Totally Abandoned by Tech Support
On 8/20/11, I started an online chat with tech support to obtain assistance with a situation where my ATIH 2011 (recently purchased) had become corrupted and needed to be reinstalled. I was having tremendous difficulty in getting it to work and finally found what I thought to be someone caring and compassionate about the problem and willing to work through it.
After over what seemed like at least an hour and 1/2 of effort and emails back and forth asking me to send files (which I did and which they claimed I did not), we paused for the evening. The next morning, I reopened the case with another support person who finally got the files that he wanted, also by directly logging into my laptop. Again, the result was not successful and I was told that it had to go to an expert team to be resolved.
To date, no one has gotten back to me. I live in Florida and I was getting desparately concerned about the then approaching Hurricane Irene, which fortunately just passed us by. I pleaded with Acronis to respond to me and help me to get my software reinstalled so that in the event of catastrophe, I would be covered. Not even an acknowledgment of the emails.
Next thing I know, voila, ATIH 2012 is brought to the market! Never mind that I just recently purchased from Acronis the 2011 version. Any apology for the delay or offer to upgrade (I was only a few days out), nope nothing. So now it is over a week and still no word.
What a pleasure. I cannot get my now "older version" to even reinstall and I am without my functioning backup software.
I hope that no one else experiences this problem.
Let's see how long they keep this posting on the board before they censure it.
bookbean2,
What problem or error message do you get when you try to re-install 2011?
Installation Incomplete
The installation was interrupted before Acronis True Image Home 2011 could be installed. You need to restart the installer to try again.
The only option is to click on close.
The tech person spent well over an hour, directly connected to the computer and going through the registry, trying all sorts of things.
I will try to track down the app that the prior responder suggested and see if that works in the mean time. I will post the results either way.
In the interim, I am starting a search for a competitive product, as well as considering my options for how I have been treated by Acronis. I will not simply walk away, which I am sure that that is exactly what they most likely now expect me to do.
Well dserdu,
I guess that it's not your fault as you are apparently a beginner, but I tried your suggestion:
BSOD BSOD BSOD BSOD BSOD BSOD BSOD.
We are now out of business. I cannot even begin to say what I want to say on this useless site from this disgusting company. So we have had no backup and now BSOD. Perfect. I hope someone in this organization understands what it means when they read a letter that WILL come and will end with the words "govern yourselves accordingly". This could have all been avoided. No one here can even begin to understand the level of frustration and emotion that will start in just a few hours when we have to face the day with a BSOD situation. This is being posted from another computer which contains NONE OF THE DATA ON THE AFFECTED MACHINE, as it has nothing to do with that machine.
Colin B, I don't know if there is anything that you can do. If by chance you may have known of the potential for the BSOD then for future situations, if you see someone recommending that clean up utility, you should yell STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
I am now in for a sleepless night.
Not the intended effect, for sure! Unless your disk has its own problems (bad sectors etc.) this is becoming/has become a Windows corruption issue. In that case your data should be okay and you need a way to access it. Have you tried to boot into safe mode and, if it lets you in, to perform a system restore? (I still use XP so am using those strategies.) If that doesn't help I think I would try to access the data by booting the machine using a BartPE disk (Google BartPE if necessary) or by moving the problem hard disk to another machine temporarily. Make sure the BIOS doesn't put the problem hard disk in the boot order. The system you've moved the disk to should boot to its normal self but the problem disk should be accessible so you can pull the data off.
I know the last thing you want to do right now is to use Acronis for anything. But if you can get it installed on a machine you can then build what they call "rescue media", which is a CD that you can boot from and, among other things, backup and restore images. You can even clone disks with it, which might be advisable at this point. It makes me nervous to do anything to a disk that contains the only copy of critical data, so one way or another if you can image the disk in question that would lessen the chances of actually losing data. You may be in for the annoyance of having to repair or rebuild your operating system but unless the problem disk is itself sick the data is still there.
I'm sorry my earlier suggestion made things worse. I believe I'll stop offering them. Again, best of luck.
bookbean2,
What is the BSOD code that you are getting?
The cleaner for 2011 should have cleared the important install information out of registry. Your BSOD might be due to the Acronis driver still being listed in registry when it is no longer on your system.
