No success with TI 10

Hi,

I have been using True Image for several years now, starting with TI 8. I have always had great success with the product but recently purchased a laptop with a SATA drive which was not recognized by TI 8. My past success with the product led be to purchase TI 10.

However, I am extremely frustrated now and near my wits end after having wasted much time with almost no success. The only task that was successful was creating an image by running the installed version (not the bootable CD). Here were my attempts and results:

1) Attempted to use bootable CD to create image (onto an external USB2 drive). After I finally got the bootable CD to load TI 10 (2 or 3 tries), the process hung and the mouse froze shortly after starting the task.

2) Attempted to create image (onto an external USB2 drive) from installed version (not bootable CD). This was successful.

3) Attempted to restore image (from external USB2 drive) using bootable CD. Again, it took 3 tries for the utility to load without hanging. Shortly after completing options and starting the restore, the task hung and the mouse froze.

4) Attempted to restore image (from external USB2 drive) using installed version (not bootable CD). After my selections were made and the task was started, the system rebooted (as expected). Shortly after the reboot, when the task actually started, the task hung and the mouse froze.

5) Attempted to restore image (from a seperate partition on the internal drive) using installed version (not bootable CD). After my selections were made and the task was started, the system rebooted (as expected). Shortly after the reboot, when the task actually started, the task hung and the mouse froze.

6) Attempted to restore image (from a seperate partition on the internal drive) using bootable CD. Again, it took 3 tries for the utility to load without hanging. Shortly after completing options and starting the restore, the task hung and the mouse froze.

I think I can conclude that the RAMDISK utility (either after reboot or using bootable CD) is failing 100% of the time - which renders the product useless. I am 6 hours into a memtest86 test and have gotten no errors as of yet. If anyone can think of what is causing TI 10 to freeze in Ramdisk/Reboot/Bootable CD mode, I'd love to know.

Can somebody please help me? I am running a Dell Latitude D830 laptop with 2GB RAM, a 120GB, 7200 RPM drive, C2Duo 2.2GHz (T7500), WinXP-SP2.

Very frustratedly yours,

B.T.

 

I think you have proven that the Linus version of TrueImage is not fully compatible with your notebook's hardware. When you try to restore a boot partition from within Windows, the system reboots to the same Linux environment, so the program hangs.

Have you tried the tips in this:
"Please boot your computer from the Acronis True Image rescue disc and press F11 key when the selection screen advising you to select either "Full", "Safe" or "Boot into Windows" option appears. After you get the "Linux kernel command line" prompt, please modify it in the following way:

quiet acpi=off noapic

click on the OK button then and choose "Full Version"."


If that fails, you have the alternative of creating a BartPE boot disk. This allows you to run in the Winodws environment which is compatible with your notebook while booting from a CD (instead of using the TI Recovery CD).

This link is here:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=162424

 

Hi,

I will try that when I get home. How about when a task needs to reboot and upon reboot runs in RAMDISK. I have no control over that (like I would with the additional CD you recommend creating). It would appear, in this case, that I would need to wait for an update to TI 10. I already have what is currently listed as the latest build. How often do new builds come out?

B.T.

 

Hello boss_tweed,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please notice that all operations that would require reboot into Linux environment can be evenly performed using Acronis Bootable Rescue Media.

If the quiet acpi=off noapic workaround doesn't solve the problem, please collect some information to let us investigate it thoroughly:

Please create Acronis Report and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

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.

As for build release schedule, we regret to inform you that it's not strictly defined. The new builds are released as soon as they pass testings by Acronis Quality Assurance team. We recommend you to log into your account, go to Subscriptions at the left and checkmark the two following items: 'Notify me about critical updates for my registered products' to be up on the Acronis True Image 10.0 Home updates list.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

There is no set time table for updates. However, there are updated drivers that are available.

Let us know what happens when you have a chance to test the acpi=off no apic suggestion.

 

I am experiencing a very similar problem as the thread starter.

My hardware: HP/Compaq Presario DC5100 MT (delivered in July 2005) with Pentium IV 2.66 GHz, 1 Gb RAM, 2 x 80 Gb independent (i.e. no RAID) SATA disks, Windows XP Pro SP2. No floppy drive is available on the machine.

