Botched first True Image restore

I was trying to restore a 2-DVD disk image I backed up with Acronis True Image Workstation 9.1 and the restore failed. What happened was I got an error message with one of the DVD’s (e.g. poor media quality or something) and the program asked me if I wanted to just use DVD #2. Without thinking (!), I clicked OK. Stupid, yes, but at this point I'd been fighting with True Image for hours to get it to this point, so I really wasn’t thinking. Anyway, it started restoring. Then I realized 1/2 a backup wouldn’t work and I cancelled. So now TI won't work and XP won't start (I get MBR error).

In my old PC (the one I'm using now), both DVD’s show backup files present. They’re on DVD-R burned with Nero, in case that’s relevant.

Any advice on how to get TI to recognize these DVD’s? I read some posts about burn format (e.g. ISO) being important. Should I reburn these DVD’s a different way, maybe using different software?

I know the standard advice from tech support is to upgrade to the latest build but that seems kind of impossible since my XP machine won't boot.

Sorry for the long post. Any ideas most welcome!

 

I would copy the DVDs onto the machine that is working and then using the TI boot CD validate the archive. If that works then I'd remove the HD and temporarily put it in the XP as a slave drive and attempt the restore.

 

> Should I reburn these DVD’s a different way, maybe using different software?
do You still have the original archives on another hard disk !
that would be great... in this case:
- just do verification (check that're ok)
- reburn archives with ANY burning tool (nero is fine) to a GOOD dvd media
- do verification again for the files You just burned
- now restore ...

if however You don't have the original tib files, then (i guess) You're lost,
there may be just/only a single byte (!) on the dvd that is corrupt,
but that's enough to make the entire archive 100% unusable

what's TI needs is a feature to repair/protect archives from primitive corruption
such repair functions are even included with most freeware zip programs...
(e.g. IzArc)

> and the program asked me if I wanted to just use DVD #2.
1) will this actually work, didn't know there was such a feature
2) how in hell will TI decide that the mixture of restored
and new files will result in a working windows installation -> impossible !
imho this feature doesn't make sense at all !


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Put DVD#2 in again and start the restore and let it run to completion. TI writes data about the archive in the last disk and it needs this DVD first to do a restore. There is a chance it is OK.

 

The bad media error seems to be a standard one.

On my previous machine, where I imaged directly to CDs, I had an image that had validated on creation but threw up that same error upon restore. After the first restore attempt blotched my system disk, it had no option but retry. On the sixth run it went through with success. Could have been a less than top-shape memory, I don't know.

But the workaround proposed by seekforever in post #2 would be a better approach, if doable.

 

Thanks for the quick replies, folks. much appreciated!

The good news is that after copying the 2 backup DVD’s to my old PC, both verified successfully. So maybe the media (DVD-R) was the issue?

Anyway, before I install the old HDD in the new PC and try to restore that way, I'd like to simply reburn the .tib files onto DVD+R. So what’s the best approach here? Do I want to create a data DVD or burn an ISO image? (Am I asking that question correctly?) And I've read on this forum that “no multi-session” is recommended.

Thanks again

 

Update: I went ahead and burned the 2 .tib files as data files to DVD+R, using no-multisession. Didn’t work. Got the error message “File not Acronis True Image archive or file corrupted” with each disk, then it prompted me to keep inserting the other disk, one disk after another. When I finally cancelled out of this loop, the program proudly announced “Data was successfully restored.”

Right.

For a program that’s in version 9, there sure seem to be a lot of bugs and / or lots of traps for the first time user to fall into that aren't documented.

 

If you burned them with Nero, DVD+R should be as good as DVD-R, I think. You may obtain some improvement by burning them at low speed, but I'm afraid that should have been done on the first burning and reburning would not help. Anyway, it's worth trying.

If you want to burn them in ISO, the image file should have been split by TI on creation into chunks of less then 2 GB each. You can't redo that now if the files are of DVD size already. But the ISO/UDF option should not be of concern in my opinion, since TI accepted the file system of the original DVDs on your first attempt and started the restore.