Are you running XP or Vista/W7?
Obviously you now can't easily retrieve the installer log file, but from your post #5, I would guess either your User temp folder required emptying (no, I don't know why the installer can hiccup on this point, but it has had that vagary in it since I started using TIH which was v8) or the upgrade entry was still in registry (there is an upgrade entry even if you have a full version).
If you are running XP and have an XP install CD to hand you can be up and running very quickly, if it is Vista or W7 that is more difficult and requires a Vista/W7 repair CD and some patience as that only fixes one problem at a time unlike the XP which repairs everything in one go.
@dserdu
Giving out an option doesn't mean someone needs to jump in without deciding whether or not it's the best option for them. Offer up whatever help you are kind enough to provide!
@op
One IDEA, just something to maybe consider if you're using a Windows OS running System Restore. Perhaps boot into safe mode and Restore back to a safe date? As mentioned previously, I would definitely take an image of your system as is via the bootable CD before making any further changes.
And just 'cuz I wanna' speak my mind... It amazes me Acronis 1) doesn't have something in place that will fix a botched install; and 2) can't manually fix a botched install either even when they try to!
EDIT:
I'm really reaching for straws here, but I just thought of something I did at one time which caused a seemingly irreversible BSOD during boot - couldn't boot even in safe mode. I was playing with my BIOS RAID settings and switched a setting around that could be RAID, AHCI or, I believe, SATA. I believe it was RAID, I wasn't actually using a RAID array on that "controller" and I switched it to AHCI. While switching from SATA to AHCI can sometimes cause irreperable damage, I was lucky in that when I switched it back I was back up and running.
You didn't happen to make a similar change throughout all this did you? It would obviously had to be someone sitting at your computer - BIOS changes can't be made through a remote connection.
I'll put emotions aside for the moment, despite the fact that the situation at home right now is not good.
BSOD Error message:
Stop: 0X0000007B (0XBA4CB528, 0XC000000E, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)
The OS is Windows XP SP3. I'll discuss more when I can.
Hello all,
Thank you very much for your posts and thank you everyone for your kind help.
bookbean2, I will do my best to help you here.
I found your case in our system and I can see that it has been escalated to our Expert team. Please accept my sincerest apologies for the delay. I have notified our Management team about this unacceptable situation and we will address it as soon as possible.
If you need additional help please feel free to contact me directly.
Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Thank you.
Anton,
I won't work the case file with you on this forum site, that should be done elsewhere and you have my email address on file, so I will leave it to you to contact me.
I certainly hope that your comment above is not a "canned response". I can fully document that the delay in responding to my emails and postings have literally now caused my wife and I thousands of dollars. That's just for openers. Having lost the use of the computer to the BSOD has just this morning, totally compromised a real estate transaction, as well as an important client relationship.
We were relying upon Acronis for backup and redundancy of data protection. The very thing that we needed AND PAID FOR, was not available to us when we needed it AND your removal program from your KB is what Blue Screened our computer. Had I received a timely response, especially when it was promised to us, the BSOD issue would never had occurred.
Anton, I fully expect that a high level person is going to answer for this and that whomever in your organization is responsible for the outrageous and inexcusable failure to respond to the requests for help and feedback, both in this forum and through email, be immediately terminated.
You found the case file, so you know how to contact me. I now need to ensure that my spouse hasn't taken an excess of sedatives to calm down from the chain reaction that your company has caused us. IT consultants on their way to us with a new drive, etc. It's enough to make me want to toss.
It is now approximately 4:54 PM EST. I am not certain of the time difference, however it has been roughly 6-7 hours since I last posted my message. Now that I have expressed myself above, I am hoping that the tone of my message(s) was clear in terms of the sense of urgency.
But...I think that the concern has disappeared once again because I have not received any messages, calls, etc. from Acronis. Perhaps you have contacted my spouse, but I do not think so, because she would have informed me if she did receive any message.
So please tell me Anton, how should I interpret "I have notified our Management team about this unacceptable situation and we will address it as soon as possible." Forgive me but that is what the first tech support person told me and you see where that has led. How does one define "as soon as possible"?
bookbean2
Someone by the name of Ashley called this evening, leaving a message saying that she is a manager and that we are "facing some issues with the Acronis product and that is a follow up call...". She also wanted to know a convenient time to call and discuss the matter.
