TrueImage made the external USB drive the boot device

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by Bruce2005, Sep 7, 2005.

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  1. Bruce2005

    Bruce2005 Registered Member

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    TrueImage made the USB external disk drive the boot device of a Toshiba notebook computer after installing TI and using TI the first time. What should be done so that the Toshiba notebook computer always boots from its internal disk drive?
     
  2. kocka

    kocka Guest

    I am not sure if TI can alter BIOS settings but in any case... Check and change, if applicable, your boot priorities setings. On my Toshiba it can be done in Windows through hardware setup... Or something like that.
     
  3. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello Bruce2005,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    I'm afraid that your description of the problem is a little bit unclear to me.

    Could you please clarify what exactly happened after you have installed Acronis True Image 8.0?

    What exactly do you mean when saying that "TrueImage made the USB external disk drive the boot device"?

    Please describe actions taken before the problem appeared step-by-step.

    Please also tell me what operating system is installed on your laptop.

    I'm asking all these questions because Acronis True Image 8.0 has no ability to affect your BIOS settings, so most likely something else has happened.

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexey Popov
     
  4. Bruce2005

    Bruce2005 Registered Member

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    After installing True Image, a complete backup using True Image was made from the internal hard drive of the Toshiba notebook computer to the USB external hard drive. After disconnecting the USB external hard drive, the Toshiba notebook computer would not boot. Its screen remained blank. To troubleshoot the problem, the USB external hard drive was connected and powered up. Then, the notebook computer was powered up. With this configuration, the notebook computer did boot, but the boot was performed from the USB external hard drive. After booting, I noted that the system partition was on the internal drive and the active parition was on the external drive. Note that I did NOT change the notebook configuration to boot from the external drive. The Toshiba notebook computer is running Windows XP. The objective, now, is to have the notebook computer boot from its internal drive instead of the external drive. Help is needed.
     
  5. kocka

    kocka Guest

    Bruce,

    you have to be more specific. As Alexey said, describe step by step what you did. For starters: What do you mean by backup? Did you create an image of your laptop drive or did you clone it to an external USB drive? How many partitions do you have? Are you saying that you are able to boot to the Windows from your external USB drive only or are you saying that you are able to post only when external drive is connected? Can you boot from laptop’s optical drive using bootable TI CD? etc.
     
  6. Bruce2005

    Bruce2005 Registered Member

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    Sorry, but I cannot recall step-by-step what I did. In general terms, I installed True Image on the What I meant by "backup" is that I created an image with TrueImage of the laptop drive onto the external drive. The notebook computer has one partition, and the external drive has one parition plus another patition for the Acronis Secure Zone. The external drive contains only one visible file -- a backup of the notebook from several months ago created by the backup utility that comes with Windows. The external drive also contains one image file created by TrueImage in the Acronis Secure Zone. The notebook computer boots only when the external drive is connected. If the external drive is not connected, then the computer just hangs without displaying an error message. I did boot the notebook computer from the optical disk with the bootable start-up disk created by True Image and with the external drive not attached. However, it was not possible to boot into Windows -- it was only possible to boot into True Image.
     
  7. Bruce2005

    Bruce2005 Registered Member

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    Part of my previous message a few seconds ago was omitted. In general terms, I installed Acronis TrueImage on the Toshiba notebook computer. Immediately after the installation, I created a full backup image from the drive on the Toshiba notebook computer to the Acronis Secure Zone on the external drive.
     
  8. Menorcaman

    Menorcaman Retired Moderator

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    Hello Bruce,

    When you installed and created an Acronis Secure Zone (SZ) on your external USB drive I guess you must have accepted the default option to also activate the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (SRM)? If so, that would explain why your computer locked up when attempting to boot with the USB drive disconnected.

    Activating the SRM modifies the Master Boot Record (MBR) such that it not only enables the "Press F11 to boot into Acronis Recovery mode" feature but it also checks whether the SZ is present at the location it was originally created. If the SZ cann't be detected because the drive it was created on is either switched off or disconnected then the system will usually lock up.

    You can reset the MBR to normal by either removing the SZ via the Manage Acronis Secure Zone wizard (however, that would also remove the image that you created in it) or using one of the two "Fix MBR" utilities (floppy or CD ISO version) that can be downloaded via the link provided in the Acronis Support sticky titled <Please Read Before You Post>

    Regards
     
  9. kocka

    kocka Guest

    Ok, it’s starting to make sense. I agree with Menorcaman. Your problem is probably caused by your creating an Acronis secure zone on external HD and activating Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. I too would try to remove a secure zone but before that, just to be safe, copy your image file on another partition of your USB drive.
     
  10. kocka

    kocka Guest

    One more thing… If you can’t move or copy the image create a new one on your main UDB HD partion.
     
  11. Bruce2005

    Bruce2005 Registered Member

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    The explanation for the problem makes sense. At this moment, I'm backing up the notebook drive with TrueImage, and then, I will remove the Acronis Secure Zone from the external drive.
     
  12. Bruce2005

    Bruce2005 Registered Member

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    As suggested, I removed the Acronis Secure Zone from the external drive. This step permitted the notebook computer to boot from its internal drive without being attached to the external drive. Problem solved!

    Thanks for your help!
     
  13. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello Bruce2005,

    I'm glad to hear that you managed to solve the problem.

    Thanks Menorcaman for his help.

    I would also like to add the link to the corresponding FAQ article.

    If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexey Popov
     
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