Re: ntbackup restore issue

In news:O3CfxX9LKHA.4780@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Twayne typed on Mon, 7 Sep 2009 12:12:12 -0400:
"BillW50" <BillW50@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
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In news:OisGw4MLKHA.5732@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Pegasus [MVP] typed on Thu, 3 Sep 2009 21:39:00 +0200:
"Paul Randall" <Paulr901@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"BillW50" <BillW50@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
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In news:281FFA94-87AF-4B3F-994C-9E1D94F162E1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx,
sgopus typed on Wed, 2 Sep 2009 16:45:01 -0700:
if it ain't designed to be used that way it will break, what else
do you expect!

use it in the way it's designed.

I've used the product for years and never had a problem with
restoring, works just like advertised.

Say you have you backup drive and you noticed your backup drive is
failing. So you buy a new drive and clone your backups to this new
drive. Guess what? Acronis True Image can't restore from the new
drive. You must use the old failing drive or nothing at all. If
Acronis True Image wasn't designed to use a new backup drive, then
what good is it?

Someone please say it isn't so. If this is the way Acronis True
Image works, then I just bought a piece of junk.

Acronis TrueImage will restore an image back to any disk, provided
there is enough free space on the selected partition.


I don't use Acronis TI and only tested it briefly. Following are a
few questions and comment just as a sort of "food for thought"
response. Maybe TI is that borked, I don't know, but I suspect
something else is going on. You DO talk about the current version,
right? Not an old one?


I did research on this for days and found using search engines this
just isn't so. And here I found a reoccurring theme.

That's one way to do it, but ... it's not a fully reliable method. A
"reoccurring theme" may or may not just be coincidence and the
perception of the authors, not reality. Often documentation can end up
being the actual culprit; poorly written or not read.
Also, I haven't seen any evidence of this "reoccurring theme" on any
of the groups I read.
Are these old posts or are they about the current version of TI?
Comments on old revs isn't of much use.

Lots of people said they used the earlier versions and they served them
just fine. It is the newer versions giving them all of the headaches.

1) A different build number won't restore from another one. Will
usually say the file is corrupt and you can't do anything with it.

I'll guess, since you failed to define it, that "build number"
indicates an update to the product. The use of "Build Number" also
makes me suspect you're trying out BETA and other unofficial releases?
Well anyway, a "build number" means modified software, right? It's
different. Did the docs say it was compatible? Did you try it out to
see if it was? Assumptions make poor facts. So this one appears to
be attributable to the user.

Nope, this is official build numbers from Acronis themselves. And
Acronis admits this can happen and they don't support one build
restoring from another build number.

http://kb.acronis.com/content/1517

2) If a backup fails, it doesn't notify you and stores it deep in the
logs.

I believe I've seen backup verification talked about w/r to TI. And I
know you can verify at backup time. Have you done either? Have you
learned how to read the logs and where such information might be
contained so you can glance at it after a backup and/or periodically?
If that's too much work, run a scheduled batch file periodically to
check it.

I don't use Acronis, so I don't know why this guy was having this
problem. But read for yourself.

"More importantly, if a backup fails you get no notification! Instead it
quietly buries the evidence in the log file in the hope that one day you
might browse it and see the failed backup. Come on Acronis, this is our
data we're talking about! If a backup fails I want alarm bells to ring!"

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acronis-True-Image-Home-2009/dp/B001GCTRBE

3) Problems with 64 character serial number reverting back to trial
version at next startup.

No idea on that one. IF so, have you checked to be sure it's a
recognized bug so it'll get fixed? Are you positive it's TI and not
system file corruption somewhere?

Sounds like retail recent versions sold in stores to me when I was
reading the complains about it. They were complaining about typing in 64
characters in the first place. And it worked, if you got the code from
the web. But the next time you reloaded ATI, it dropped back to a trial
version again.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acronis-True-Image-Home-2009/dp/B001GCTRBE

4) Has problems with missing MBR or non-standard MBR drives.

Uhh, you back up drives with a missing MBR? You have system problems
and this probably accounts for the preceding item 3.

Only boot drives require a MBR. System and data drives do not. You can
have MBR on them too, but you don't need one. And Acronis won't support
them if they don't.

http://kb.acronis.com/content/1515

5) Has problems with some USB Card Readers.

Annoyances or actual problems? Data is data. If the machine allows
access to data and can send/receive the data, TI won't care where it
comes from.
Would this be just a TI issue or any program?

Acronis claims they have a new build to fix this problem. But now you
know from Acronis your already made backups with another build that it
may no longer work.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/kb/articles/1047/


6) Emailing support takes 5 to 6 weeks for an answer, which usually
has nothing with the problem you are having.

TI doesn't have forums and/or newsgroups? Those are often the best
source of assistance anyway. If suppost is that lousy, look for
workarounds or change products.

There was a third party that had a forum, but it was closed down.
Acronis now has their own. Although not many are around to help.

7) Can't restore Digital Rights Management correctly.
No idea. Does it save it correctly?

I can tell you what with the exception of #5 I have no such problems
with Ghost 14. And Item 4, well, I've had bad MBRs successfully
backup AND restore in the past. Actually, I don't know that Ghost
will put the MBR in an image. I know it does for a clone operation,
which I've heard is someting TI does't do for some reason. The MBR
would be important for a clone operation but as far as data goes, I
don't think it's even included in the images; I could be wrong.

I mentioned Ghost but it's about $10 more expensive than TI last I
looked. If you're on the tech-type at all and broke, BootItNG is
cheaper than either one and works as advertised, just without the
bells & whistles. I've installed it for a couple customers and it
seems to do exactly what it claims to do.

Well I can tell you simply by using WinPE or BartPE and a file manager
like A43 can copy to anything that the BIOS can see (including USB
devices) and you can restore the same way and that costs nothing. The
only time it didn't work is if MS Works v9 was copied. As Works is
broken if you copy it that way for some reason.

Paragon Drive Backup also has a free version and the commercial version
can be found on giveawayoftheday.com every 6 months or so for a day.

I do use Ghost v11 (DOS 32-bit version) with BartPE. And that does copy
the MBR if you tell it to do so. Ghost will also ignore bad sectors
(although you have to tell it's okay). While ATI won't let you restore
even with a non-important single bad sector.

Acronis fix if you can't restore it from an USB device, to copy the
file(s) to an internal drive. Nice fix, eh?

--
Bill
Gateway MX6124 ('06 era) - Windows XP SP2


.

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