Cannot uninstall ver.2012, tech support of no help

If all else fails and you want to try uninstalling TIH 2012 manually, I've posted some "last resort" information that may help at http://forum.acronis.com/forum/26439

Whatever you do, do NOT delete any driver files until after you've cleaned out those registry entries. If you do, even "Last Known Good" or "Safe Mode" may not be able to save you.

Thanks for the reply and I hate to say it but I'm an absolute coward when it comes to playing in the registry. I was afraid that it may be the only way to deal with my situation so if all else fails (a little peeved but still hoping tech support gets back to me with something not to scary to try), I'll keep this in mind as the very 'last resort'. As irritating as it is to see tih in the add/remove list, I'm hoping that it's really no harm, worse comes to worse. It just means I don't have the luxury of a backup program
.

Actually, when playing with registry entries, a coward is the best thing to be. I only used manual removal as a last resort to get rid of the TIH 2012 initial release completely after their "cleanup" tool left stuff behind, and I created multiple "safeguards" before doing so.

Note also that those cleanup tools are version specific for TIH 2011 and TIH 2012. So you may need to run both if both versions (or parts of both) got left behind somehow after the regular uninstall operations. On the other hand, if it's not causing any actual problems, you're probably wise just to ignore the duplicate entry under "Add/Remove Progams." By itself, it does no real harm.

I won't go over the problems I've had with this programme as that's documented elsewhere. If all else fails I would restore the whole operating system and make a windows system restore backup from within Windows 7 if you're using that OS. I hate it when bits of old programmes are left behind and who knows what problems they will cause you in the future. Of course it might be that nothing will go wrong but it has already as you now know everything is not all right with your PC as you have bits of a programme you can't uninstall properly. Acronis should be ashamed of this fiasco, and I would love to know how this got past beta testing.

Richard....
This is my first tih experience so I only needed the 2012 tool (though if a program is written properly, a tool shouldn't be needed). Would you think a reinstall using the retail disc that I originally used (which this entry references) would allow me to uninstall it? I'm still waiting for official tech support to get back to me with advice. In any case, this is unfortunately my business computer and I'm neck deep in work and am leery of making things worse as at the moment, everything else seems to be running fine (checked out all programs, logs etc.) so definitely for now I'll be taking the "leave it all alone as it seems harmless" route. It'll be some time before I have a chunk of downtime in order to make any attempts at anything that might make me (perish the thought) need to reinstall win7. Appreciate that you took the time to provide advice.
J Watkin....
As I mentioned above I'm deep in work that needs to get done and can't afford down time due to an o/s reinstall (along with all the programs and their various settings). Heck, that's what I was trying to avoid by installing this program! I can only hope for now that everything continues to work properly and that this glitch is a simple registry key or two which shouldn't affect anything else, at least it isn't at the moment. I can't say anything about future installs of this or any other programs but when I get downtime I may be looking into this further. I really think Acronis should be ashamed of themselves over this one.

I agree if you need the PC just leave everything as it is. My point about re-installing Windows could be still valid, as that might be the only other way you'll get all traces of TIH 2012 off your machine. If its not causing any problems at this point I doubt it will in the future, but I hate when this happens. having to spend the best part of 4 hours over 2 days getting everything back to where I was isn't my idea of how an upgraded programme should work.
I might have a good working knowledge of PC's but getting a drive isn't accessible error message because the MBR has been trashed would cause less experienced users all types of problems. And, making me wait for 8 days before anyone from Acronis actually responded to my support request is very poor customer service in my opinion.
Acronis issued a lot of updates for 2011 so I think they'll try and sort 2012 out but what were they thinking? I can't believe some of these problems weren't being reported back during testing.

I have requested a refund and won't be making this mistake again.

@bsidedown: I can't answer your question about re-installing and then re-uninstalling TIH 2012 as I've only installed once and then uninstalled once myself. Couldn't hurt much to try, I guess. I can only tell you that, in my case, uninstalling it in the normal way (i.e., from Windows control panel "Add/Remove Prgrams") left behind all of its filter-driver files in the \Windows\System32\Drivers folder and several related registry keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet.

