hal.dll missing AGAIN

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by corinthian, Oct 1, 2006.

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  1. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Bill,

    I'm delighted you now have help with that Promise card. It's weird as it has booted in the past. I'm sure that you will eventually be able to restore an image. One way or another. You have spent months thinking about this so a few more days won't matter too much.

    So today you will be attempting a restore to the 40 GB Seagate. Naturally we hope it works but if it doesn't then Christopher_NC has made a good point.

    To do this I'd create a 138 GB Logical drive in the 138 GB of Unallocated Space on your main Seagate HD.

    Then write an image of your C: drive to this Logical Drive. Next, make the main Seagate the Slave and add the 40 GB Seagate as the Master and restore the image to the 40 GB Seagate using your TI CD. Remove the main Seagate before booting. I hope you don't have to do this.
     
  2. Christopher_NC

    Christopher_NC Registered Member

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    Well, I agree that Bingo may not be an apt term. I tend to want to find the answer, and, like many of us, likely look thru the lens of my own experience, in this case, with SATA card and driver issues, and a likely culprit. Of course, it could be something else, or, more likely, and the worst of it all, a combination of things.

    I did watch, somewhat, as Brian tried to assist you over the past several days. And thought he might well get you up and running. There is no substitute for dedicated, personal support. But, once the topic of SATA cards arose, and I saw Brian's post about having no experience working with them, I thought I'd post and see if you had looked at that.

    By the way, and you may have already discussed this, using a Windows 98 boot disc won't help you recover your missing MBR, nor recognize any partitions that are formatted NTFS. Only Windows XP can work with NTFS. The error you saw, can't recall the specifics, about missing system disk, does not mean you need to put in a Windows CD, it means, that your system can't find the system partition or disk with the OS and boot files it needs to load your OS and run.

    A few steps back from all this. Why are you trying to do so much with this computer? The problem, at essence, when you have an off the shelf PC, with recovery partitions and no standalone Windows Install CD, is that, once you leave the confines of the configured environment, you are really on your own. So, you may want to decide, either to use this machine as it is, and in the ways it works, or, move forward, and use whatever hardware you have on this system that you like, and purchase a full version of Windows XP and make the changes you wish.

    Regards
     
  3. corinthian

    corinthian Registered Member

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    I have to go to the hospital now to deal with the injuries I just sustained from falling out of my chair when after the restoration, and after the oh so familiar message "operation was successful" from Acronis, WINDOWS XP BOOTED RIGHT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    HOLY COW!

    Absolutely unheard of for me -- and with a restore from the external drive also! We'll Brian, it is starting to appear that you were correct in thinking that it must have something to do with SATA, and Chris -- it looks like you are also correct in sending me further down that path.

    But one thing was different with this restore, although I still think most likely it is SATA related. I imaged the old hard drive, as far as I can tell in the same fashion that I've been doing for every other image. But this time during the restoration I had a choice to make that I have seen once or twice before, but not always. When it came time to select the partitions/disk to restore, I had a choice (Brian I believe you had mentioned this before) to check a little box that was up above C:, D: (the recovery partition) and MBR. It said "disk 1". Checking this box selected all three at one time. This led me to fewer questions later on such as "selected drive disk MBR you want to recover" which had always been causing me confusion, especially if more than one drive was connected to the computer. This time, I clicked the little box above all three of them, and let it go at that. I'm not sure what I did during the restoration that ended up allowing me to have this option, because I don't think I have always been offered this option. In fact, I am looking right now at one of the restoration archives I had previously attempted, and there is the main drive listed and the MBR and up above them it says disk 1, but there is no checkbox by where it says disk 1. I don't know what is the difference selection in the restoration process were you get this checkbox availability sometimes and not others?

    What do you guys think? Do you think this could have made any difference, or do you feel 90% sure it is all SATA related? Also one other thing to keep in mind is that I had similar problems when I first got Acronis last May, and no SATA drive was involved. That was the time or I finally pulled off a restore from one internal PATA hard drive to another internal PATA hard drive. But from DVDs it proved impossible.

    I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel now -- which hopefully is not a train heading my way! Now I've got to figure out if a driver upgrade will get the job done, or if I have to get disk controller card back to new egg as quick as possible and try an Adaptec. But in the meantime, put me down for a total of two successful restores out on 50 to 100 tries! That's a lot better than just 1 last May! Oh man -- I should've stuck with a PATA drive a couple of weeks ago when I made the choice to go to a fancy SATA! Although I love connecting the SATA and I think this drive is very fast, just finding this control card and getting it working has probably been more misery than it's worth.

