Acronis 2016

[andsome]

I have used Acronis 2016 for ages and had no problems. I am however having no luck today. I am trying to install a back up. Acronis loads and asks me what I want to do, so I click on recover a drive. It then goes to a black screen and a line of dots slowly forms across the screen and it says 'Collecting reports'. When this has finished it asks me to insert a USB flash drive and will go no further. This has never happened before, any ideas please?

[catgate]

" any ideas please?  "

 

Sneak out and buy a copy of Linux.

 

It took me two or three years to try it and I still have the bruises where I kicked myself for being so slow in switching over.

[andsome]

No thanks. I don't have the patience to learn a new operating system, and 'Er indoors would never master it.

[AlanHo]

Are you booting from an Acronis emergency recovery disc?

[andsome]

1 hour ago, AlanHo said:

Are you booting from an Acronis emergency recovery disc?

Yes as always. I even made a new one.

[AlanHo]

Then I'm mistificated.  It should boot into Acronis recovery unless the disc file is corrupted. You making a new one and the problem remaining is strange.

 

Unless of course - your Acronis is buggered and is copying a bug onto the disc when you create it.

 

You could uninstall Acronis and reinstall it before creating another disc. Or - If you are not in a hurry - I could send you an Acronis disc first class post tomorrow for you to try.  PM me if you want to try it.

 

 

[-pops-]

I've just installed Acronis 2019.

 

Perhaps your version is trying to tell you something.

[andsome]

2 hours ago, -pops- said:

I've just installed Acronis 2019.

 

Perhaps your version is trying to tell you something.

Thanks pops. If I do this do you know if it will install a back up made with 2016?

[AlanHo]

I have Acronis 2018 installed - but still using the Acronis 2016 recovery disc which will accept back-ups made on Acronis 2015, 2016 and even 2018.

 

I am starting to believe that the so-called improvements claimed for each new version are more cosmetic than fundamental. All they seem to do is add extra features most of us don't need (or in my case, understand) I can use a 2018 recovery disc to restore 2016 files and vice-versa so the actual back up file structure must be the same.

 

I do wish they would add a more user friendly front end so you are shown a diagrammatic file tree of the drives on your computer and be able to select easily the back-up source disk and the disk you wish to recover. The drive letters shown at present are not those that are used by windows file manager - hence I was always nervous that I had picked the right target.

 

I have three internal drives in my desktop computer :-

Drive C 250 GB SSD for Windows and software (This was originally a 500 GB Hard drive)

Drive D 500 GB SSD for all data (This was originally a 500 GB hard drive)

Drive E 3000 GB for Second Copy and Acronis back-ups

I also have an external 3000 GB USB3 hard drive for duplicate back-ups - belt and braces innit.

 

When the C and D drives were the same size - it was a nightmare chosing the right one to recover drive C - which is why they now differ.

 

I will not be upgrading to Acronis 2019 - unless you are able to advise it is a more friendly beast pops.

 

 

[andsome]

I too have a relatively small main drive for the operating system, plus a 1TB D drive for storage. My back ups are on a USB plug in hard drive. I have never had this problem of asking for a flash drive. Acronis offer little in the way of support, it seems virtually impossible to contact them direct. You are referred to a members forum, and have to rely on them being able to help. I have now joined, but am too fed up to mess about any more today. It is a good thing that I spotted this problem when I wanted to back up after a minor niggle, I would have had problems in the event of a catastrophe.

[AlanHo]

Keith

 

I have seen this problem before In my case the problem was due to Windows retaining a file in a queue it wants to write to a DVD 

 

Open file explorer and with a disc in the DVD drive right click on properties.

 

If there is an option shown called "close session" or words to that effect - click on it.

 

If that fails - I'm rather stumped

[andsome]

1 minute ago, AlanHo said:

Keith

 

I have seen this problem before In my case the problem was due to Windows retaining a file in a queue it wants to write to a DVD 

 

Open file explorer and with a disc in the DVD drive right click on properties.

 

If there is an option shown called "close session" or words to that effect - click on it.

 

If that fails - I'm rather stumped

Thanks I will try that when I use the computer again.

[-pops-]

3 hours ago, andsome said:

Thanks pops. If I do this do you know if it will install a back up made with 2016?

I don't know but I would think so.

