Chain2Gen - !_USER_SPECIFIED_PARAMS_FOR_ACRONIS.bat Open 47 Internet Explorer Windows and Hangs
I have just installed Acronis True Image 2010 version 7046 and the corresponding Plus Pack.
Operating system is XP PRO sp3.
Default browser is FireFox 3.6.10.
Internet Explorer version is 6.0
I have configured !_USER_SPECIFIED_PARAMS_FOR_ACRONIS.bat with the following options:
set TARGET_UNC_N_DEVICE=H:
set TARGET_GENERATIONS_FOLDER=\FullBackups\
set MAX_BACKUP_GENERATIONS=3
set TRGR_ON_MAX_TIB_CNT=5
When I double click this file, 47 Internet Explorer windows open.
I wait several minutes and the batch file does not proceed.
I close the Internet Explorer windows and the batch file still appears to be hung.
The DOS window displays the following and the cursor is at the left edge of the next line:
Typical runtime of this script is 20 seconds or less.
All assistance is appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
The most frequent problem is the files needs to be unlocked as discussed in Appendix C of the pdf file.
Extract is below:Important: Please take the time to make sure your files are unblocked before you begin your setup of Chain2G and TrueImage.
After download, right click on the zip file and choose properties. Check the properties to see if the zip file needs to be “unblocked”.
If no such option exist, then after unzipping the file,again Right Click on the “Acronis PreProcessing_Task.bat” file, choose the properties option and see if the file needs to be “unblocked”.
If yes, you will need to perform the same unblock procedures on ALL the “.bat” files within the unzip folder. Note: several people have recently reported issues of Acronis freezing, etc when initiated by Chain2Gen. The cause was the files were locked and the solution was the unlocking.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/5940?page=1#comment-19314
--------------------------------------------------------------------Enclose the folder name in quotes.
set TARGET_GENERATIONS_FOLDER="\FullBackups\"Inside the TrueImage task, Your backups should be pointing to
H:\FullBackups\Set0\yourfilename.tibIf you need more help, do not hesitate to ask. I know you will like how well C2G does its job.
I have attached a snapshot of the properties of the file.
I cannot see any information regarding 'locked'.
Also, after I place quotes around the directory name the following error occurs:
'An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist'.
Thank you again.
This is a picture showing the file being blocked.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2009/11/5940/unblock…
Your attachment file is not blocked. Did you check the other files as well?
If you still have your downloaded zip file, check the properties on that as well. It may give you a clue as to whether others are blocked.
The error message may relate to an external drive (H:) not being attached.
Look at the pdf file inside my signature index below. It is item 3-A. This may provide more clues.
If you wish, attach your parameters file here as an attachment. You may have to either rename as text or zip the file in order to upload.
Addendum:
The only file which needs user information is the parameters file.
When you click on this file during setup, the dos command window opens and you get the 20 seconds, etc. But during that time,
often times a security window open which requires you to click ok to allow the program continue. This only occurs during your initial setup of the parameters file. This is covered in th main user pdf file included within the main download zip file. If you have multiple windows open, the security window may be hiding.
This is a picture showing the file being blocked.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2009/11/5940/unblock…Your attachment file is not blocked. Did you check the other files as well?
If you still have your downloaded zip file, check the properties on that as well. It may give you a clue as to whether others are blocked.The error message may relate to an external drive (H:) not being attached.
Look at the pdf file inside my signature index below. It is item 3-A. This may provide more clues.
If you wish, attach your parameters file here as an attachment. You may have to either rename as text or zip the file in order to upload.
Addendum:
The only file which needs user information is the parameters file.
When you click on this file during setup, the dos command window opens and you get the 20 seconds, etc. But during that time,
often times a security window open which requires you to click ok to allow the program continue. This only occurs during your initial setup of the parameters file. This is covered in th main user pdf file included within the main download zip file. If you have multiple windows open, the security window may be hiding.
I checked the zip and all files.
None are blocked.
The 'H' drive is actually a partition of my first hard drive.
I have also tried using my 'C:' drive without success.
I have attached the parameter file.
Does the fact that FireFox is my default browser have any impact *or* any settings within Internet Exporer?
This link shows what the unblocking looks like.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2009/11/5940/unblock…
Firefox should not be an issue. I have XP Pro, sp3 with Firefox, SeaMonkey, Opera & IE8 and all browsers co-exist without difficulty and have no bearing on C2G.
Except for the missing quote marks on the folders, I see nothing else of issue in parms file.
Anti-virus or Mal-ware preventers could be an issue, however.
Do this. Close everything so your desktop is empty. Then open the folder containing the parameters file. Make the window very small so you can see everything.
