I can't restore backup.

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by MarkJohnson, Jan 14, 2008.

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  1. MarkJohnson

    MarkJohnson Registered Member

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    For some reason after making an image of my drive it won't restore it back.

    There's only 3 simple steps and it won't let me select my drive, step 2 forces me to select my drive, but step 3 greys it it I guess because step 2 has selected it. anyway here's a rundown of what I did,

    Click restore from main menu

    Restore Data wizard comes up. I click Next

    I select my tib image file and then click Next.

    I check Restore Disk or Partitions and click Next.

    I select Disk 3 as drive to restore. a check box get marked for both NTFS (D:) and MBR and Track 0. I then click Next.

    Now it asks me which drive I want to restore again and Disk 3 is greyed out for some reason?

    Can someone point me to where I messed this uo because it makes no sense to me why it is greyed out or why it asks me a second time to select a restore drive.

    -=Mark=-
     
  2. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    Where is the Backup Image stored?
    What OS is this?
    Are you restoring from within Windows or from the True Image Rescue CD?
    And to round it off, what version and build of TI are you using?
     
  3. MarkJohnson

    MarkJohnson Registered Member

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    the image is on my Drive D, My Backup drive

    also my OS Drive is C: and my restore drive is E:

    Windows XP MCE - updated for all required updates

    I'm doing this within Windows like I did with the trial version before I bought ths version last night.

    True Image Home V11 Build 8,053

    -=Mark=-
     
  4. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Some people confuse disks and partitions as being the same. You can have multiple partitions on the same drives.

    1. Rename your drives so you can identify the drive by its name--not its drive letter. See my posting below.

    2. Open XP Disk Management and view your drives. This will help you to clarify which options to select. With MCE, you will have multiple partitions. Be sure you select the correct ones based on their names--not their drive letter.

    3. Often times, you get better results by booting the to the TI Rescue CD and perform your restore from there. The Rescue CD may change both your drive numbers and your drive letters. Use the unique names you assign to your drives for proper identification.

    Disk Management display available thru the Contrtol Panel/Administrative Tasks/Disk Management.
     
  5. bw117

    bw117 Registered Member

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    I select Disk 3 as drive to restore. a check box get marked for both NTFS (D:) and MBR and Track 0. I then click Next.
    ------------------------------------

    They are asking you for the Source of the restore in this step, not the destination. Same mistake I was making. The wording used in this step should clearly indicate they are asking for the source, but it does not.

    Bill
     
  6. nb47

    nb47 Registered Member

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    Did you uninstall the 'Trial period' version-you usually have to do that.
     
  7. MarkJohnson

    MarkJohnson Registered Member

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    hmm, it only lists disk 3 (Drive D) here and it is the formatted drive I want to put the image on.

    Just to clarify I will re-list my steps again with better identification:

    step 1. when the restore wizard comes up it starts at the backup archive selection and ask for me to select a backup archive that contains data you want to restore. I go to my backup disk (Drive E) and select my backup file I created.

    Step 2. restoration type selection - you can select the type of backup archive restoration. I chose restore disks or partitions as I backed it up as a bootable image.

    step 3. partition or restore disk to restore - select a partition or a disk drive to restore. It only lists disk 3 (Drive D) as an option and it is the disk I want to have the image restored to. it is cleanly formatted with the manufacturer's supplied disk and I let windows pre-format it at 4k sectors and NTFS. I select the disk 3 check box and it auto-selects the two options below it NTFS - drive D plus MBR and Track 0.

    step 4. now this is the confusing step as I've already selected my source and destination drives (btw, why don't they just use these simple terms that have been around forever).

    Restored Hard Disk Drive Location - You should select a hard disk drive for the restore. then down in the drive selection area it provides additional information: Please select a destination hard disk drive to restore the hard disk drive image. The hard disk drives already restored are disabled. The destination hard disk drives without enough space for restoring an image are disabled as well.

    well disk 3 (my drive D) is grayed out and it is the drive I want to restore the image to so it will be bootable. It also says next to disk 3 in the description that is is Dynamic.

    also, it has pre-selected my backup disk (Drive D) . I don't know it's a coincidence as it is the first drive in the list. so I don't know if it pre-selected my my backup drive on purpose or it just selected it because it was the first drive on the list.

    @GroverH
    I have all my disks labeled and no partitions at all. I have 4 drives on my system.

    Drive C is my current XP MCE with labled the default "Local Disk"

    Drive D is my 2 disk hardware RAID that I'm tring to restore the image to with the label "HW RAID"

    Drive E is my backup drive and obviously label "Backup" - lol

    I purchased this trough download and will see if I can find out how to create the rescue CD from within True Image.