It is those system "leftovers" that are the primary potential troublemakers as they can affect system startups and may confict with other software installations. The mere existence of an extraneous item in the "Add/Remove Programs" listing, on the other hand, is nothing to be concerned about except as a possible indicator of deeper issues.

Personally, I'd be inclined to leave it alone if you're not seeing any problem. However, IF you do decide to make any further efforts at removal at some point, I'd suggest first re-running the "cleanup" tool for the TIH version that remains listed. Only if that fails, would I then try a manual cleanup as: 1) upper and lower device class filters, 2) Acronis services, 3) the driver files themselves. That removal sequence is critical as noted in my http://forum.acronis.com/forum/26439 posting.

A completely fresh OS installation as suggested by J Watkin is, of course, always available as the absolute ultimate last resort no matter what, but I was deliberately trying to avoid all the extra work involved in that final solution.

This thing really is one hell of a great "compute with confidence" utility, ain't it!

Well I took a moment to take a look in the system32 folder and I have the vsflt58.sys left there. All others are gone so I'm guessing something happened to leave that behind after running the removal tool. After seeing others ending up with bsod problems I'm definitely going to wait till I finish my current assignments and have some free time where my work computer won't be missed due to some downtime if reinstalling the o/s is needed.

I'll keep all this advice in mind and before anything else, it does make sense as you say to first run the tool again and see if it picks up the remaining files this time. If not, I may try a reinstall/uninstall of the program as sometimes it puts back critical things that got damaged or misplaced that are needed for uninstalls and if so, maybe, just maybe, it'll cleanly uninstall (and not make things worse). As well, in the meantime I'm still waiting for tech guys to get back to me with something. I'm just afraid that when they finally get back to me, they'll want me to go digging into the registry. Simply tragic.

Thanks both and in case anyone's interested I may be back in the future to finish the saga. Fingers crossed......

If vsflt58.sys (Acronis Disk Storage Filter) is the only Acronis driver file left behind, I'd say you're in pretty good shape. Suggest that you just look at (don't touch) entries under the registry key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]. If you see no entry there for vidsflt58 as lower (or upper) filter service, you're pretty much home free! Any further cleanup attempts (other than perhaps getting rid of the vidsflt58 service itself if it still exists) would be largely aesthetic.

On the other hand, do NOT remove the vidsflt58 service, nor its vsflt58.sys driver file, so long as a filter entry for that service remains under the device class key -- not even if an Acronis techie tells you to. I don't think they would, but you never know. They seem to be working without complete "known issues" info by no fault of their own.

EDIT: Service name corrected.

Richard Virtue wrote:

If vsflt58.sys (Acronis Disk Storage Filter) is the only Acronis driver file left behind, I'd say you're in pretty good shape. Suggest that you just look at (don't touch) entries under the registry key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]. If you see no entry there for vsflt58 as lower (or upper) filter service, you're pretty much home free! Any further cleanup attempts (other than perhaps getting rid of the vsflt58 service itself if it still exists) would be largely aesthetic.

On the other hand, do NOT remove the vsflt58 service, nor its vsflt58.sys driver file, so long as a filter entry for that service remains under the device class key -- not even if an Acronis techie tells you to. I don't think they would, but you never know. They seem to be working without complete "known issues" info by no fault of their own.

Richard Virtue wrote:

If vsflt58.sys (Acronis Disk Storage Filter) is the only Acronis driver file left behind, I'd say you're in pretty good shape. Suggest that you just look at (don't touch) entries under the registry key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]. If you see no entry there for vsflt58 as lower (or upper) filter service, you're pretty much home free! Any further cleanup attempts (other than perhaps getting rid of the vsflt58 service itself if it still exists) would be largely aesthetic.

-----Looked and didn't touch (!) and found a lower filter named vidsflt58. That's not a typo, it is vidsflt, not vsflt. Is this the key or just something that happens to look similar?

