Hard disk manager suite 11 trial: Can't boot into recovery environment

Hi there,

Thanks for reading my post.

I'm an Acronis True Image user who has downloaded - and paid for - the 2012 version. I'm finding it hopelessly broken and my patience is wearing thin. I can still get a refund.

In an attempt to find a viable alternative, I found Hard Disk Manager Suite 11. It seems somewhat different than TI, but its interface is reasonably clean, it looks well written, and is comparable to TI. Plus, I get all the features of Disk Director rolled in as well. As such, I installed the trial to get a feel for the program.

I made a partition image of my C: drive to test Paragon, but when I went to recover the image, Paragon didn't boot into its recovery environment. So that all is clear to you who read this regarding what I understand should happen, usually when one restores one's OS partition, the recovery software advises that a reboot is required. After reboot, a recovery environment is booted into that does the off-line restore. Such a process specifically does not require a rescue CD or any other media.

That's how TI works and, by my reading of the manual of Paragon, that is how Paragon ought to work, too. Well, upon completing the POSTing routine, my machine looks like it's going to boot, then throws a blinking cursor into the top left corner of the screen, and that's it - no Paragon, no Windows, nothing. Hangs. I have to restore an MBR and first track using an older image of my OS that I made with TI 2010 (still not great software, but less broken than 2012! V9 was AWESOME; what happened?) to get my windows back.

Anyone know why this is happening? Any thoughts? Rendering a person's OS partition unbootable would be a heck of a thing for a piece of trial software to do!

Any help in elucidating what's going on here or resolving this would be much appreciated! I'd like to consider Suite 11 a viable alternative to TI2012.

Thanks!

 

When Paragon does the reboot it loads the Linux recovery environment from the Paragon installaltion on your HD. This is roughly the same environment that is on the bootable recovery CD so I doubt if booting the CD would work either but I would try it in case something else is happening with the reboot mechanism.

The Linux installation has some problem with your PC's hardware and cannot boot up. Getting the PC to reboot by restoring the MBR is probably because Paragon writes a special MBR to get it to boot into the Linux so when you replace it you get the MBR to point back to your Windows installation.

If it is a Linux issue, then all is not lost since the paid product gives you access to the WinPE recovery environment that is Windows and is more likely to work with your hardware although it means booting up the CD or flash drive when you want to do a restore.

Since you are evaluating the program for purchase, why not try putting in a support request from Paragon and see what they have to say. If you haven't, I'd try the CD first before doing that so you have a better idea of where it is going wrong. While there is a lot of moaning about Acronis' support, at least they do try and help with forum problems. Paragon staff appear to be completely absent from this forum.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your reply; I appreciate it.

I was online with Acronis support 'till the wee hours yesterday; they finally gave up and requested I submit a crash report. My conclusion is that the support seems to WANT to help, but they're contracted out (clearly) and are dealing with a beta-version product. I should not be getting BSOD's on my hardware... but that's neither here nor there.

In regard to paragon, I did submit a support request - days ago. Nada. That I find curious, especially since I was clear that I wanted to buy several licenses. Your response is useful, however, in that it seems I am somewhat unique in getting this problem, lest you would have likely pointed me to a place where someone else had a similar problem. Your explanation is what I figured was happening; I just wonder what possible problem the linux could be having, 'cause I have pretty run-of-the-mill hardware.

Beyond booting into a recovery CD (can I make this with the trial version? I'm not sure, I don't currently have it installed - I'm running from another image) is there anything else you might suggest?

Your input is deeply appreciated.

 

You could download the free Paragon Backup and Recovery 2011 program and create it's recovery CD which probably uses the same Linux and see if it works.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/download.html

You might be right about the trial not letting you create a CD.

IMO, the use of Linux is somewhat of an Achilles Heel for all these restoration programs. The version tends to be compact and memory-resident and not as complete as the full-blown versions which also tend to be less well-equiped for drivers especially for newer hardware. This is why there is a gradual but definite move to providing a WinPE recovery mechanism.

You could also try a different product. I notice the Easus ToDo is getting a lot of good comments over at the Acronis forum but I don't know all of its functionality. I must admit that these days I have considerably less use for partition moving/adjusting and fiddling than I did in the old days when I used Partition Magic so I tend to just require a backup/recovery function. Being able to make and restore an image and the Windows Disk Management tool is all I really need but if you are running on a 1 disk system it's a different story.