recovery times

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by George Anderson, Dec 14, 2006.

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  1. George Anderson

    George Anderson Registered Member

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    I have tried to get back to the basic but the HP recovery disks ran and i still get the "NTLDR is missing. Press ctrl+alt+delete to restart. When I do it gets as far as the HP logo screen which has esc for boot menu, F1 for cmos setup, and f10 for system recovery.
    f10 just goes to the "NTLDR is missing. Press ctrl+alt+delete to restart".


    I tried the TI rescue disk again and pressed F11 and typed in the quiet acpi = off noapic command. I selected the full mode but then it didn't show my external drive with the backups.


    Can any one help with this?

    Andy
     
  2. Xpilot

    Xpilot Registered Member

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    I have not followed this thread in detail so my solution may already have been covered or discounted.

    Boot from the rescue CD so that you can see your archives. Instead of the long, long process that you have been through just select to restore the MRB to your main drive and press proceed. This operation should only take a few seconds.
    Remove the rescue CD restart your computer and finish off your Xmas cards [​IMG]

    Xpilot
     
  3. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Try using a different usb cable and also try using a different usb connector on your computer. If you used one on the back, then try one on the front. Use the shortest possible usb cable. Don't use any usb extender or angle connectors between the usb cable and computer connector.

    Be sure your usb drive is plugged in and connected before you boot.

    Once, you get to the boot screen where you choose safe or full mode,
    then reboot the computer again so Acronis loader starts all over from the very beginning. (from another post by dbknox.)

    Then see if the recovery Cd will see your drives. Even try the old recovery cd from the previous version.

    Once you get so you can see the drives, then try the suggestion from xpilot.
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2006
  4. dbknox

    dbknox Registered Member

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    Andy you are so close don't give up now, Make sure you don't have a CD in the drive when you are trying to boot to windows. everything is back except your NT loader here is a link to read about it.
    http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

    Do a search in google of various ways to fix this problem, if that page is not helpful.

    What GroverH is trying to tell you could very well be possible all that is needed, once you can see your disk. ( the MBR restored) but that may even be fixed without the rescue disk. If you know how to repair the NTloader. I think there are a lot of people here that can help with that.
    The fix I have been forced to use see GroverH post below, forces the external drive to start in most cases. I boot with the rescue CD and once it loads to the window that gives you the choice of "Safe" or "full" I reboot the computer by closing the Acronis loader ( the little "x" at the top of the window) so the Acronis loader atarts up again with a "live" external drive. I sure hope this works for you.
    Once you have TI working the way it works for most people you will never want to be without it. In one of my earlier posts I was asking how to get my money back. I never got an answer, so I kept trying to run TI and finally with many work arounds ( I can only use the mount feature in windows, nothing else.....I attribute that to a fault with my operating system)
    I have suggested TI to many of my friends and not one of them have had any problems. I use my rescue CD for imaging and restoring. The first time I restored was very scarey, but I was to the point were I couldn't get my operating system working with all the little tricks I learned over the years.
    With TI, I was up and running in about 10 minutes. The times I gave you earlier in this thread were the times that TI gave me in the progress window and I have found since, that those times are not accurate and I am done sooner then forecast.
     
  5. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    Andy,

    I have also had to do as GroverH and dbknox suggest and restart the Acronis loader from the "Safe" and "Full" menu. Only, in my case, it was to see the network and not a usb drive.

    Another thing you might consider, if you have a PCI slot free, is installing a cheap usb 2 PCI card. Most of these use standard usb chipsets and the linux rescue cd would hopefully support it directly.
     
  6. George Anderson

    George Anderson Registered Member

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    I have been very busy trying to get my computer back up.

    I was able to get the HP restore to work to a basic setup. I copied my TI backup archive to my other internal hd. I ran the TI restore disk and it still would not do anythiing in the full mode. But becuase i was using a internal drive the safe mode worked and the install went ok. I took about 2 1/2 hours I think.

