Acronis True Image Boot Loader Issue

[dosa]

I've recently installed then uninstalled Acronis True Image Home.
And now every time my laptop boots up I get the following message:

Starting Acronis Loader...

Acronis Loader fatal error: Boot drive (partition) not found.
Press <Enter> to try to boot your OS....

It boots okay after I press enter key, but I don't want this message appearing everytime I boot up my laptop, including "Starting Acronis Loader..."

How do you get rid of this?
Do I need to just edit Boot.ini file or something? will that completely remove "Acronis Loader" ?

Please help thanks

[Menorcaman]

Sounds as if, with your previous installation of TI, you had created an Acronis Secure Zone (SZ) and accepted the default option to also activate the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (SRM). Prior to uninstalling TI you need to remove the SZ via TI's Manage Acronis Secure Zone Wizard. This will return the space previously occupied by the SZ and deactivate the SRM. If you didn't do this then the modification of your Master Boot Record caused by activating the SRM will throw up the error message you are seeing. You will also probably find that your hard drive still contains the original SZ.

The easiest way to resolve the problem is to reinstall TI and use the Manage Acronis Secure Zone Wizard to "Remove" the SZ (and, hence, also deactivate the SRM). After that you can uninstall Ti again, either via the uninstall applet (this will leave traces of TI on your machine) or manually via these <Acronis Support instructions>.

Let us know how you got on because if the above doesn't solve it then there are other, more technical, avenues we can go down.

Regards

[dosa]

It's gone now,
I reinstalled TI then I Disabled "Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager" then removed SZ Partition.

Thanks

[riyoung3032]

I am getting the same error and did all the things you suggested. There is and
never was a sz partition installed.I have the latest build and re-installed two
times to no avail. I assume SRM is not activated since there is no SZ partition.

Regards

[Menorcaman]

Originally Posted by riyoung3032

I assume SRM is not activated since there is no SZ partition.

No. If the SZ is deleted otherthan through the Manage Acronis Secure Zone Wizard then the SRM will remain active.

If you have a standard Master Boot Record e.g. no multi-boot managers and/or no special hidden recovery partitions, then try resetting the MBR. You can either boot from a Windows XP installation CD into the Recovery Consol and issue the command fixmbr or download the Acronis mbrautowrite utility as detailed in the Acronis Support sticky <PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU POST>. Note. As it says in the sticky, you need to run the downloaded mbrautowrite.exe file in order to create the necessary bootable floppy disk.

Regards

[Phenny]

seriously with all respect to TI, which i consider a tremendously important piece of software, BUT if it comes to those functions
meddling with the MBR like OSSelector or Srm, it turns into a sheer nightmare
i need to emphasize staying clear of those tools/functions

[riyoung3032]

I have a standard Master Boot Record e.g. no multi-boot managers and/or no special hidden recovery partitions, I tried resetting the MBR. First I used the Acronismbrautowrite utility with no good result,and then I booted from a Windows XP installation CD into the Recovery Consol and entered the following commands one at a time: fixmbr c: fixboot C: Copy G:\i386\ntldr C:\ Copy G:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\ Bootcfg /rebuild (G: is my cd rom drive) I still get the fatal error. I have no trouble normal booting to windows XP. It seems to me if the MBR is corrupt I would not be able to do so.

Regards

[Menorcaman]

Hello riyoung3032,

Just so that we are clear, it was never suggested that your MBR had become "corrupted". When an Acronis Secure Zone is created and the associated Startup Recovery Manager activated, TI will "modify" the MBR such that it checks for the existence of the associated SZ and monitors for F11 key presses during system boot.

Having used both the Acronis mbrautowrite utility and the Windows fixmbr command, it's clear that your MBR should now be reset to standard and any Acronis SRM deactivated. Therefore I can only assume there is something else amiss that's causing your system to try and and boot into the Linux based TI rescue environment. If not already done, try manually uninstalling TI completely as per the appropriate Acronis Support instructions linked below:

Acronis True Image 9.x Enterprise Server/Server for Windows/Home manual uninstallation
or
Acronis True Image 8.0 manual uninstallation

If that doesn't get rid of the Acronis error message then I'm afraid I'm stumped.

Regards

[Phenny]

Active@KillDisk

i think the free tool there once helped me get rid of a fishy MBR;
that's however the lengthy version to fix it, you need to back up all partitions of the harddrive;
then erase it with this tool (forgot if u can kill only the mbr)(the wiping might take up to several hours);
finally restore your partitions;

p.s: did you check for the odd "OSSelector Reinstall"(or similar) autostart-entry under windows, that might
cause trouble too (think it comes with DiskDirector)

[riyoung3032]

I was not suggesting that TI corrupted my mbr.I did the manual uninstall,did the fixmbr again and reinstalled TI. I am still getting the error.My next step is to run chkdsk and see if it helps.

Regards

[riyoung3032]

I ran chkdsk,then I installed and ran two different MBR dianostic tools. The tests indicate my MBR is OK. I am at a loss as to what to try next.

Regards

[Acronis Support]

Hello riyoung3032,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Could you please provide us with some additional information to investigate this issue thoroughly and to provide you with a possible workaround?

Please create Acronis Report in the way described below:

- Download and run Acronis Report Utility;

- Select the "Create Bootable Floppy" option;

- Insert a blank floppy disk in the A: drive and proceed with creation of the bootable floppy;

- Boot the computer from this diskette and wait for report creation process to finish;

- Collect the report file from the floppy.

In addition, please describe the actions taken before the problem appears step-by-step.

Then submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with a solution.

Would also like to add more details to the below Menorcaman's reply:

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

If the SZ is deleted otherthan through the Manage Acronis Secure Zone Wizard then the SRM will remain active.

If you delete Acronis Secure Zone not via Acronis True Image but via Windows Disk Management, for example, the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager files are deleted from the disk, but the respective message about it is not deleted from the MBR (Master Boot Record). Therefore, upon boot up one will receive the error described in post # 1.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov