[Solved with Workaround] Moving Backups to New External Disk

I should add that in Windows Task Manager (W7 32-bit), TrueImage.exe is bumping the counter for "I/O Read Bytes" by about 1 KB/sec, but the "I/O Write Bytes" is static, or barely incrementing at all....

Try validating that backup.

Try repeating the move command but to a new folder on x--not the same folder on x as used before.

Good ideas. Thank you both :)

I tried the Validate last night but it didn't help. I will give the new folder idea a whirl this evening. That is, after I get past the more pressing issue I had this morning, something like (and this is a big paraphrase):

"Windows could not boot, please insert your system disk, blah, blah, blah...

\boot\bcd...:

I think this article will help me: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2004518

I sometimes get that message following a use of the CD, etc.
When I get this message, I reboot and specifically select the correct device as the boot device and usually the system reboots without the use of the Windows CD.

If some of the files you are moving are copies of originals, TrueImage balks or will only allow one listing to appear in the list of backups on main GUI.

CareyS wrote:

I tried the Validate last night but it didn't help.

That tells us nothing. Did it validate or did it not?

Grover - It may be that simple. I will try that first. I have 4 internal disks and 3 external USBs at this point.

tuttle - Validation success was implied in my answer by saying that it did not help. But to clarify this for you, I can now unequivocally confirm that Acronis True Image Home 2012 successfully validated the backup file 'D_Data' several minutes after I issued the Validate command (Gear icon > Validate). I can provide the log entry for you if further confirmation is needed, but first I will need to get past the bootup issue I had this morning.

Thank you both for your efforts!

CareyS wrote:

tuttle - Validation success was implied in my answer by saying that it did not help. But to clarify this for you, I can now unequivocally confirm that Acronis True Image Home 2012 successfully validated the backup file 'D_Data' several minutes after I issued the Validate command (Gear icon > Validate). I can provide the log entry for you if further confirmation is needed,

I don't need the log, your statement is sufficient.

We're not mind readers, we know only what you tell us about your system and results. So, when we ask you to try something, we want to know the result, not just that it didn't help. In this case, validation was not intended to solve the problem, but to provide further important information.

GroverH - Thanks for the idea to just point to the boot disk. I did that upon boot up on the first boot, but on the 2nd boot I still received the same prompt (I apologize for not giving you exact details, but I know that you know what I meant!) . I went into the BIOS and reset the actual boot disk # there to the real disk and that took care of it. I can reboot without issue now. After resolving that, I still could not move the files with ATIH 2012. I resorted to just copying the file over to the new disk with Windows Explorer, then I pointed to the new location within ATIH2012 and it took it just fine. I will do that for the remaining >1 TB of files when necessary. Your point about having issues with a copy of (or a copied BU from another location) was spot on.

I think you will appreciate the attached screen shot, from a different thread regarding my work laptop. It worked for me today when the scheduled backup began at noon (siesta time in Texas).

tuttle -If what I said to GroverH does not make sense to you, just let me know and I will give you more details :) Just having some fun with you now, I hope you are good with that!

Seriously, I appreciate both of your help. Thank you very much for all of your responses and your willingness to pitch in!

Thank you. You made my day:}
Now, just be sure and keep your incrementals to a smaller (whatever that is) number to avoid future corrupt problems. In my thinking, 30 is too many as all must be good in order to be of use.

LOL! The 30 so called 'incs' were due to that old drive being FAT32 - the file sizes were limited to 4GB. Yep, I said "limited to 4 GB"! Before I implemented the reminder, I reformatted that dude to exFat. Now, one (password protected) file is created for each backup. When I finish this move job, the little Hitachi 200GB drive will be retired to something... maybe ReadyBoost - and the 2 TB external USB will replace it for my work backup. It is set to Max compression and 2 x 2 on the Full version /Recent version settings. It will not get to successful creation of the 2nd full version, of that I am sure! The initial full is 112 GB and the 2 incs are ~ 1GB and 3 GB. That will fail on tomorrow's scheduled backup. I will not have the 2 TB disk free and setup by then.

I am such a relic.... I remember all the work I did researching my very first IBM-PC based computer, an XP Clone with a "giant" 10 MB full height hard drive, for a bookkeeping business I had in the early 80's. That was a premium machine since most people were still switching out the 8" or 5.25" floppies (if they ever had a need for more space). I had a CPA friend at the time comment on the 10 MB drive when we were doing tax returns at midnight. "Man, that is a Black Hole! You will NEVER fill that drive up"!

Oh yes, the old memories. I have similar.

Do be sure and use more than one backup storage device. Don't malke the mistake of putting all your eggs in one basket--so to speak. You will want at least two hard drives for keeping your backups.
If you haven't reviewed my link #2 below, it makes for good reading material when you have some spare time.
Good luck.

I don't have it down to a science yet, but I am getting there. Originally, I did create all of my backup tasks to point to one folder "G:\MyBackups". I believe "MyBackups" was the default folder for creating a backup when creating/using a backup task. When I started this move process, I selected one of my tasks and had the software (ATIH2012) move it to the new disk. That task had 2 .TIB files associated with it. To my horror and disbelief, ATIH2012 moved every .TIB file it found in "MyBackups" to the new disk. It took the better part of a full 24 hour day. When I realized what had happened, I had ATIH2012 move them all back to the G: drive - G:\MyBackups.

