File Recovery

Richard,

Backup & Recovery is also another product of Acronis. You are now posting to the right forum, indeed.

In the ATI program, click on the "recover" button. This will open a window called the backup explorer. You will see a timeline of backups at the bottom of that window. Click on one, and recover the files from that version.

An additional info can be found in item 5 at this link.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618

If the backups do not appear, use the browse for backup option and use the add to list option.

When I click on Recover I get no window called Acronis Backup Explorer. I do get another Acronis True Image Home window and, a little later, a Warning (attached), but no listing of files. The time lines are shown on the bottom.

If I put in a file name I get another Warning screen with nothing in it. At this point the screen shows that Acronis is not responding, locks up and I have to close the program.

From what I understand from the Help files I should be able to right click on Recover and get the option to go directly into Acronis Backup Explorer, but no such option is shown.

I can restore using Acronis Restore in Windows, but only files backed up on the weekly backups are shown. Of course these are usually out-of-date.

I have also attached the Acronis System Report.

Thanks for any advise.

I tried this and I don't see any add to list option. The computer usually crashes here.

See attachment for screen.

If you have not done so,you need to locate the *.TIB backup file which you need to use.

Across the top of the main program is an option "Browses for backup" option.
This will search for all *.tib on all disks attached. Or, be sure and attach all disks which might have the backup. The backups will be listed on your main GUI. Personally, I do not like using this method but prefer to use the Windows Search function with a date range.

Another choice for searching is the Windows Search function for files.
Search for *.tib across all disks.

Once you have a particular file of interest,
Right click on the backup file.
Click the Archive option
Click the Recover button

The above is one of several methods. Files can also be recovered via the bootable medial CD.

I don't have any problem getting the backup sets. The problem is getting a list of files from a particular set from which I can choose which one(s) to recover.

I can easily do that with the weekly backups by going to Windows Explorer, clicking on the file I want to recover, right clicking on Acronis Recovery and then clicking on the date of the file I want to recover. (See attachment) The file then comes up in its native program and can be saved. But the daily backups do not show up at all here, and they are the ones I would be more likely to recover. In fact I have never been able to get a file listing from the daily update sets.

Also, it bothers me that I can never find a screen called "Acronis Backup Explorer" even though it is mentioned in the Help file and in your guides. It gives me the feeling that maybe everything was not installed that should have been.

I may reluctantly reinstall True image 12, if I won't lose all the backup sets that I have already created.

Richard,
We are both in the same age range so we both may be having a few problems.

Try to get to the backups via figures 21 and 22 at this link. This link shows all backups associated with a particular full.

http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705

When you mention "zip", are your backup files in tib or zip format? I know what a zip drive is.

Referring to your jpg attachment "Browse for Backups, if you double click on the "computer"device listing, can you not work your way down to the directory tree (Acronis explorer) to your inc files you need?

My problem in visually your situation is that I do not do "files only" backups and only do "disk & partition" backups and finding my files on inc's have not been an issue. A install repair should have no bearing but would not delete your actual backup files--but then strange things can happen.

Anytime you are looking inside a backup, you are using the Acronis Explorer.

I am using a zip, flash drive or whatever else it is called to store the Acronic TIB files.

I cannot work my way down to the actual files by double-clicking my way down the file tree. When I get to the .tib files the computer which uses WIN 7 Professional, a new Intel i7 CPU and has 12 GB of RAM, just churns away and returns to the same point. Occasionally I'll get a message to Indicate Volume "1" or something like that and finally the computer will lock up and Windows will have to close it. However I have found that there is no volume1 as such. The files go from *GB.tib to *GB29.tib. However I note that the beginning file, the one first made and with the most data, is actually GB2.tib. This may be the problem.

I'm not a total computer dummy even though I may sound like one. I've been using a PC for over 30 years and before that was a Manager of a group which included several programmers and systems analysts among others. I'll be the first to admit that I learn somthing new every day that I should have learned years ago.

Thanks for your effort in helping me. Actually you have done so before. I will check out http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705 in the morning and let you know if that solves the problem.

Richard,
Maybe it would help post a screen capture of your storage folder. Sort the contents in date/time so they will be in sequence.
Have you tried to validate the backups when booted from the CD?

Have not tried to validate the backups.
Screenshot attached

I believe either the zip drive or the first (or second) backup to it were faulty and plan to start over with a different zip drive.

