Bootable rescue disk for Mac

Discussion in 'Paragon Mac Utilities' started by mikebore, Dec 4, 2009.

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  1. mikebore

    mikebore Registered Member

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    I have just bought Drive Back Up 10 Pro on strength of Bootcamp being supported, and need help getting started, (tried to go trial route but trial serials sent for v9 and didn't work, so jumped in with a purchase!)

    I have installed it in my Windows 7 x64 Bootcamp partition, and followed instructions for creating bootable CD. The resulting CD won't boot the MacBook Pro, so I hope I am just doing something wrong. From the help sections sounds like it should be a Linux CD which should boot the Mac.

    My objective is to be able to create an image of the Windows partition from within Windows, saved to an external drive, and be able to restore it to the internal (while booted from the CD) if necessary (different HD etc).

    Thanks for any help.

    PS I realise Drive Back up isn't a Mac Utility, but figured I am more likely to get Mac related help here.
     
  2. mikebore

    mikebore Registered Member

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    Progress.

    Discovered that the recovery CD I made in Drive Backup 10 WILL boot my Mac Pro, but not my MacBook Pro. Found the same thing about a disk made with the Rescue Kit for Mac.

    So the problem is my MacBook Pro. It is probably something to do with using an external DVD R/W (because I have a second HD inside in place of the Apple superdrive). This external DVD R/W will boot the 10.6 install disk, but not either of these two Paragon disks. Tried it connected by firewire and USB.

    Any ideas about this?

    Can I create a bootable recovery system on a USB drive?

    Thanks again
     
  3. Paragon_Tommy

    Paragon_Tommy Paragon Moderator

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    Hello mikebore,

    Yes you can create a USB boot device instead of a CD/DVD. On the Windows side, in Paragon, go to Tools > Recovery Media Builder and select Flash Memory instead of CD/DVD.

    Regarding your MacBook Pro, it's possible that the DVD drive is not recognize. Do try the USB and see if that boots up. I assume your computer does not see the device or CD at all or do you get further than that.
     
  4. mikebore

    mikebore Registered Member

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    Thanks Tommy,

    I have tried creating a bootable USB flash in a Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4 Gb flash drive.

    First I just used the wizard defaults, but chose flash instead of CD. The result was not bootable in my mac. In fact while it was plugged in I was not able to get ANY bootable options while starting up holding the alt key....just a white screen.

    Then I tried the Win PE 2.1 recovery option (I think). I downloaded "Paragon-134-PRE_WinPERCD_10.0.10.10505_000.exe", and ran the wizard. It all seemed to go fine, except that the result does not appear as a bootable option when restarting with alt key, on either of my macs.

    Do I need to prepare the flash drive in any particular way beforehand? eg FAT 32, NTFS, HFS, GUID, MBR format options?

    Thanks
     
  5. Paragon_Tommy

    Paragon_Tommy Paragon Moderator

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    You don't have to prepare the flash drive. Run the WinPE EXE file, and instead of writing to CD, write to file. You should get an ISO file of the WinPE image. Run Paragon, go to Tools > Recovery Media Builder > select Flash Drive, "User specified CD/DVD image" and select the ISO file from the WinPE.

    You mentioned that you want to backup your Windows to an image, store it to an external hard drive and be able to restore from it when needed. Have you already completed your backup? The backup can be performed live in Windows, so that's not a problem. If you are testing the restore, you want to do it from the CD/USB drive.

    Keep in mind that it's not always guarantee your Mac hardware is supported by either disk.

    One final option if CD/USB does not work and you need to restore from a disaster. You would have to reinstall a clean Windows, install Paragon, initiate the Restore in Windows onto itself, let Windows Restart, and the restore will work. This avoids the usage of the recovery media.
     
  6. mikebore

    mikebore Registered Member

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    Thanks for all that info.

    The first para about creating the bootable flash is exactly what I did, so puzzled why neither of my macs sees it as a bootable option.