On the other hand, do NOT remove the vsflt58 service, nor its vsflt58.sys driver file, so long as a filter entry for that service remains under the device class key -- not even if an Acronis techie tells you to. I don't think they would, but you never know. They seem to be working without complete "known issues" info.

-----Absolutely not, under any circumstances would I just start deleting anything of the sort. However, while I see the .sys file and this key (if this is "the" key), I see no reference in regards to the vsflt58 service on the computer.

Sorry for the confusion. The Windows system service name does differ slightly from the corresponding driver file name (vidsflt58 service using vsflt58.sys driver -- corrected above). But, in any case, if you are seeing the Acronis Disk Storage Filter service entered as a filter under that device class key and the filter service itself is loading the vsflt58.sys driver file as a "required for boot" (start=0x00000000) system startup item, you can not (MUST not) get rid of that service or its driver file so long as the device class filter entry remains in place.

Not a problem. I figured it was all related as what are the odds something else ends with "58"? Thanks for looking into the issue and giving me a little insight into what's what. I haven't had this much grief from a program in a long time.

Hello all,

Thank you very much for your comments and valuable feedback.

bsidedown, let me help you with your case. I am terribly sorry for the delay, I checked the case and it has been escalated to our Expert team.

I will get in touch with our Management team and if you need additional help with your case feel free to contact me directly.

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

@Anton: The root of the underlying problem, of course, is the handling (insertion and removal) of multiple REG_MULTI_SZ registry entries by the Windows MSI installer packages. It's a tricky problem, certainly not unique to Acronis packages, but the dependencies in this case are such that everything else follows almost inevitably from that root issue. I do appreciate that any such handling must necessarily follow a "safety first" approach, but the currently chosen "solution" of leaving behind device class filter entries (along with all associated services and drivers) is far from satisfactory for the reasons mentioned. In fact, the many "blue screen" complaints posted here suggest that it isn't really very safe either.

The current version-specific "cleanup" packages are auxilliary stopgap answers at best, and even they appear to be missing some registry elements in some cases. Surely your development team can come up with something better, although I suppose they're now caught in a previous history trap of their own making and not helped by the recent changes in those device class filter arrangements and dependencies.

Good luck with the management team! ;~)

Anton:
I appreciate hearing that someone somewhere has my logs as requested and is looking into the matter. I understand that people are probably swamped with requests for help and probably working hard to come up with solutions but it may help alleviate some of the aggravation people are having if someone could take a little time for quick emails along the lines of "sorry, it's complicated but we are working hard on it and will get back to you soon". I appreciate the offer to help though at this point I've actually had my questions answered, (key and service left over, computer seems to work fine...best to leave alone for now and definitely don't touch anything). As Richard has asserted and I've found from experience, the install/uninstall of the program is in some way flawed and unfortunately it would seem the cleanup "tool" is as well. I can only imagine the job is now (for my circumstance) all the more complicated as you (the company) must devise a way to remove the leftovers without harming my system (if it isn't already harmed in some way I haven't fathomed yet) after having already run the tool and made who knows what alterations. I don't think people should start threads in any forum just to "bash" a product but should come for help however, by now I would think it's clear I'm disappointed in the product, how it install/uninstalls, and not thrilled at how the program specific uninstall tool performs. After reading others difficulties, I'm considering myself a little lucky that I'm not seeing "blue". Anyway, as I said, I think an occasional "we haven't forgotten you and are working hard on it" email would go a long way to easing some tension for myself and those with issues.

