Restoring C: Partition (Vista)

Hi everyone

I've been a TI user for quite a while, religiously backing up my partitions on my PC. Today I thought I would test that in the event of a system crash, I would be able to restore my data again.

My system is as follows :-

Windows Vista Home Premium
2 identical 250 GB SATA drives configured as RAID 0 (striped) Total space 500GB. I have split this into 2 partitions, C: drive (90GB) for Windows Vista and the remainder as a D: drive for data.

I also have a second IDE drive which I have partitioned to hold photos, downloads etc.

I'm using TI 11 the latest build.

OK the background which led to the problem......

I was trying to install Vista SP1 and got a blue screen of death with a bad pool caller error. I've tried installing this a few times with the same result. When I installed Vista in March lst year, I created a partition of the C: drive on an external usb HD. I wanted to restore this partition to see if I could install Vista SP1 on this fresh Vista system, so I could eiminate any software which may have caused SP1 to fail. I had however, created a fresh image of my C: drive should I need to revert back to my current system.

OK the problem....

I booted from the TI bootable media which I created and got into the recovery console. I followed the wizard, choosing the location on the external usb drive where the image I wanted to restore was located. I then was asked to choose the location to restore to (I wanted to replace my current C: drive with this older image), but the partition didn't appear. I could only see the rest of my partitions and not the C:\VISTA partion which I wanted to restore to. The C:\ partition had been assigned to my external usb drive. All the rest of my partitions are carefully labelled, so I know what is contained in them should the drive letters change.

OK, I thought I would try the operation within Windows. Went to Windows and again followed the procedure to restore the partition via the wizard. Everything looked straightforward. I chose the image I wanted to recover, then chose the C:\VISTA partition as the location I wished to recover to. I started the operation and TI told me it needed to reboot my system and on reboot it loaded into the Acronis console (operation progress). It seemed to check the partitions, but there didn't look like there was any recovery taking place as it completed in seconds, then rebooted and asked my to log back into Windows. On logging back into Windows, I arrived at the current system I was using. In other words, TI hadn't restored the C:\VISTA partition to an earlier state.

I have checked the archive I was restoring and it was valid according to TI and I even tried to restore a later version of the C: drive which I had created with TI, again, the same result. There are no error messages or information messages, so I am a bit confused as to what has gone wrong! I might be doing something fundamentally wrong! :-D

Any help you can give appreciated.

Thanks

Sam.

 

When you booted to the TI CD, was the D: (Data) partition missing also? If TI didn't see your RAID correctly both the C: (Vista) and D: (Data) partitions should have been missing.

Have you tried the quiet acpi=off noapic option detailed in Section II of the PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU POST thread?

 

OK Mud Crab, thanks for responding. I have booted with the Acronis boot CD and I cannot see the D: drive either. So it looks like TI cannot see my RAID when booting from the recovery CD.

I've added the line quiet acpi=off noapic and couldn't see anything different when I chose "full version"

We have determined that TI cannot see my RAID when booted from the recovery CD. Why should the restore of the partition still not work when restored from within Windows when TI can see my RAID?

Also, not sure if this has any bearing on the problem, but my recovery CD was created when I had TI11 Home build 8027, but I'm currently on TI11 build 8053. I'm using True Image HOME version 11 build 8053.

Any further thoughts?

Many thanks

Sam.

 

Because TI reboots to the Linux (Full) mode to do the restore (the same as if you booted it from the CD).

Create another TI CD with build 8,053 (it may actually be 8,054). The newer build may support your RAID.

Also, depending on your hardware, the SafeMedia version may be able to see your external drive. You could download it from your Acronis account and install it so it can be included on your new 8,053 TI CD.

 

Ahh right I get you now. The build is definitely 8053 for TI Home 11. What's the safe media version? Couldn't find anything on the Acronis site about it even after logging in.

I created a new boot CD from version 8053. Slightly different problem now. When I boot with the CD and go into the recovery manager and the restore data wizard I get the following screens :-

Choose archive - I can browse to my external HD and choose the archive to restore CLICK NEXT

Disks or Partitions - I chose partition C:\VISTA which is the drive I want to replace. It showing as Prim,Act 98.14GB NTFS (So TI can see it)

The other option is MBR and Track 0

CLICK NEXT

Restored partition location screen - The only partitions showing up here are the partitions created on my second IDE HD. One of the partitions on this drive has taken on the drive letter C: but there are no VISTA or DATA labelled partitions.

At this point I cancel and just reboot and boot normally into Windows.

Sam.

 

After you log into your account, select your Registered Products, then TI 11 and then scroll down to the bottom (after the change log text).

TI is seeing the Vista partition from the backup image file, not the Vista partition on the RAID setup.

This is the correct thing to do since TI is not seeing the RAID properly.

Also try the quiet acpi=off noapic option again with build 8,053 (if you haven't).

 

Thanks MudCrab, I found the safe media plugin and burned a new image on a CD to boot from. Booted from the CD and changed the command line quiet acpi=off no apic. Went into the full verion of TI Home and exactly the same situation as before, no C or D drives and no RAID appearing.

I rebooted and went into the safemedia version. Firstly there was no mouse support, not a problem as I used the keyboard. I then tabbed to the recovery option. I got a full back screen with an under line horizontal cursor flashing in the top left hand corner. I left it like that for about 30mins and there was no activity. Rebooted and went into Windows normally.

Looks like this isn't going to work...

Sam.

 

In the computer's BIOS, do you have the "Legacy USB" option turned on? This may enable mouse support for the SafeMedia version.

If you only tried the SafeMedia version one time, you might try several times in a row. I've had cases were the Safe version would reboot the computer the first time and then work fine the next time.

You may want to create a flashdrive and try booting TI from that. I have one computer that won't boot TI from the CD but boots fine from a flashdrive.

Another option would be to create a BartPE or VistaPE TI CD.

You could try some of the other Linux kernel options listed on page 118 (Appendix D) of the TI 11 User's Guide. And finally, you could submit a support requrest to Acronis with your computer's information and see if they can provide you a build that supports your RAID controller.

 

Looks like this is headed toward needing a VistPE boot disk or BartPE boot disk to run the recovery in a Windows environment.

 

Hello sam67uk,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

Please try booting with "acpi=off noapic" parameter as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

If that doesn't solve the problem, please collect some information to let us investigate it thoroughly:

Please create Acronis Report, Windows system information and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please also collect the exact vendor and device names of the RAID controller in question.

Then submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with a solution.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov