector 274,957,804 had been C:\Windows\notepad.exe. If ATIH had given me the file's name instead of just the sector number where the error occurred, then I would KNOW that notepad.exe was not backed up intact and that I should try to find another copy somewhere else if I ever need to restore that particular backup image.
That's all I'm saying....I would welcome any commentary from Acronis.
Jim,
A my final follow-up, there was a major improvement in error timeout settings beginning with the 2011 version (and the last update for 2010).
Check the timeout settings listed in the help section--upper right corner of the program.
When doing a partition backup, TI is working with disk sectors and not files--so it may not be aware of what file is involved.
Maybe Acronis will respond to your query.
Hello all,
Thank you for posting and thank you very much for your valuable assistance Grover.
Jim, I understand your situation and I an imagine that unclear error message is not something our software should have. Please rest assured that I have forwarded your feedback to our Program Management team via our Customer Listening System.
If you need additional help please let me know.
Thank you.