That is when I began using Windows Explorer to (1) Create a subfolder in "MyBackups" for each task, (2) move just the files for a task to that subfolder, and (3) point ATIH2012 to the new folder for each task's file set. When I subsequently tried to move the separated file sets, that appears to be when ATIH2012 began reporting that it had moved the files, but the files did not really move.

I am now using Windows Explorer to create a task specific folder and copy a task's fileset there. I am then pointing the ATIH task to the new location of the file set by clicking on the Location link to where the fileset was, letting ATIH2012 tell me the files are not there, then pointing to the new folder location I moved the files to using Windows Explorer. After that, I immediately exit ATIH 2012. I wait about 10 seconds and re-launch ATIH2012. At that point, the task's Location link points to the new folder. Then (tuttle will like this), I validate that task (Gear icon). When the validation completes - successfully - I use the Move command (Gear > More > Move) to move the fileset to the new drive, and to a task specific folder for the drive. Not sure which point in this contrived process is the trigger, but if I follow it, ATIH2012 actually moves the fileset for the task. This is mostly based on Grover's comment around "If some of the files you are moving are copies of originals, TrueImage balks or will only allow one listing to appear in the list of backups on main GUI. ". While the file sets are not really copies of originals, they are originals that have been copied to a new folder specific for their task. I think that some step, or combination of steps, I am taking is forcing ATIH to store the new G: drive subfolder location it it's database, and that then allows the move command to be able to actually locate the files now properly associated to the task and then successfully move them.

That is my best guess, and I am now plowing through the move of the tasks. Most of them currently represent filesets I want to keep. At the end of the move process I will re-evaluate and reduce them down to what is critical. I may pause at some point and make a new backup task for the new drive because time is slipping farther from my last good backup. Finally, then I will take Grover's advise and begin working on a two disk backup plan and combine that with one or two "gold" versions to also store offsite.

Thanks again. I don't plan to add more here for this issue, unless you have questions you would like me to address.

Happy backups to you!

Maybe a few personal comments might help to make sure there is no mis-understanding.

As is the saying, the bottom line is:
When there is need to restore a prior backup ovetop your system either to its existing disk or to a new disk, it is the TI Recovery CD (or flash drive) which is the preferred and recommended device to do the restore. A restore from within Windows is mostly for individual files or folders--not for the system partitions.

As a result of booting to the CD, it does not matter where the backups (*.tib) are stored or how they got there. The procedure is simply to boot from the CD and browse to where the backup are stored and select what is to be restored and perform the restore. Any validation is preferred before the restore, that option exists. Or if the user wants to validate before the restore or any time manually, that option exists. Validation is not a requirement but a good safety precaution.

Thus to me, the move option is 99% an un-necessary command or procedure and most certainly not a required procedure. The only time I might use the move command would be if my existing ongoing task needed to be relocated to a new location, I might use this command. However, more than likely, I would just stop using the task; create a new task; and then copy the files from the wrong location to a new location using any number of free programs (not Windows Explorer) such as Karen's Replicator to copy the *.tib files to a new location. I want a copy program which will do checks to make sure the copy was a errors free copy. I do not have confidence in using Windows to perform that type copy when the file size is several Gigabytes in size.

The backup files which I move manually does not require TI consent or approval. I know or can find them when I need to use them simply via the "Browse for Backups" option. For a restore to be possible, it is NOT necessary that the task be listed in the listing of tasks--which is solely a Windows view. A restore will be done via the CD so having it listed in the tasks windows is non-essential.

If I had backups which I wanted to copy from one storage disk to another storage disk, I would NOT involve TrueImage--except maybe after the move to perform a validations to make sure the copies were still usable. After all, validation is just to make sure the files are read and written properly from/to disk.

I guess my point being is to make sure that your using TrueImage to move the files is not felt as a requirement--but merely an option to be considered along with other possible options.

My Windows listing of tasks never includes more than just a few regular onlgoing tasks and does not include any which are not actively in use--either manually or scheduled.

Thanks Grover for taking time to clear that up. That all makes sense to me. I did think it was necessary to use ATIH to move between disks, especially because I lost my original backup of my work laptop a week or so back and the only thing I could think of was that I had used Windows Explorer to move the files from the external disk to a network drive. When it becomes necessary again, I'll find an alternate program.

The one time it has been necessary to restore, I did use the CD and had to get the help of Acronis Support to get it done because that backup was corrupt (the disk it came from had issues which caused the backup to inherit them). That is what has had me working to get everything as fail safe as possible. I will be doing practice restores periodically in the future.

Thanks again!

" (the disk it came from had issues which caused the backup to inherit them)."

This is why is can be important to occasionally-regularly perform a check for errors. I run a check for file errors more frequently that disk errors as the check is very quiclk if only checking for file errors or several hours if checking for disk errors. When I run the disk check, it just start it and let it run all night or at some time when the computer usage is not planned.

One of the best ways to test your restore is to have two disks. Periodacally, do a full disk option backup.
Remove the source disk and file away.
Insert an different alternate disk and perform a restore to the alternate.
Use the alternate for a period and repeat the same procedure with the other disk.
This assures you that you always have a working alternate rotating between two disks.