    I owe you guys a ton of thanks for getting me this far and hanging in here with me! Acronis owes both of you (and others who have tried to help me) a paycheck! You guys do their troubleshooting for them! And what I love about both of you is a sheer stubborn determination to find the answer. I'll keep you posted regarding how the SATA adventure proceeds. Let me know what y'all think about checking that box beside "disk 1", and if that made any difference.

    THANKS AGAIN
    Bill
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2006
  4. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Bill, a major congratulations. I'll need to read your post while looking at the TI menus to see which boxes you have selected. What I'd suggest, now that you are an accomplished restorer, is to do it again. Use the same image, naturally, but don't tick that box. You don't need to delete the partition, just do the restore over the top. Only tick the C drive. I think it will work.

    This is just for our ongoing learning.
     
  5. Christopher_NC

    Christopher_NC Registered Member

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    Yes, and I don't mean to steal Brian's thunder, since he really gets the credit here. Disk 1 should be the magic ingredient in making all this work. At least if for some strange reason TI is having trouble restoring all your partitions, including the restore partition, accurately, as separate operations. Just because a process works in some incarnations, doesn't mean it will in others.

    As to why that option wasn't always available...perhaps other Images were made without ticking Disk 1, and were therefore partition Images, rather than whole Drive Images.

    SATA is great, when it works. But, if you are having even intermittent problems with it on your system, I'd keep experimenting until you find a controller card that works. Have you tested the actual read/write benchmark speed of you SATA drive? It may not be as fast as you suspect. The entire system needs to have fast bandwidth for SATA to function, and reaching SATA 2 speeds may not be possible.

    So, sticking with the hardware that your mainboard and system were designed to run is very likely the safer, more conservative approach. On the other hand, if you enjoy these marathon sessions, and can convince Brian to stick around...

    Glad you are up and running, and not off to the hospital. You had me worried for a moment.

    Regards
     
  6. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Bill, I looked at my TI CD and I don’t have that third box to select the Disk. It’s probably because you had a single partition HD and mine is multi partition.

    I see 2 boxes, the partition and the MBR. You can’t tick both. I tick the first, then later I select Yes, I want to.. and then tick the next box. Later I tick No, I don’t..

    The next window is “Disk Selection” and this is the one that may have confused you. It says “Select a HDD whose track 0 along with MBR you want to recover.” You would choose Disk 1 as this is the empty HD that will be accepting the restored image and the MBR from that image. Remember the MBR is stored in the image.

    As I’ve mentioned before, restoring the MBR isn’t essential for most of us who don’t have a special MBR. A generic MBR created later will do. In fact I think Acronis TI creates a generic MBR for you if you don’t tick the box.

    Did TI change the boot.ini for you? Could you check your boot.ini in the 40 GB Seagate and let us know what is the partition number. I’m guessing that it’s (1).
     
  7. Christopher_NC

    Christopher_NC Registered Member

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    Bill,

    Just in case you're resting on your laurels...I just read a post from Starsfan09, where he said that he no longer uses Seagate internal HDs, because he had trouble restoring backups to 3 different Seagate drives. Stranger things have happened. Again, each and every piece of this complex puzzle must be able to communicate in ways that make sense, and that don't cause internal conflicts, or worse.

    Here's the post: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=843224&postcount=21

    I wish I'd known a few months ago about the Western Digital RaptorX hard drives. The cats pajamas, from what I've read. Reliable hard drives should be at the top of any Acronis True Image users wish list. Western Digital took a highly regarded SCSI hard drive, and added SATA electronics to it. It comes in two flavors, and is the drive of choice for many in the know, including a data recovery engineer I spoke with recently, who uses them in all the servers he builds, and told me they are widely used in TIVOs. Don't get the pro model, unless your system supports those features, by the way. Again, these devices are all a bit specific, and need to be selected and implemented carefully. Step-by-step.

