Running ATI from bootable media
This is a follow-up to my previous thread about not being able to shut down ATI2021.
In effort to escape the myriad unnecessary background processes associated with ATI2021, I am exploring the solution of completely uninstalling ATI2021 from Windows, and instead manually running disc imaging and recovery tasks from the bootable media environment as needed (in my use case, at most a handful of times a year).
I have created a WinPE-based media with Acronis software (Build 35860) and biited into this environment to perform a full backup of the system disk in my laptop (EFI and C: partitions). The only problem I encountered was that even though I had selected the option to automatically validate the backup immediately after creation, there was no evidence of any validation being performed.
The whole backup finished in around 30 min for a 188GB tibx file on an external USB drive. The status bar showed only "Backing Up" until the job was finished (never changing to "Validating"). After clicking "OK" at the end of the backup process, I looked through the GUI of the WinPE-version of ATI, but I could not find any way to do an on-demand validation, either.
I attempted to save the log file, but it contains very little information:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<logs>
<log build="35860" product="Acronis True Image" task_name="My Disk Drives Backup" uuid="C0F2940E-E49A-4F55-A855-951AFC754706" version="25.6">
<event code="0" id="1" level="2" message="Operation "My Disk Drives Backup" started." module="100" time="1609379705" />
<event code="252" id="2" level="2" message="Backup operation succeeded." module="100" time="1609381903" />
</log>
</logs>
When I booted back into Windows and launched the regular ATI app there, I was able to validate the backup set after manually adding it to list of backups. Although the backup was successfully validated, the need to validate in the Windows version of ATI defeats my goal of wanting to uninstall the software from the computer.
The validation that was performed in the Windows 10 environment took around 30 min to complete (same as the time to complete the backup operation in the bootable media environment), which further supports my belief that no validation was performed by the WinPE version of ATI.
Thus, my questions are:
- Why does the option of automatic validation after backup completion not work (in the WinPE version of ATI)?
- Is there a way to manually validate an existing backup set in the WinPE version of ATI (or perhaps using some stand-alone tool for Windows 10 that does not require installation of ATI2021)?
- Is there a way to get a more detailed log file in the WinPE version of ATI?
- How does validation work in ATI anyway? Are the backed up data actually compared against the source data, or is it based on checksums etc.?
Thank you.
Enchantech,
Thank you for the information about the procedure for on-demand validation in the bootable media. I suppose I may need to open a support ticket to determine why the automatic validation at end of backup was not done, but performing the validation manually is an acceptable workaround.
Thanks also for the tip about using VHDX to test the bootability of imaged system partitions. Were you referring to the "Convert to VHD" approach described in KB 60209, or do you recommend doing an actual restore operation to a blank VHDX? If the latter (i.e., if something different from what is described in the KB 60209 article), I would appreciate any additional information resources you can point me to, as I have no prior experience working with VHDX drives.
Finally, on the topic of checksum validation, I have a slightly off-topic question: One of my early ATI2021 backups was a File & Folders backup of a hard drive that had some errors (in the process of failing). This backup set did pass ATI's validation test, but when I tried to restore the data to a new drive, four of the files failed to restore. How is this possible, if the backup was successfully validated?
J K, the option to automatically validate after a backup using the rescue media has been broken for some time as far as I understand and as reported in these forums.
See KB 60209: Acronis True Image 2018: configuring Windows native boot from VHD/VHDX files created by "Convert to VHD" feature - which should answer your questions on this area.
Validation does not check individual file integrity within the backup source! All that it does is to recalculate checksum data for each block of archive data that is written to the backup file and compare the checksum with the values stored within the backup file at the time of creation. If the checksum values match then the file remains unchanged from when it was created.
Validation does not prevent damaged or corrupted files from being captured in the backup archive, nor would it prevent any malware being captured etc. The old computer adage applies to backup files - 'Garbage in equals garbage out!'. If your hard disk was already failing and giving errors prior to making the backup image then the only suggestion would be to make a full disk sector-by-sector backup and then try running CHKDSK /F after restoring that backup to another good disk, to see if this can recover any bad sector data?
I have used that approach several times over the past year and have to say that it takes a very long time, especially if you are dealing with a relatively large failing drive! I did this with a 1TB HDD that took more than 12 hours to backup and a similar time to recover to a new drive, but I was able to recover most important files when a normal backup would quit on the number of errors being encountered!
Steve,
In the case of my failing disk, ATI was unable to perform any kind of disk-level image, so I had to resort to File/Folder back-up, which fortunately allowed me to recover most of my data. I did try sector-by-sector (as well as the option to ignore bad sectors). If you think there is any hope of doing a disk or partition image of this disk (i.e., if the previous ATI failure may have been due to me using an early build of ATI2021 -- this was in August), then I may try it again, as I would very much like to recover the operating system (Windows 7) and transfer to a new disk, if possible. Would there anything in the logs that could shed light on this?
With regards to the VHDX approach, I had already found the KB 60209 article, but I was wondering if Enchantech was suggesting that an even more robust test would be to use a restore operation to restore a system image to an empty VHDX (instead of just using the "Convert to VHD" option as described in KB 60209).
J K,
The use of VHD(X) is covered quite well in the link posted below:
How to create vhd or vhd(x) disks (files)
The author here uses the term file(s) rather than disks but the fact is you will be creating a virtual disk which for all intents a purposes acts very much like a physical disk. Several methods of creating a virtual disk (file) are covered. Basically, once you create the virtual disk you can then boot your machine using the ATI boot media and restore a backup file to the virtual disk.
Once that is done you have two choices in using the virtual disk. You might be able to boot the recovery in a Virtual Machine instance using HyperV Manager. Your PC must support this function and you would need to enable the feature in "Turn Windows features On or Off" as well as enable the feature in your PC bios. If your PC supports this feature you can also use a third party Virtual Machine software like VMware for example.
The other choice is that you can Mount the disk and then Explore the disk as you would a physical disk. If mounting fails this would indicate corruption. The mount method does not guarantee boot but in general terms if you can mount it it is very likely bootable.
I am supplying another link below that gives details on creating a VHD(X) and using one including mounting. I recommend you thoroughly read each of the articles in the links to gain a basic understanding of this technology.
Create and set a VHD or VHD(X)
Enchantech,
Thank you for the added information and the links, which I will review before proceeding.
Basically, once you create the virtual disk you can then boot your machine using the ATI boot media and restore a backup file to the virtual disk.
Once that is done you have two choices in using the virtual disk.
Would a third option for using/testing the virtual disk be the approach using the third-party tool EasyBCD, as described in KB 60209?
Enchantech,
I have reviewed the two articles you linked, and I think I have a good idea about how to create the VHDX drives. However, after I have finished my testing, what is a safe sequence for undoing my work? Maybe like this:
- Boot into the original Windows 10 OS (not the recovered version).
- If EasyBCD was used to modify the Windows Boot Manager (see my Comment #6 above), then use EasyBCD to restore the original boot settings.
- Reboot?
- Use Disk Management to "Detach VHD".
- Delete the .vhdx file.
Is this the correct process to restore everything properly and revert the system to the way it was before the testing?
My opinion is that should work.