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Unability to create a fresh backup task for a partition I previously had a task set up

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ATI 2017 is pretty annoying at the moment and I'm close to get rid of it at all. I can't stand if any kind of software tries to impose its will on me and ATI 2017 strongly does.

 

What happened?

Some time ago, I decided to delete and re-setup the backup plan for my system partition as I had some storage problems. The partition was and still shall be backed up to a network storage within my local network. So the task and all backup files have been deleted. When I tried to re-setup the backup plan, the struggle started because somewhere ATI stored the information which number in the backup chain was last and looked for it.

Somewhere in this forum I found information on the schedmgr tool to kill all planned tasks, which I did (task zap).

Then I was able to create a single standalone full backup which weirdly got the numbering <taskname>_full_b8_s1_v1.tib even though it was complete new backup task.

Today I tried to setup a proper backup plan (weekly backup, differential backup with a full one after 5 diffs, keeping only 1 complete backup chain to save storage) again. First I modified the task with which I created the full backup. When I run it I got the error that the file <taskname>_diff_b8_s2_v1.tib cannot be accessed. But it's the file it is supposed to create. I tried validating the full backup and validation was successfully done. I also tried to remove the task (without the file) and added it again as existing backup. Everytime ATI is able to access the existing full backup but when I run the backup plan, the same error occurs.

 

So, while starting to get annoyed, I thought: F*ck it. Let's start all over again. And thats where it got really bad.

That's what I tried so far:

  • I removed the existing backup plan including the tib-file. Then I set up a new plan from scratch for the same partition on the same network storage. When I start it, it fails because it cannot access <taskname>_full_b1_s1_v11.tib.
  • I found a KB article for ATI2015 where you delete the backup plan, run schedmgr's task zap, then disable all Acronis services, kill all running Acronis applications in the task manager, then delete all databases and stuff in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\Home and TrueImageHome, then reenable the services and reboot.
    Tried it, re-setup the backup plan from scratch, even used a different name for the plan and changed the backup destination on the network storage to avoid any cached information to be used. When I run it, it fails looking for <taskname>_full_b1_s1_v11.tib.
  • As a last resort, I uninstalled ATI2017 completely. Then manually removed the Acronis folders in C:\ProgramData that aren't deleted while uninstalling it (btw: Guys, seriously, WTF?). Went then with a search though the whole system partition and registry to get rid of any trace of ATI before re-installation.
    After re-installing ATI 2017, I even avoided to sign into my Acronis account to be sure no information was cached there.
    I set up the backup plan from scratch and guess what happens? Exactly, it fails to access <taskname>_full_b1_s1_v11.tib

So, right now I'm WTF? Where does this damn "v11" come from? Why am I not able to setup a new backup plan for a drive. which is kind of the main purpose of ATI. Why is there no option to quit the access error with something like "screw it and start over again"? Why is there no option to reset the internal databases or numbering sequences?

 

I'm pretty sure that during the initial removing the original backup plan and deleting the files I did something that was kind of off-procedure or not as the developers of ATI intended it to be done. But a good software is always able to cope with it or at least offer the user a possibility to start over/start from scratch. Such stubborn behaviour I only know from Apple products where you're also screwed if you don't do things the way the developers want you to do it.

 

So, I'm really curious how this can be solved.

0 Users found this helpful

Martin, welcome to these User Forums.

Sorry to hear about the problems you are describing and have to say that these are not normal / not what other users are experiencing.

Given all the actions that you have already taken, I would suggest going for a completely clean start that will ensure that there is no residual data or settings left over from your previous backup tasks to cause issues with setting up a new task.

Please note that the Schedule Manager tool only deals with the Scheduler component of  Acronis True Image - it does not do anything else than this.

The steps to perform a clean install are as follows:

  1. Uninstall all your current Acronis software via the Windows Control Panel (or use an uninstaller program if that is your preference).
  2. Download the Acronis Cleanup Tool (link in my signature below) - run this as Administrator and follow the prompts given to remove any residue from Acronis.
    Note: Ignore any mention of Extended Capacity disks - this was a feature of very old versions of ATI before support for larger disk drives was introduced natively in Windows.
  3. Restart the computer to complete the cleanup action.
  4. Download and install the latest full version installer for ATI 2017 from your Acronis Account.  The install should be from an Administrator level account to ensure correct privileges / authorities are given.
  5. When creating a new backup task, please ensure that you are using a unique task name and a unique destination backup location.  If you have ATI backup image .tib files still stored on your backup drive (local or network) then do not create a task to write to the same location as those files.

