Despite for help, will not restore Windows OS & my other software !

Hi all,
Your help is needed desperately !!
I’m new to ARCONIS 10 home edition !!
Not to proud of my self, I’ve done a “back up” with out reading thoroughly the instruction first.
My problem is, I’ve made a “Back up” of what I was hopping to be my old drive “C” with all the softwares and Windows XP OS.

After installing my new hard drive, I’ve restore the “Back up” I’ve made and to my disappointment, windows will not boot ??....
I can see that “almost” everything is back there ( in the new drive), but for some reason it will not boot windows as it should ??. ( I say “almost” with reserve to my knowledge otherwise I’d say everything… but again, I’m keeping some reserve!)

From my experience, Norton Ghost is lot more fool proof.
Not to say I’m a fool, but on this one… I’ll allow it !! <:0))

Q 1 : Can I get out of this mess easily with out reloading one by one my OS & all other softwares??

Thanks in advance for any support / solutions
Robert M

 

Sorry… Forgot to specify, I’m running the good old Windows XP pro as my OS

Thanks,
Robert M

 

When you backed up the drive did you do a complete disk backup including the MBR and Track 0 or just the partition? i.e did you select Disk 1? When restoring did you select Disk 1? Try restoring again and Select "Restore Disks and partitions" then select DISK 1. Read the user guide http://download.acronis.com/pdf/TrueImage10.0_ug.en.pdf for more details. I think you should be able to recover if you made a backup image of your drive. Even if you only created a partition image you should be able to recover by selecting the partition and when prompted for additional partitions say yes and then select MBR and Track 0.TI will supply a generic MBR in this situation.

 

Thanks tom...
I'll try to see if I can follow your recommendation ??
Have you ever heard & read this. http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/kb/?aid=565

Could this be part of my problemS ??
Thanks,Robert M

 

If you performed a clone to a newer, larger hard drive sysprep is not needed when running TI. Different hardware in the article you refer to means a new motherboard or new machine not just a new hard drive.. Can you explain in detail the steps you actually took, its not clear what you did.

 

Ok tom, I’ll try to keep it simple yet complet !!

First, I’m running an ASUS P4P 800 board with two hard discs.
I few month back, one disc when “kaput”. Fortunately, I had my machine configured in RAID 1 (mirror) witch leaved me with the other one intact with my OS, softwares & data.
Since then, I was running my machine as a single hard drive, no raid set up.
Than came back, under warranty, my replacement hard drive and due to lack of time & keeping things simple, I installed it temporally as a regular second hard drive for using it as an internal back up device, at least till I could find some time to re-shuffle all this again to my good old RAID 1 set up.
Back then, ( set up on a single hard drive non-RAID set-up) I was using GHOST. But has you know, ghost does not support RAID set ups, so no possibilities to restore on a RAID set machine.

Than, a few week back I came across ACRONIS as an image type cloning / back up software that can “be used” to restore to a RAID set up.
After some “minor” reading and some exchanges with ACRONIS customer support, I was told it should be easy to restore an ACRONIS back up to a RAID set up machine.

So I jumped and downloaded the trial version before committing to a business licence.
I first used the “back-up” option, witch I must say seemed to go well & smooth to back up all my “C” drive and all other software I have / had to another external hard drive I use as a back up drive.
Than, I reconfigured my BIOS and set everything to go back to a RAID 1 set up. Formatted all my internal hard drives to then, hopefully restore my ACRONIS back up with Windows XP & all other software & set up that I thought was on the ACRONIS “back up” saved earlier on my external hard drive
Using the boot disc that I had prep prier all this, tried to restore this saved “back up” to this new / old freshly redone RAID 1 set up to find out, + / - 2h½ later, it will not open my old Window XP set up ? … Doop !!

Hopping this brief / detail explanation can tell you more, but Bare in mind I’m detailing this by memory not notes & may have forget / jumped some minor detail because since then ( yesterday) I’ve done some trial & error by trying other ways !!??

