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 Post Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 9:33 pm 
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I am using ATI 2016, Build 6571. I currently create 4 Acronis backups to different drives (2 internal, 2 external). I use a full, single version backup scheme, so the old backup is deleted once the new one is completed.

One of by backups is rather large (424GB)....it includes the internal drive (C) where my Win 10 OS is installed, and an external drive (L) containing many photos and short videos from my game cameras.

Last week I successfully performed this large backup to an external drive (I). Then I scheduled this backup to be performed each Fri morning at 12:01am. To my surprise and disappointment, when I checked my computer the next morning, Acronis showed the backup performed overnight to be corrupt. I mean, same backup of same drives was OK earlier in the week, but now it's corrupt?

To make matters worse, two other things happened with this backup:
(1) It completed to the point that it then deleted my good backup from earlier in the week; so now I have no valid backup remaining.
(2) When I click on the large Acronis .tib file generated overnight on backup drive (I), I get the message to "Please locate the last volume of the backup" (I honestly don't know what this means).

I know drive (I) is a good working drive because I also performed a Macrium backup of drives (C) and (L) to this drive, and I used SyncToy to backup some data files to drive (I). I have no problem currently reading the results of the Macrium and SyncToy backups.

I would appreciate any help/advice to understand what is going on. Thanks in advance......

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 Post Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 10:18 pm 
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Sorry that I can't help you on this one -- I gave up on Acronis many years back when it failed on me when trying to do a restore after a drive crash. My current backup is only data files using Crash Plan (to the cloud) and multiple copies of documents, music, pictures, etc. to a NAS and between computers using GoodSync (I also stopped using SyncToy years ago after discovering GoodSync, which I purchased after the trial).

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 Post Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 11:56 pm 
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I have the same experience as Steve. Always found Acronis to be a flaky program. I have a hard time understanding why it continues to be recommended.

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 Post Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 8:34 am 
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sboots wrote:
Sorry that I can't help you on this one -- I gave up on Acronis many years back when it failed on me when trying to do a restore after a drive crash. My current backup is only data files using Crash Plan (to the cloud) and multiple copies of documents, music, pictures, etc. to a NAS and between computers using GoodSync (I also stopped using SyncToy years ago after discovering GoodSync, which I purchased after the trial).

I have also had several problems with Acronis, but Macrium seems to be working for me. I have also had good experiences with SyncToy, but I will look into GoodSync.

Steve, exactly what is a NAS? I see the term used, but I guess I don't understand.

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 Post Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 9:00 am 
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If SyncToy is fulfilling your needs, I'd stick with it over Goodsync, but do check it out. ;-)

NAS is Network Attached Storage. I used to run Windows Home Server -- since the earliest beta days. When my HP EX470 began acting flaky last year, I picked up a Western Digital My Cloud unit - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I2 ... UTF8&psc=1.

-steve

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 Post Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:40 pm 
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Well, my problem has been solved, and a new Acronis backup has been successfully created. I thought I would close out this thread my explaining what happened in case others encounter a similar problem.

Here was the problem I was having, and the required solution as explained by an Acronis staff member on the Acronis forum:
If you're having the "Please locate the last volume..." issue when opening Acronis backups in Windows Explorer - try deleting all the files in C:\Users\[your_username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Database

And that’s exactly the problem I was having with all of my Acronis backups. Once I deleted the three files in the Database folder, my problem went away. All backups now look good, and I can readily access them using File Manager.

So what caused my problem? Turns out, it was because I replaced the external drive where the backups were being saved. My original drive (I) cratered a few weeks ago and was replaced by Seagate under warranty. When the replacement drive arrived, I did a quick format and then connected it to the same USB port as my old failed drive (I). Then I performed the same backup task to this new drive. And that's when my problems began.

I erroneously thought that since I gave my new drive the same letter designation (I) as the old drive, Acronis would have no problem with the replacement. But that's not the way Acronis works.......Acronis uses the drive-unique ID. Since my old and new drive (I) had different ID's, that screwed up the original Acronis database.

