Symptoms
Backup task hangs at "Calculating time remaining..."
Issue can reproduce with any backup source and destination.
Cause
The issue has various causes, the most frequent being Microsoft VSS-related problems. Follow the steps below to resolve the issue.
Solution
Perform the following steps and retry the backup after each step:
1. Update Acronis True Image to the latest build: see this article for instructions.
2. Reboot the computer.
3. Run the free Acronis VSS Doctor tool to diagnose and fix possible issues with VSS part of Windows operating system. Some issues with VSS can be fixed by the tool automatically, some require a manual fix.
If the tool has not detected any problems, or all found issues have been fixed but the issue reproduces again, skip to the next step
4. If Acronis VSS Doctor detected a problem with VSS, but automatic fix was not available and you could not apply a manual fix, then act depending on what was selected as backup source:
A) For disk/partition backups of non-system drives, and file/folder backups: disable VSS usage under Backup Options: Advanced -> Performance -> Snapshot for backup select Acronis Snapshot, as shown on the picture below:
or
B) For Entire PC backups and backups of system drives: it is necessary to fix detected VSS issues. Switching the snapshot setting from "VSS" to "Acronis Snapshot" is not applicable. Acronis True Image requires VSS part of Windows operating system to work correctly, especially when creating system backups.
Advanced Windows users can look into the logs at C:\ProgramData\Acronis\VssRequestorLogs to find more details about where exactly the failure occurs in the VSS subsystem.
If VSS errors point to a particular software, for example, Microsoft SQL Server, and you do not need this software on your computer, uninstall it, reboot the computer and reattempt the backup.
5. If VSS Doctor did not find any problem with VSS, create a new backup task with the same settings and run it. If it resolves the issue, delete the old backup task.
If the new backup task hangs at "Calculating time remaining..." too, run "Repair" installation as described in this article, reboot and retry the backup
6. Look at the last line of the backup log in the Log Viewer, see if it contains any helpful information about what part of the backup process fails and why.
7. Advanced users on Windows: you can rebuild product database as described here , see if it helps to resolve the issue.
8. Repairing the software or fresh install can help in many situations, when all of the above has failed. See this article for instructions