    By the way, you should be given the award for the most dedicated new TI user...over 100 attempts at restoring an Image! Great perseverance. Good company you keep...Mr Edison had plenty of mis-takes along the way to inventing the light bulb. Over 10,000, I understand. He simply said, well, that's one more way not to make a lightbulb. Then rebooted, or whatever he did...;)
     
  8. corinthian

    corinthian Registered Member

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    Brian, when I made the image of the 40 GB Western Digital, I imaged the entire hard drive, which included the C: and the recovery partition. So that would count as multi-partition, right? Then when I went to restore this, I was able to check the box beside "disk 1" which selected C:, D: drive (recovery partition) and MBR. Like I said, when I look back at some of my other images, some of them allow me to click the box beside "disk 1" selecting everything automatically, and some do not. With the others I have to go to the multistep process of "yes I want to select another". So there must be something I'm choosing earlier in the imaging process that makes the difference here in what shows up at restoration?

    Amazingly, the partition number in boot.ini on the restored 40 GB hard drive is still (2)! I had stupidly disconnected that drive right after the successful image and reconnected the newer drive backup as well is the Seagate, with the plans of trying to upgrade some SATA control card drivers and then make another image. But I reconnected in order to check boot.ini, and now I'm going to go ahead and try your suggestion of restoring again, but this time not selecting the entire disk 1, but only choosing the C:. I guess you're suggesting I also leave out the MBR on the restore, just to see what it will do?
    Bill
     
  9. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Bill, I misunderstood and thought you had only imaged the C: drive. You imaged and restored the whole drive so Partition (2) in the boot.ini is correct. As you have a whole drive image I wouldn't bother doing the restore I suggested. It wouldn't add anything to our knowledge. Instead, why don't you try your current technique with the SATA drive. Now that will tell us something.

    We have learnt heaps in the last few days.
     
  10. corinthian

    corinthian Registered Member

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    Chris, I was indeed planning to rest on my laurels for a little while.LOL. But really, I was just going to kind of take a break while I investigated obtaining upgraded drivers for the Promise control card, and/or returning it and trying to get an Adaptec. But that's great news about the Seagate drives! LOL! Just what I needed! However, I'll might not be lost because I need to remember that I have restored to the Seagate once (the Seagate is a PATA and not a SATA), back in May when I manage to restore from the 40 GB Western Digital internal drive. I was just never unable to restore from DVDs. So I'm still hoping I will be able to restore with this drive, but we will see later on. I've had it to many months so it's too late for me to take it back anyway

    Yes, I came very close to getting one of those raptors a week or so back when I was buying this Western Digital 250 GB. The only thing that kept me from it was that I was able to get the 250 Gigabyte Drive for 89 bucks from Best Buy, while the 74 GB raptor cost more like 170 bucks. I may well get one later on if I ever see them on special, get one to replace the Seagate. I use some software that has been very much improved by adding faster hard drives, and the raptor is much faster yet. And apparently, to go by what you said, also much more reliable?

    While I don't know if it was anywhere near actually a hundred attempts. All I know is it was a whole big bunch of attempts. A whole lot! There must've been 10 or 20 in the last few days, and I've been fiddling around with this on and off since may!
    Later
    Bill
     
  11. corinthian

    corinthian Registered Member

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    Okay, Brian -- thanks for that tip -- I won't bother with restoring just C: drive. Maybe I will try to the Sata drive. Like you said, just for learning purposes. I wasn't going to do that until I either upgraded the drivers or tried a new adapter card as recommended by Chris. But I guess if I did that, then we would never really know if it was a problem with Sata adapter cards, or if selecting the entire "disk 1" solve the problem. Personally, my hunch is that it is indeed all Sata related. But what the heck, might as well give it a try. And it's for sure I have learned a whole lot in these last few days, from you guys.
    Bill

    The only drawback to this was I'm not sure the Promise control card drivers (in need of update though they may be) got installed correctly on the 40GB WD. And I never had the SATA connected at the same time to see if the computer could see the drive. Oh well, here we go anyway, "Disk 1" is selected. Unlikely to work regardless!
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2006
  12. Christopher_NC

    Christopher_NC Registered Member

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    And, lest I was unclear. Just because an Adaptec SATA controller card works on my current system, is no guarantee that it will work on yours. Promise might be a far better choice for you. Promise has an excellent reputation. But, like Seagate HDs, or Western Digitals, there are great drives by both makers, and those that get sold off in container lots to the OEMs. Which is why those pre-built external hard drives aren't always the best bet. Try asking a vendor which model hard drive is inside their USB enclosure.

