Disk Director Does Nothing

Discussion in 'Acronis Disk Director Suite' started by tedtheo, May 10, 2009.

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  1. tedtheo

    tedtheo Registered Member

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    When I run Disk Director and create a new partition and commit, the computer reboots and a command prompt comes up and Disk Director looks like it is doing its thing. However, when the computer reboots NOTHING has been done. Its like nothing ever happened. I check the log and there are no errors. I've run chkdsk and the disk integrity appears to be fine.

    I have included screenshots of what disk director looks like as soon as it opens (Before.jpg) and after I make my changes right before I try to commit them (After.jpg) as well as the log file and the chkdsk output. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. This is so frustrating.
     

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  2. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    Create a DD CD using the Media Builder program. Then, boot from the DD CD and see if you can make the changes. Often times, when you try to do a procedure in Windows and it requires a reboot, it's better to use the DD CD. If the Full Mode version (Linux-based) doesn't see your drives correctly, try the Safe Mode (DOS-based) version (make sure to include both when you create the CD).

    It's also strongly recommended to have a current drive backup image prior to making any partitioning changes.
     
  3. tedtheo

    tedtheo Registered Member

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    well, as you saw from my other post, Media Builder isn't working either. my question is why is there not anything in the logs to indicate where the failure point is? as you can see from the screenshot, it's not highlighting any problems. or am i just missing it?
     
  4. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    tedtheo:

    The reason is that when DD reboots the PC it shuts down Windows and starts up into its own recovery environment which is Linux-based. If anything is not right in the recovery environment, DD does not make any changes to the disk and reboots back into Windows. There is no information in the log because there is no communication from the Linux recovery environment back into Windows. To see the problem you need to boot from the recovery CD and stay in that environment. Error messages, if any, will be displayed.

    From your other post, try using another PC to create a boot CD or contact Acronis via their Live Chat link on their web page.
     
  5. tedtheo

    tedtheo Registered Member

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    that's very helpful advice. thanks for taking the time to respond. that seems like a design deficiency on the logging issue. obviously there are ways for Linux to communicate that information back to Windows. it would really be helpful for users to have visibility into what transpired during the process. especially when the Media Builder won't run! i have terrible luck with this stuff it seems. i'll try to come back and post what happens with this if i remember for future reference. thanks again!
     
  6. tedtheo

    tedtheo Registered Member

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    okay, i went to another computer and installed Disk Director on it. i then burned a bootable CD using Media Builder and booted into the Disk Director app. when it runs it simply gives me error E000101F4 which says that it doesn't find any hard drives and then reboots me back to windows?!!?!?!?!?!?! are you serious? this is like a bad joke.

    i'm hoping someone has a reply that sheds some light on this because if i don't get resolution i'm going on every forum and newsgroup i can find and will let people know of my horrible experience. it is official now that this is the most frustrating experience that i've ever had with a software package. i won't bore you with the details but i wiped my first windows installation and reinstalled because the app didn't like the dynamic partitions that Windows created for me.
     
  7. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    That answers the question in your first post about why DD did nothing when it rebooted into the recovery environment. The root cause of this problem is that DD uses Linux for its recovery environment. Driver support in Linux lags behind driver support for Windows. If your hardware is new (2 years old or newer) then it's likely that the current version of DD will not have the proper Linux drivers for your chipset because it hasn't been updated in about 2 years.

    Potential solutions:

    1. If you are just partitioning your internal disk then use the "safe" mode instead of "full" mode. The safe mode is DOS-based and should support any device that is supported by your PC's BIOS, but it probably won't support USB devices and it will not have network support. The full-mode version is Linux based and supports all of the above IF your hardware is supported.
    2. Create a PE recovery disk with DD installed. BartPE is based on WinXP, VistaPE and MustangPE are Vista-based recovery environments and all use Windows drivers.
    3. Contact Acronis via their live chat service and ask for an ISO of the bootable recovery environment that contains drivers for your hardware.


    #2 is the best solution long-term but #1 is the simplest. Did you include both full and safe mode versions when you created your recovery CD? If so, try safe mode.

    None of the Acronis home products support dynamic disks.
     
  8. tedtheo

    tedtheo Registered Member

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    Mark, you've been very helpful and i appreciate the time you've take to respond. i'm not a fan of blanket statements but i have one which i fully believe. it is completely unacceptable for ANY commerical software package to be sold on the open market and not have updates to the most foundational elements like driver support....period. who in their right damn mind would buy a product which didn't support hardware they purchased in the last two years.

    i don't keep a PC longer than two years because of the nature of my work. that means that this product will never be appropriate for me. i am going to dispute the purchase with my credit card company and spread the word in every newsgroup and forum i can get my hands on. these products are inappropriate for the vast majority of users and yet that's who they're being marketing to. that's unacceptable.
     
  9. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    tedtheo:

    I can't argue with the fact that Disk Director is overdue for an update. I completely agree. Also, the fundamental design approach used by Acronis is to rely on Linux for a recovery environment. Linux driver support will always lag behind Windows driver support, so I think this decision is flawed. Acronis would do better to use Windows PE as a recovery environment so that driver support becomes a non-issue. Their decision probably has something to do with licensing fees I would suspect.
     
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