Thanks a million for your time trying to make my life & day better. But after all, I’m getting to the point in time where I’m thinking it may be faster just abandon this ACRONIS approach and resort everything the old fashion way, one by one and searching overnight over the internet for up-dates and so on in hope to get it rolling by tomorrow morning.
Obviously, tomorrow I may need missive dosage of caffeine to survive the day !!


Sincerely,
Robert M

 

Well, I'm not familiar with Raid but when you say it would not boot what error message do you see? You may need to do a repair install. I know other folks here have used Raid configurations so it may be worth while to search the forum for more info.

 

Robert,

There are still some details missing.

What type of backup did you do ? TI offers two main types:
- "Backup My Computer"
- "Backup Mt Data"

The first of these will allow you to backup a complete HD, including MBR, the operating system, your programs and your data. The second option allows you to backup one or more folders, but does not include the MBR. In general, only the first of these will allow you to restore a boot partition as it was (your C: drive).

What happened when you "tried to restore" the backup ? Did the restore operation complete without errors ?

Cheers,

Pete K

 

Hi all…
I had to work on other minor thing, so I was out for a couple of hrs !!

To Tom :
No error messages !!
From what I can remember, it restore well& fine, just it took over 1h½ ( original “C” is +/- 20GO ).
I’ve tried the repair from my original Window CD and funny enough ( well, not really!) Windows gives me a message that resembles of, it does not see anything / or any OS so it can not repair it ??

To Pete K :

Yep, I’ve done both. The “back up my computer” for the “C” drive with OS & other softwares and also a “back-up My Data” for what I call: My “D” drive. This last one I did not try to install yet, since the first one is still out of luck / function !!

I’ll have to go back and try again to refresh my mind and take more detail notes of what I do and, if ever, messages.

Hopping I can still count on some one out there later on, as I ( for some unknown reason) would like to make this ACRONIS work for me. From what I was told & personally know, it is the only one that can copy / clone (image) hard drives with the OS & other softwares on a RAID set-up !!

Thanks again for this. Will see ya later,
Robert M

 

Hi again ,

One other thing I’d like to know ?
Should I’ve done a “clone hard drive” instead of “ back up my computer” if I wanted to have this work ??
What's the diff ??

Robert M

 

Either Clone of Backup should work. But one thing to try. If you did the procedure from the installed software in Windows, try making the bootable Rescue CD, boot the computer with it and do the procedure from the menu that the CD brings up.

 

Hi Tom,

There’s nothing like testing… so we all say !!
Well, I found part, if not all, the reason for my troubles.
The culprit is / was it will not accept the changes that have been made to change from a single regular drive set up to a SATA RAID set up. This type of change has to be done in the BIOS prio to boot. Not sure why, but when I roll back to my old single drive set up, well the ACRONIS back up I have works just fine.
But if I change the BIOS to see my second drive & set it all up to boot as RAID, not way it will not start. I mean, the process of restoring my image copy (ACRONIS Backup ) to this tentative RAID set up seem all fine till I want to restart after restoring in RAID mode. It will just not start, black screen & then a message that resemble something that his telling me, no show body, will not go / do-able ??.
So, I rolled back to my old single set up till I find ( if ever possible) the possibility to make a copy image (ACRONIS Backup) from my single non raid set up to be, hopefully, restored to a RAID 1 set up !!??

If any one out there knows how, PLEASE follow up to this thread and let me know !

Greatly appreciate TOM K, Peter K & DwnNdrty inputs. It helped me more than you may imagine.

Thanks,
Robert M

PS : Just as suspected, with the late evening / early morning test & set up that I had to do to make this work / run, I ‘m know running a direct intravenous line from a custom made coffee bag so I can go by this day !!

 

Hello Robert M,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please have a look at this post containing the detailed information on how to transfer your operating system from a single hard drive to a RAID array.

You can find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image 10.0 Home in the respective User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Hi Marat,

Thanks for your advice, but there’s a few buts from the post your referring ??

Let’s just say I’m slow today, so bear with me.
I look at this link “this post” you gave me and something just doesn’t suit with me / my little experience ??

