new to Acronis and can't get my files or partition back. PLEASE I need help.

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by hereami, Jan 14, 2009.

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  1. hereami

    hereami Registered Member

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    I just downloaded Acronis True Image Home 2009 (trial version) and made a disk image of my C: drive. I then reinstalled Windows Vista on that C: drive (only way I could find to fix a CD-ROM settings problem). That fixed the problem but of course left me without my programs or files. I restored the disk image to the C: drive and was told to reboot. I did so and after a bit got a black screen with white text saying an operating system couldn't be found. I had to reinstall Vista. Tried the whole process again with the same result. Tried the whole process but did NOT restore the Windows file, and succeeded - except many of my programs won't work. Enough with my experiment - I'd just like to get my old C: drive back and I'll try another way to fix the CD-ROM problem. What am I doing wrong hereo_O Thanks!
     
  2. shieber

    shieber Registered Member

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    If the partition contains an OS then it's best to backup the entire partition if you want to restore the system. Progrs are intimately and somewhat dynamically tied to the OS through the registry files so progs should either be restored along with the OS or else freshly installed.

    Restoring only some files and not an entire partition generally is aprocess to be used on data files like documents, pics, mp3s, and the like.
     
  3. hereami

    hereami Registered Member

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    Yes, I figured as much, and I did back up the entire partition. But trying to restore the entire partition leaves me with a black screen and the message that no operating system can be found. I've been reading in some places about a boot disk. Should I be using a boot disk instead of trying to restore from within the Windows environment?
     
  4. coppertrail

    coppertrail Registered Member

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    If you created an image of your C volume, re-installed Vista, and then restored the image, your machine will still be broken as restoring the image wipes out your clean install of Vista which resolved your problem.

    But it should have worked the way you did it, albeit your CD ROM issue still would have been there.

    Creating an image of a system that has a problem is pointless unless you do a selective restore of files and folders.

    I would completely wipe out the partition using a third party utility, including the boot sector/mbr, and then restore your image. You could probably do this with the Windows Vista Install CD, It should allow you to delete partitions before the OS is installed. You can then cancel the install and restore your image.
     
  5. seekforever

    seekforever Registered Member

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    You don't need to delete any partitions because TI deletes the partition before it does a restore. It will leave the MBR unless you request that it be restored during the TI restoration.

    I'm going to going to speculate that when the new install of Vista was done it wrote a new MBR. When the image was restored the new MBR did not suit the old Vista installation and thus the boot failed.

    You can try restoring the old image and also the MBR or if the old image is still on the HD you try just restoring the MBR.

    I don't know about TI2009 but in previous versions if you are specifying the both the image and the MBR to be restored you have to go through the wizard selecting one lets say, the partition, and then loop back from the screen that asks if you want to restore another partition and then select the other, in this example, the MBR. You weren't able to select both at the same time.

    And yes, installing the OS and then restoring an image just wipes out the new stuff since the partition gets deleted.
     
  6. coppertrail

    coppertrail Registered Member

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    I realize you don't have to delete partitions and I never have, but I've also never been in this situation and it can't hurt . . .

    To OP: What kinds of CD ROM problems are you having? I ran into some a while back and found that deleting my upper memory registers and rebooting resolved the problem.

    The issue was my CD drive wasn't showing up on my machine. I had uninstalled some burning software that caused this. Anyhow, it was a simply registry mod and reboot and I was good as new.
     
  7. hereami

    hereami Registered Member

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    So do I need to restore the MBR also? I've tried, and it lets me put both on the same partition. But inevitably after a few seconds I'm informed a reboot is needed, then the operation says it's completed and reboots. But Windows won't load and I have to reinstall it from the CD - thus putting me back to square one. If I choose what to restore, instead of just doing it all, and then choose everything, then the restore seems to go fine - takes awhile instead of just a few seconds. But in the end, the computer still won't boot. How do I tell if my backup is bad? I validated it after making it and it passed (I'm assuming that's some sort of test).

    Don't know the source of the CD problems yet. I'm just trying to get my machine working again first - even if the CD-ROM won't. Then I'll worry about that problem. This one is more serious!

    Also, if I mount the back-up, is there a way to find my Office product key? Magical Jelly bean is a key finder but didn't work on a mounted volume - only on the regular C drive.
     
  8. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello hereami,

    Thank you for your interesting in Acronis True Image

    Try the following:

    Create Acronis bootable disc within the program using Media Builder option -> boot computer using Acronis bootable disc created -> select the image of your system (no need to include MBR) and choose Restore -> wait till process finishes.

    Best regards,
    --
    Dmitry Nikolaev
     
  9. hereami

    hereami Registered Member

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    Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately I ran out of time - after multiple attempts w/various configurations to get the disk image to install correctly, I was finally forced to give up because we needed to get the computer back into the office for the start of a new term (it's a school computer). I had to reformat it and install Windows from scratch. No big problem as the files were backed up separately, but I lost my Office 2007 Pro (OEM and didn't come with disks) which was an expensive loss. Not sure what the problem was with the file.
     
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