    Still at least on the Mac Pro the bootable CD works and I have made an image from the within windows and test restored to an external.

    Just a quick question about making the image: I launched the backup wizard, and it had three attempts with messages "VSS Technology failed error Ox1112", then said it needed exclusive access to C drive, so had to run in Boot-time mode. That all went OK but at the end of the imaging process in Boot-time mode it says restart by using the reset button. I assume this is the power off button? It goes against the grain to shut down with the power button but seems the only alternative?

    Your last para is another option I didn't know about.

    Thanks again
     
  7. Paragon_Tommy

    Paragon_Tommy Paragon Moderator

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    Regarding the "VSS Technology failed error Ox1112", I assume you are running the wizard in Windows to backup. Make sure that Volume Shadow Copy service is started and not conflicting with any other backup utilities. To start the service, click on Start, "run", "services.msc", right-click "Volume Shadow Copy" and enable/start the service.

    If the problem persist, you can change your hot processing option to "Paragon Hot Processing" under Tools > Settings.
     
  8. mikebore

    mikebore Registered Member

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    Unfortunately neither of these options have stopped the 0x1112 error.

    Tried with the Volume shadow copy service started and got the 0x1112 error as before.

    Then changed the hot processing option to to Paragon Hot Processing (leaving volume shadow copy service running), and this time got the message "Hot Processing Technology has failed with error 0x1200e (internal error during hot processing)".

    Is there anything wrong with the boot-time image I created? A bit slower and less convenient, but at least I see in the settings how to cut out the three failed attempts.
     
  9. Paragon_Tommy

    Paragon_Tommy Paragon Moderator

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    Hello Mike,

    If both hot processing are failing, I suspect if there's something wrong with the hard drive instead, perhaps the geometry of it.

    Please submit a ticket here:

    https://www.paragon-software.com/my-account/support/sendRequest.htm

    and attach the log file: stubact.log located in

    /program files/paragon software/drive backup/program/

    A tech will look into the problem in more details with the log file provided.
     
  10. mikebore

    mikebore Registered Member

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    Thanks, done that.

    You didn't comment on whether there is anything actually wrong with an image made in boot-time mode, apart from the inconvenience ?

    Thanks
     
  11. Paragon_Tommy

    Paragon_Tommy Paragon Moderator

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    There's no difference between the images created in the OS or from the boot CD. You can sample the data yourself in Windows using the File Transfer Wizard under Tools.

    Double click the .PBF or .000 file to "drill" into the archive, select any files/folder you want to extract to the clipboard, and complete wizard.
     
  12. Mephist

    Mephist Paragon Support

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  13. mikebore

    mikebore Registered Member

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    Thanks for the suggestion but I am afraid still not booting on Macbook Pro. Boots Mac Pro OK.
     
  14. Mephist

    Mephist Paragon Support

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    Try to perform this operation several times...

    You can test your boot with any Windows installation disk. If you can boot with such a disk, you haven't problems with boot.
    I had the same problems on my MacBook Pro..
     
  15. mikebore

    mikebore Registered Member

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    Just to close out this thread.....

    I solved all my non-bootability CD problems by refitting the original DVD burner into my MacBook Pro, instead of using the external I had been using previously. (I found that the external DVD would boot up Mac install disks and TTP 4, but not Diskwarrior nor the Windows 7 install disk, and not any of the three flavours of Paragon recovery disks).

    Since then I have also confirmed that hot processing is not supported for Boot camp partitions. However I have successfully made a boot-time image of my Windows 7 bootcamp and restored it for real. The restore works fine but did require a repair install using the Windows 7 disk. Still waiting to hear what Support say about this, and also some conflict with MacDrive that I don't fully understand and doesn't seem consistent.
     
  16. Paragon_Tommy

    Paragon_Tommy Paragon Moderator

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    I'm glad you were able to resolve the issue.
     
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