TI ver 11 rescue disk does not see any SATA HD

I am brand new to Acronis (had been using Paragon Drive Image) but decided to give it a go on my new Vista x64 system. It's a new build on an Asus P5Q Deluxe motherboard. It has two 640GB Western Digital SATA hard drives, the first divided into two partitions (a 50GB C: partition for Vista and programs and the remaining 590GB as D and the second with a 640MB E: partition. I built the rescue disk, but it can only see the CD/DVD drive, FTP connections, and Network. It does not detect either SATA drive. I did not have this problem with the Drive Image rescue disk. What do I have to do to make the rescue disk usable?

 

The rescue disk is Linux and its weakness is a lack of drivers for some hardware, especially newer hardware. IIRC, there is an issue with the Asus P5Q's chipset. You cannot upgrade the Linux CD yourself so if you don't get a better answer than mine, you should raise an official support request with Acronis. They typically provide a new .iso file for creating a rescue CD that supports the hardware.

You could download the TI2009 trial and see if its rescue disk works and if you bought the product very recently you could contact Acronis and see if you qualify for an upgrade to TI2009. I'd do that regardless.

The other option is to create a BartPE or VistaPE based recovery CD which uses Windows drivers like Paragon probably did.

 

Paragon, like most backup/imaging programs incldung ATI, uses linux, too, but doesn't have the same drivers as Acronis. This is why they don't all work on all the same hardware setups.

Shadow Protect is the only one I know that use windows, in fact VistaPE, on the Boot CD -- but Paragon isn't very feature rich and is kind of pricey.

 

I got a useful response by going through the Acronis web sites live sales help. I said I was interested in upgrading to ATI2009 becasue ATI11's rescue disk could not see my SATA drives. Ilya, my correspondent, helpfully pointed me here http://download.acronis.com/sl/aahr...eImage8101_multiparam_Standard_english_il.iso for an ISO tht would work. And it does! For my Vista 64x I simply choose option 3 from the boot menu and it works. (My support inquiry through the usual Acronis protocol has still not been answered!).

 

My TI-11/ Rescue disk sees SATA and SATA RAID just fine. That is on both a Asus P4PE and P5D mobo.

 

Yes, it works on some hardware set ups and not others. This is true of all the Backup/imaging programs the use Linux. For example, ATI10 will see my Intel RAID but not my Silicon Image RAID. ATI 11 has the same problem. Both see a silicon image RAID on a diff machine with diff chipset (requiring diff drivers).

ATI12/2009, before I uninstalled it and got a refund, could see the drives on all my machines, although, undoubtedly, like all backup software using linux, it won't work on everything that windows works on.

Even ATI8, and probably earlier versions worked on some RAID setups.

 

I had same probelm on ATI v10. Solution is below:

You must have created your Rescue Disk using the FULL version.
Go back and create a new one using the SAFE version. This has windows drivers and SATA support. Boot from your new media and all your SATA HDD's will be recognized.

p.s. Acronis should have this in their documentation or in an FAQ somewhere.

 

That's not my understanding. Safe Mode relies on the BIOS for the hardware rather than software drivers and doesn't run linux but derivative of DR DOS, iirc. So if the BIOS can handle it , then Safe mode can sometimes restore where the linux drivers are inadequate. This is why, Safe Mode sometimes let ATI Boot cd work with usbs, because it's using the BIOS instead of on-CD drivers.

 

Yes, and on a lot of PCs Safe Mode will not provide USB, Firewire or network support. It can also be dead slow but if it works when nothing else you have does, and you need to restore, its better than nothing.

I admit, it does seem to offer reasonable peformance to some users and I was surprised at how many people use it - which came to light when Acronis stopped including it in the download package.

 

Safe mode works best when both disks are internal and are both recognized by the BIOS. I frequently use it when backing up or restoring from an internal disk to another internal disk. I use safe mode almost exclusively with Acronis Disk Director (a subject for the other forum) when partitioning an internal disk. Another advantage of safe mode is that it boots in a few seconds.

 

All I can say is that safe mode allowed me to restore my PC when both the normal windows method and "Full Disk" rescue media failed.

And yes, my SATA HDD's are internal.

 

I tried downloading from the link you gave but got "File Not Found" response. Have you another link?

Thank you.

 

It may have been a one time link for howardg.

 

Do you know if Safe Mode will see external USB Drives?

Thank you.

 

Maybe, but maybe not, it depends on your motherboard/ BIOS.

 

When I created a recovery media using ATI home 2009 there was no option to create a safe version. Am I missing anything here?

 

I don't have TI12/2009 but in previous versions you could go to the Acronis site and download the Safe version plugin or whatever. In even earlier versions it used to be part of the distribution download but was subsequently removed.