Rollback RX v10.3 Issues

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by TheRollbackFrog, May 28, 2015.

  1. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2011
    Posts:
    4,945
    Location:
    The Pond - USA
    Yep. The special Rollback MBR (which includes its sub-Console code) was never installed. Most likely MBR modification was inhibited on the target system. This is usually due to some anti-V/anti-rootkit app running on the target system.

    You'll need to unInstall the broken Rollback, find the app that's inhibiting you and disable it until after you have made a successful installation.

    Edit: some systems even have a BiOS setting that sometimes disallows MBR modification... but that would be a last resort to check on.
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2015
  2. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2011
    Posts:
    4,945
    Location:
    The Pond - USA
    Bear, if you're not able to get your issues answered properly here, there's also a Rollback RX Forum over at Horizon DataSys that may be able to help. An HDS representative over there, Sam Smith, is pretty attentive to that Forum when there are user problems/issues... FYI.

    Also, Kurtis, a Senior Account Representative from Horizon DataSys, hangs around here a bit and may be able to help in addition.
     
  3. Kurtis Smejkal

    Kurtis Smejkal Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2015
    Posts:
    253
    Location:
    Vancouver, BC
    Thanks Froggie for your answer. You're spot on.

    It's definitely a failed attempt at installing the software on the MBR/GPT Partition. This could be anything from Anti-Virus, to other software that occupies the MBR/GPT partition. It could also be as simple as some other encryption. Bitlocker is a major offender of this.

    It's going to be hard for us to know what's going on without a you filing a Support Ticket with attached Log Files. The info will be there as to what this is. Feel free to check the regular offenders, but if you aren't finding out why, there's always the support portal!

    Cheers,
     
  4. TheBear

    TheBear Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 7, 2006
    Posts:
    174
    Thanks. after some issues submitting a ticket,

    I submitted a ticket with attachments.
    I hope you folks can figure it out.
    I would really like to get this installed again.

    I have had it working in the past, but removed it becaused it had quite a few problems. Now hoping to try it again.

    regards
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2015
  5. TheBear

    TheBear Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 7, 2006
    Posts:
    174
    Well it appears that I fixed it. after changing many settings in the bios (one at a time), I believe it was which device the bios was set to boot to. It was set to
    "windows boot manager". As soon as I set it to the hard drive (p1:samsung 500 g SSD) it showed the rollback pre-boot install screen and installed shield.

    One interesting thing I noticed in the troubleshooting. I have 2 PC's now with rollback installed.

    The 1st PC that I had not trouble with looks like this:
    MBR/system reserved/c:ntfs. These are the three partitions on my C drive.

    On the 2nd PC. The one I was having trouble with, there are four partitions:
    MBR/Unallocated/system reserved/c:ntfs. The unallocated is 8 meg. It is not a partition, but is taking up space. I can't move it. I can't create a partition. I can't do anything with it.

    Any idea why that unallocated space in there in that order on the 2nd pc when it is not on the 1st PC. The both are running windows 8.1 pro.

    regards
     
  6. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,113
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    TheBear,

    To help sort it out, could you post a screenshot of Disk Management from each computer?
     
  7. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2011
    Posts:
    4,945
    Location:
    The Pond - USA
    Brian is right... we need to see your Disk Mgmt screen. The MBR is NOT a partition and as such will not show up under any partition map. We're just trying to find out if one of your machines is MBR based and the other might be UEFI/GPT maybe.
     
  8. TheBear

    TheBear Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 7, 2006
    Posts:
    174
    here is the screen capture of each computer
    the one with the 8 meg unallocated space is the one I was having trouble installing rollback rx on.
     

    Attached Files:

  9. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,113
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    Thanks. Both are MBR mode installs but the problematic computer might have the partitions aligned on cylinders rather than 1 MiB boundaries. Sorry to ask for more info but can you post a partinfo for each computer?
     
  10. TheBear

    TheBear Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 7, 2006
    Posts:
    174
    I know how to get partition info for each partition individually. Is that what you want or is the a utility I can use for that info?
     
  11. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,113
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
  12. TheBear

    TheBear Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 7, 2006
    Posts:
    174
    I did use minipartition wizard to do a partition alignment on that one with the unallocated space. The computer was unbootable after that, but as soon as I told the bios to boot to disk 1 instead of using windows boot manager, it worked fine.
    I have rollback rx running and have done a backup in windows with IFW.

    attached is the partinfo file. If it was partition alignment, it would probably have been fixed when I ran the minipartition wizard partition alignment.

    And many thanks for your help folks. It really made a difference here.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: May 29, 2015
  13. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,113
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    Thanks again. Did you create those partitions with MiniTool Partition Wizard? They are a mess in that they are close to Cylinder aligned but not quite. The partition offset on HD1 is 16072 (Extended Partition) and it should be 16065.

    The partition offset for the first partition on HD0 is 16384 and it should be 16065.
    The partition offset for the second partition on HD0 is 739328 and that isn't on a cylinder boundary either.