The way I understand it the first backup to a set should be a full backup of all the files selected. In this case the first full backup was curiously named *GB2.tib, (5/13/2012 3,405,967KB.), and the second backup, which was incremental, was named *GB.tib, (5/14/2012 282,034KB) as though it were the first full backup. Somehow this must have been abortive since the full backup is on the second file instead of the first.

Therefore I deleted the first named backup (*GB.tib) and renamed the second backup (*GB2.tib) *GB.tib since it really was the first full backup. That didn't solve anything because now instead of asking for volume 1, the program asks for volume 3, which would have been the second incremental backup, but in fact has never existed so far as I can tell.

So I think the best thing to do is to start over with a different zip drive which I'll do tonight.

I did try your suggestion to use screens 21 and 22 on your website. On screen 21 I have all of the options except "Explore & Recover." I never could get to screen 22.

Thanks so much for going through this with me. Maybe this will all make more sense when I start a new set of backups.

The base of the backup is always the full. A inc or diff backup cannot be created until the full has been created. Without the full, everything else is useless.

The method used by TrueImage for numbering varies but most time is

The first backup (full) would be the *GB.TIB (sometimes behind the scenes referred to as volume 1).

The second backup would have been the first incremental and numbered *GB2.TIB

The third backup would have been the second incremental and numbered *GB3.TIB The weakness in the use of incrementals backups is that to restore an specific incremental such as #15, all 14 prior incrementals must be present and readable & non-corrupt.

For example, if inc 2 or 3 is bad or missing, then none of the later incrementals have any usability. So, the bottom line in using inc type backups is to keep the number of inc's short (?) and have redundant backups versions scattered across different disks.

Differential files do not share that risk and any single diff can be used with the base full to create a restore. But, the size of the diff keeps getting bigger with each diff as each diff stores all changes since the last full backup.

Here is a suggested method of backup retention. Change the 6 and 4 to fit your needs. This illustrates the inc type but the diff types would be similar.

I would agree that you may as well start your backup scheme fresh. If you did delete some backups, all backups after that date are useless as the chain has a missing link.

Start with a new task and point the task to a new empty folder or sub-folder with new names for the backup file.

Thanks for posting the folder attachment. I was considering having you rename the first two but if they are deleted, it is too late.
Just as a matter of information for yourself, you might look inside the Acronis "database" folder and look at the ARCHIVE.XML file when opened inside Notepad. This file is the storage file for name of each backup created so you might have been able to see the first few names assigned by Acronis to the files--but probably the same as those file names in the storage folder you posted.

Good luck. The experience you had is not the normal one and you should expect it to work. If it validates, it is usually restorable.

Somehow I lost my latest reply to you...probably a Senior Moment. It went something like this:

I had no idea that all the files had to be present to recover one. I guess I think I'm still of the "Good Ole Days" using "Backup My PC" and Windows XP. In the future I will make much shorter backup strings.

Before I got your reply I had aleady deleted my daily and weekly backups and had created a new daily incremental backup on a different zip drive. I was shocked to see that the full volume (1) of the new backup consisted of 3 files instead of 1 (see attachment) each over 3 GB. The full volume of my old daily backup only totalled about 3.4 GB. Anyway I was able to restore a test file using the Recover Function on the main screen even though it took my computer quite a while to analyze the volume. However the test file could not be recovered by using the "Acronis Recovery" function available in Windows Explorer by right clicking on the file. This method had worked previously on my weekly backups and, to me, would be the preferred method, but the daily backup files did not show up. I will try other recovery methods later.

I plan to format my external hard drive and use it for weekly differential backups. I had previously used weekly incremental backups.

Thanks again for all of your help. If I find anything startling I'll let you know.

Dick Sevier

The cause of your backups being split into segments is that the storoage disk has a fat32 file system.

This can be changed to a NTFS file system via either the format method; or via the Convert FAT32 to NTFS method (google) which will save your new files.

When creating a backup task, it is recommended that the last character in the file name be a dash or underscrore so you have some separation of file name from the true image added numbers.

When right clicking the file name and clicking Archive/Restore, that action should cause TI to open into its normal GUI but sometimes it takes some time.

Thanks again, Grover, but the first zip drive I used was also FAT32 and only had 3.4 GB. I'll sure take your advise though and reformat and also use your file-naming advise.

I'll probably reformat and start over.