As an update (but unfortunately not closure), I have finally been contacted by someone in support but he's been of no help so far. The only tip he had was a reference to someone's blog to delete the registry key that's left the errant reference to the program in add/remove. Scarily, this key does not exist. This online blog is three years old though and applies to win-xp so I'm hoping (though not likely I think) the key does exist somewhere (else). I must admit that my situation is partially my fault as I'm usually very paranoid and do not install programs willy-nilly. I normally research them to death and in this case, I sorely regret not having looked at these forums first. However, this company and program has a very good reputation and I though in this case I'd be safe just to go ahead and install and enjoy. Meh.
I don't know if this expert will ever help me and I'm just so getting ticked here. First I'm out $50 cause I made the mistake of buying a retail disc rather than online. Yeah, only $50 but the disc is really a coaster and apparently at my age I can still learn a hard lesson to trust no one or anything. And of course here I am FOUR WEEKS later and still no real course of action as to how to clean out my infected computer of this "program". It's just so sad when a program can't uninstall itself cleanly and far worse when it needs a "tool" and absolutely unforgivable when that "tool" doesn't work.
So now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm curious as to whether anyone has any experience with win7's system restore. I know this sounds like a strange question but I've never had much faith in the system restore feature in win-xp. I noticed some references to people on this forum using it and it seems that it's (if I'm reading this right) that fragments of tih can be "carried back". I didn't think that would be possible. Wouldn't the program and all keys and such be automatically "erased" as the program wasn't there on "that date" (in my case Nov.5)? Worse, I'm pretty sure I saw one person mentioning it broke his windows backup system. I hate to think about it but at this point, I'm sort of considering trying system restore to the fifth or even reinstalling win and all my programs (exactly what this program is supposed to prevent me having to do). So if anyone has any advice as to the safety/usability/usefulness of system restore (especially since I'm going back four weeks), I'd absolutely and very much appreciate it.

If you used Win7's own Backup & Restore feature to create a full system backup, you can use it to restore your system to the condition it was in at the time that backup was created. In other words, if the system backup was made prior to installing ATIH, a full system restore will revert to that condition, including the Win7 registry as well as everything else on the system drive itself. For that reason, you'd need some supplementary backup/restore handling for subsquent user and data file additions and updates that are also located on that drive.

In essence, it's really no different from using ATIH to do a full backup and restore of your system drive, except that you use the Win7 recovery environment instead of ATIH to restore the image. Be sure to make yourself a Win7 "rescue disc" if you haven't already. It's good to have in any case.

Thanks Richard. I'm a little new to this "restore" part of computing. I've spent years just backing up important files and been careful to install no junkware, and reinstalling o/s when needed (as little as possible of course). So if you don't mind, could I get a little clarification on Backup&Restore vs. System Restore. They aren't one and the same? The first would be a system snapshot that can go onto and external drive for recovery (similar if not the same as atih) and the second is the same but stored (temporarily) on the C drive itself? Unfortunately I've not used win7's backup so I'll add that to my list of regrets. Would not "system restore" give me the same results, at which point I can use the win7 backup system for now until I can find something to take its place (which I was hoping atih would do)? BTW, I noticed in another post you're up in the Georgian area. Is it looking like Christmas? Down here in the Falls, we've just hit 15C....unbelievable. And thanks for all the input so far.

All those multiple features do get a bit confusing, don't they? If you go to the Win7 Control Panel > Backup & Restore item, you should see options there (on the left) for "Create a system image" and "Create a system repair disc" and (in the main panel) for "Back up or restore your files." You can also find help for each of those features within the Win7 set of online help info.

Basically, the first two items are similar to ATIH's full drive backup feature and its "rescue disc" recovery feature respectively. The other main panel item is more like ATIH's features for backing up and restoring individual folders and files. It's probably easiest to discover the details yourself if you poke around a bit inside each of them. Just don't overwrite a previous Win7 system image that you may need later.

We've had a little snow here last week, but it didn't stay on the ground. I have no doubt, however, that we'll have plenty of it in time for Christmas. This whole "snow belt" area is notorious.

Oops! Duplicate deleted.

[quote=Richard Virtue

Note also that those cleanup tools are version specific for TIH 2011 and TIH 2012. So you may need to run both if both versions (or parts of both) got left behind somehow after the regular uninstall operations. On the other hand, if it's not causing any actual problems, you're probably wise just to ignore the duplicate entry under "Add/Remove Progams." By itself, it does no real harm.

[/quote]

Hi Richard,

I keep seeing repeated that you need separate cleanup tools for different versions.

Attached are images of the DOS command windows for 2012 and 2011.