Of course I would have been happy to call back but it seems that Ashley neglected the minor process of leaving any form of call back number. The Caller ID showed "Unknown Caller". Thanks for trying Ashley.
dserdu,
I did not mean to ignore your apology, which is most graciously accepted. I recognize that your suggestion was made in good faith and with the best of intentions.
I suppose that their program should download with a clear bold print warning message that tells the user that "using this program may cause BSOD..." or something to that effect!
Between this forum, their technical request tracking process, and emails, I have been quite expressive recently, and that is not something that I normally would do. However, when one has been abandoned, what else can you do?
So they have finally sent an email with some registry changes that they wish for me to make. Unfortunately, that may have been the solution prior to last night's download and I think that their solution is now a mute point, especially given that the computer went BSOD and I had to turn it over to a paid IT expert today in hopes of recovering what we need.
I do not wish to sound prejudice in any way because that is not me. Having said that, receiving emails and calls from half way around the world is not my idea of hearing from someone in a senior position to respond to this matter. As I said in an email to them a short time ago, I believe that this matter has now migrated from a Tech Support issue to a serious Customer Service issue.
.
Colin B,
I wish to extend my thanks to you, as well. Please refer to all other posts from this evening.
Thanks again.
Boobean2,
Thanks, the BSOD code does point to a driver problem. It is possible for someone who has a Windows boot disk to open the registry for editing and remove the one or two offending entries.
Acronis has tried to contact me by phone earlier this evening, however I missed the call by approximately 1/2 hour. They sent an email advising of the effort to call and I returned the email twice, requesting that they try one more time.
In the interim, my Tech support person who is an engineer, did follow all of the recommendations by removing the bad entries of the registry of the BSOD' disk, but unfortunately the problem would not go away. He is now reinstalling a brand new disk while forensically working to bring back as much data from the corrupted disk as possible.
Yet another day in this sad saga.
I find this information very interesting. I'm surprised they took your threats as seriously as it appears they have.
Gork,
Thank you for being so observant. What is even more interesting is that the posts have suddenly re-appeared. We shall see for how long. Given that I have not spoken with one of their representatives (they never called back last night or this evening), I have recognized that there is no apparent desire on their part to remedy what they have caused.
My wife and I have are now continuing to incur costs to have the data rescued, lost the use of the laptop, and most importantly and as a consequence of this situation, suffered other damages. Hard to believe that a company that has had such a good reputation can turn this way.
Well, honestly, 2011 should never have been released. At least it should have been pulled off the shelves until fixed. And as is, it was never fixed. And from what I'm reading 2012 should be pulled off the shelves post haste. It amazes me that any company can get away with releasing such buggy software - I can't say I'd feel bad to see them held accountable.
In the area where one tracks there support status, and where I have had other very limited communication with Acronis. I just left an unequivical message putting them on notice that if I do not receive communication from a duly authorized person within the next 48 hours, and someone who can act on behalf of Acronis in a meaningful way and to advise how they plan to remedy this issue, then I will formally commence legal action.
Enough time has elapsed, not to mention the string of messages that I have been compelled to have to post, just to get this company to take responsibility for the damages that they have caused.
In addition, my posts will expand to other public domains on the internet to share this saga. I still find it incredible that I needed to do these things as I have much better uses for my time.
Based upon my original pleas for help from these people, I doubt that they take any of this seriously or even care what I have to say, let alone what they have failed to do from a resolution and communication point of view.. Other Acronis customers take note, that this could be you!
I have the exact same problem. Acronis 2011 True Image Home would not uninstall with the normal Programs. So I used their True Image Home 2011 Cleanup Utility. Not 2011 will not reinstall, I get the exact same message the person above got.
I am running Win7 64bit. I wanted to uninstall and reinstall because the non-stop backup kept pausing and would never restart even though my system was not under any load.
Sorry to hear that you have run into the same situation as me. My attorney is now handling the matter and I therefore will not make any further comments at this time.
Sweet...