[RESOLVED] Using external USB drive under W7-64
I have just bought a Transcend Storejet 25H3, usb3 drive, which is divided 600:150 GB with the larger partition to back up a Win7-64 installation.
Well, it works fine using ATIH 2011 under XPSP3, but with ATIH 2013 under Win7-64 it will not store the backup parameters on the USB drive and just hangs while pretending to work.
PC is the same in both cases, intel 3570 with Z77 chipset on a Gigabyte board.
(The recovery software works fine, but it scrambles the drive letters of course)
I have no problem with backups to internal SATA drives.
Is this a problem with W7-64, or a fault in ATIH 2013, and in either case, how can I fix it?
MJ
Issue resolved here.
"Create a brand new backup task to write backups to the external HD"
Already tried that I'm afraid. It will do a default C; drive backup, but nothing else.
Under XPSP3 it works fine, as I have just demonstrated.
But, it seems that two and a half months ago I succeeded in doing a multi-drive backup to a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid USB drive, from W7-64 using ATIH 2013.
So is this a problem with the physical drive, perhaps not writing the System Volume Information in the required manner?
MJ
"multi-drive backup"
Do you mean you are trying to backup more than one drive in a single backup task?
"Do you mean you are trying to backup more than one drive in a single backup task?"
Yes, always have done, and Acronis provides specifically for this.
But the situation is getting more complex. The full multi-drive archive was still there with its settings visible, but when I tried to change those settings it hung. If I left them as they were, it would do the appropriate (full or incremental) backup.
What is very clear is that Win7-64/2013 is much faster than WinXP/2011, but that does not help if I cannot modify the backup params as needs change.
I have the impression that my ATIH2013 system has changed in some way since the successful October backup. There have been Windows Updates, driver updates and a new release of the BIOS.
It would be nice to know what might cause this particular set of symptoms!
MJ
Do not change settings. It's safer to create a brand new backup task with your preferred settings.
I also think it may be safer to have separate backup tasks for each source drive. You don't need a separate task for each partition, but separate physical drives should have their own tasks.
I agree with MVP Tuttle's recommendation to use a separate task for each disk;
however, 2013 should be able to backup two disks.
Use my example below but check both disk disks. Each check will get all partitions within the disk.
To Tuttle and Grover,
Many thanks for your learned help.
I think that the ability to create a backup 'named task' disappeared somewhere between 2010 and 2012. It would of course have made life much more controlled, but someone decided that it was too 'hard' for home users.
The suggestion to use disk mode sounds promising, but I need to ensure that there are no backup archives on any of the data disks, which may involve some complicated reorganisations. Fortunately I have recently installed a very good free partition manager from MiniTool (not Magic Disc which is for ISO Images) which allows all sorts of acrobatic repositioning, and cloning, and does so quickly.
Meanwhile, I will experiment with disk mode and report back.
MJ
Well, I prepared a completely fresh archive partition, and tried both partition mode and disk mode, but neither will allow any modifications of the default parameters.
So I am running the backup, which includes several *.tib archives in default mode.
Might it be a workaround to change the default parameters first, and then try running the backup?
Would this affect existing backup tasks which are currently 'well behaved'?
Am I right in thinking that ATIH 2013 does not allow the explicit definition of "backup tasks"?
Thanks again for all comments
MJ
The backup completed successfully to the external USB Drive, taking 2 hours to back up three hard disks, while skipping over some very large archive files. it would have been about twice as fast in USB3 mode, but my front connector is U/S.
So the problem is that when using such an external drive as target, I can select drives/partitions to back up, but otherwise cannot change the default settings. When using an internal drive this restriction does not apply. The same thing happens with two very different USB drives.
Any chance of a comment from the system staff?
MJ
... but otherwise cannot change the default settings.MJ
Can you clarify which settings you cannot set/modify or retain when using these USB disks versus an internal disk?
OOps,
Trying to obtain an accurate answer to Pat L's question, I found that changes to the drive selection on the first page of "settings" were actually saved and presumably implemented.