I have a TIB archive created with TI 6. It resides on HD #2, within the primary and unique NTFS partition (spannig on the whole drive). Drive #1 has just been replaced with a brand new, unformatted, unpartitioned unit. Please note, this is the one and only SATA equipped machine in my lab. The only two available EIDE channels are populated with a CDROM and a DVD burner.

What I have tried so far:

0) My dear old version 6 boot CD, when used on that PC, miserably hangs right after showing the Acronis logo. Thus I decided to step to a newer version, hoping that things would become easier.

1) I start TI Home 10 latest relase on its boot CD. Both "safe" and "full" versions give me the following result, no matter if "quiet acpi=off noapic" is specified or not at the kernel parameters prompt:
- The program starts regularly and lets me step through the recovery wizard.
- Right after I click for the last confirmation before the real operation begins, it hangs and hard reboots the PC.
I have tried this operation sequence up to 8 times in a row, with no significant difference in results.

2) After reading this thread, I have quickly crafted a BartPE boot CD, including the TI plugin and letting it pick the system files from the original HP/Compaq OEM operating system CD that came with my Presario.
- The result is unchanged even under that environment. It will simply hang and then reboot as soon as the operation is started.

This has become definitely very frustrating. To restore my image, I had to do the following:
- Reinstall from scratch the vanilla XP system using the original restore CD + OS CD to the default partition on first disk;
- Add the TI installation to that system;
- Resize and shift the partition so that a good 15 Gb of free space is left before;
- Restart the system, run TI, restore the image to its proper place;
- Delete the vanilla partition and resize the original one...

Definitely this messy procedure is not compatible with the reasons why I bought a TI 10 license: not to mention the fact that the original HP restore is extremely slow and time consuming, though being basically a true batch, no-questions-asked process.

 

With TI 10 installed on your system's hard drive, can you successfully create and verify a backup to the external hard drive? (I'll assume you say yes.)

Since TI 10 runs from your system's hard drive under Windows, it should run from the BartPE which is also under Windows. Hoever, Windows on your hard drive has the SATA drivers. My guess is that you did not add them to the BartPE Plugins. That would explain the failure.

If you cannont find the drivers, they may be included in this large set of drivers already configured for use with BartPE:
http://downloads.littlbuger.info/index.php?cid=4

Here is a list of what devices are supported by this driver collection.
http://ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1374

Or, you can use the entire Ultimate Boot CD for Windows build of the BartPE from this site which will have the drivers plus a lot more. All you will have to add is the TI 10 Plugin.
http://www.ubcd4win.com/

Let us know whether including the drivers solves the problem.

 

Thank you for you reply, JMK.

The answer to your question is implicit in the last paragraph of my previous post. The only way I could succeed was installing a temporary win XP on the target drive, installing TI into that environment, and run from there. Therefore, the answer is YES: TI can succesfully restore from the second (internal) SATA drive to the (internal) primary SATA drive from within the Compaq XP SP2 environment, which is the data migration path I'm interested in at the moment.

Your missing chipset driver hypothesis is logically sound and I do eagerly agree with it, but I still do have a little doubt: those drivers are for sure contained in the HP/Compaq Restore + OS CD couple, which were used as a source for BartPE. If BartPE's defaults stick to some common sense definition of "reasonable", shouldn't they have been automatically included on the boot CD ?

Of course I am just guessing. I am not at all familiar with the BartPE environment.
Being also pressed by the urgence, I was not thoroughly going through all the documents: all I have done was basically downloading the package, adding the TI plugin, and building the boot CD.
If configuration files "retuning" is required before the CD building operation, I have missed that step. This would probably explain why the original drivers where not automatically included.

I shall thus try the UBCD4win solution ASAP, and I'll get back to the forum with my results right then.

Thank you again.

 

Don't assume that the HP drivers are included. The structure of some OEM CDs notably Dell can cause issues. As pointed out previously UBCD4WIN UBCD for Windows is a good choice. UBCD4WIN now includes support for the BTS Mass Storage Driver packs http://ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8076. Follow the directions in the link above to use this approach.

 

Mission accomplished: UBCD4Win with the extra BTS drivers did eventually work.

At this point I suppose that tweaking a little BartPE should also work as well.

Thanks indeed to all the repliers.

 

You can also incorporate the BTS Mass Storage Driver Pack in a plain vanilla BartPE build. Work on incorporating more BTS driver packs is in process for UBCD4WIN.