    HD2 is fine.

    Needless to say, I'm not a fan of MiniTool Partition Wizard.

    If you use Disk Management (or the Win8 install disk) to create the partitions they will be 1 MiB aligned.
     
  14. TheBear

    TheBear Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 7, 2006
    Posts:
    174
    I don't recall now what I used. I have had to rebuild it a couple of time due to rollback rx issues. Is there a way I can automatically force them into the correct alignment and still have a bootable pc? If not minitool, then what?
     
  15. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,113
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    This should work. Uninstall Rx and create an Entire Drive Image of HD0 with IFW.

    Boot the TBWinPE/RE disk and in IFW click Settings, Geometry. Make sure you have ticks in...

    Align Partitions on 1MiB Boundaries
    Align MBR for BIOS Auto Mode
    (there will be one greyed out tick too)

    Do an Entire Drive Restore and in Options put ticks in...

    Scale to Fit
    Remove Gaps on Restore
    Log Results to File
    (DO NOT put a tick in Align to Target)

    Can we see a PartInfo after you have done the restore?
     
  16. TheBear

    TheBear Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 7, 2006
    Posts:
    174
    Thanks, I will do and shoot you the results.

    Regards.
     
  17. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,113
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    Also, if you have a UEFI/BIOS, what do you have in the Boot tab for Secure Boot and CSM (Compatibility Support Module)?

    Also, can you post a PartInfo for the other computer? It could be interesting too.
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2015
  18. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,113
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    My mistake. HD2 isn't fine as it's a GPT disk that is missing a MSR.
     
  19. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2011
    Posts:
    4,945
    Location:
    The Pond - USA
    Bear, I'm sure you realize this but I'll mention it for the heck of it...

    The first rule of Rollbacking is NEVER, EVER do any partition work with Rollback installed. it must be completely unINSTALLed. Do all your partitioning work (positioning/aligning, etc.) and when all is settled and your system BOOTs like it should (incl. BOOTmgr setting), that's when Rollback should be installed.

    Although tools like Rollback should be able to operate with your HDD partitions located most anywhere (incl. the ACTIVE MSRP <if used> and/or the MicroSloth System partition <C:\>), I believe it has some "legacy" issues associated with the ACTIVE partition (on an MBR system) located either at sector #63 on an HDD or #2048 on an SSD... just a nasty feeling that I have (there's a lot of "legacy" code in Rollback).
     
  20. Kurtis Smejkal

    Kurtis Smejkal Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2015
    Posts:
    253
    Location:
    Vancouver, BC
    Hey all,

    All of this should be combined and placed in the ticket created. This not only helps our techs but also will let us know of any short comings of the software. I don't know your Ticket ID Bear, but if you could update it with some brief notes on what you did, our techs would appreciate it.

    Cheers,
     
  21. TheBear

    TheBear Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 7, 2006
    Posts:
    174
    I don't think my notes would do any good. I tried so many different things and had to reboot with and without boot disk so many times that I can't say for sure what fixed the problem. I added a note to the ticket indicating I fixed the problem and told them that they could close it.

    Thanks for you help and active participation. It help us users have more confidence in HDS.

    regards
     
  22. Kurtis Smejkal

    Kurtis Smejkal Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2015
    Posts:
    253
    Location:
    Vancouver, BC
    You're welcome. I'm always here to help. I'll forward this thread to technicians perhaps.
     
  23. TheBear

    TheBear Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 7, 2006
    Posts:
    174
    both computers have UEFI/bios. Both computers have and have had for a long time Secure boot enabled (I can see no way to disable it). On computer 1 (where rollback installed ok, but would not finish booting). When I disabled legacy support for USB, that fixed the problem. To clarify. With usb3 external drive plugged in, rollback would not finish boot. with drive unplugged, rollback would finish boot. disable legacy support for usb. No problem booting, plugged or unplugged.

    Computer 2 has a slightly different uefi/bios and newer motherboard. Both MB's are ASUS, btw.
    Oh. And to fix that Disk? What needs to be done?

    regards
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2015
  24. TheBear

    TheBear Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 7, 2006
    Posts:
    174
    I am not seeing any of these options in IFW when I boot with the boot disk and attempt to restore my backup w/o rollback.

    Scale to Fit
    Remove Gaps on Restore
    Log Results to File
    (DO NOT put a tick in Align to Target)

    Am I missing something
     
  25. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,113
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    I have a couple of Asus MBs. Click Secure Boot and you should see OS Type. Click it. You will have Windows UEFI mode and Other OS. As your OS is installed in MBR mode you should have Other OS selected. Secure Boot state will still show as Enabled but the Platform Key state will show as Unloaded (after a restart). You should have CSM Enabled.

    For both HD1 and HD2 I'd backup the data, use Diskpart "clean" to zero the first and last 1 MiB of the disk and then use Windows Disk Management to create your partitions. Finally, copy the data back to the new partitions.
     
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.