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 Post Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:57 pm 
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This is true across the board with computers, Bb. What you see as a Windows Profile User Name, for instance, is really a 25-digit GUID (globally unique identifier) to Windows. Computers don't think in names, they think in binary, or HEX (translated eventually to binary) numbers. What is Drive I to you, is not Drive I to the computer. If you change the hardware, the new drive gets a completely new GUID. These names and drive letters are for the benefit of us humans. ;)

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 Post Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 1:19 am 
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Good job on tracking down the answer BB. :)

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 Post Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 1:48 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
Good job on tracking down the answer BB. :)

Thanks, Jay. I did indeed have to 'birddog' that issue. I was hoping to get some help/guidance from CH, but Steve and Patty bailed on me, lol.

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 Post Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 2:10 pm 
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MacDuffie wrote:
This is true across the board with computers, Bb. What you see as a Windows Profile User Name, for instance, is really a 25-digit GUID (globally unique identifier) to Windows. Computers don't think in names, they think in binary, or HEX (translated eventually to binary) numbers. What is Drive I to you, is not Drive I to the computer. If you change the hardware, the new drive gets a completely new GUID. These names and drive letters are for the benefit of us humans. ;)

Patty, I understand that computers 'think' in binary numbers. But when I want to converse with, say, an external drive, I don't use the GUID; instead, I use the drive letter assigned by Windows.

All of the entries in Acronis are drive letters, i.e., source drive is C and destination drive is I. Or source drives are C & D, and destination drive is J. No where in the program or the user guide do they talk about drive GUID, so I had no idea that GUID's are what went into the Acronis database.

When I had to replace my drive I, SyncToy had no problem with it. My 6 source (left) folders went straight to the corresponding right folders on the new drive I. SyncToy did not display some esoteric error message about the new drive not having the same GUID as the old drive. SyncToy just did what I asked it to do......it saved my data files to the new drive.

I also populated my new drive I with some of my game camera photos and videos using drag/drop and occasionally the Windows Copy To command. These utilities didn't balk and say wrong GUID.

But Acronis did balk, and it took be a long time to run down this undocumented issue. That's why I sought help from members of CH and the Acronis forum......where I thought other users of Acronis might have experienced and solved this very same problem. 8-)

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 Post Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:30 pm 
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I understand. Yes, SyncToy was very well behaved here also. Perhaps because it was created by Raymond Chen - the phenomenal creator of the Windows Powertoys - of which SyncToy was one.

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 Post Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 8:25 pm 
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bbarry wrote:
When I had to replace my drive I, SyncToy had no problem with it. My 6 source (left) folders went straight to the corresponding right folders on the new drive I. SyncToy did not display some esoteric error message about the new drive not having the same GUID as the old drive. SyncToy just did what I asked it to do......it saved my data files to the new drive.


Didn't you report having a problem with SyncToy where we recommended deleting and recreating the folder pair after your drive replacement?
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1362

-steve

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 Post Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 8:48 pm 
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sboots wrote:
bbarry wrote:
When I had to replace my drive I, SyncToy had no problem with it. My 6 source (left) folders went straight to the corresponding right folders on the new drive I. SyncToy did not display some esoteric error message about the new drive not having the same GUID as the old drive. SyncToy just did what I asked it to do......it saved my data files to the new drive.


Didn't you report having a problem with SyncToy where we recommended deleting and recreating the folder pair after your drive replacement?
http://computerhaven.com/forum/viewtopi ... =22&t=1362
-steve

Steve, you are absolutely correct. When I didn't do that, SyncToy went straight to the new drive but only gave me updates from the time the physical drive had been replaced. I had forgotten about that. I can often remember what I did in the 5th grade, but not what I did yesterday. :oops:

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 Post Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 8:54 pm 
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bbarry wrote:
I can often remember what I did in the 5th grade, but not what I did yesterday. :oops:

:rofl2: Don't feel alone my friend!

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 Post Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2016 6:59 am 
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bbarry wrote:
Steve, you are absolutely correct. When I didn't do that, SyncToy went straight to the new drive but only gave me updates from the time the physical drive had been replaced. I had forgotten about that. I can often remember what I did in the 5th grade, but not what I did yesterday. :oops:


:-D Same problem here -- random access memory. In this case, I recalled the SyncToy problem because the answer I gave was the "hit it with a hammer" solution of delete and recreate. However, that problem would be similar to the Acronis problem. Yes, the drive is there and has the drive letter of the device that had that drive letter assignment, but it isn't the drive that was expected.

Ah, computers! :-)

-steve

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