Now that the images validated after you copied them to HD, I even more strongly believe the the images on your original DVDs are good and that some quirk happened during restore (say a bad memory location, never used by other applications). I would act accordingly.

You may want to download Memtest 86+ (just google for it) and run a memory test for at least a couple of hours, better overnigt. It's self booting and you will create the floppy on the other computer. Use the default options. Only zero errors are acceptable.

And yes, multi-session is not recommended.

 

Update: Memtest 86+ ver. 1.65 did 2 passes in 1h30 min and found 0 errors.

So I'm at a loss here. Both backup files were validated and my memory seems fine. Yet True Image keeps rejecting the backup files as invalid / corrupt.

Ok, my last resort seems to be a recommendation in a previous post that I install my old HDD as a slave drive on the new PC and restore the 2 backup files from there. But before I read up on how to do that, any other suggestions? And I wanted to ask: what difference will this make, seeing that the same 2 files on 2 different kinds of DVD were both already rejected? Is the point to rule out DVD media error?

Thanks

 

> But before I read up on how to do that, any other suggestions?

0) as bVolk suggested: NO MULTI-SESSION BURNING
1) update chipset drivers (especially when using an external usb connected burner!)
2) verify media quality -> "CD DVD Speed" http://www.cdspeed2000.com/
just run exe (no setup needed) then go to tab named "CD Quality"
(not all dvd drives support quality checking, so try more than one if You can)
3) repost (on monday) and wait for acronis guy to answer


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Yes, although the media seems to be OK since you were able to copy the image files successfully and validate them. Restoring an image from an internal HD is the method most likely to result in success.

After the drive is installed validate the image. Since you have already validated it on another machine if it fails to validate you know that there is a problem with the machine you are trying to restore. If it validates proceed with the restore.

TI is known to give memory systems a real workout.

What build of TI9 are you using?

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...

The good news: After installing my old HDD as a secondary slave in my new PC I was able to do a restore from there. However ... after restoring file 1/2, ATI 9.1 informed me that I'd be restoring file 2/2 on a disk that wasn’t empty, that I'd be restoring over existing files and did I want to do that – i.e. it didn’t seem to know that files 1 and 2 were linked. Anyway, I clicked Yes and it went ahead and did a second “successful” restore. When I look in the explorer window of the recovery manager I can see file folders in my restored HDD, including Windows, my documents, etc.

The bad news: the PC won't boot. I get a Windows 2000 blue screen stop error telling me there’s no proper boot device. The BIOS doesn’t see my PC’s restored HDD and only sees the old HDD, which is running Win 2000. My DVD burner is recognized as the primary drive!

Grrr. Arggh.

Any suggestions for next steps?

Thanks again

 

Success!

I am writing this from my newly restored PC. Many thanks for all the ideas and suggestions.

What I did differently this time is that when I went to restore backup file 2/2 I didn’t select MBR (i.e. I just selected to restore the disk). This meant I avoided the whole issue of restoring OVER backup file 1/2.

Also I made sure the BIOS was reading my restored HDD before rebooting. The times before when it didn't work, I'm not sure what happened but somehow my BIOS wasn’t seeing the restored HDD (although Acronis was).

You can't imagine my relief when I saw the Windows XP logo flash on my screen. I kept expecting it to crash or something!

So one important lesson for me is that Acronis HATES DVD’s ... so from now on I will backup to the secure zone on my new PC and for added protection I will also do a regular backup to my old HDD.

Once again, many thanks!

 

Glad you got it working. I, along with Acronis , hate DVDs as well. I just had at least 3 RW DVDs fail within a short-time of each other and they probably hadn't gone through more than 20 write/erase cycles. I first thought it was the burner but they failed on other machines and a new disk worked in the "failed" machine. They, perhaps not surprisingly, were Memorex.

On your future plan for backups, I would use the second HD as my primary location for backups and the SZ, if it is on the main drive, as a secondary. Remember, if the drive your SZ is on fails, your backups are gone too!

For an extra level of protection, you can burn the occasional backup to DVD using Nero, Roxio or whatever. Remember to use the "verify after burning" option for safety.

 

Good idea. Will amend my backup plan accordingly.

Thanks again