Almost all changes to the other tabs of settings appeared to be accepted, but caused a hang when the "Save" button was pressed.
THIS ALSO APPLIES TO INTERNAL DRIVES!
I.e. it is not a USB drive problem as I had thought, it is a problem for ATIH2013 under W7-64.
Apologies for misleading everyone, but I have been using ATIH2011 in parallel, and as I said the fault does not manifest itself there, not with external drives, nor internal.
I am using the latest version of ATIH2013. Can anyone suggest a cause for this fault? I cannot believe that it is generic to all Win7-64 users.
MJ
Apologies for misleading everyone, but I have been using ATIH2011 in parallel
What do you mean by that? Have you managed somehow to have both versions on the same OS or are they in/on separate VMs/computers?
It is not generic. I have been using 2013 on Win7 x64 for a while before upgrading to Win8.
So you are saying that the application hangs when you save the modified settings of an existing backup? Does it stop responding completely or only for a while?
To answer both questions:
"Does it stop responding completely or only for a while?"
Completely, I have left it for over an hour on occasion.
"How do you have two versions of ATIH?"
I have a dual boot system, Win7-64 and XPSP3 so that my wife can go on using some medieval software.
My latest full backup using default options but selected drives with ATIH2013 appears to have been completely successful. It is currently doing a separate verification at a speed in excess of 6GB/min.
I wonder whether this could be some weird file ownership problem, although the user has admin rights?
I am quite stumped!
MJ
Some times ATI can choke on trying to find old drives/network shares. Try to uninstall ATI 2013, use the cleanup utility found here and reboot, reinstall. http://kb.acronis.com/content/34876
It is also possible that ATI is trying to write to some folder that it cannot access. If you changed the default security settings of drivers/folders, that might be an explanation.
Just to update:
-the Validation was successful, as was a subsequent Incremental backup.
- I found that both drive selection and performance settings can be updated but nothing else.
- During the hang, ATIH seems to be searching drives, but which drives I could not discover.
The suggestion to un-install seems sound, and there is certainly a possibility that I changed access rules.
I find that I am entitled to the PlusPack which was never downloaded.
Here's hoping!
MJ
This scan can only be a cause for long delay--but temporarily.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/31895
If I am understanding correctly, you confirmed in post # 14 that you DO have two versions of True Image installed.
One on your Win 7 boot system and another on the XP boot system. If yes, confirm version numbers.
The hang, according to "Resource Monitor" via Task Manager consists of repeated attempts to write to these two files:
Image PID File Read (B/sec) Write (B/sec) Total (B/sec) I/O Priority Response Time (ms)
TrueImage.exe 1672 C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Database\archives.xml 0 127,667 127,667 Normal 1
Image PID File Read (B/sec) Write (B/sec) Total (B/sec) I/O Priority Response Time (ms)
TrueImage.exe 1672 C:\$LogFile (NTFS Volume Log) 0 1,283,751 1,283,751 Normal 1
I suspect that it is a simple loop, writing the same record again and again.
In response to Grover my ATIH 2011 is build #6942 , and the ATIH 2013 is build 5551.
They do not share backup archives, although each 'sees'the other's.
I admit that I chickened out of running the full cleanup utility, as it seemed certain to wipe my 2011 version as well.
Is there anything short of that worth trying? The simple re-install has not sufficed.
I have extended the permissions on archives.xml to see whether that affects anything.
MJ
OK, you will not believe this but my ability to modify settings has returned.
Perhaps that permission change was all that was required?
Am running an incremental to confirm that all is well.
MJ
PS: All well, incremental completed successfully despite all the phaffing about.
Somehow I have turned on a transparent typeface, which is a trifle difficult to use!
Many thanks to the experts here and for their patience which has led me to a resolution of the problem.
It was an altered file permission and nothing to do with internal vs external drives. ATIH 2013 is fine and is working well again.
Mea Culpa!
MJ