Version 2012 has 2 additional entries:

1. Acronis True Image 2012 Home
2. Acronis Snap Deploy 4.

Acronis can’t even give the 2012 version a different name, BUT why does anyone need a different removal tool. The latest version witten and posted by Acronis says it will remove 10 different programs.

Rick

Noted. Thanks. As you say, it would appear that the more recent tool can handle the earlier TIH versions. In the circumstances, it would seem logical to make it THE current cleanup tool. On the other hand, you still need to tell it specifically which version (or possibly versions in this case?) are to be handled by the cleanup process.

Richard Virtue wrote:

On the other hand, you still need to tell it specifically which version (or possibly versions in this case?) are to be handled by the cleanup process.

That's part of the problem. There is no menu to select the application to remove. I removed TIH 2011 a few months back. That computer had DD 11 on it and when it finished the computer wouldn't boot.

After installing a backup, I used Revo Uninstaller, and Revo couldn't properly differentiate among some of the files for TIH 2011, DD11 and Drive monitor. The cleanup tool seems to only remove enough files and registry entries to stop the program from loading and as you pointed out earlier, leaves too many files and entries behind. If a DD file is part of the process, NO BOOT.

In the end I used Revo Uninstaller to remove All Acronis entries, reinstalled Windows XP over the existing installation, and had to reinstall all the updates. Now DD11 sits on the shelf, and only TIH 2011 and DM are installed.

Rick

You're not alone, if that's any consolation. The only way I found to manage the whole situation "selectively" was through my own manual intervention, and that's definitely not for the faint of heart.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, Acronis has built themselves a very difficult trap over time. It's a real hodge-podge where some components have filenames that correspond to version numbers and some don't, where some are utilized by several products and others are product-specific, etc., etc. And their recent major changes to drive and volume device class filtering hasn't helped the confusion, of course. They thus appear to have put themselves into an "all or nothing" situation where their "normal" uninstall processes must leave stuff behind for safety's sake, but their "cleanup" operations must wipe it all clean completely and indescriminately. Or try to at least. Even that doesn't always succeed.

Even so, it should not be insoluble with a little ingenuity. They should surely be able to automate any process that a dumb end user like me can figure out manually. Versioning discovery and matching for drivers and DLLs certainly isn't completely unexplored territory in the software industry. It's those deep, dark registry handling mysteries that seem to have them stymied, probably not too far removed from their peculiar notions about data management in general.

Richard Virtue wrote:

All those multiple features do get a bit confusing, don't they? If you go to the Win7 Control Panel > Backup & Restore item, you should see options there (on the left) for "Create a system image" and "Create a system repair disc" and (in the main panel) for "Back up or restore your files." You can also find help for each of those features within the Win7 set of online help info.

-Yeah, I haven't poked around in win7 much in this regard yet.  I'm just used to the "old" system restore.  So basically, would "create a system image" be the same as "system restore" but something you can put on an external disc and save for an indeterminate time?  So what I'm getting at is I'd probably go this way unless I find it's not good enough for my needs but in the meantime, since I never did use this feature, my windows generated system restore point that was made the morning before I installed atih would take me back to before all this headache started?  In the last four weeks all I've done to this computer is windows and KAV definition updates.  I'd "lose" those (and atih leftovers), but it really doesn't hurt the computer system?     

We've had a little snow here last week, but it didn't stay on the ground. I have no doubt, however, that we'll have plenty of it in time for Christmas. This whole "snow belt" area is notorious.

-Oh, I know.  Many's the time I experienced the drive from Severn to Britt with white-outs.  Nice to look at once you're indoors though.

The "Create a system image" feature takes a complete snapshot of your entire system drive and uses that snapshot to create an image on some other drive. It will recommend whichever drive it thinks is best for storing that system drive snapshot image, but you can overrule the recommendation if you wish. The image itself is stored in a hidden system folder named "WindowsImageBackup" on the chosen drive. In essence, it's no different than what happens when you use ATIH to do a full backup of your system drive.