    I asked the Tech help desk at Comp USA recently which model hard drive was in a box marked Western Digital 250 GB SATA HD, and they said, "There's absolutely no way of knowing that, sir!" Guess we know where they stand on HD reviews and ratings. But, even Western Digital offers a much shorter warrenty on the exact same model Retail HD as they do on their OEM HDs. So, since quality standards must be in place, I would say, go with the OEM!

    And, one last note on tonight's rant. If you buy a hard drive, have it shipped by a trustworthy shipper. I've heard several reliable accounts from UPS employees that packages get thrown overhead into dumpsters, by the thousands. Yes, your hard drive, marked "Fragile, electronics", is being thrown 20 feet into the air, landing on who knows what? Someone else's box of nails, perchance? As a photographer, I stopped using UPS for shipping optical equipment years ago, and this is a widely shared opinion. USPS Priority is much safer. And, there are better options, too. Just don't buy a great hard drive, then wonder why its DOA, and think, it must be the manufacturers fault. Spend the money to get it handled well. Express, insured, courier, in person, fly to the plant, do what it takes...must be time to turn in...sorry...

    So, Bill, keep your SATA card. You know, you can always sell it on eBay, if you do decide to change it someday. Newegg will also take it back after a good long while, if you are a customer they want to keep. Save your packages...and cables, and bags, and CDs and manuals. If it looks new, it's far more likely to get RMAed. Less a restocking fee, of course, though they will waive that if you ask nicely.

    Regards
     
  13. corinthian

    corinthian Registered Member

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    Well guys, I am having to type this as my family administers full CPR on me, due to the shock of what just happened. I restored the image of my three-year-old PATA Western Digital 40 GB hard drive to my brand-new fancy-schmancy Western Digital 250 GB Sata 300 Hard Drive by way of the Acronis rescue disk and from my Western Digital My Book external hard drive. Then I shut down, remove the Acronis CD, restarted and waited for the normal MBR error message. To my utter shock and amazement, the Sata drive started right up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can you believe it? I can't!

    This is a truly historic event! Though it leaves some problems unsolved/unanswered, like: was the selecting/checking the box for disk 1 the answer? Because a problem there was that it did not give me any options at resizing, or hardly any other options for that matter. So I now have a rinky-dink 35 GB fat 32 recovery partition, and a huge hundred and 98 GB NTFS partition which has about 18 GB occupied. The other unanswered question relates to the fact that you guys don't have to select this option and still restore without problems. So is that really the answer? I don't know. All I know is I have done two successful restorations in a row, including one to a Sata2 hard drive through a Sata2 PCI control card. And without even upgrading the control card drivers yet. This seems rather amazing indeed.

    Another possible problem rears its ugly head: could it be the Seagate that I have been imaging from that is the problem? Oh my! That will be a problem. Oh well, maybe that's just another excuse to get one of them there raptors! LOL! So now I will have to go to work on whether or not it is related to the Seagate, and figure out how to pull off this success with an image from the Seagate drive which contains quite a few programs that I don't have installed on my older 40 GB Western Digital drive, and I don't want to go to the trouble of installing.

    But these are trifles! I am now in the restore business, even though I've got some problems yet to work out. So tonight, after having been resuscitated, I can go to bed in full celebration mode! LOL!

    Thank you guys for sticking with me. It's been quite an education, with some more still to go.
    Bill
     
  14. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Bill, I'm speechless and also happy that you survived CPR.

    It's now at the stage where you have to sort out the solution on you own as there are so many combinations. And you have to do it before Monday as I'm going on vacation and my mind needs to be inactive before I leave home.

    Excellent work. We expect more to come.

    PS Again, I think I've misunderstood what you have done. Did you image the 40 GB HD to the external HD and then restore this image to the 40 GB HD and the SATA HD? So you haven't restored the image of the main Seagate to the 40 GB HD or to the SATA HD?

    That's OK. I just want it to be clear in my brain.
     
  15. corinthian

    corinthian Registered Member

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    I thought it was very apt. I just just saying you might be onto something with your "Bingo", and maybe I better start looking into that possibility. I just realized somehow I missed a couple of you guy's posts, I'll read thru them and see if there is anything new that we have not already considered.
    Bill
     
  16. corinthian

    corinthian Registered Member

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    Yes, that is a darn good question, with no good answer. The only excuse I have is that I'm trying to avoid the reinstalling of all of my old programs, and I gety tired of buying an entire brand new computer every 2 or 3 years- it just seems so wasteful. All of that combined with a stbborn streak, I suppose. But it doesn't really make good sense, I admit.
    Bill
     
  17. Christopher_NC

    Christopher_NC Registered Member

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    Well, it makes good sense, to me. Just wanted to make sure that you were doing what you wanted, rather than making do with what was there.

