TI failed to restore image

I am running TI 8.0 on a Dell Inspiron 4150 laptop with Windows XP Home SP2. My 30 gb hard drive has 2 partitions: a FAT16 partition, which I believe contains an archive of the OS, and an NTFS partition (c containing the OS and my files. My disk images are stored on an external USB hard drive. Prior to attempting to restore a previous image, I verified it and successfully explored it, so everything seemed to be OK at that point. I also ran Microsoft's "chkdsk" to make sure my hard drive was OK, which it was. I commenced the restore by booting up the Acronis Recovery Boot Disk I had created on a CD. I attempted to restore the C: partition only. The restoration proceeded normally until it got about one-quarter of the way through, at which point the activity light on the destination drive went out, the computer started making a rapid clicking sound, and an error message came up: "Failed to write to sector 6,087,687 of the hard disk". I clicked "ignore" and another error came up for the next sequential sector. Then I clicked "Ignore All", but the restoration did not seem to proceed. The activity light on the destination drive stayed out and the rapid clicking noise continued. After about 2 minutes, I clicked the "cancel" button out of concern that the computer might be damaged. I tried to restore another image, and the same sequence occurred. Now I have a computer that doesn't function at all. HELP!

 

Sorry to say it but those sound like hard drive failure probs, not ATI failure probs. The clicking sound is the drive head doing a sweep looking for the sector it expects to be writable.

When you started the restore, the first thing that happens is that the existing partition is deleted ( unless you checked off the box to not delete existing partitions). So the disk won't be bootable after that part fo the restore process occurs. But it sounds like youo need a new drive anyway. Once the bad sectors start showing up, 9 times out of 10 it only gets worse. Once in awhile a random sector goes bad and that's the end of it, but that's not usually the case.

good luck

 

If its a hard drive problem, then why did my running of Microsofts's "chkdsk" program show no disk errors?

 

All may not be lost. hps68 at least has two probably good images on an external drive. If these are full disk images that included the hidden partition it should be simple to run the restore again for the whole disk to a replacement drive and be back up and running again as soon after it is fitted.
In any event one of the images could be explored on another computer and all the data could be saved there.

Xpilot

 

When you ran chkdsk did you include the Repair feature ?
Did you examine the results in detail in Windows logon in the applications tab?
Did you have a premonition that prompted you to restore C or was just to take the drive back to an earlier point?
Have you tried booting the laptop using the Dell recovery keys? It is worth a try because the hidden partition and its diagnostic tools just might still be there though I doubt it.

Xpilot

 

When I ran chkdsk I did include the auto repair feature.
I did not examine the results in detail (I don't know how to do that).

The sequence of events leading up to this fiasco is as follows: I ran Registry Mechanic a month ago and deleted the errors it found. Shortly thereafter, I noticed that one freeware program that I have been running for years was not acting correctly. (But everything else was.) I removed and reinstalled the latest version of that program, but it was still acting up. Thinking that the edit of the registry was the problem, I tried to use System Restore to get back to a time prior to the registry changes. Then I discovered that my earlier checkpoints had been corrupted, so I couldn't use them. That left me with True Image. Should have left well enough alone.

I don't know what or where the Dell Recovery Keys are. Would greatly appreciate instructions. And if I can reboot using them, what should I do then? Is there a way to recreate the C: partition and reformat it, or would that not help?

 

It will be of no help now but after running chkdsk R the results only flash up for a second. To go through them in detail I open admin tools in control panel, then event viewer, application log and one of the entries will be LOGON. Double click this and the check results are shown in detail. There are keyboard shortcuts to get there but I cannot remember them.

I am not a Dell user but if you have a manual......I could guess at F11 while restarting the computer but I could be wrong.
Dell I believe provide some diagnostic tools in a hidden partition. If they are still available some repairs may be possible to the current drive.

From what you say of your experiences with System Mechanic it may be that there is no physical damage to your hard drive after all. But as you cannot restore to the existing drive when booted from the TI rescue CD I am running out of ideas.

Xpilot

 

F11 is the correct key. I accessed Dell's diagnostics, which are on the hidden partition. I ran an extended test on the hard drive and it found an uncorrectable error on one of the blocks. So my hard drive is bad after all. So much for chkdsk. I guess I'll have to replace it. Thanks for all your help!!

