On Sun, 05 Jul 2015 21:58:26 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:
wrote:
On Sun, 05 Jul 2015 13:02:22 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:
wrote:
I bought a Toshiba hdtc710xr3a1 external drive for backing up my new
computer running professional windows-7 64 bit operating system.. I
also bought Acronis True Image 2015. This a home-built desktop.
computer.
Repeated attempts to back up using Acronis failed, apparently blocked
by the external drive.
Failing with Acronis, I attempted to backup using windows' program,
which also failed.
During all this, pop-ups asking how I wanted to use the drive
repeatedly appeared. Also, I kept getting pop-ups saying I needed to
format the drive before I could use it. It is already formatted.
To insure the drive could accept files, using explorer I copied
several files to it from other hard drives. And then deleted them.
So, to make sure the backup programs were functioning correctly, I
successfully backed up, using both programs, to a empty/spare internal
hard rive. At lest I have a backup now, but not where I wanted
it/them!
The drive had backup software installed on it, which I didn't want to
use.
So, it appears that there is something unique about the drive that
windows doesn't like. I am about ready to return it. I hate to,
because I like to solve problems...not skirt them. This is a new
experience for me.
I have successfully used a Toshiba external drive (different model) on
my laptop.
Before I ship it back, I would like some comments on this problem.
Ben
Long time lurker, first time poster here.
Go into Disk Management and look at it there.
Is it properly formatted? What's the partition info say? What does
Windows say about it?
Post the details here.
Ed
The drive came NTSF formatted and had backup programs that I deleted.
After windows kept telling to format, I reformatted to NTSF hoping the
alerts would go away.
I ran CHKDSK on the empty drive. It found no problems.
Disk Management reports 931.51 GB NTSF Healthy primary partition.
Ben
When you say "The drive had backup software installed on it" what
exactly do you mean?
WD portable drives come with a partition containing their backup
software (not installed, but "installable" if you want it); but they
install a virtual drive whenever you plug the HD in.
Is Toshiba doing something similar, perhaps? Or do they maybe load some
program at start-up that could be locking the HD out to Acronis? You'd
have to look in the Task Manager processes for that.
You say that both Acronis and Windows System Image "failed"? What fail
messages did you get?
Ed
Don't know if this drive was set up to install a virtual drive. I'm
not sure I would have recognized it if it did.
Unfortunately, I don't remember what all the Acronis messages were. I
swarmed with repeated pop-ups telling me to format, asking how the
drive is to be used, files not found..etc.
The drive had some files and directories loaded. One of the files was
a setup.exe, implying that I could install the program(s). Partition
Magic revealed that the drive had a strange 100 GB partition at the
"front" of the drive. The rest was a primary partition. I my effort
to fix the problem, used Partition Magic to delete both partitions and
established a single NTFS primary partition...AFTER, having copied all
the files and directories to another drive in case I needed them.
After all that, the backup continued to fail.
Finally, I tried a smaller Toshiba drive (different model) I used for
my laptop which is running Windows 7 Home. Backup was successful! So,
there is something hinky about the new Toshiba drive.
I am beginning to believe that I bough the wrong kind of drive. Should
have gotten one with no bell and whistles. Sigh..... lessons learned
the hard way. I thought re-partitioning and formatting would have
created a nice clean generic usb backup drive.
I will probably return this drive and get a larger one without the
hinky bells and whistles. The computer has two 500 GB hard drives and
a 500 GB SSD, so I might as well get a 2 TB back up drive.
Thank you for your interest.
Ben