A full "system restore" can then use that image to restore the system drive back to exactly and precisely the same condition it was in when the "system image" was made. The same would be true for any complete image of your system drive regardless of whether that image is made manually or by means of an automated or scheduled snapshot process. It's a case where the terminology may be more confusing than what is actually involved. Win7's own help resources may make it clearer than I can.

No Richard, you are clear and helpful. I just haven't looked into the win7 world too much other than it works so that I can run huge amounts of photos through photoshop. I've just been so used to the old system restore feature of xp that I didn't pay much attention to the new feature of making snapshots that I can store where I wish. Maybe I missed something somewhere but wouldn't that be near the top of the list of recommendations that support should give when uninstalls don't go as planned (to simply restore to before the install)? Anyway, I appreciate the effort and I'll start prepping my computer for a restore and hopefully it'll go well. If not, I'll be tempted to do a wipe. Again, thanks for all the help.

I didn't think I'd be coming back to this thread as it's pretty much worn down. However, I just discovered this morning that the problems this program has created on my computer are far greater than I'd first thought. So just for the information of anyone cruising these threads for help, I'd offer a little advice. Check to see if Acronis had damaged win7's own backup and restore feature if you install/uninstall this horrible piece of garbage. I'm sorry but I'm now far beyond ticked with this program and what it's done to my computer. I thought I'd go into my control panel this morning and create a restore disc and use windows to make an image before I go any further into trying to get rid of this junk (atih). Blissfully ignorant, I've been thinking uninstalling it hasn't damaged anything vital. However, clicking on "backup and restore" does nothing. Thanks Acronis for breaking my computer. My only hope at this point is whether or not the Acronis tech will be able to fix this (I think I have more chance of winning the super7), or keep my fingers crossed that windows system restore point for the morning before installing this junk will take me back in time. And of course, there's always the dreaded reinstall of the o/s which at this point seems like a very likely possibility for me as I'm not sure if the restore point will be accessible by windows if access to backup in the control panel is broken. I'll hope beyond hope that it doesn't affect the restore point and I can "get there". I try very hard to be civilized on any forum and not go just to "bash" but at this point again I have to say this is the sorriest piece of junk-ware I've come across in years. And support is laughable too as I don't think they have the slightest clue as to how bad this thing is and how to fix it. Thanks for the headache Acronis.

Hi again. Don't despair. That little Acronis "gift" to your Win7 registry can be fixed too.

You could first try Acronis own fix at http://kb.acronis.com/content/26912 , but it may not work due to "trusted installer" restrictions that may be set on the registry key itself. In that case, see my posting at http://forum.acronis.com/forum/26804#comment-83306 and what follows for another way to cure the problem. Note that it will then require ownership and permission changes for that registry key. Instructions for doing that can be found at http://www.howtogeek.com/77878/take-ownership-of-or-assign-full-permiss…

Rescuing oneself from this marvellous rescue utility sure is a wonderful life experience, ain't it?

Well, it is the season for giving but I'd sure like to return this one to Santa.

I've attached screenshots of my registry and control panel as I think my issue is a little different. I think atih tried to give back control to windows but it only partially "got there". As you can see, in control panel windows "owns" backup but clicking on it does nothing and I'm not sure that Acronis' fix will do anything as "they" aren't there. And the registry keys look nothing like those in your link. Heaven knows what else has been fubar-ed up that I don't even know about yet.

P.S. Wow Richard. You are just a wealth of knowledge when it comes to this program. Rescuing people here must be close to a full time job.

Regardless of what the Acronis install/uninstall did or didn't do, if you correct those ResourceID and ResourceDLL entries in your registry to be in accordance with those "should be" entries in that linked posting of mine, it will fix your problem. You have nothing to lose by trying. It certainly won't work the way it is now.

As for helping people, my own outstanding debt to others accrued over many years is incalculable. If I can repay a small part of it, it's my pleasure.

Ok so my biggest issue is that I may as well be looking at the Martian alphabet when it comes to the registry. Sorry to be picky here but your advice would be to double click on ResourceID and enter '0018fc98' as the proper value and then ResourceDLL and enter '25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
73,00,64,00,63,00,70,00,6c,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00' ?
Hopefully I won't need to re-establish permission too but I'll worry about that after changes these values.

