Causes PC to freeze on Boot

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by T1Oracle, Jul 21, 2005.

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  1. T1Oracle

    T1Oracle Registered Member

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    I installed True Image 8 (the latest version, I bought and downloaded it from new egg less than a week ago) to replace Norton Ghost 8.0 and move my files to a SATA RAID 0 array. My system has the following hard drives:
    1 80gig 7200 rpm WD Caviar IDE drive - this is my back up drive
    2 80gig 7200 rpm Segate SATA drives in RAID 0 array - these are my primary drives

    I successfully imaged the one of my primary drives (before the RAID was setup) partition on to my back up drive and then restored it to the RAID array (after setting the 2 SATA drives into a RAID 0). After that worked I had enough confidence in True Image (already bet the farm on it) to set up the Secure Zone and make a full back up of my RAID 0 array on to my back up hard drive. I did this from windows, and when I did this I had to resize the partition on my back up hard drive since it was needed for the Secure Zone. When it completed I rebooted my pc.

    The system started up, I heard all of the right beeps, but the hard drive light did not come on. I waited some time and it still did not come on. I then tried to boot from other floppies (I had Norton Ghost and Partition Magic on floppies) and everytime I tried, they crashed while loading Caldera DOS. So I tried to do the Secure Zone again, this time I use the CD and I reformatted my back up hard drive using Acronis. After that I set up the Secure Zone to use the entire drive and back up my RAID array again. After it finished I rebooted my pc.

    The system started up, I heard all of right beeps, but now I see a message about noting being able to find the OS and that I should press F11 to start the Secure Zone. Well, having had exeriences with building PC's I knew that the error was generated by Acronis since if my hard disk was not found I would get a simpler message and it would not be in bright bold white print. Eventually I put in the Acronis CD and booted from it. From there everything seemed to be perfect, I even checked the image and it found zero errors.

    Finally I decided to disconnect the hard drive that I had my back up on. My pc then booted perfectly as if nothing was wrong with it. Of course, with my back up drive disconnected I cannot back up my system. Also, since only Acronis seems to be bootable (by CD) with the drive attached I few options in trying to modify the drive partitions or reformat it or anything. I need a solution.

    Also here are the rest of my pc specs in case they are needed:
    Motherboard: SOYO Dragon KT600
    Processor: AMD Athalon XP 3200
    Memory: 1GB DDR400 Kingston Value Ram
    Video Card: Chaintech GeForce FX5200
    Hard Drive # 1: 80GB 7200rpm SATA Segate Raid 0
    Hard Drive # 2: 80GB 7200rpm SATA Segate Raid 0
    Hard Drive # 3: 80GB 7200rpm IDE Western Digital Caviar (for backups)
    Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 sound card
    Optical Drive # 1: 52x32x52 Artec CD-RW
    Optical Drive # 2: 16x CD-ROM
    Power Supply: Antec True Power 430W (+5V 36A, +12V 26A, +3.3V 28A) (relatively new)
    Case: Chieftech Mini Dragon black case w/ side window
    OS: Windows XP Pro Sp2
     
  2. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hello T1Oracle,

    When you created the Secure Zone (SZ) did you also accept the default option to "Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager" ?

    Activating the Startup Recovery Manager (SRM) modifies the Master Boot Record (MBR) in order to implement Acronis's F11 boot recovery feature. It also checks to see whether the SZ is available on the same drive it was initially created on. Looks like the SRM somehow didn't like it when you converted your single boot drive to a RAID 0 array.

    As you can't access your backup drive in order to remove the SZ, thereby deactivating the SRM and hence resetting the MBR, you will either need to boot into the Windows Recovery Console via your Win XP installation disk and run the command "fixmbr" (without the quotes) or download the Acronis fixmbr utility via the embeded link towards the end of the Acronis Sticky titled <Please Read Before You Post>. Hopefully, you will then be able to boot your system with the backup drive connected.

    After that I would try to remove the original SZ (and image of a "broken" system) via the Manage Acronis Secure Zone Wizard. If that doesn't work then Fdisk and format the backupdrive to remove all traces of the SZ and the image contained therein. You can then create a new SZ but this time make sure you select the option "Do not activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager". You don't really need the SRM as it's really there for people without the facility to boot from the Acronis Bootable Rescue Media i.e. no floppy disk or CD/DVD ROM drive.