What I have done is kept my latest three backups made with the previous version of Acronis and am now starting afresh.

[andsome]

I will try the Acronis forum first.

[andsome]

1 hour ago, AlanHo said:

Keith

 

I have seen this problem before In my case the problem was due to Windows retaining a file in a queue it wants to write to a DVD 

 

Open file explorer and with a disc in the DVD drive right click on properties.

 

If there is an option shown called "close session" or words to that effect - click on it.

 

If that fails - I'm rather stumped

No option there

[andsome]

I have downloaded the free version of Macrium reflect 7. Anyone tried this?

[AlanHo]

Best of luck with that - I tried Paragon. EaseUS and Macrium back ups some months ago but they were no better than Acronis.

 

Better the devil you know.

 

I was going to send you an Acronis 2016 recovery disc today - but after walking to the Post Office I found it was a Bank Holiday. I will post it tomorrow. Try before you buy.

[andsome]

1 hour ago, AlanHo said:

Best of luck with that - I tried Paragon. EaseUS and Macrium back ups some months ago but they were no better than Acronis.

 

Better the devil you know.

 

I was going to send you an Acronis 2016 recovery disc today - but after walking to the Post Office I found it was a Bank Holiday. I will post it tomorrow. Try before you buy.

Thanks for the promised disc. You say that Macrium was no better than Acronis, but was it any worse?

[AlanHo]

I can't recall. Other than to admit I downloaded EaseUS which looked to be a good solution and used it for 3 weeks. The very first time I tried a recovery - It could not load the back-up file and then froze the computer - so I dumped it.

 

You and I have used Acronis for many years - why change now over one glitch which may not turn out to be the fault of Acronis but summat else on the computer.

 

Stick with the devil you know - free software is all to often only worth every penny you pay for it

 

 

[andsome]

On 8/27/2018 at 8:44 PM, AlanHo said:

I can't recall. Other than to admit I downloaded EaseUS which looked to be a good solution and used it for 3 weeks. The very first time I tried a recovery - It could not load the back-up file and then froze the computer - so I dumped it.

 

You and I have used Acronis for many years - why change now over one glitch which may not turn out to be the fault of Acronis but summat else on the computer.

 

Stick with the devil you know - free software is all to often only worth every penny you pay for it

 

 

That’s fine if it starts working again. If only Acronis were more forthcoming  with help

[AlanHo]

If you had bought your Acronis from Barlows back in 2016 when they had a half price offer -  you could have got some advice from there.

 

I tried out my 2018 recovery disc last night just to be sure it was OK (You made me nervous) and met a problem.

It seemed to load OK on booting but I then got the row of dots while it compiled a report ending with a message stating that an operating system could not be found.

 

I tried it a second time - same thing. So I consulted Google and found on the Acronis forum that if the UEFI file for the DVD was loaded - that is what happens.

 

I use F2 on booting to access the BIOS when I want to boot from a DVD to temporarily move the DVD to the first position - I had wrongly selected a file named EUFI: TSSTcorp CDDVDW...etc instead of the file I usually chose titled P5:TSSTcorp etc. I changed the BIOS to the other file and everything worked fine.

 

Panic over.

[andsome]

I have made a recovery disc for Macrium. I tried it out up to the point of actually going ahead with installing . I will keep it for the time being, and will only use it if needed, then if it does not work I will have to reinstall Windows. Meantime I will uninstall and reinstall Acronis. I thought I had only saved the installer from Acronis 2012, but remember that when I installed it a few months ago after a reinstallation of Windows, it updated itself to 2016.

[andsome]

After the reinstall of Acronis it still won’t work. If an actual application of installing a Macrium backup in future does not work if needed, I will just have to reinstall Windows. Someone on the Acronis forum has been trying to help, but so far without success. I just hope that should the occasion arise, Macrium works O K.

[andsome]

I had intended to wait until I had a problem and try a Macrium restore. I bit the bullet and went for it this morning.  Absolutely no problem at all.  Why pay Acronis for loads of bells and whistles that most people don't need?

[D4\/!d]

I seem to remember there is a way to test the backup file you want to use.

I have a tree list of files on the left . At the right end of the file name there is a down arrow (hover for see it) click it and there is a drop down list. Select Validate.

It might sort out if the back up file is still any good.

Hope that helps,