 

Don't panic quite yet!

I repaired a Dell laptop about 3 months ago using Acronis True Image 10.0, the drive was almost dead and had lots of read errors so I decided to image to an external hard drive using usb. I ticked the ignore all errors after clicking retry for a few times.

In total it took 24 hours!!! to copy the image to the external hard drive BUT when I replaced the dying hard drive in the laptop with a new drive I was able to recover onto the NEW drive.

Then I had to do a windows repair to fix a few problems but ALL the data was there including emails, word docs etc. Nothing seemed to be missing!

A week later had to do the same for a desktop pc but that was only 13 hours.

 

That's great that you know that the drive is failing. The smart thing is to replace the bad drive now. You might try some tricks to keep it alive, but that's usually not worth the effort since new drives are not very expensive relative to your time. Of course, if you value your time at less than $5.00/hour, then try to save the drive.

Install the new drive with the jumpers matching the drive you are removing.

Boot from the TI Recovery CD and restore the image you want to restore initially. All should go well, and your system should be bootable.

OK, the original disk had the FA16 partition and a MBR that supported the F11 boot. If you don't have a backup image that includes the FAT16 partition -even if it's an old one, you may have a problem. If you have an image with the FAT16 partition, restore it first being sure to select the entire disk including the MBR and the FAT16 partition as well as C. Check that that old backup boots normally.

Now, restore just the C partition from your most recent backup. You will be up-to-date and the system will boot normally.

If you don't have a backup with the FAT16 partition and the MBR, you can still make the system bootable. You will need either a Windows 98 boot disk or a Windows XP installation CD. Boot from the floppy or CD and create a new partition on your new hard drive. You don't have to install Windows, but you do need to create the partition which will create an MBR to boot the system after you restore the C partition from your latest image.

Let us know how the restore goes.

 

Hello again hps68,

While waiting for your replacement drive there is something else you can try. Boot with the existing drive in place using the the F11 key to get to the repair menu.
Now find the entry to restore the disk to its original factory state and follow the steps to perform this act.
You will get warning messages about losing all your data etc but you have all that in an image on your usb drive.

If the computer now boots into Windows you could run chkdsk R again on the whole drive and this time look at the results as I mentioned earlier.
You could also restart using F11 again and see if the Dell diagnostics now give a clean bill of health.
Then restore one of your earlier images of C as you did before.
If it does not work you have lost nothing but a bit of time. If everthing is back to normal I would not cancel the replacement drive order you will probably need it some time soon!

I have suggested the above steps because it is not unknown for a diagnostic to give a false positive result on a good disk. However I think in this case the chances of this being so are fairly slim.

In a replacement drive situation the exact steps required depend a bit on whether you get one from Dell with windows and and their diagnostics pre-installed. If you want to recover your data,settings and programs that you had installed run a recovery from the TI CD just as you did before. Take care to only restore the C partition and do not restore anything else.
If the new HDD is blank do a whole disk restore to include the hidden partition and MBR. If your image does not include the hidden partition just restore C drive and any booting problems can be tackled separately.

Xpilot

 

Almost all of the so-called registry cleaners point out a lot of registry entries that have no value or point to a nonexistent file and therefore are supposedly not needed and can be safely deleted. This is very often wrong. Lots of programs make reg entries that point to files that exist only when the program is running and sometimes only when it is performing certain tasks. If the registry entry is not there, the prog can act lost and goofy. Things like old shortcuts can be deleted with abandon -- but other registry entries are a more serious matter. Generally the rule of thumb should be don't delete any entry unless you know that it won't affect a needed program and don't rely on registry cleaners's assestment of what is or isn't a needed registry entry.

 

Fortunately, my most recent image included the FAT16 partition, so I should be able to restore that first when I get the new hard drive. (Boy, do they stick it to you when you buy a replacement part for a 5-year old laptop: $140 +tax +shipping for a refurbished 40G drive.) Anyway, once again, thanks for everybody's help. I'll be back if I have problems with the restoration.

 

If your version of XP is of the Pro variety and you can locate a Pro XP CD, it is possible with a lot of fiddling to run chkdisk/r from the console.

Colin