Note: see ATI 2018 Forum topic: The mysterious _v11.tib file access error. where issues where this file error has been collated are documented.  This looks to be a strange way that Acronis tries to tell users that a file wasn't found rather than a file with _v11 in the name actually being missing?

Steve,

thank you for the warm welcome and your quick response with the instructions and the further reading on the v11 issue. Unfortunately, it took me until today to have time to spend on that matter.

Especially with the experiences made today, I do believe that what I'm experiencing is not usual. Maybe I'm prone to get software doing weird things as I'm a software tester. But on the other hand the pure existence of that clean up tool proves some of my criticism valid. But let's focus on my recent experiences:

So, today I uninstalled ATI and run the clean up tool as you suggested. Before creating the new backup task after re-installation, I deleted the folder on my network storage where the previous backup was stored and created a new one with a unique new name (even did it using ATI). I also chose a unique new name for the backup task as suggested. But guess what happened after running the task manually: Right, the same error message wrt accessing the v11 file and making sure the network credentials were correct was displayed.

As I'm now was convinced that any kind of backup task deletion and re-setup and re-installation of ATI wouldn't do anything to help, I tried to narrow down the issue by using different settings after I also did some reading on those other v11 threads although I didn't get to read all of it.

Here is what I did / tried:

  • I varied the location on the NAS multiple times
    Result: Still the v11 issue.
  • Actually changed the password of my NAS user account the backup is using, re-setup the credentials in ATI and before trying to backup anything, also made sure that the new credentials were entered in the Windows credential manager for the folders I connected as network drives in explorer.
    Result: Still the v11 issue.
  • I changed the backup desitnation for the same backup task to an external HDD attached to my computer.
    Result: The backup worked fine.
  • I created a new backup task to only backup a certain folder of the partition onto my network storage. 
    Result: The backup worked fine.
  • I created a new backup task of a second partition on my computer that I never had a backup task created for in the past. Destination was the network storage.
    Result: Again the v11 issue.
  • I changed the destination setting for the original partition backup task from NAS connection to FTP connection to the very same folder on my NAS the backup wasn't working previously.
    Result: The backup worked fine. But with the disadvantage of having the full backup split into nearly 20 2GB sized parts. But, hey, at least it worked.
  • After having this full backup done successfully, I changed the destination setting back to NAS connection to that folder and run it again.
    Result: Again it told me that it cannot access the file whereby the file name was now the correct successor in my differential backup chain scheme.
  • I reverted the destination setting to FTP connection and scheduled the next backup for tonight at 10pm. to see whether a scheduled backup will work via FTP connection.

 

With these results, I now strongly believe that this is not an issue of any residual information on my system but some deeper issue with backing up partitions onto network drives/NAS systems and possibly the windows services or protocols involved.

Which protocol is used when setting up the destination as NAS connection? Have there been / are you aware of any changes to those protocols/services with the most recent Win10 Fall Creators update? Because that was the only major change I did to both my computers in the scope of the past few months before the issues started. But as written in my original post. I did not experience any issues (even after updating Windows) before I modified the backup tasks.

 

Regards

Martin

Martin, one of the known changes introduced with Windows 10 1709 (Fall Creators) is the removal of SMB 1.0 network protocol but as far as I understand, this would only apply to new OS installations, not to an existing OS system that had SMB 1.0 active from prior to 1709.

See forum topic: Seeing a Synology NAS through ATI 2018 NAS Connections and Network where another user has opened a discussion around network devices including protocols etc.

You may want to send a private message to Slava about your experience / tests giving the _v11 issues - see his update in the V11 topic.  I cross referenced this topic to him earlier.

Steve,

just a quick update. I did send a message to Slava as suggested and also read the SMB/protocol discussion. Fortunately, my NAS is also a Synology DS215j, so I checked settings, to be in line with the screenshots of your working setup. But even with the same config, the v11 issue remains.

As an addition to my recent testing, I checked whether it makes a difference if I select my NAS folder as "NAS connection" or "network resource", but it doesn't.

 

Regards

Martin