Unable to access my raid drives

I have an Intel system with an ICH7 RAID 5 system. Normally this requires an F6 Raid disk ro install the drivers prior to Windows XP install. How can I get these drivers slip streamed or installed into the Acronis standalone recovery disk. I know that unless Acronis has this built in, I will never be able to access my main RAID system from the recovery media.

I originally had the same problem with BartPE, but I was able to manually install the drivers in the SCSI section. Is there a manuall driver process for True Image 9.0?

regards,

azarby

 

The recovery disk is a linux based system, so you can't add drivers through F6. Try the BartPE Plugin of TrueImage 8 or mustang's plugin for TrueImage 9 (unsupported by Acronis) instead.

Greetings

Volker

 

I have tried the Acronis 8.0 TI for BartPe. Even though BartPE sees the raid drives correctly an I can access all of the files, when I load Acronis, I get the message that there are no hard drives in the system. If Acronis can't add access to the raid array, I guess I'll have to go back to Ghost, but that's the last resort.

azarby

 

Hello azarby,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

First of all, please make sure you use the latest build (2337), which is available on our web site at the Product Updates section.

To get access to updates you should first register your software.

Please create a new Acronis Bootable Rescue CD using the latest update and see if the problem remains. If it still persists then please create Acronis Report and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please submit a request for technical support. Attach the collected report file 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 the solution.

Thank you.
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Kirill Omelchenko

 

Hello azarby,

If you do need to update to Build 2337 be aware that there is a known problem with its installer that prevents it correctly updating any build prior to 2323. The workaround is to uninstall the previous build via Windows Control Panel "Add or Remove Programs" and then install the update. After installation, run TI and check for the correct build number via the Help > About menu item.

Regards

 

Kirill,

I have aleady updated to 2337 ( Uninstalled 2323 and re-installed2337) and created the new boot disk, but the problem remains. I have submitted an offical request for help. I do have one small problem in that the reply I received requires me to create a bootable floppy , but my system does not have any floppy drive capability. I think there is a way to work around this, but it may require a some special handling. Even thogh Acronis can not see my boot disk (Raid array) it can see my USB ("D") hard drive. I also have CD/DVD capability. If there was a way to utilize these reource, then I may be able to get you the files your team has requested. Any suggestions.

The way I understand the problem as it currently exists is as follows. The Intel ICH7 raid is an implemetnation that uses both hardeware and software to implement. The hardware portion is done using the BIOS and the ICH 7 internal hard coded logic. The SW portion is done with a special driver that needs to be loaded prior to the operating system trying to write or read data from the disk. In a normal XP environmet, this is loaded through the F6 pre-boot routine. Unless the Linux engine in the standalone recovery environemt is able to load an equivalent driver, there is no way to access the raid array.

Question; Does Acronis have the required ICH7 RAID routine from Intel and how is it loaded? Is it hardcoded?, or is it a replaceable module?

regards,

azarby
(Robert)

 

Hello Robert,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

As I understand, you are not able to create Linux system information.

Please do the following in order to save it to a flash drive.

Please boot from the Acronis True Image rescue disc and press F11 key when the selection screen advising you to select either "Full", "Safe" or "Boot into Windows" option appears. After you get the "Linux Kernel Settings" prompt, please remove the "quiet" word, click on the "OK" button, select to boot the full version and wait for # prompt to appear. Please insert a Flash disk to a USB port and issue the following commands:

# cat /proc/partitions

This will give you the list of partitions/drives available in your system.

For example:

8 0 127744 scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc

3 0 80417183 ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc

3 1 10241406 ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1

3 2 20482875 ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2

3 3 1020127 ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part3

Flash drive is visible as 'scsi'. If there are some scsi devices in your system you may find your flash by partition/drive size. If the flash is partitioned it`ll bring the list of partitions as well.

Then you need to create a mount point for your flash and mount it.

# mkdir /mnt/tmp

# mount -t auto /devfs/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc /mnt/tmp

There could be some warnings but its safe to ignore them. If mount fails you may try to use 'vfat'(if the flash is formatted to FAT file system) or 'ext3fs' or 'ext2fs' (if its formatted to ext3 or ext2) parameter instead of 'auto' .

Make a directory on your flash drive to save files there:

# mkdir /mnt/tmp/sysinfo

Check whether the drive is mounted correctly for write access:

#ls /mnt/tmp

This will give a list of files/folders located on the drive.

Save 'sysinfo' and unmount the flash drive:

# sysinfo > /mnt/tmp/sysinfo/sysinfo.txt

# umount /mnt/tmp

Send us created sysinfo.txt file from the flash drive

Please be aware that flash disk needs to be formatted to one of the following file systems: ext2, ext3, FAT32. It is not possible to write to NTFS filesystem.

If you do not have flash disk, please boot your computer from the Acronis True Image rescue disc and press F11 key when the selection screen advising you to select either "Full", "Safe" or "Boot into Windows" option appears. After you get the "Linux Kernel Settings" prompt, please remove the "quiet" word, click on the "OK" button, select to boot the full version and wait for # prompt to appear. Please issue the following command:

sysinfo

Please write down the output after this command, or use a digital camera to make shots of the output screens and send the captured information to us. You can use Shift+PgUp and Shift+PgDn keys in order to scroll the screen manually.

Acronis True Image bootable rescue media automatically loads the necessary modules in order to detect RAID array. We would like to note that ICH7 RAID should be supported by Acronis True Image 9.0 so we will do our best in order to resolve the problem under consideration as soon as possible.

Thank you.
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Tatyana Tsyngaeva

 

Here is an update on my RAID 5 system failure. After working with Acronis for the last several days, sending them several system dumps, etc, I rececive a reply to my problem. They informed me that the Intel ICH7 RAID5 controller is not supported by the TI9 recovery environment. They suggested to use BartPE and use TI8s pluggin. I've decided that I will lnot be persuing this route and have asked for a refund.

Acronis has has some good ideas, especially with their method of capturing the data in a live XP environment, and eventually they may get bought out by some company that has a better product validation and testing process. At this time their products are just not "Prime Time" for the general public. I wish them well and hope they through their growing pains, but I'm sorry I won't be along for the ride.

regards,

Azarby

 

Hello Robert,

I've just contacted the respective person from our Development Team and he confirmed the fact that ICH7 RAID controller is not fully supported yet. It is that a RAID5 array on this controller can not be recognized properly in Acronis Rescue Environment. Please accept our apologies for the current inconvenience.

Please follow Ivan's instructions in order to obtain a replacement or refund.

Thank you.
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Alexey Popov

 

Hi Alexey,

Are you able to tell me if any progress has been made with adding the Intel ICH7 drivers to the TI recovery disc ??

I'm using this chipset as well and while the recovery cd can see my RAID 0 partitions, it can't see the RAID 5 partition which is where my TIB files are.

Regards,
Matt.

 

Hello matthewt,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

I'm afraid that ICH7 RAID controller is still supported only on RAID0 and RAID1. This RAID controller on RAID 5 array will be supported in the future builds/versions of the software. I'm sorry, but the exact time-frame for that is not decided yet.

Please accept our apologies for the current inconvenience.

Thank you.
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Tatyana Tsyngaeva