"Preparing" for hours-no backup

I'm trying to add a new larger capacity hard drive as my boot drive because I've run out of space on my present one.
After numerous failed attempts using the "Maxblast powered by Acronis"
software provided with the new drive, I got a replacement under warranty.

Same thing, so I thought I should be able to use my own TrueImage.
I have version 9.0 (build 2,323)
Up til I started this new drive process, I had no problems backing up to an external hard drive.
My problem now is I can't get Acronis to start a back up.
It sits for hours with a "preparing" message.
The first time was about 10 hours and who knows how long it would have sat there.
Last night I tried again and let it "prepare" for about 7 hours until I cancelled.

I'm running Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 2

I get the same results by cloning as well as back up. I've tried backing up to my new hard drive as well as an external

I'm getting nervous because I am running without a backup (I formatted the external with the back up to try to get a clean new back up to restore with the boot disk to the new HD)

Thanks for your help
I'm getting nervous because

 

Disconnect all usb devices including hubs for now. If you have to use the external hard drive, plug it into a rear usb port instead of a front port. And use the bootable True Image Rescue cd to do the process instead of doing it from the installed software.

 

Thanks, DwnNdrty.
I'll try that for a back up to my external a little later when I can leave my machine for a few hours.That way I have a new full back up
Should I also do this for copying over to ny new HD? I want it to be bootable.
Clone or back up?

 

Let's do it the safer way first. After you make that Full Backup to the external, disconnect the original internal drive, connect the new HD in its place and, using the Rescue CD, restore the Full Backup to the new HD.

This way you have your original drive safely out of the equation so-to-speak.

 

Progress report. Or no progrss report, maybe
I moved the external HD to a port in the back of the computer.
Booted from the Acronis boot loader CD to the TrueImage full.
Tried to back up to the external but it didn't show up as a choice.
Decided to clone to the new HD.
I let it run for 7-1/2 hours and nothing showed in either progress bar.
There was something going on because the red HD light was working.
I aborted the operation.
After a normal boot to Windows, my second drive isn't showing in My Computer.
Will the progress bar move or is it something that is disabled with the boot CD?

 

Okay, well that shows that the chipset of your external exclosure isn't supported by Linux which the Rescue cd uses. The workaround for this is to make a BartPE cd and incorporate the True Image plug-in in it. There is a whole topic devoted to doing this but I find the instruction in this message easier to follow:
www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=839781&postcount=1

The reason the second drive is not showing in My Computer is that because of the aborted Clone attempt, True Image has left the drive in an unallocated state. You can check this, when booted normally with your original drive, if you go to My Computer>Manage>Disk Management.

 

Out of curiosity, if you go into the BIOS (Setup) when booting, do both internal hard drives show up?

Does the new drive show up with the correct size in GB? If it is a 250GB drive, that's in decimal; and in the BIOS, the size shown will be 232.8GB, the size in binary format.

Have you booted this system from the TI rescue CD before? Were you able to see both the internal hard drive and the external USB drive at that time? My guess is that you didn't because this is not likely to change.

TI version 9 is fairly old, and it may not see your USB chipset. The Maxblast software is TI version 10 as far as I know. If neither see your USB drive, it may take version 11 or 2009 to find support, if at all. DwnNDrty's suggestion to make a BartPE disk may be the most practical for your system.

 

Check line 3 of my signature below. Perhaps this could be of assistance. It illustrates the type of restore you are discussing. Or, if you choose cloning, (a lessor preferance), you can use this link below.


My guide to Manual Cloning using the TI Rescue CD

If some partitions need to be deleted, this might help:
How To Delete Disk Partitions Using TrueImage Home
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=213446

 

Thanks all for your responses.
DwnNdrty, I'll check that info out that you mentioned

jmk94903, prior to this last clone attempt, I was in BIOS and saw both internals and the external.
I didn't check BIOS and the forcible abort of the clone. (I couldn't get my mouse on the cancel button)
The new drive was showing up as the correct size.

"Have you booted this system from the TI rescue CD before? Were you able to see both the internal hard drive and the external USB drive at that time? My guess is that you didn't because this is not likely to change."
I had only used the boot cd just to verify that it would work before this.

My last backup according to the log was 12/28/08, which was just prior to beginning to attempt to install the new drive.
This has been going on a while and I've just posted the latest manifestation.
On 1/1/09, I started this and was able to copy over to the new disk. However, I was never able to have it be a standalone bootable disk.
If the new drive were the only disk in the computer, it wouldn't boot. But with the old drive as a slave, it would boot to the new drive.
Drive letters were wrong. Many problems

I'm going to check out the BartPE setup

Thanks, again

Larry

PS This is an IDE drive

PPS Where would I find this Bart plug in? I only have a download of the product and can't see anything in the file

 

I just upgraded to TrueImage 2009. Hope that makes a difference

 

Hello larryfoster,

Thank you for your interesting in Acronis True Image

Contact Acronis support and submit technical request using this link or contact us via Live Chat describe the issue and provide Acronis Report information to your request:

Download Acronis Report utility available at http://download.acronis.com/support/AcronisReport.exe and run it, create a report and send it to us. Please compress the Acronis Report output file into an archive (e.g. with WinZip) and attach to your message by browsing for the archive. This would provide us with detailed information on the hard disk partition structure.

Best regards,
--
Dmitry Nikolaev

 

Thank you Dmitry.
Just an update to this thread.
I upgraded to TrueImage 2009 a few days ago.
It changed the situation somewhat but still seems to take an inordinate amount of time to back up.
I discuss it in a new thread here

I tried a support ticket but they don't get back real quick.
It must be a thing with tech companies, Seagate doesn't reply to theirs, either
I may break down and try live client after I check the resources you provided.

Thanks, again

 

Dmitry, I wan't sure if you meant to attach the Reprt.zip here or send to Acronis support.
If you meant here, it's attached.
Thanks

 

I was encountering the same problem with the backup never getting past the "Preparing" stage.

I took a chance and tried reinstalling the latest update even though I was already at that level. The process asked if I wanted to "Repair" my installation to fix any corrupted files or registry settings.

I tried that and after rebooting, the backup operation went smoothly.