    My wife has been suggesting for months that I should be less stubborn, and just buy a new motherboard. Yes, but we just bought a new one a year ago. OK, fine, spend your life fixing the computer...you see where this is going...

    As a hobby, it's great entertainment, and a fine learning experience. As a way to get something done, it makes about as much sense as pushing the car to start it in the mornings...ever done that? Helps to have a manual transmission, or live on a hill...

    But, I'm with you. We shouldn't let these things outfox us. Nor do I like to waste a perfectly good PC. Just thought you might be happier with a real version of XP, than tethered to your restore CD. That's the main limitation you keep bumping up against. Seems that a good vendor would make an affordable upgrade path from their OEM included Windows, to a stand alone OS, without having to pay full price. But, unless funds are tight, Windows can solve a world of ills. Of course, if your system can be upgraded to Vista, you could wait, and get a lot of programs at once.

    Regards
     
  18. corinthian

    corinthian Registered Member

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    Yes, that is correct. I did exactly that. I'm taking a small break before further attempting to image/restore the Seagate, which was the original desired task. Also, I'm still gathering info on driver updates for the SATA card so that I can do that pre-image, if needed. And now I'm looking into the possibility that the seagate drive is the problem, since a: restoring the 40gb wd image back to the 40gb drive was straighforward and since b: even restoring that same 40gb WD PATA image to the WD SATA was just as easy. (At least both were easy when selecting "disk 1", vs. each partition plus MBR) So that leaves me wondering why restoring the seagate image was impossile to restore. But now that I have been at least able to retsore to two drives (both WD) from one drive ( also WD), I am allowing myself a bit of a breather while I figure out the source of the seagate imaging problems (SATA drivers, selecting "disk 1", Seagate drive itself, or something else?) I'll probably be asking for more advice, but regardles, I'll keep ya'll posted re: what I find out.

    Enjoy your vacation down there in Australia!
    Bill
     
  19. corinthian

    corinthian Registered Member

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    Right, there is also the hobby/learning aspect of it. I keep swearing that my next computer will be a homebuilt job. Not only am I lacking a an XP disc, but the info I have is that it would be almost impossible for me to replace this Motherboard with another on this HP Pavilion. Otherwise I would have done it long since.

    Of course, it's hard to beat the total price and convenience of a complete unit from Best Buy or even Walmart/Sams. Especially when a unit is on special. At least hard to beat untill its time to upgrade. I wonder if there re any mass markt PC providers who provide XP ( or later, Vista) disks and a relatively easy ability to upgrade everyhing, includin the MB?
    Bill
     
  20. Christopher_NC

    Christopher_NC Registered Member

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    Well, I doubt that the mass marketers will ever offer what you are describing. After all, they are selling to the masses. The same folks that are content to buy a hard drive in a box marked, 250GB SATA HD. No model number, no ratings, no clue. Could be the slowest, highest failure rate hard drive ever built by that company. Or, the best...though, I doubt the best HDs ever end up at Comp USA, or Walmart. The best equipment generally gets sold to those who spec their equipment, because they want quality, and reliability. Like that WD RaptorX SATA HD, which is being used in TIVOs precisely because it has such high reliability. TIVO companies don't want to make service calls.

    You could buy a computer from a small, reputable, PC builder, who will often make a PC to your specs, or, sells pre-built PCs at several price points. While they may not have as good a "deal" as what you might find at a mass market discounter, 2 years from now, or 6 years from now, you should still have a running computer. And, if you buy it locally, you'll also support a shop who can help you with upgrades, swap out hard drives or power supplies that fail, even restore your system drive from a TI Image, for a nominal fee.

    There are lots of folks who don't want, or are too smart to build and service their own PCs. But, that doesn't leave only the option of prebuilt, mainstream PCs, even on a budget. I even buy my cameras from local camera stores. That way, I can inspect them, try them out, and, if I ever need to, bring them back for an exchange or upgrade. Just be sure the PC builder you choose knows what they are doing. Check them out, ask a few questions. Trust your sense of them. Or, buy mail order, from a place that has good reviews. Since you enjoy research, you'll have weeks of fun just deciding which DVD burner to buy. And which monitor is best for you. It also won't be long before great deals are to be had on systems bundled with Vista, if you enjoy the bleeding edge of software...