    Thanks everyone for your responses
    -=Mark=-
     
  8. bw117

    bw117 Registered Member

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    Step 3 is asking for the source only, not the destination.
    It is displaying the contents of the file you selected in step 1 and asking you which part(s) of it you want to use as the source of the restore operation.
    Some image backups contain more than one partition, so you would need to select the one you want. In your case, there is just one partition plus the mbr.

    Step 4 is asking for the destination.

    I agree with you on the need for standard terms on these screens.
    ----------------------------------------

    step 3. partition or restore disk to restore - select a partition or a disk drive to restore. It only lists disk 3 (Drive D) as an option and it is the disk I want to have the image restored to. it is cleanly formatted with the manufacturer's supplied disk and I let windows pre-format it at 4k sectors and NTFS. I select the disk 3 check box and it auto-selects the two options below it NTFS - drive D plus MBR and Track 0.

    step 4. now this is the confusing step as I've already selected my source and destination drives (btw, why don't they just use these simple terms that have been around forever).
     
    Last edited: Jan 15, 2008
  9. MarkJohnson

    MarkJohnson Registered Member

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    ok, if I follow you right then step 3 is what is contained in my image? and then I select all or the portions I want to restore?

    here is the picture of step 3.

    [img=http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/6373/step3ativ11pz2.th.jpg]

    If step 4 is my destination drive then acronis won't let me select it? it is grayed out for some reason.

    Here is a picture of step 4.

    [img=http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/7531/step4ativ11ta3.th.jpg]



    Am i missing something? I can't figure out why it hides my drive?

    -=Mark=-
    ps. gonna try to create rescue disk, I just found it in all programs.
    wish me luck
     
  10. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Mark:

    Aha, mystery solved. Your picture tells the story. The drive that is grayed-out is a dynamic volume. Acronis will not work with dynamic volumes; only basic volumes.

    I think it may be able to create a backup of a dynamic volume if you do it from Windows, but not from a rescue CD. And it won't be able to restore to a dynamic volume in either event.

    You will need to convert the disk to a basic volume before you are able to restore with TI. I believe that this will require a reformat of the disk to do that.
     
  11. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Mark,
    If you're new to TrueImage, perhaps my guides (link below) can help.

    Also would recommend that you label our C drive with something more identifiable than "Local disk". XP-MCE_C is a possible suggestion.
     
  12. MarkJohnson

    MarkJohnson Registered Member

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    hmm, that's strange because I just finished doing a low level format from DOS after upgrading my hard drives firmware. When I logged in to windows it wasn't showing up in My Computer, Then I realized windows needs it formatted first so I went to disk management and told it to format it NTFS with 4k file clusters. I did choose for it to do a quick format. Maybe it wants a regular format.

    also, what does dynamic disk mean anyway? and how did it get that way? How do I make it non-dynamic?

    -=Mark=-
    I just went to disk management to do a regular format and it said disk wasn't active, so I activated it , but Acronis still says it's dynamic.
     
  13. MarkJohnson

    MarkJohnson Registered Member

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    ok, I found an MS article on converting dynamic disk to basic disks and vice versa.

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309044

    unfortunately I was in a hurry when formatting my drive I apparently bumpped my wheel and it selected my backup drive and wiped it out. Good thing there wasn't anything valuable in there.

    anyone know a good disk editor or some program that I can possible recover it?
    -=Mark=-
     
  14. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Mark:

    You found the right article on dynamic disks from Microsoft. Just be aware that conversion back to a basic disk is a destructive process so you will need to back up any data on the disk first, as the article recommends.

    I'm not sure how you ended up with dynamic volumes; it shouldn't have happened by accident but rather by a deliberate selection when formatting the disk. Were you setting up software RAID on your disk?

    If you just reformatted your backup drive then I'm afraid it's toast. I'm not aware of any way to recover data from a reformatted drive but maybe somebody else is.

    In any event, once you get your main disk converted back to a basic disk you should not have any trouble restoring a TI backup to it.
     
  15. MarkJohnson

    MarkJohnson Registered Member

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    The disk is a HW RAID built-in the motherboard. It is read as a single SATA from the BIOS and doesn't need drivers to run. apparently XP sees it as a RAID anyway as the article said RAID disks are usually used as dynamic. anyway, at least I now know about the issue and I can be on the lookout for it.

    I'm sure TI backups will go smoother next time.

    Thanks again for all your help
    -=Mark=-
     
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