Thanks...signed..a total, absolute newbie chicken when it comes to the registry.

There are two (2) ways to do it. The first way is to download the zipped *.reg file provided by Acronis (or create one of your own) and "merge" that file's content into your registry. In that case the first set of specified "should be" values is used in the *.reg file. The second way is to edit the registry manually. In that case you use the second set of specified "should be" values for manual entry into each of the registry keys. The two "should be" sets (reproduced below for easy reference) are precisely equivalent; just formatted for different usage methods.

"should be" set #1 - For use in a *.reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B98A2BEA-7D42-4558-8BD1-832F41BAC6FD}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
"ResourceID"=dword:00000014
"ResourceDLL"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
73,00,64,00,63,00,70,00,6c,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00

"should be" set #2 - For manual regedit use:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B98A2BEA-7D42-4558-8BD1-832F41BAC6FD}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
ResourceID = 14 (entered as a hexadecimal value or 20 entered as a decimal value)
ResourceDLL = %SystemRoot%\System32\sdcpl.dll (entered as REG_EXPAND_SZ value)

In either case, you may get an error due to restricted registry key permissions. Such an error only means that the changes have not been made; not any terrible calamity. But if that happens, the only way to fix it is to change those permissions first and then make the registry key value changes.

Caution about registry changes is certainly advisable. In this case, however, it would be hard to make the problem worse than it has been made already.

Well I have at least some good news out of all this mess. I tried method 1 first (using the Acronis zip download) and it did work (rebooted after running it of course) without the need to alter permissions. Thank you so much Richard for sticking through this with me. At least I've made some headway in this adventure and your knowledge and willingness to help others is commendable.

I understand that to mean that your Win7 Contol Panel > Backup and Restore is now working as it should. G-r-r-r-eat! Now you just have to play with it and try out the "Create a system image" feature and you'll have backup protection again. It's actually simpler to use than ATIH. Just click the button and watch the little green progress bar. You can also use the main panel for selective folder/file backups and restores. Automated scheduling is also available, but no image validation options, unfortunately.

I know that registry editing can be intimidating, but sometimes there's no other solution. Congrats to you for sticking with it.

Richard Virtue wrote:

I understand that to mean that your Win7 Contol Panel > Backup and Restore is now working as it should. G-r-r-r-eat!

--Yes, that's what I meant to say...windows has control of it again and it works.

Now you just have to play with it and try out the "Create a system image" feature and you'll have backup protection again. It's actually simpler to use than ATIH. Just click the button and watch the little green progress bar. You can also use the main panel for selective folder/file backups and restores. Automated scheduling is also available, but no image validation options, unfortunately.

--I've just finished making system rescue discs and an image of my C drive.  Yes, unfortunately I must trust that the image is viable but at least I have some sort of control back and hopefully the ability now to recover from disasters great and small. 

I know that registry editing can be intimidating, but sometimes there's no other solution. Congrats to you for sticking with it.

--I don't know about everyone else but I think many people have their own "computer phobias" and mine unfortunately is the registry.  Thanks again for the support.

My saga seems to be nearly over. My tech agent has been on holidays for over a week now and I'm waiting for him to get back or someone to take over my case. Deplorable customer service. I understand they must be overwhelmed but really, putting me on hold cause the person handling my (and who knows how many other cases) happens to have gone on holidays?
Anyway, I've pretty much resigned myself to the possibility of reinstalling the o/s so I figured, what's the harm in fiddling around and following my own instincts to solve my issue. I realize many programs upon uninstall will leave some sort of key or fragment that's harmless (as long as it isn't a common file with some other program) so my most interesting issue I'll call it was the errant reference to atih in add/remove. So I reinstalled the program from disc, did not run it, rebooted, and uninstalled it using revouninstaller (moderate setting), rebooted. I managed to love the listing in add/remove but was left with lots of keys and all .sys except afcdp in sys32\drivers. I then ran the 2012 cleanup utility and was left with only vsflt58 (.sys and key). I get my computers custom made by a computer shop and the tech there removed most keys that referenced Acronis that really could have been left as they didn't really do anything any more. The only thing left is a few meaningless keys and vsflt58. That one I'm wary to touch, and him too as even he's not sure what other of the keys it's "tied" to and will cause a bsod. Windows backup and restore seems to be working though I still can't restore to any restore points before the original install of atih. I suspect but of course have no way of knowing, that atih actually did something that muddled up those points. In a few days I'll attempt to restore back to today to see if system restore actually works at all. So for now, at the urging of the tech that builds my computers, I'm going to try living with the computer as is before going through the hassle of reinstalling (it's not the installations as my computer blazes but the tedium of changing the settings in each program to get it all back and personalized). I just hope that the vsflt58 thing is not a big deal and that (though I don't use it I don't like seeing something "broken"), system restore (not to be confused with windows backup of which I did make an image of C) is working.