    And there are barebones PCs, which can come bundled with an OS, that let you complete the system to your specifications. My next door neighbor works in software design, and all he ever buys are barebones systems. Might look into those myself next time around. He also likes Seagates and Western Digital HDs.
     
  21. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Thanks Bill. Only away for a week. Bushwalking in the Blue Mountains.

    I'm using my fourth Dell and my friends have bought dozens of Dells. They come with a WinXP CD. In a year or two I'll buy number five.
     
  22. Christopher_NC

    Christopher_NC Registered Member

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    Brian,

    Please download the latest version of Vacation Drivers and install them with logging enabled. We may need to contact you during your bushwalk, so, please keep your satellite-connected laptop on at all times during your vacation.



    Enjoy your time away from all these PCs, the ones that work (your Dells, and from what I hear, most Dells), and the ones that don't (some Dells, and many others built with a tad less care). We'll miss you...oh, that's right, you'll be posting your itinerary, won't you? If you take photos (and enjoy sharing them), send us a link upon your return...

    Happy no trails!
     
  23. BillPorter

    BillPorter Registered Member

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    I have been following this thread since the first post and wanted to say that I am AMAZED at how you guys have just kept plugging away at this problem. It's been a bit like watching a soap opera with all the ups and downs. Anyway, I eagerly await the final victory which will come when you restore the Seagate drive. I'll be pulling for you!!! Good luck!!!!
     
  24. corinthian

    corinthian Registered Member

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    Tupelo, MS
    Thanks Bill, much luck seems to be needed! I seem to have a missing post on this thread. I would have sworn I saw it here last night after I posted it. But I haven't seen it here today. I don't know what the deal is with that.

    But anyway, in that post I was commenting on Brian's hiking in the Blue Mountains, and remarking how I was just back from a one-week backpack in Wyoming's Wind River Mountains. But as I was typing that post, the last few minutes were ticking down on an attempt to restore the Seagate PATA drive to the Western Digital Sata drive, after having selected "disk 1" by checking the box beside disk 1. As opposed to selecting individual archives and resizing and all that. Before I could finish the post, the restoration was complete, and I rebooted and held my breath. This was still before I have updated in a Sata control card drivers. But I wanted to try it by clicking "disk 1" and going on from there, just like I had with the two previous 40 GB Western Digital restorations, both to the 40 GB Western Digital and to the 250 GB Western Digital Sata. Only this time trying to restore the Seagate. Anyway, to my shock and amazement, the Western Digital Sata booted right up, showing a perfectly functional image of the Seagate hard drive!

    So to me now it does not quite seem as definite that IT IS a SATA or Sata control card related problem. And it also seems less likely that it is a problem caused by the Seagate drive itself. It seems more likely that it is still an Acronis related problem, or that is its more likely that I am making some wrong selection in Acronis during the restoration process. Though I can't imagine what that would be. But so far I have had three different successful restores in a row, one to the 40 GB Western Digital -- a restoration of its own image -- and one of that 40 GB image to the Sata drive, and now a successful Seagate copy to the Sata drive. All have involved the initial selection of "disk 1", which automatically selected C: and D: (recovery partition) and MBR all at once. And this selection gave me fewer choices later on. Including no options for resizing. But at least everything restored, and booted, including the Seagate PATA to Western Digital Sata.

    Now I've gone back to square one. And I am attempting the restoration of a new image of the Seagate drive, but this time not selecting "disk 1", but selecting the individual partitions one at a time, and resizing, followed by MBR. There's about an hour remaining of the restoration process, and I don't expect it to work. If it does work then I'm really going to be scratching my head, trying to figure out why it didn't work all those other times. If it doesn't work, then I'm back to be trying to figure out why it will work under one specific condition of selecting "disk 1", as opposed to selecting the individual partitions one at a time and resizing it, where it won't work at all.

    Thanks for your interest!

    Bill
     
  25. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,113
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    Another misunderstanding. I called your 40 GB HD a Seagate. It's a WD. Correct?

    So many different HDs. Difficult to keep track.
     
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