Then look at the parameters link (next)
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2010/09/14866/parame…
and then dbl click on parameters file and you should see something very close to the illustration. Check your desktop very carefully for any extremely small windows which might be awaiting your responses.
After doing that, then dbl click on the Pre-processing.bat file . It will open for 20 seconds and close but the message will be to quick to read. Then browse to the H:\FullBackups\folder and you should find that se0, set1 and set2 have been created.
You can also look in the C2G control folder and look at the error file which may or may not have any contents.
I will await your reply but will ask the author OracleDBA to look in on this thread.
This link shows what the unblocking looks like.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2009/11/5940/unblock…Firefox should not be an issue. I have XP Pro, sp3 with Firefox, SeaMonkey, Opera & IE8 and all browsers co-exist without difficulty and have no bearing on C2G.
Except for the missing quote marks on the folders, I see nothing else of issue in parms file.
Anti-virus or Mal-ware preventers could be an issue, however.
Do this. Close everything so your desktop is empty. Then open the folder containing the parameters file. Make the window very small so you can see everything.
Then look at the parameters link (next)
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2010/09/14866/parame…and then dbl click on parameters file and you should see something very close to the illustration. Check your desktop very carefully for any extremely small windows which might be awaiting your responses.
After doing that, then dbl click on the Pre-processing.bat file . It will open for 20 seconds and close but the message will be to quick to read. Then browse to the H:\FullBackups\folder and you should find that se0, set1 and set2 have been created.
You can also look in the C2G control folder and look at the error file which may or may not have any contents.
I will await your reply but will ask the author OracleDBA to look in on this thread.
Here is what I did step by step:
1. Changed the !_USER_SPECIFIED_PARAMS_FOR_ACRONIS.bat as follows:
set TARGET_UNC_N_DEVICE=C:
set TARGET_GENERATIONS_FOLDER="\FullBackups\"
set MAX_BACKUP_GENERATIONS=3
2. Power down/up computer
3. Comodo Firewall - disabled firewall and Defence +
4. Avira Anti-Virus - disabled AntiVir Guard
5. No applications have been started.
6. Opened Windows Explore, navigated to 'C:\Chain2Gen\FullBackups\', Resized window to much smaller.
7. Double clicked on !_USER_SPECIFIED_PARAMS_FOR_ACRONIS.bat
8. Black DOS window appears with the 20 second message.
9. About 20-30 seconds later a window appears 'Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have permission to access the item.' The only option is to click OK.
10. After clicking OK, many Internet Explorer windows appear and consolidate into one icon on the taskbar which indicates that are about 47 Internet Explorer windows open.
11. I right click on the icon and choose 'close group'.
12. The DOS window is still open and I 'x' out of it.
13. No directories have been created or other messages appear.
I don't understand why Internet Explorer windows open *especially* since FireFox is my default browser.
Grover was probably giving you correct advice specifically
Plese know that in your folder C:\Chain2Gen\FullBackups
You will literally find 14 ".bat" files and 7 ".vbs" files.
All 21 files need to be manually checked to ensure that one is not inadvertantly set to "blocked".
Beyond the above,
Your default browser has no bearing on chain2gen.
What is occuring is chain2gen wants to put a string into your windows clipboard.
There is not an easy dos/vbs method to do this.
However one can easily put a string into the windows clipboard using a built-in available from internet explorer.
So independant of your default browser selection, within chain2gen there is a hardcode call
to internet explorer for the express purpose of using a built-in available within that application
to put a string into your clipboard. The reason chain2gen puts a string into your clipboard
is so you can later use that string without worry of making a typo.
I noticed your step by step did not say anything about you being prompted to allow access to internet explorer.
After ensuring that all 21 files are unblocked, try this simplied test and let us know the result:
Close all un-needed windows and applications. the reason why your closing all un-needed windows
is I want to ensure that any dialog boxes appear directly on your desktop without any possibility
of them poping under an existing window or within a task bar group.
Now that your looking your deskop without any running apps on your task bar.
click start
click run
and issue this command:
C:\Chain2Gen\FullBackups\copy_p1_into_clipboard.vbs "hello world"
what I would EXPECT to see is a popup requesting you to allow access to internet explorer.
As soon as you do you then should get a popup dialog box letting you know the string "hello world" is in your clipboard.
(if you were to fire up notepad and issue a Paste you should find hello world pasted out into your notepad session).
It sounds to me that one or more of the 21 bat files are blocked and/or if you issue the start/run test mentioned above it does NOT work.
Please check all 21 files and then perform the hello world test.
Report back your results and we can then try to determine what else to diagnose.
