Questions re Recovery from bootable CD

Hi, I've got a noob question about restoring from Win vs bootable CD .

I've had two months of agonizing problems with a bad hard drive, probably (won't know until I actually restore from my ATI v.11, build 8053 (jeez, what a long download of that sucker!) backup to the new drive I just bought).

After nightmares trying to install dual boot system, I redid everything this way: Vista 64 bit on one hard drive, XP sp2 on another. Both installed separately, with the other drive physically disconnected, to protect the MBR I gather.

The XP drive, which has a little piece of the circuit board at the power connector broken off, seems to be the bad one.

So, I did this:

1. backed up both systems to an external USB drive.

2. created the bootable CD.

As a test, I tried restoring XP over the XP system drive (I didn't reformat...should I have?) when I was having troubles with it. But after booting up on the CD just fine, the restore process seemed to hang...there was no progress bar or anything, although the CD boot disk did find all my TI backups on the external drive...it just seemed to sit there after I told it to restore.

Plus this funky computer case I bought (I used to build my own system, thought I would "save time" buying one prebuilt, and have had more problems than ever in 25 years of computing!) doesn't have a stinkin' drive light so I couldn't ascertain whether anything was proceeding or not, and so I aborted the restore.

So the real question I guess is, would it be smarter/faster (according to others on this forum) to install TI v.11 on the Vista 64 bit system drive, then install my new hard drive and run the restore from Vista, restoring from the external drive to the new XP drive?

Another question: The new 500GB drive is identical to the old drive...but do I have to create the exact same size 250GB partitions first?

I tried to find this info in ATI help menu and online support but I didn't want to make a career out of chasing down the info tree...couldn't find a straightforward thread for how to do a CD restore, or whether I could do it from the Vista 64 bit drive.

So, thanks for any help!

JIm

 

TI is very much aware of the number of partitions in existence on the disk when the backup was created. Would suggest that the same number of partitions be created prior to restoring. Partitions do not have to be formatted.

RE-formatting not necessary on a restore. Restore will put the system back same as in existence when backup created.

It is normal to have no progress shown for a few minutes. Be a little patient before you kill the restore.

Someone else will have to answer this question. You still may need a Vista repair afterwards.

 

Thanks GroverH, appreciate the detailed reply.

I also found a thread with more info on restoring from CD. I'll try the Vista route first, that would be quicker.

 

Hello skypix,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Could you please clarify if you were booting every system while the other one was connected, or not?

Please notice that it's not recommended to restore one Windows operating system when booted from another Windows operating system to avoid boot files confusion. If you encounter problems using Acronis Bootable Rescue Media, please try booting with "acpi=off noapic" parameter as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

If the issue persists, please collect some information to let us investigate it thoroughly:

Please create 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.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Thanks Marat...

I spent 4 hours last night trying to restore from the CD. the first two hours TI spent validating the restore file on the external drive, which i assume was okay because then it bagan the restore to the new, unformatted drive. When it got more than halfway done with the restore, until only 53 minutes were left, it froze. I left it in the frozen state for 3 hours, hoping it was just a long pause. No luck, it locked up the system entirely.

so much for validated restores.

I guess the next thing I'll try is the acpi thing you recommend, but the cd bootup saw the external and all other drives, and went through most of the restore, so not sure I have the patience, after weeks of problems in general, to try yet another troubleshoot that may again lead me nowhere.

To answer your question, I'd booted on the Vista hard drive and tried, and failed, to install build 8053 on the computer. Not only that, when it had locked up before install completed, after showing 100% complete for 20 minutes, but not closing, I cancelled out of it, or attempted to. the program showed installed in startup menu but would not do a backup, though it seemed functional until that point. Tried to uninstall it but it does not show in the uninstall programs list. Really don't know what to do about that one! I'm thinking I'm going to junk 24 years of working with pcs and just buy a Mac. i'm sick of this kind of massive wasting of time...who ever spends this kind of time to keep a lawnmower or tv set running? It's a tool that's supposed to help your life, not take it over.

;-) please excuse the rant...I've just never had an unstable computer for 2 months before.

 

Un-install informtion on Vers 11 courtesy of Bodgy
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1120006&postcount=4

 

Thanks GroverH, I just got back online after yet another OS install (#s 5 and 6 in the last 2 months...don't ask).

I had an issue with Photoshop not opening, turns out I needed to uninstall or at least disable antivirus (PC Cillin) before it would properly install. Who knows all this stuff or can keep it in their heads? I"m not interested in becoming a tech expert, I just want to use the freakin' program for what it's supposed to be used for.

Meanwhile, I'm leery of trying to install TI 11 on my Vista 64, based on failing to do so twice before. I did do the manual uninstall, thank you for that, boy that was fun.

Now with the new OS install and Photoshop working, I'm wanting to try TI again but after the restore of my XP partition failed (after 4 hours of churning away), I'm just afraid to try it again. There's a lot of time wasted already.

Latest note from an Acronis techie was that I should do each image with the antivirus disabled! How am I supposed to know that? There's no obvious warning and there should be before actually doing an image or backup, shouldn't there? Or did I misunderstand him?

I don't even know for sure how to disable PC Cillin but I'll look that up.

So now I wonder, is my XP archive, which took two hours for the bootable TI disk to validate, actually not functional (it didn't restore, hung at 53 minutes to go after 4 hours of cranking away)?

And do I dare try to install ATI on my Vista 64 system and risk facing another manual install of 20 minutes or so?

I'm just ready to chuck the whole thing in. Sorry for the rant, (I seem to be saying that a lot lately.)

 

I just halted internet traffic and disabled my antivirus. Tried again to install acronis version 11, build 8053, on a completely fresh OS install (Vista 64). Once again, it stalled on installation, but showed the program in All Programs. But the program of course, because install did not complete, fails to work.

This has happened 3 times total, twice before on an entirely different hard drive.

I will again have to do a complete manual uninstall of Acronis. I am also done with Acronis. It is not a reliable product.

 

Monday dec 31, 07.

I've put this in as many threads as I had consulted looking for a fix. Now I'm done. I'll start the new year with another backup program and eat my losses buying this dreadful program.

I just halted internet traffic and disabled my antivirus. Tried again to install acronis version 11, build 8053, on a completely fresh OS install (Vista 64). Once again, it stalled on installation, but showed the program in All Programs. But the program of course, because install did not complete, fails to work.

This has happened 3 times total, twice before on an entirely different hard drive.

I will again have to do a complete manual uninstall of Acronis. I am also done with Acronis. It is not a reliable product.