"Backup date cannot be found" Consolidation error
Hi all,
Looking for some help here as Acronis will only help with their product for one month after you buy it, which I only just found out yesterday, but I guess that's my fault.
This error has been occurring for a while and I've finally had enough of it. I've re-installed Acronis, I've re-installed Windows, and I've re-installed Acronis a few more times, but this keeps happening. I previously had a long (~30) chain of incrementals and read that that was too many (why is it an option if it doesn't work), so I've reduced my backups to between 2 and 10 versions but that hasn't helped.
I have about 4 different backups set up at one time and they seem to randomly fail. As of right now I have 2 backups that are working as they should, and two that have failed. I'm not going to delete them all and start again, or re-install Acronis, or reset config files, because I've tried all that and it does fix the problem albeit temporarily.
So what can I do to get this program running as intended?
Cheers,
Hi James, thanks for your reply,
I have the logs at home and will post them later. The backup does not fail, it's only the consolidation (although I suppose that also means 'backup task'. I run them with the scheduler, but manually running, verifying and consolidating gives the same error when at the consolidation stage - "Backup date cannot be found". I will post the error code later.
I run a system state backup (full disk image clone), and multiple file/folder backups - all to an external USB 3.0 drive. Both the 'system state backup' and 'file/folder' backup have at some stage refused to consolidate with the same error message.
Cheers,
Here are the logs for one of the backups...
Edit: Here is the log for a disk image backup (system state):
Rob,
Just had a quick look at one of your logs, are you able to explore the archive via Windows Explorer successfully?
Do all your slice numbers run consecutively (that is the 's' value in the file name)?
Do all the backups refer to archive 1 ( the 'b' number)?
Have you password protected the archive?
***edited keyboard missing character problem***
Rob,
Just had a quick look at one of your logs, are you able to explore the archive via Windows Explorer successfully?
Do all your slice numbers run consecutively (that is he 's' value int he file name)?
Do all the backups refer to archive 1 ( the 'b' number)?
Have you password protected the archive?
Yes, all archive versions can be explored without problems.
Yes, all slice numbers are consecutive.
Yes, all backups refer to b1. They also all end in 'v1' (b1_sx_v1).
No, there is no password for any of my archives.
Thanks for your help,
_________________
Just checked the backup folder for my disk image, and the last backup differs in that instead of "v1" at the end of the latest backup name, it is "v1-2". Not sure if that helps.
I'd wait to see what James F might think, but I'm wondering if removing the backups from the task list and then rebrowsing for all archives might some how fix your problem.
I'm wondering of the task database has itself got some corruption which is causing only consolidation to fail. Have you run chkdsk /r on the destination disk, I'm not aware of consolidation being more sensitive to a disk error than when making a backup or validation task.
Just one final thought from me, True Image error messages sometimes cover a multitude of sins, not neccessarily pointing to the problem you would think they mean, do you have enough free space on your drive for consolidation to take place? You need to have at least the same amount of free space as your current archive takes up - that is the full and all its increments, as TI wll remake the complete archive whilst consolidating and once made and consolidated will the old archive be deleted.
Removing the backups from the list and re-adding them does fix it... sometimes. I have deleted the task database before and it helped, but these are temporary solutions. The problem has, so far, always reappeared - eventually!
I have a 2TB external disk with aprox. 750GB remaining, with my largest backup being ~250GB, including the original full backup and 5 increments.
Cheers,
Rob_1976, I realize it is a pain but do consider starting over with new tasks and pointing to a new sub-folder but with a few changes.
What works for me is automatiac cleanup which avoids the pitfalls of consolidation. Click on link #2 below and look at illustration 11-Inc and the associated text explanations. This setup uses the deletion of the old as new ones are added and does not involve consolidation. Once the trigger of keeping x number of recent backup chains is reached, the deletions will begini to occur.
Change the 6 and 4 to fit your needs but use these options rather than use the elapsed time or space limits.
Rob,
The problem with consolidation is that if there is any hiccup, the consolidation portion of the backup task will eventually fail.
I've had customers use the consolidation feature without issue, and some that had problems such as yours. Users with only one backup task seem to fair better in this regard.
Those that had issues with consolidation, I switched to automatic cleanup, which does not consolidate the backup images, but deletes them after the specified options (time/size, no. of backups, etc.). This is also way more efficient, time wise, as the consolidation process can take an extremely long time on a large backup source, and/or large number of incremental/differential backups in the chain exposing the process to a greater chance of failure.
Automatic cleanup seems more reliable in True Image than Consolidation.
Grover's guide to creating a backup task with Automatic cleanup retention rules is a great reference.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705
I personally use automatic cleanup instead or consolidation, and only consolidate manually (rarely).
I don't see a solution for your issues if you continue to use scheduled consolidation, as it seems to be very sensitive to any disruptions to the process.
Rob_1976, I realize it is a pain but do consider starting over with new tasks and pointing to a new sub-folder but with a few changes.
What works for me is automatiac cleanup which avoids the pitfalls of consolidation. Click on link #2 below and look at illustration 11-Inc and the associated text explanations. This setup uses the deletion of the old as new ones are added and does not involve consolidation. Once the trigger of keeping x number of recent backup chains is reached, the deletions will begini to occur.
Change the 6 and 4 to fit your needs but use these options rather than use the elapsed time or space limits.
Just had a read. Thanks very much, very useful info!
Rob,
The problem with consolidation is that if there is any hiccup, the consolidation portion of the backup task will eventually fail.
I've had customers use the consolidation feature without issue, and some that had problems such as yours. Users with only one backup task seem to fair better in this regard.
Those that had issues with consolidation, I switched to automatic cleanup, which does not consolidate the backup images, but deletes them after the specified options (time/size, no. of backups, etc.). This is also way more efficient, time wise, as the consolidation process can take an extremely long time on a large backup source, and/or large number of incremental/differential backups in the chain exposing the process to a greater chance of failure.
Automatic cleanup seems more reliable in True Image than Consolidation.
Ok, thanks for your input. I will look into creating new backups with auto cleanup.