Couple thoughts. Use H as your target device for testing as it is what you really want to be using. TI does not like to use C as a storage.
set TARGET_UNC_N_DEVICE=H:
Open your Windows Task Manage (Ctrl-alt-del) and look at both your applications and processses to make sure you do not have multiple number of the same program running as a result of your test.
Are you logged in as an Administator or as a limited user?
Have you checked your Events listing for application or system errors?
Curious. Download the C2G zip file again but save it in a new folder. Don't unzip it. Check its properties while still zipped.
This attachment shows you what to look for. If you find it blocked and then unblock it, then you can extract and copy these into C2G control folder.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2009/11/5940/unblock…
Grover was probably giving you correct advice specifically
Plese know that in your folder C:\Chain2Gen\FullBackups
You will literally find 14 ".bat" files and 7 ".vbs" files.
All 21 files need to be manually checked to ensure that one is not inadvertantly set to "blocked".Beyond the above,
Your default browser has no bearing on chain2gen.
What is occuring is chain2gen wants to put a string into your windows clipboard.
There is not an easy dos/vbs method to do this.
However one can easily put a string into the windows clipboard using a built-in available from internet explorer.
So independant of your default browser selection, within chain2gen there is a hardcode call
to internet explorer for the express purpose of using a built-in available within that application
to put a string into your clipboard. The reason chain2gen puts a string into your clipboard
is so you can later use that string without worry of making a typo.I noticed your step by step did not say anything about you being prompted to allow access to internet explorer.
After ensuring that all 21 files are unblocked, try this simplied test and let us know the result:
Close all un-needed windows and applications. the reason why your closing all un-needed windows
is I want to ensure that any dialog boxes appear directly on your desktop without any possibility
of them poping under an existing window or within a task bar group.Now that your looking your deskop without any running apps on your task bar.
click start
click run
and issue this command:
C:\Chain2Gen\FullBackups\copy_p1_into_clipboard.vbs "hello world"what I would EXPECT to see is a popup requesting you to allow access to internet explorer.
As soon as you do you then should get a popup dialog box letting you know the string "hello world" is in your clipboard.
(if you were to fire up notepad and issue a Paste you should find hello world pasted out into your notepad session).It sounds to me that one or more of the 21 bat files are blocked and/or if you issue the start/run test mentioned above it does NOT work.
Please check all 21 files and then perform the hello world test.
Report back your results and we can then try to determine what else to diagnose.
I checked the 21 files previously and did so again and none were blocked.
The message I get when performing your test is:
'Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have permission to access the item.'
*and*
47 Internet Explorer windows open into one icon.
Is it possible that some setting in Internet Explorer is causing this error?
Couple thoughts. Use H as your target device for testing as it is what you really want to be using. TI does not like to use C as a storage.
set TARGET_UNC_N_DEVICE=H:Open your Windows Task Manage (Ctrl-alt-del) and look at both your applications and processses to make sure you do not have multiple number of the same program running as a result of your test.
Are you logged in as an Administator or as a limited user?
Have you checked your Events listing for application or system errors?
Curious. Download the C2G zip file again but save it in a new folder. Don't unzip it. Check its properties while still zipped.
This attachment shows you what to look for. If you find it blocked and then unblock it, then you can extract and copy these into C2G control folder.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2009/11/5940/unblock…
I cannot see any duplicate processes.
I am logged in as a member of the Administrative group (but not the Administrator).
There are around another 6 after error_03 that I did not attach.
Please see attached errors from the Event Viewer and then advise if you want to d/l the C2G again.
Thank you.
Couple thoughts. Use H as your target device for testing as it is what you really want to be using. TI does not like to use C as a storage.
set TARGET_UNC_N_DEVICE=H:Open your Windows Task Manage (Ctrl-alt-del) and look at both your applications and processses to make sure you do not have multiple number of the same program running as a result of your test.
Are you logged in as an Administator or as a limited user?
Have you checked your Events listing for application or system errors?
Curious. Download the C2G zip file again but save it in a new folder. Don't unzip it. Check its properties while still zipped.
This attachment shows you what to look for. If you find it blocked and then unblock it, then you can extract and copy these into C2G control folder.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2009/11/5940/unblock…
I d/l the newest C2G and neither the zip or its extracted files were locked.
I modified the 5 lines in the parameter file as per below and double clicked the .bat
The resulting error was 'An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist'.
set TARGET_UNC_N_DEVICE=h:
set TARGET_GENERATIONS_FOLDER="\FullBackups\"
set MAX_BACKUP_GENERATIONS=3
set TRGR_ON_MAX_TIB_CNT=5
Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
I just thought of something which might shed some light (or confuse things more).
About a month ago I installed 'Utilu IE Collection'.
