Completely malfunctioning non-stop
Hi,
A quick summary of my experiences today in case anyone has feedback. My folder level Non-stop backup's been running ok for 3 months. Or at least I thought it was, believing that naturally if it wasn't, True Image would actually tell me so. I have it backing up work directories full of MS Office files which get changed frequently, and on rare occasion I make a collosal mistake and roll back to a previous version.
Until today.
I went to recover a file and True Image showed three copies of it all at the same time, date, and folder. Well that can't be, can it. Selecting any one copy selected all three copies. So I went ahead and tried a restore, which appeared to work - except the file wasn't recovered and was nowhere to be found. The log file (why I have to hunt around to find this is a gripe for another day) shows no errors, it just says Operation Successful. I beg to differ.
With Acronis Support's help, I found the directory all the .data files are in, and opened the .tib file. There's my files! But copying them out results almost always in a file with zero bytes.
In short, the software I rely on to do one simple thing has let me down. Oh and the refund policy says 30 days max. I know, I asked. I feel like True Image has so much bloaty functionality related to clouds and subscriptions that they've lose sight of just getting the fundamentals right. I just want a RELIABLE backup and if something's going wrong I want to KNOW.
I doubt I can get my files back. I doubt I can get my purchase refunded. I'm sure I can't get the time back or the stress it caused relieved. But I can sure tell my story to a lot of people.
Cody, sorry to hear of this problem with using Non Stop Backup (NSB) and the potential (if not actual?) data loss of your MS Office files.
Do you still have a Support Case open with Acronis Support? If so, then I would ask for the matter to be escalated to their second level support group as any data loss is unacceptable when the software is claiming to have backed it up successfully, and restored it the same!
Please send a PM to Gaidar, General Manager Acronis True Image if you feel that you are not making any progress with resolving this issue.
The MVP Log Viewer (link below) will help make the logs a lot easier to find.
Thanks Steve! I've been using MVP. Sad thing is that the log seems to say there's no errors backing up and no errors recovering files even though it's not actually recovering files.
Support have asked me to create and boot from a rescue media, though I don't see how that could help, I don't think it'll hurt either so further down the rabbit hole I go :)
Cody, please keep us informed of your progress - sorry to hear that the MVP Log Viewer didn't show any messages to help in this matter.
Hello Cody,
I have checked the support case and diagnostic reports from Acronis True Image. While we do everything possible to make the self-diagnostic better from version to version, no software is able to fully control the environment where it is running and provide a 100% guarantee that some other program will not interfere with its operations.
In your case there seem to be a compatibility issue with McAfee full disk encryption. I have asked our testers to replicate your use case in our labs and pass the results over to the Development Team to see what we can change in the program to improve the self-diagnostic and better compatibility with McAfee full disk encryption. There could be very specific conditions, a limited combination of Acronis True Image and McAfee settings, that lead to the problem that you experienced.
By the way, backups seem to be good in your case. It is only the recovery task in the given environment that gives a problem.
Regards,
Slava
Thanks,
The only confirmed impact of full disk encryption is that it prevents me from doing the clean boot and testing the restore that way. Whether it's creating issues with the nonstop backup or not, I can't say. I'd push for a solution but True Image is home oriented software not business software so I figure if I'm running it on a business laptop that a risk I have to take.
The files in the backup data files mostly show zero bytes and restore as zero bytes so I doubt you're right about the files being backed up ok.
The one thing I am left with that I am very unhappy with is that True Image never actually raised any alerts about the backup not working. The restore process even works (just the file doesn't restore, of course). It's this ability under my cirumstances to fail to back up and/or restore files, and yet also show that everything's running fine, that has really put me off this product completely.
I've started testing alternatives (as thoroughly as I can) and have yet to find another product that has any issue running with encryption, and certainly none that fail but report success. That's the aspect the dev team should focus on.
Well that and a new UI and some ability to see logs within the app :)
Cheers
Cody, ATIH 2017 (and earlier versions) will work with encrypted drives provided that the encryption is transparent to the application, i.e. when ATIH is running all drives appear to be normal, unencrypted because the encryption is unlocked.
See KB 56619: Acronis True Image: compatibility with BitLocker which deals with that particular encryption product but the principle should be the same for other similar products.