Problem Testing Bootable Rescue DVD

Harry, the error message for 'not the last volume...' is normally seen when doing this type of recovery from within Windows where the Acronis Database gets involved and may hold references to backups that have been deleted manually, but when using the Rescue Media (on optical / USB media) then the database is not used, as you are in an environment where you may have 'bare metal'.

Have you tried doing a validation for the backup task that created the backup version chain you are testing?  This should show any errors that Acronis will report.  You should be able to do this within Windows or with the rescue media.

Some screen images may help our understanding of the issue, along with those showing the actual files on the backup drive you are restoring from.

Thanks for responding Steve,

I did a validation before restoring a file using my ATI installation. It did not return any errors and as a further check to make sure it was actually restoring, I had it use the current date/time for the restored file. That showed that it was a restored copy. I did not see any way to use validation when restoring a single file using the rescue dvd.

I am not sure which screenshots to take. If you could let me know, I'll post them. By the way at this point there is no "chain" as this morning was the first backup so there is just one "full" tib file.

Just a reminder: I was not able to follow the steps exactly as outlined in the help file to test the backup because I don't have the

Hello Harry,

If you could take a cell phone camera and step us through the process at each screen click, that would help a lot.  From the moment it boots into the recovery enviornment, just before each click of the mouse, take a pic and as the window sand menus progress take more.  This will help show where the file is located, the name of the file you're clicking on (highlight it with the mouse and take a picture before you select it), etc.  Sorry for the trouble, but it's a lot easier to see what you're doing than to describe each step.  If the file can be recovered in Windows (as you've tested), it should be do-able with recovery media.  We should be able to get it sorted out. 

I went back and realized that there was an old backup job which I had thought I deleted but never did. I deleted that. I also deleted several "orphan" tib files which I had from an earlier attempt to delete (I think there was an option to leave the files).

I then booted the rescue disk with the intention of taking pictures to document the entire process as suggested above.

Suddenly, everything was working fine. I assume that it was because of what I deleted but possibly it was the threat of my collecting photographic evidence :-)

In any event, I am able to recover files now using the rescue disk.

Thanks to all the volunteers who responded above.

Harry

Harry, thanks for giving feedback and glad to hear that this problem is resolved and all OK.

Good deal.  It's always like that - usually for me, it's the other way around.  I can do something 100 times without issue, but as soon as I go to show someone, of course it fails.  

Computers are evil - they never want you to know what they're really while they work up to their end-game against us.  I back mine up, just so I can reset it to slow down its plans.  :) 

I do have one other question (although I reserve the right to think of more)
My backups are partition backups not file backups.

When doing the test restore from the boot disk I selected disk backup but fillowed the steps to restore a single file. When I reached the point where I was given the choice to either restore to the original location or a new location, the original location was greyed out and I couldnet select it. On a hunch I selected new location and it allowed me to then browse to the original location and successfully restored. (I chose the option to restore with today's date so I could brove the resore worked.

The question is: Is this the way it should work or should I have been able so make the choice when asked

I'm not 100% as it's been awhile since I've done a file restore from the rescue media (i'm usually testing parition and backup restore).  However, I believe that you may not have been able to  restore to the original location because the file already existed.  When you chose the other method, you also changed the date, hence, creating a new version of the file... so, did that overwrite the existing file, or were there 2 copies of it in the folder after that - I'm curious about that one and would be good to confirm as well.  (I don't have a system to test with at the moment but may have to give this a try to test myself down the road).

Personally, I get scared when restoring over original data unless I'm 100% absolutely positive (and I never am when it comes to live data).  Click the wrong button or highlight the wrong thing and you might restore more than you intended to - possibly over other files that you selected, but didn't intend to.  For a file/folder backup, my own rule of thumb is to restore to a new location (use the same drive as you want, but create a different folder, just in case).  If you cut/paste (vice copy/paste) after that, the moves are almost instant if being done from the same disk.  It's a small extra step, but may help avoid a bad situation.

I chose to overwrite the existing file but told it to use today's date for confirmation. Iam also very cautious when it comes to live data but the spread sheet that I restored was a 5 year old version of a schedule which gets completely redone every year. I don't know why I even keep them but I'm too lazy to go through and them and delete.

When I bought my new computer last year I vowed I would never run short on  hard drive space. As of today I am using about 100GB on a 2TB drive.

I like your rule of thumb though and will adopt it effective immediately.

Thanks for the confirmation - maybe it is a bug, but your work-a-round seems easy enough.  I'll have to keep this mind if others have the same issue - I'll get to testing it soon as well.