Not sure what else I can tell you about it that I haven't already.

The vsflt58.sys driver file is used by the Acronis Disk Storage Filter service which, in turn, is used as a lower filter for the DiskDrive device class (GUID: 4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318). Whether it actually matters depends largely on whether that LowerFilters entry remains under that device class. If so, the Acronis filter service will still be involved in handling your DiskDrive devices. If not, device handling has (hopefully) been restored to your operating system's HAL, in which case the mere existence of the Acronis Disk Storage Filter service and its driver file don't matter quite so much.

If you don't want to look into the registry itself, check for full recognition and funtionality of all your storage devices, especially any removables that use USB connectivity. If they're all working properly, you're probably okay.

Whatever you do, do NOT delete that vsflt58.sys driver file while the Acronis Disk Storage Filter (vidsflt58) service remains in your registry as a "required for boot" (start=0x00000000) key under the CurrentControlSet branch.

Not to worry, Richard. You've been helpful and I was mostly posting as an informational sort of thing as to what's going on rather than for help.
Anyway, yes I had already looked and the registry entry was still left there though I have connected and used two different external hard drives and a flash stick and all seem to be working fine in spite of this filter still being there.

Well, in that case, it's probably best just to leave it alone. The only exception, and it's a critical exception, would be if you ever decide that you want to install some other application that needs its own storage device class handling. That would apply to almost any other backup utility and/or disk management utility. Unless that other utility installer happens to be aware of and can handle the existing Acronis filter insertion by itself (not likely) you'd almost certainly encounter some strange and unpredictable results.

Once Acronis inserts its tentacles, even for trial installations, it doesn't cede the conquered territory easily -- neither to alternative applications, nor to the operating system itself. I hesitate to suggest a deliberate plot, but the consequences are similar whether intentional or merely inadvertent.

I don't think anyone out there is looking for closure to my story but just for the record, here it is. After much work on my part and that of a major contributor to this and many other threads, I've removed most tentacles of this program. To be fair, it's probably a program that needs them however, upon uninstalling, they should be removed in my opinion as there's the possibility of interference with the O/S and likely future programs. I even found one key where atih blended itself with windows game live. Why? What's it got to do with it, who knows. So, being who I am I've finally decided that since I now have time to deal with it (and would loathe to have to run into some glitch at a time when this computer is needed as it's my primary and much newer and faster than my "everyday" one), I've wiped C, and have reinstalled win7-64 and am in the process of reinstalling all my needed and trusted programs. Naturally now I know for sure all remnants are gone, never to leave me wondering if and when they may cause some sort of glitch for me. I don't know about other people's situations, but I don't know why Acronis' own cleanup tool simply cannot remove this last .sys file along with the keys. Unless, it would cause more issues than leaving it there. Anyway, not my problem anymore and hopefully everyone else out there (though I've seen a few had to resort to a wipe and reinstall of the O/S), can get their issues solved without having to resort to the 'last resort' so you can put me in the "had to/decided to wipe just to be sure it's all gone" category. In spite of the direction I've taken to solve my issues, this forum has been a great source of help and information. Again, thanks and hopefully most others can be helped by it and the contributors.