1st : “Prepare your Windows for transferring using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep) as it is described in this FAQ article” - This link goes to too many FAQ to understand what your referring to. But if I may assume, you’re referring to the same link I’m referring in my thread #4 ??
If this is the case !!
This is all about cloning the same Windows OS to many computers sharing the same workgroup or domain. No my issue here !!

2nd : What’s the difference between creating an image of an entire hard drive from the bootable rescue CD vs direct from my open Windows XP desk trial version ??

4th ; “Boot the computer from Bootable Rescue CD once more and restore the beforehand created image” >>
This is where my entire restore story goes nowhere with me! I’m getting a black screen with a flashing dot that will not response to the keyboard hits ??
But if I get back to the BIOS and reset the “controller” to a none RAID set up, fine… ACRONIS backup goes with out any trouble !!

This is where my question gets thinned and may get out from your suggestions.
Your 5th point, “Install the appropriate drivers for the newly configured RAID controller during the fist Windows boot” How can we do this ?? from where, the windows installation CD ??

BUT… your last link (You may also find this this article helpful ) may steer me in a better / good direction?? I will try the recommended steps from this article this coming week end as I still have to do some catch up till then because of the mess & extended work load delays I got my self with this ACRONIS cloning trial !!

Till then, salute to all
Robert M

 

Hello Robert M,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

I'm sorry, the link in that post is indeed a bit broken, it should point here. It is similar to the link in post #4 of this thread, but they are not about cloning the same Windows OS to many computers sharing the same workgroup or domain. They are about transferring a system to a new hardware.

Please notice that the sysprep tool makes Windows initiate a first boot sequence on the next boot. But when you create an image from within Windows, it saves the system in active state. Therefore, when transferring to a new hardware using sysprep tool it's important to create the image when Windows is inactive, i.e. using Acronis Bootable Rescue Media.

Please clarify if you encounter that when booting with Acronis Bootable Rescue Media or after restore?

As the Windows installation prepared by Microsoft Sysprep utility will initiate first boot sequence, it will allow to specify drivers for hardware it finds.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Hi Marat
Very kind of you to help… but I’ve “kinda” abandon your ACRONIS.
It is just to complicated & to many LOCKED ways !!?? IE : You suggest that ;

Well, this option is just NOT available from a dam trial version ?

So after spending more time on this than just pay another one to set it all up for me, since let’s not forget time is money and in this case, well ACRONIS has cost me enough time / money for ending back to square one. Kinda running around… for what or whose sake?? Well nothing yet on my side !!

Unless you tell me something good, something to tell me I’ll NO LONGER waist time to MAKE your ( ACRONIS ) program work, Well… don’t take this personal, I’m out of this dam game.

Thanks again for your time, and mine I guest ??
Robert M

 

Hello Robert M,

Please notice that Home branch of Acronis True Image is not designed to transfer system to a different hardware configuration (from single drive to a RAID, in your case). While it's still possible using the described workaround, it's not the purpose of Acronis True Image Home.
Acronis solution purposed for transferring system to a different hardware is Acronis Universal Restore. It's an add-on for corporate versions of Acronis True Image, which allows to restore a system image to a different hardware.

We recommend you to download and install the free trial version of Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation to see how the software works on your computer. With the trial version of the product you will be able to fully use the windows version for a period of 15 days. The standalone version (bootable media) will have only restore function available.

Please submit a request to Acronis Support to receive a trial version of Acronis Universal Restore as well.

You can find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation in the respective User's Guide.

Please visit Acronis online store to purchase the full version of the product.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Hi Marat

OK, I’m sorry…
I admit, not offence intended, I just got, say in a political correct term, pisst!!

I can tell you met good !
Tell me this is the only extra effort I will need to go to make this work.
A ) Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation at $79.99
B ) Acronis Universal Restore at $29.99

In sums, I’ll spend +/- $100 and then I will be able to transfer from my single IDE hard drive to a SATA RAID dual hard Drives for a RAID 1 and than for as long as I wish, can make image backup with it ??
In another words, I’m asking to much from the HOME V-10 Version !!??

Later,
Robert