    Once you've done that you can re-image your RAID array into the SZ as normal.

    Regards
     
  3. T1Oracle

    T1Oracle Registered Member

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    Well I succeeded in reformatting my back up drive. To do this I had to use my Windows install disk. Before I reformatted however, I disconnected my SATA drives so that they would not be affected. Anyway, I went through the Windows install process up to the point where you can create a new partition. I did that, left the partition blank, and then turned off my pc. I then reconnected my SATA drives and booted it again. My pc successfully (for the first time in this ordeal) booted with all of my hard drives attached. I then proceeded to use Partition Magic 8.1 to erase the blank partition from my backup hard drive. Then I went into Acronis True Image 8.0 and tried to activate the Acronis Secure Zone with the Acronis Secure Recovery Manager option deactivated. To test out if this worked I stopped there and rebooted my pc. There was a slight hang in response to the reboot option (not too unsual this happens from time to time) so I logged out of my Windows XP account and then choose reboot from there. My pc started up, I heard all of the correct beeps, but when it came time to load the OS nothing happened. My hard drive light did not even come on. So now I am again running my system without my backup hard drive connected and this time I don't even have a backup written to that inaccessible drive (although with the CD I could still do that, so far only the Acronis and Win XP CD's work for booting my pc when this problem is there). I followed your instructions, I reformatted the drive, and I tried to use Acronis with my RAID already set up and functioning.
     
  4. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Well, as you've tried the more obvious things, it looks as if there is something more serious going on and you will need to report the problem to support@acronis.com. Include a link to this thread and post back here with the Support query number that was sent in their auto reply message if you don't hear from them again after a further 48hrs. Either Ilya or Irina (Acronis Moderators) will then probably chase it up.

    Regards
     
  5. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello T1Oracle,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    What partitions did you indicate to take a space for Acronis Secure Zone from? Also please clarify whether you created Acronis Secure Zone succefully? What happens when you reboot the computer after that? Do you get Windows screens after BIOS POST or is it just black screen?

    Thank you.
    --
    Ilya Toytman
     
  6. T1Oracle

    T1Oracle Registered Member

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    I tried to take space from the partition on my back up hard drive. I had one partition on that drive. Later I tried it after reformatting my back up hard drive and leaving it blank. My back up hard drive is my IDE drive. My pc boots up to the point where it should start loading windows, but instead nothing happens it just freezes. No graphics show on the screen, only the text showing DMI pool data and RAID data and then it freezes right where it would normally start windows. The hard drive light doesn't even turn on.

    Also, I was informed to try fixmbr with my SATA drivers loaded. I did this and here was the reply message I sent after doing this.
    I just reformatted my backup hard drive again (using my Windows CD) and then I ran "fixmbr" again afterwards. Now I am going to try the SZ again. I doubt this will work, but here goes. I will post again with the success of this.
     
  7. T1Oracle

    T1Oracle Registered Member

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    No luck, it still doesn't work. I seriously doubt that the MBR has anything to do with this, unless Acronis is messing up the MBR. However, before I rebooted I did look at the partitions on my pc in Partition Magic, and I took a picture of what it showed. Here is the link to that http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v339/T1Oracle/desktop2.jpg
    I figure that all of that is normal, although I never heard of a "Type BC" partition before.
     
  8. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello T1Oracle,

    BC is type of file system Acronis Secure Zone uses (very similar to FAT32). The strange thing is that boot process shouldn't depend on any disks present in system besides the one used to boot. Please make sure your BIOS settings are correct the first boot device is the RAID array. The behaviour you described shows that the computer is just trying to boot from the disk without operating system.

    Thank you.
    --
    Ilya Toytman
     
  9. T1Oracle

    T1Oracle Registered Member

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    I solve it! I had to set my BIOS to boot from SCSI first. Thank you for all of your help.
     
  10. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Good news! I had assumed all along that you would have set your BIOS to boot from SCSII when you first created the the new RAID array. Ah well, never mind, hopefully you've picked up a bit of knowledge about the MBR and Acronis' Secure Zone/Startup Recovery Manager along the way :) .

    Regards
     
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