Problems Using Sandisk Extreme with Acronis TI

FTNR21 · 18 Nov 2022

Hello all,

I have Acronis TI 2017 that I bought years ago for my Windows 8.1 Dell XPS 8700 desktop. When I bought Acronis, I had planned to carve up the internal 2TB HDD but never got around to it. Very recently, the PC crashed and could not be recovered. So, I decided that since 8.1 was terminal anyway, I would just start fresh with Win10.

First thing that I did after clean installing Windows 10 was partition the drive. One for Windows (C), one for data (D) and one for downloads (F). I have a second internal HDD that I installed which I use exclusively for my sizable music collection (E). The next thing that I did was buy two Sandisk Extreme SSD external drives. One 2TB for data and one 1TB for image backups. As soon as I got them, I immediately backed up my data and made a backup image of my C drive with Acronis TI.

A couple weeks later, I was tinkering with some display options and soon after, started having some minor glitches that restoring the settings didn't fix. I had just made a new image backup only a few days prior so I decided to do a restore. Well, It didn't work out for some reason. The first issue I ran into was that Acronis couldn't see the subfolders on the Sandisk Extreme. So, I had to transfer the backup images to the root of another flash drive. Even on the second flash drive, I tried several times with a couple images and all ended in one failure or another. At the end of the day, since Acronis wiped my C partition during the attempted recoveries, I had no choice but to clean install Windows again and rebuild from scratch.

So, I'm looking for answers on what I might have done wrong. Why didn't Acronis see the subfolders on the Sandisk drive? Do I need to reformat to something other than exFAT? Maybe remove the Sandisk files that came on the drive? I did initially have the password feature on the drive setup but then deactivated it which didn't help with the restore problem.

Any thoughts, tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

dalchina · 18 Nov 2022

Hi, forgive the obvious- ditch Acronis TI (an old version anyway), use Macrium Reflect (free) - periodically updated, and once happy, consider the significantly advanced paid option (adds good features including incremental imaging and forum access).

Or if you want a less sophisticated solution, there's Aomei Backupper by a Chinese developer. Again, free option available.

Do I need to reformat to something other than exFAT?

What is it you're using exFAT for exactly?

Try3 · 18 Nov 2022

I've been using Acronis TI for a decade and have never encountered the problem you describe.
Please would you reproduce the problem & posts screenshots? You can then abort, you won't be forced to go through with the restore.
- Screenshot of File explorer showing the images to be restored.
- Screenshot of Acronis not being able to see subfolders containing its system images.

All the best,
Denis

PS
1 I did not understand why you made a separate partition for Downloads instead of just a folder.
2 I did not understand why you formatted your backup drive exFat. I do not see any benefit in doing so. Is it also a boot drive?

FTNR21 · 18 Nov 2022

dalchina said:

Hi, forgive the obvious- ditch Acronis TI (an old version anyway), use Macrium Reflect (free) - periodically updated, and once happy, consider the significantly advanced paid option (adds good features including incremental imaging and forum access).

Or if you want a less sophisticated solution, there's Aomei Backupper by a Chinese developer. Again, free option available.

What is it you're using exFAT for exactly?

Per your suggestion from the other thread, I have been working with Macrium Reflect. I would just like to understand what happened and why so that I don't run into this problem again.

Try3 said:

I've been using Acronis TI for a decade and have never encountered the problem you describe.
Please would you reproduce the problem & posts screenshots? You can then abort, you won't be forced to go through with the restore.
- Screenshot of File explorer showing the images to be restored.
- Screenshot of Acronis not being able to see subfolders containing its system images.

PS
1 I did not understand why you made a separate partition for Downloads instead of just a folder.
2 I did not understand why you formatted your backup drive exFat. I do not see any benefit in doing so. Is it also a boot drive?

Sandisk Extreme SSD come formatted in exFAT from the factory. If that is not ideal, what would you suggest?

I have a few screenshots and a log that Acronis created after one of the failed recovery attempts. This photo shows that Acronis does not see any content or folders on local disk (H), which is the Sandisk Extreme. There is in fact several folders and a few files on the root of that drive.

Try3 · 19 Nov 2022

Click on the little arrowhead to see the subfolders & keeping doing so until you reach the folder containing the image[s], which will be shown on the right-hand side [which is currently set to display only image files but can be set to display other "Files of type"].

Problems Using Sandisk Extreme with Acronis TI-sandisk-image-thinhy.png

All the best,
Denis

Try3 · 19 Nov 2022

FTNR21 said:

Sandisk Extreme SSD come formatted in exFAT from the factory. If that is not ideal, what would you suggest?

I did not realise they came that way.
I thought you must have deliberately reformatted as exFat and I thought your reasoning might have a bearing on the main discussion.
Whilst NTFS is very much the norm, the limitations of exFat are unlikely to affect your use of it.
File System Functionality Comparison - MSLearn
- Some Android file managers can read exFat drives [and Fat32 drives]. NTFS drives might require a paid add-on.
- exFat can apparently be read on an Apple computer.
- I used to use exFat for a large SD card but found that it could not retain the drive letter that I had set for it in Disk mgmt.

All the best,
Denis

FTNR21 · 19 Nov 2022

Yes, that would normally work but the arrow disappears when I click on it.

Just so you can see that I'm not an idiot, here's a screenshot of the folder structure on the SSD.

Also, perhaps this is another indicator of the problem, but the Aronis backups have been under 30 GB while the Macrium backup that I made the other day was over 264 GB. If that's normal, then I would certainly be inclined to stick with Acronis just for the space efficiency.

Problems Using Sandisk Extreme with Acronis TI-imag2127.jpg

Problems Using Sandisk Extreme with Acronis TI-2022-11-19_09-15-02.jpg

Try3 · 19 Nov 2022

Your diagram is pretty conclusive.

Problems Using Sandisk Extreme with Acronis TI-ftnr21-closeup.jpg

This is my equivalent diagram from my AcronisTI boot disk and it shows my subfolders so I can browse to my images.

Problems Using Sandisk Extreme with Acronis TI-my-equivalent.jpg

There are good reasons to switch to using Macrium but you'll probably want to resolve the problem so that you could restore to an old Acronis image if you ever needed to.
- I did notice that your diagram shows Files of type (Backup archives (*.tib) instead of Files of type (Backup archives (*.tibx, *.tib). I think that changed at least five years ago.
- You could always sign up for a trial version of a modern Acronis TI, use it to make a modern AcronisTI boot disk and then uninstall the trial version. That's what I did [my normal ATI is tied to Seagate disks but I wanted a boot disk that was not limited like that].
- Or you might be able to find an ISO of a modern Acronis TI boot disk somewhere online for download.

I have been happy with Acronis but am currently alternating Acronis & Macrium system images.
- I need a qualifying Samsung-Seagate disk in each of my computers to make system images using their free version of AcronisTI, "Seagate DiscWizard".
- I use Seagate DiscWizard v25 [=ATI2020].
- I do not wish to be trapped by the new Samsung-Seagate UK warranty policy for SSDs, USBs & SD cards [minimum £9 non-refundable postage cost for warranty repairs/replacements]. That's why I'm transitioning to Macrium.
- I can take my time because my backup disks are all Seagate HDDs so I qualify for DiscWizard while they are connected.
- I told the Samsung UK about this problem nine months ago [and got my £9 back through the CEO's office staff rather than through the warranty claim itself] but the policy remains in force so I will not replace anything with their SSDs, USBs or SD cards.

All the best,
Denis

Steve C · 20 Nov 2022

Acronis software is poorly engineered and supported. Your best plan would be to ditch it and use something like Macrium Reflect. The free version is fine for most people. Those older versions of Acronis backup leave remnants behind which can be hard to remove due to poor software engineering.

Try3 · 20 Nov 2022

Steve C said:

Acronis software is poorly engineered ...

Steve,

You never post any evidence for that statement despite my asking.

All the best,
Denis