According to their Web site 'Utilu IE Collection contains multiple standalone versions of the browser Internet Explorer, which can be used at the same time.'
This 'collection' contains 7 different versions of Internet Explorer.
Can this be part of the problem?
A google search gets a lot of hits on
An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist
Maybe these can shed some light on it issue.
Yes, it is entirely possible that this issue is being caused by 'Utilu IE Collection".
Let's wait until Oracledba has a chance to look at your response.
Since your test could not put the test message into the clipboard and display,
maybe there are other alternatives to using Internet Explorer.
this issuse may be related to UTilu IE Collection but before I conclude this lets try this test.
Please check is the security on whatever version of IE is the default of you Utilu IE collection.
"start" "run" "iexplore" "tools" "internet options" "security"
on this panel please check if the "default level" buttion is available (not greyed out).
It its available then you have a custom security enabled which may be causing our problem.
Try resetting it the security back to default and redo our "hello world" test.
If the above did not solve the issue then it seems this issue is caused by UTilu IE Colleciton.
Chain2gen only puts a string in your clipboard when you are TESTING your data entry of its params.
When chain2gen is actually running/doing its job then this call to IE to put stuff into your clipboard does NOT occur.
The real solution here is for someone to google ( or simply know) a method where within a stand alone .vbs script one can put a string into the clipboard - and do this without using Internet explorer. If we had that I could replace that offending line of code within chain2gen and your problem would go away.
An interm workaround is for you to be not test your data entry but rather simply run it and see the effect of it.
The best way for you to to do this is to NOT directly double click !_USER_SPECIFIED_PARAMS_FOR_Acronis.bat
but rather you can open up a dos prompt and run this script instead.
"start" "run" "cmd"
type in C:\Chain2Gen\FullBackups\Acronis_PreProcessing_task.bat
The above script is what you will eventually specify in your acronis job as the pretask.
by running the script as a dos window you can see any messages that come to the screen.
What you will need to do is examine those messages and see if they seem like normal stuff or if the are clearly error messages (words like "can not", or "error" in the text.
Once you have a clean run from this script your good to go.
Again the real solution is for a universal means to be found for a standalone .vbs script to put text into a windows clipboard without using IE.
by universal I mean something that will run on any PC in the world without first requiring that a user install some 3rd party app or framework.
The IE method was a quick an dirty method that fit the need because every PC in the world already has IE installed on it.
by staying with universal methods that leaves chain2gen as utility that can be deployed/installed from a self contained zipfile.
this issuse may be related to UTilu IE Collection but before I conclude this lets try this test.
Please check is the security on whatever version of IE is the default of you Utilu IE collection.
"start" "run" "iexplore" "tools" "internet options" "security"
on this panel please check if the "default level" buttion is available (not greyed out).
It its available then you have a custom security enabled which may be causing our problem.
Try resetting it the security back to default and redo our "hello world" test.If the above did not solve the issue then it seems this issue is caused by UTilu IE Colleciton.
Chain2gen only puts a string in your clipboard when you are TESTING your data entry of its params.
When chain2gen is actually running/doing its job then this call to IE to put stuff into your clipboard does NOT occur.The real solution here is for someone to google ( or simply know) a method where within a stand alone .vbs script one can put a string into the clipboard - and do this without using Internet explorer. If we had that I could replace that offending line of code within chain2gen and your problem would go away.
An interm workaround is for you to be not test your data entry but rather simply run it and see the effect of it.
The best way for you to to do this is to NOT directly double click !_USER_SPECIFIED_PARAMS_FOR_Acronis.bat
but rather you can open up a dos prompt and run this script instead."start" "run" "cmd"
type in C:\Chain2Gen\FullBackups\Acronis_PreProcessing_task.batThe above script is what you will eventually specify in your acronis job as the pretask.
by running the script as a dos window you can see any messages that come to the screen.
What you will need to do is examine those messages and see if they seem like normal stuff or if the are clearly error messages (words like "can not", or "error" in the text.Once you have a clean run from this script your good to go.
Again the real solution is for a universal means to be found for a standalone .vbs script to put text into a windows clipboard without using IE.
by universal I mean something that will run on any PC in the world without first requiring that a user install some 3rd party app or framework.
The IE method was a quick an dirty method that fit the need because every PC in the world already has IE installed on it.
by staying with universal methods that leaves chain2gen as utility that can be deployed/installed from a self contained zipfile.
I think that we have isolated the problem :).
Yes, the 'default level' button is greyed out when I followed your steps.
And yes, 'C:\Chain2Gen\FullBackups\Acronis_PreProcessing_task.bat' from the DOS prompt created the required directories!
Does the last post on this URL help you?
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/133067-vbs-and-the-clipboard/