Help with SZ manager

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by Lanze, Apr 14, 2005.

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  1. Lanze

    Lanze Guest

    Ok, so a while back I made an image of my main hd with xp on it, and i thought that i had stored it in a Secure zone on my portable USB 2 HD, well I CANNOT boot windows off my internal harddrive UNLESS i have the usb hd plugged in and turned on!?!?! i do not want to have to carry my usb hd with me everywhere, what can i do to make it boot from my internal. i have my bios set up correctly, cause when i attempt to boot from my internal drive the cursor just sits there and flashs and doesnt look for any boot records. please help!
     
  2. jimmytop

    jimmytop Registered Member

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    You are correct - if you create the secure zone on a removable drive, then remove the drive, the machine won't boot. Once the SZ is created, you can't boot the machine unless the SZ is accessible.
    Why are you using a secure zone anyway? Get rid of it and save yourself the hassle...lol. Seriously though, you really don't need it if you're saving your images on an external USB drive anyway.

    Either delete the secure zone or relocate it to your hard drive....
     
  3. pjb024

    pjb024 Registered Member

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    You can't boot direct out of SZ so it's nothing to do with that. Maybe you have cloned your system drive onto the USB HD and the BOOT PRIORITY is set in BIOS to boot from USB. Check what drive letter is allocated to your USB drive. I'm only guessing as it's hard to diagnose without seeing your system.
     
  4. jimmytop

    jimmytop Registered Member

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    No... it's a known issue with TI. You simply can't boot the machine if the partition that contains the Secure Zone is not connected to the PC.... This is a known issue. You must either remove the SZ from the external drive, or relocate the SZ to a drive that WILL always be hooked up....
     
  5. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hi jimmytop,

    Not strictly true matey. You can create a SZ on a removable drive, switch it off or remove it and still be able to boot from the internal system drive; just make sure you haven't also activated the Startup Recovery Manager. Activating the SRM modifies the Master Boot Record of the main system drive such that, during boot up, the system expects to detect the SZ at the location it was created.

    Unfortunately, when creating a SZ, the Manage Acronis Secure Zone Wizard default option is to also activate the SRM (see screenshot below). I'm sure many users just accept this default option without fully realising the consequences of doing so.

    As I said in an earlier thread, given the potential problems the SRM can cause with Multi-Boot Partitions or Removable Hard Drives, I believe Acronis should seriously consider changing the default selection in the Wizard to "Do not activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager". Failing that, perhaps they could at least include some cautionary note as part of the "Description". (Any comment Acronis Support?)

    Regards
     

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    Last edited: Apr 14, 2005
  6. jimmytop

    jimmytop Registered Member

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    Menorcaman, thanks for clarifying ;)
     
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