Invalid Partition Table Acronis True Image 9.0

My problem:

I had to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows XP SP2.

1. I restored Windows onto one partition
2. I used partition magic to resize my partition

Everything works fine and I have one half my disk as a partition and one half as unallocated space.

3. I used Acronis TI 9 boot CD to restore a TI .tib file to my unpartitioned space
4. Acronis TI said it finished successfully restoring my file.

When I rebooted it said "Invalid partition table"
I don't really understand how restoring a TI file to unpartitioned space after the primary boot partition could corrupt my primary boot partition table.

Has anyone ever seen this?

 

Peter Mac,

What did you restore to the unallocated space? An OS or a data partition?

If it was an OS, have a look in Partition Magic to see if both partitions are set Active.

 

I restored an OS partition.
it won't boot at all. It just says "Invalid Partition Table" at startup

I set the type to Primary.
I normally restore images from Windows. This time I did it from the boot CD.

I just repeated my steps exactly and the same result occurred a second time.

Does restoring images from the boot CD to unallocated space fry the partition table?

 

It shouldn't.

It's not a good idea to have two OS visible to each other unless you are dual booting the Microsoft way. It sounds like you aren't, so please have a look in Partition Magic and see if both OS are active (using the PM boot discs). For test purposes, hide the second OS with PM and let us know if your first OS then boots.

 

This time I used Windows Xp to create two partitions at boot up--I didn't even use Partition Magic. thus, PM has nothing to do with it as the problem occurs whether Windows XP creates the partition or whether PM creates it. The second partition was clearly not active but still fried my partition table.

I have had two active partitions before but never gotten this error at startup.
I made sure the 2nd partition was not active.

I am going to install my image using the Windows version of Acronis TI 9.
If it works, I think Acronis needs to do some research.

I am using an HP Pavilion Laptop running its OEM Windows XP SP 2

 

Peter Mac,

I'm not suggesting Partition Magic caused this error. Having two active partitions causes the error but you seem reluctant to even check for this possibility. Or even to hide the second OS. I think I know what you did incorrectly during the restore process.

 

Hello Peter Mac,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Could you please collect some information to let us investigate the issue thoroughly?

Please create Acronis Report in the way described below:
- Download and run Acronis Report Utility;
- Select the "Create Bootable Floppy" option;
- Insert a blank floppy disk in the A: drive and proceed with creation of the bootable floppy;
- Boot the computer from this diskette and wait for report creation process to finish;
- Collect the report file from the floppy.

Then submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with a solution.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov