Help - am I toast?

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by buzbee, Aug 6, 2006.

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  1. buzbee

    buzbee Registered Member

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    I've been happily using Acronis True Image (home) for some time now, and unfortunately it appears I didn't take sufficient care in setting up my daily backups. I've been using version 9.0, build 2,323.

    Anyway, yesterday I suffered a catastrophic drive failure and today I picked up a replacement drive. My last backup was also yesterday, so I thought I'd be golden. However, it appears that I was only backing up my C: partition - not a full drive image. I had a few other partitions on the drive for temp storage that I didn't care about, so I wasn't bothering to back them up.

    My problem now appears to be that I can easily restore that partition, but the drive won't boot (Windows XP Pro). Is there some magic I can perform to let the system know that the OS image on my C partition is? Would it work to do a fresh install of Windows XP and then restore my C partition on top of it? I know my data is safe, but I dread the thought of having to reinstall all of my applications and settings.

    Thanks,
    ...Bill
     
  2. max0071

    max0071 Registered Member

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    If I understand you, you just backed up the files and folders on c:. You failed to back up all files and folders (image). If that is the case then you got a big job ahead of you...........I feel for you. I don't have a way of producing the magic you need. Hopefully brighter minds than mine who visit here will be able to help..........good luck.
     
  3. pvsurfer

    pvsurfer Registered Member

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    buzbee: Assuming you have your Windows installation CD, try this (to fix your replacement drive with the .tib restore of your C partition)...

    Insert your Windows CD into your CD/DVD drive and bootup that CD. When you are given the opportunity to enter the Recovery Console (the very first Windows Repair option), select it. At the command prompt type the following commands, each followed by [Enter] (do one at a time):

    FIXMBR C:
    FIXBOOT C:
    COPY CDDrive:\I386\NTLDR C:\
    COPY CDDrive:\I386|NTDETECT.COM C:\
    BOOTCFG /rebuild

    After that, remove your Windows CD and reboot your computer.

    Good luck, pv
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2006
  4. buzbee

    buzbee Registered Member

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    Actually, I did what I thought was an image backup - but an image of the C: partition rather than of the entire disk. My understanding is pretty low here, but if I understand my situation, my partition backup did not back up the MBR. I tried using the Acronis utility to restore the MBR, and I got a little closer. My boot failed with a complaint that it couldn't find hal.dll. Again, I'm out of my league here, but further reading suggests that perhaps my boot.ini file of the restored partition doesn't match the partition configuration of my original system.

    Unless someone chimes in with some advice, my next attempt is going to be to attempt to reconstruct my original partition scheme on the new drive, then restore my C: partition image to the corresponding partition on the new drive and finally use the Acronis utility to rewrite the MBR and [pray, cross my fingers, sacrifice a goat, etc.] that things magically work.

    I just put the old drive back in the system (it is partially alive) and was able to pull out the partitioning info using a Linux utility. So, questions for the experts out there:

    1. Am I on the right track?
    2. Do I need to exactly reconstruct the old patitioning scheme, or just get the order correct?
    3. Given that the old drive is at least alive enough to yield a partition map, is there something else I should try to pull out?

    Thanks much,
    ...Bill
     
  5. furballi

    furballi Registered Member

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    For most users, the primary C active partition contains the boot file and OS to boot to windows.

    If you have a good image file of the primary C active partition WITH the OS, then partition the new HDD as one primary active C partition (same file format as the one on the image file), load the default MBR for the HDD, and restore the good image file to the new HDD.

    You may need to add the other partitions to "replicate" the configuration of the old HDD. Normally, if the boot partition is good, then windows will load without the other partitions (extended logicals).

    You can take the long approach by formatting the new HDD, install windows, then restore the GOOD image file of the primary C active partition on top of this partition. Again, we're assuming that the image file is good with C as the primary active boot partition.
     
  6. bVolk

    bVolk Registered Member

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    Hello buzbee,

    I would let the old drive be for the moment and would first try the approach you described (with the Acronis utility or the Recovery Console). The partitions on the new drive must be of the same number, not of same size.

    If that doesn't work I would download the latest build of TI 9, install it on another machine just to create a new Rescue CD and use that to try and image C: only again. This way the old drive wouldn't be exercised more than necessary, but the new build would include the MBR along the image of C:. Then you would restore both to the new drive partitioned as above. After you select C: for restore you have to tell TI that yes, you want to restore another partition and you will be given the option to add the MBR and Track 0 to the first selection (C: ).
     
  7. buzbee

    buzbee Registered Member

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    WooHoo - I'm up and running!

    Thanks to all, and I'll add a recap here in case anyone else finds themselves in my situation.

    System: Windows XP, with OS in a C: partition and several other miscellaneous partitions.

    Backup: Only C: partition backed up with older Acronis (build 2,323). This older version of True Image did not back up the MBR along with the partition.

    Situation: Hard drive failure. Replaced with new raw drive and restored C: partition from backup. Resulting system did not boot because MBR was not present *and* new partition scheme was different than old one.

    Solution: Repartitioned new drive to match partitioning of old failed drive. Then restored C: partition to its counterpart on the new drive. Finally ran the Acronis MBR restore utility.

    Results: I'm back up and running with the loss of only a few hours of data. Yea!

    Thanks for all for your assistance. I'll update now to the newer version of True Image (and start doing full disk image backups instead of partition only for good measure)

    ...Bill
     
  8. max0071

    max0071 Registered Member

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    wow...........i'm impressed.........well done
     
  9. bVolk

    bVolk Registered Member

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    Hi buzbee,

    I'm glad you succeeded.

    My setup is similar to yours. On C: I have Windows, applications and My Documents, on D: I have "disposables" of various kind.

    I regularily backup C: only (Build 3567), but I also have on storage one older image of the entire disk. So, when I have to install a new drive I won't even need to partition it. I'll restore the whole image and then restore a fresh image of C: on top of that.
     
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