Universal Restore - All my "controlled" tests fail...

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by Korlean, Mar 22, 2007.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Korlean

    Korlean Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2007
    Posts:
    8
    Hi all, i've always been an avid home-user of Acronis Software and recently i convinced my bosses at work to invest in Acronis software for the servers too. I was so convincing they also got the Universal Restore option :)

    Well now my task is to test this software first before we install it on our product servers, so i've setup a controlled test enviroment.

    Server A - P4 Hyperthreaded with SCSI controller
    Server B - P4 Hyperthreaded with "Sata-Raid"
    Server C - P4 Hyperthreaded with regular sata.

    So, what i wanted to prove was that if Server A failed it would be possible to restore the daily image of that server to server B and that it would work (thanks to Universal Restore)

    Well, it doesn't work :)

    I'm using the latest current build of True Image Server and the Universal Restore (3854), i create a full disk image with the default options.
    Then i restore the Server A image to Server B , when the Universal Restore options appear i specify the drivers for the Sata-raid. The restore completes succesfully.

    Then when i boot server B i see it start and then reboot, when i try safe mode i see it loading some drivers and then it reboots... The last "driver" i see it loading is : acpitabl.dat , then it reboots.
    When i repeat the whole procedure and restore it to server C the same thing happens...

    Also, i took an image of one of our other servers (a "real" in use server) and tried to recover that image to server A , B and C and always got the same result...

    Anyone got any idea what i can/do try ? Because at the moment i'm afraid my bosses that the expensive option they bought doesn't work :/


    **update : i don't think "acpitabl.dat" is the problem, i made an image of another server, on that server Daemon Tools is installed, when i recover that image to server A i see it loading the daemon tools driver (SPTD.sys) after the acpitabl.dat and then reboot, when i disable the sptd driver it reboots in the same manner as with the other images with acpitabl.dat being the last succesfully loaded driver**


    **update2 : i was wondering something, when you create an image, should you see any Universal Restore options ? I don't get any specific options for it, my True Image window just says True Image Server with Universal Restore
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2007
  2. bilbus

    bilbus Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2006
    Posts:
    28
    you are doing it wrong then.

    I regularly recover using acronis to completely diff hardware.

    I have recovered from a scsi raid, sata raid, and ide to many diff trypes of hardware

    Are you restoring the whole drive? ... you need to select one partition and repeat for each additional, and not select MBR

    If you restore the whole disk you will get a 0x7A or 0x7E stop error.

    If restoring to a raid/sata/scsi disk you should add the drivers to the search path or you may get that error also.
     
  3. Korlean

    Korlean Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2007
    Posts:
    8
    Well it's just in a reboot loop, even when i say don't reboot after a bsod (blue screen :) ) it just reboots, logging enabled doesn't log anything..

    But i always recover everything ,(including additional drives and the mbr)

    so when i get @ work i'll recover only the "C" drive and not the MBR and such...

    Is this your personal guideline or is it written down by acronis somewhere ? because i find the information on using Universal Restore very limited... If recovering without selecting the mbr is a must it should be noted somewhere, not ?

    Ok thanks a lot for the tip, i'll do it in an hour and let you know.

    and btw it's not a scsi/raid/sata driver error , because i tried recovering to systems with regular ide controllers too with the same result... and i do use the correct SCSI drivers when needed... (but i do agree my "symptoms" might suggest that... but it's not a stop for inaccessible or unmountable device or anything...)

    thx again
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2007
  4. Korlean

    Korlean Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2007
    Posts:
    8
    Ok, i tried what you said.. (only the "C" drive, not the MBR and such) but it doesn't work :/

    The main problem is that it doesn't give me an error or a stop message so it's hard to diagnose. It does boot because i can choose to try Safe mode and then i see it loading some drivers and then it reboots without any message or blue screen...
     
  5. FBMachines

    FBMachines Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2006
    Posts:
    229
    Location:
    Texas
    Yes, it is suppose to detect a hardware change and give you the option to use Universal Restore. This has been an issue with the past several builds of UR. See link...
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=165992
     
  6. Korlean

    Korlean Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2007
    Posts:
    8
    Well it does give me a Universal Restore options when restoring...

    But not when i create the image on the working machine, i was wondering if that is normal or not ? I think it is but i'm not sure
     
  7. FBMachines

    FBMachines Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2006
    Posts:
    229
    Location:
    Texas
    yes, that is normal. When you create the image it will not prompt you for UR. Only when restoring will it come up.
     
  8. Korlean

    Korlean Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2007
    Posts:
    8
    yeah , i suspected that but i just wanted to double check..

    Damnit, i don't understand why it doesn't work (and it's really frustrating that it doesn't give an error but just reboots :/) And the image itself isn't the problem because i've already made images of 4 systems and they all have the same problem after restoring :/

    *sigh*
     
  9. FBMachines

    FBMachines Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2006
    Posts:
    229
    Location:
    Texas
    Try to turn "Auto Reboot" off then reimage the drive (link shown is for Win 2000 but it is the same procedure for most other current versions of windows). After you reimage the drive, try to recover on your test system. This should at least make it stop rebooting and give us an error message to play with. Also, a technique I first heard about from Foghorne is to replace the video card driver with a generic driver before imaging to make the transition smoother. This has worked for me in the past.
     
  10. Korlean

    Korlean Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2007
    Posts:
    8
    I'll try that with the vga driver thingy, but about the reboot after error, i tried that already, first i did it with the F8 key and to double check i booted with a Bartpe and edited the crashonreboot in currentcontrolset\control\crashcontrol

    no blue screen.. instant reboot, even when i do boot logging it appears ntbtlog isn't created...

    But wouldn't booting in safe (or trying to) eliminate the possible vga driver thingy ?

    By the way i want to thank you for your effort because i know it's hard to diagnose thingslike this "over the net" or "over the phone" , i did try a lot of things (via BartPE) but i just can't find anything, and mainly because it just doesn't give any error... frustrating :)
     
  11. FBMachines

    FBMachines Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2006
    Posts:
    229
    Location:
    Texas
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2007
  12. rmcdonald

    rmcdonald Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2007
    Posts:
    3
    Hi there,

    I had issues like you had when using other P2v tools. The issue and fix I used was to remove daemon tools I also had this issue with MagicDisc software. When I did a restore the server would keep rebooting over and over. After I removed the Daemon tool and or MagicDisc it worked fine.
     
  13. Korlean

    Korlean Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2007
    Posts:
    8
    Well this is a real neverending story ;) i have only 1 server with Daemon tools, the other servers don't have daemon tools installed and don't have any special disk software, but i'll browse the software list to see if i find anything "special" ...

    thx for the tip
     
  14. Korlean

    Korlean Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2007
    Posts:
    8
    IT WORKS !

    But, i don't know what's different... I made a new image from the server, i recovered it, and it works ? :blink: The only thing that i can think of is that the testimages i tried i made with a previous build of TI, however i doubt that...)

    Anyway, it works now, i'm gonna do some more tests. I wish i could give a solution why it works now but i'm baffled myself...

    Thanks everyone for the suggestions. If i find out what it was i'll post it here

    *relieved*
     
  15. SirBC

    SirBC Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2006
    Posts:
    3
    I'm thinking of going this route as well. What was the partition setup of the server you imaged? Did you have to restore each partition separately?
     
  16. JCarreira

    JCarreira Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2007
    Posts:
    1
    My tests have also all failed while using universal restore... I am using a Compaq ML150 as the test recovery server. Please advise on what you might have done differently when it finally did work..?
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.