Restore image hangs

[Clive T]

I've run into this problem on two occasions now when trying to restore an image from an Iomega USB HD.

Last week my installation of XP Pro became so unstable after a bout of fiddling around (no viruses or trojans) I decided to restore a recent TI image. Turned off computer, restarted with TI boot disk, ran TI and found image.

The image then restored about half way and hung - the last time this happened I had to restart the process about ten times before the image restored.

This time I gave up and reinstalled XP on a fresh partition.

Having got up and running again, I can read the TI image on the Iomega drive fine and it verifies OK so I'm at a loss to know why it wouldn't restore.

Any suggestions in case I need to restore again?

1.Create the image file outside of windows using the TI boot disc. TI may not properly "lock" the imaged partition while windows is running.

2.USB can be buggy. Add another extended logical partition to your primary HD to house the image file. I've seen speed of 800MB/min with a modern PC.

3.Add a slave HD to your PC. If you want portability, then put the slave HD in a quick release HD bracket. This will allow you to swap out an infinite number of internal HD in less than five seconds.

[Clive T]

I don't disagree with any of your suggestions - they're all sensible. However, TI should work as I expect in this situation and my reason for posting was to see if this is an isolated problem or whether other people & Acronis have knowledge of the issue.

regards

Clive T

I tested TI7 last month and also encountered an image restoration problem. Created the image file from windows, dumped the image file to another extended logical partition on the HD, but couldn't restore that image file. Not sure if the problem is caused by my lack of experience with the software. Since I didn't use USB, I would recommend that you explore suggestion #1.

It can be tricky and difficult to access and lock all files in use when running in windows. Booting to DOS or Caldera DOS guarantees complete access to the partition to be imaged.

There are no bug-free software. Try product B if product A conflicts with your setup. Perhaps someone else can step in with additional input.

[beenthereb4]

Sound like your problem is entirely outside of Windows, therefore your solution lies there. As an aside, I have made and restored many images to and from USB drives, it does work fine. That does not help you, however. There are many USB chipsets, it may be that yours is problematic. Buy a USB 2.0 card (they are cheap) and add to your computer. Iomagic and Koutech are brands that definitely work. Newegg sent me a Koutech 5 port for $15 shipped. Even cheaper, try testing on another computer first. As with all my advice: YMMV

[Clive T]

I don't believe this is a problem caused by creating an image within Windows because, as I've said, the image that won't restore from bootup reads fine from within XP.

I'm running my Iomega drive with a USB2 card and in all other respects the TI/Iomega/XP combination works flawlessly. I just don't understand why the system/drive/image trip over themselves when restoring an image.

[beenthereb4]

Originally Posted by Clive T

I'm running my Iomega drive with a USB2 card and in all other respects the TI/Iomega/XP combination works flawlessly. I just don't understand why the system/drive/image trip over themselves when restoring an image.

The answer: in Windows, you are using Windows drivers. When you boot from the CD, you are using Linux drivers. Some manufacturers never bother to perfect their Linux driver compatability.

Edit: It's worth a try to plug your drive into your 1.0 USB ports and try a restore. It will be a lot slower, but not as slow as it will claim at first. I've done this with success.

[Clive T]

[quote= It's worth a try to plug your drive into your 1.0 USB ports and try a restore. It will be a lot slower, but not as slow as it will claim at first. I've done this with success.[/QUOTE]

Good tip. I'll try that next time disaster strikes!

[Acronis Support]

Hello Clive --

Please, can you try to verify the image, when booting from the bootable CD? Does it say that image is OK?

Thank you.

--
Best regards,
Anton Gromov

Acronis, Inc.
395 Oyster Point Blvd. Suite 213
South San Francisco
CA 94080 USA
http://www.acronis.com/

Acronis... Compute with confidence

[Clive T]

Sorry, been away and just seen your message.

Yes, the image does verify OK. I've now reformatted and reinstalled XP - and I'm using the image that I couldn't restore from my Iomega drive now to restore data files etc. It verifies and mounts OK; as far as I can see there's no problem with it.