Acronis Killed My Pro Tools

[Glitch Magnet]

Everyone said install Acronis True Image, so I did. Now PT9 won't launch.

I have a dual boot of two copies of Win7 x64, one for my main everyday use, and one for my DAW. So, after reading the exhausting Acronis manual, I decided I should install it on my main OS and backup images of both my main OS partition and my DAW OS partition from there. Immediately afterward, my DAW OS booted fine, but when I tried to launch Pro Tools, it said ProTools.exe was corrupted. I rebooted and then chkdsk ran and found a bunch of errors. After that, I no longer get the error message, but PT still won't launch.

So I uninstalled PT, wiped all related files and folders, cleaned my registry, and reinstalled PT. Still, PT will not launch. Looks like I will have to wipe my DAW OS partition and start from scratch.

I have the Acronis backup image, but I'm doubtlful it will save me. After this experience, I'm scared to death to even try to recover it lest it should corrupt something on my main OS too.

It was my assumption that Acronis would only create a backup image of the drive. I never expected it to change the data on it, but obviously it did.

So, what is the right way to back up a dual boot system?

[JMS40]

I've had 3 versions of TI, have imaged and restored dozens of drives, and it has never altered the data on the drives I've worked with.

[Greg M]

Many, many of us have and use Acronis to back up and image our disks. This is the first I have heard of something like this.

While I know no details of your system, my guess is that you have a hard drive that is failing. Corrupting of files can be a sign of a failing drive. Drive activity during a back up or imaging is very high and can be a bit stressful to a failing drive.

I would suggest buying a couple of new WD Caviar Black drives, try to back up your sessions and important data and then replace the drive that is yielding corrupted files.

Hope this helps,
Greg

[lowthert]

Ditto - this is not an Acronis issue (it has saved me countless times) - this is clearly a hardware issue...

[TOM@METRO]

I am currently running on at least the 6th generation of Acronis restorations and/or clones with absolutely no related negative issues. I agree that your drive is suspect at this point.

[cwsand]

At least if you get a new drive you can (hopefully) restore your image from the backup.

[Glitch Magnet]

Thanks everyone. The drive is a Caviar Black, just a few months old. I'll post my Sandra if it becomes necessary.

I'm real skittish with backup software since a bad experience with Norton Ghost a few years back. I attributed its failure then to its inability to handle a dual boot system. I beleive it crashed my computer as I was switching between OSes, then could not resolve the proper drive letters when I tried to restore. It kept restoring to the wrong partitions, and wouldn't let me choose. Anyway, that's old news.

But, I'm fearful and suspicious of a similar situtation here. Not that that explains why my PT install got corrupted. It doesn't.

Has anyone here specifically had experience with Acronis on a dual boot system?

[SNAPPER]

windows7 has a built-in imaging system for backups, no reason to use a 3rd party app for this anymore.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by SNAPPER

windows7 has a built-in imaging system for backups, no reason to use a 3rd party app for this anymore.

I prefer Acronis.

[spenner]

With HDDs and eSATA docks so cheap nowadays, use one partition for the system drive and use Acronis to keep a clone of it. The simplest way IMO. I have an eSata dock for this as well as for loading Win Vista and XP boot drives.