    I found out why I was getting "NTLDR is missing". It is trying to boot from my second drive. I don't know how that started. With all the changes and things i've tried who knows. Any ways I booted up and at the first HP screen I did esc to get the boot menu. I selected the second hard drive listed ( which is really the C: )and the computer came up to my restored computer with all my old programs. There is still something wrong because when i reboot I still have to go the boot menu and change to the C: to get windows to load.


    The TI recovery cd could see the drives all along, its just after that when you select the destination and select start is when it would hang. I tried the full mode and went to bed and the next morning it was still there with no action all night. So the safe mode will work but not with a usb drive.

    I have not tried the reboot after the safe or full mode. I have checked the usb cable.

    I will try the MBR restore and see what happens.

    I went to see if I could get NSR working again. I reloaded Norton Save and Restore, which had worked flawlessly for about a year previously, but now even that crashes after about 5 minutes into creating a file set.



    Andy
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 17, 2006
  7. GroomLake

    GroomLake Registered Member

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    Get your money back? Are you nuts? This will never happen. The problem is your hardware or you.
     
  8. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Open Notepad
    Browse to the C drive
    and open the file labelled "Boot.ini"

    Change the partition(1) to read partition(2)
    The listing should occur twice. Change both listings.
    Save the file and reboot. See if that fixes your boot problem.

    If your file does not appear as I believe it might, how does it read?

    If all is working well after the reboot, go back into Disk Management and see if your drives appear the same previously displayed? Do you still have your recovery in same position, etc. Link below.
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=185947&stc=1&d=1166234461

    Note: if the file does not allow the change, you may have to change the file attributes before loading into notepad.
    To change the attributes from within Explorer, right click on the file name and clear any hidden or read only attrributes.

    This how I believe your boot.ini file should look like:
    Code:
    [boot loader]
    timeout=3
    default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
    [operating systems]
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
    C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2006
  9. dbknox

    dbknox Registered Member

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  10. George Anderson

    George Anderson Registered Member

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    Yes I have recovered the drives so they look like the snaphot I took before. except the drive letters on disk 1 have changed to H: and disk 2 WD backup is now disk 6 WD backup and has changed to M:. Disk 0 is still HP_RECOV (D) and HP_PAVILION (C). The system changed the drive letters and the previous drive letters K, L were not in the available list.

    My boot.ini is the same as GroverH except my WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" The partitions are (2).


    Andy
     

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  11. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    George Anderson, out of interest, do you have any .v2i backup files made by NSR before you installed True Image?
     
  12. George Anderson

    George Anderson Registered Member

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    No I don't have any .v2i files left. With all the things I have tried, one was the suggestion of getting rid of all the norton stuff which may be causing TI problems, which I did.
    After trying Norton again yesterday and crashing, I uninstalled NSR.

    Andy
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2006
  13. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    What is your current status"
    1. Are you still having to change to bios boot drive every time you boot?
    2. Did you ever try restoring the MBR as mentioned in your post #31?
    3. You might want to boot into Safe Mode and see if drive letters K & L might be available. Sometimes simply booting into safemode has been known to fix an assortment of problems.
    4. Would you consider giving us a screen picture of your drives as listed in the Device Manager under drives?
     
  14. George Anderson

    George Anderson Registered Member

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    I restored the MBR and now it comes up to black screen that says "master boot record press a key". I press any key and it boots up to windows.

    I will get a screenshot ofthe drives.

    Andy
     
  15. George Anderson

    George Anderson Registered Member

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    Well I tried the safe mode and when I try TI it still gets the error. When You say see if the drives might be available do you mean in TI or explorer. In TI no, in explorer yes.
    In TI when i select backup ,which drive to backup, then when it get to the backup archive location screen is when it gets the error and closes. Same as always.

    I have attached the Drives snapshot.

    Andy
     

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  16. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    My apologies for not writing more clearly in my post #38. I was just looking for info. Thank you for the image. It was helpful.
    ---------------------------------------------------
    a. What I was saying is booting into safe mode and then booting into Windows often cures some problems.
    b. In SafeMode, go back into Disk Management and see if drive letters K & L might be available and you may be able to re-assign their original letters from within safemode.
    c. Maybe the info in item 3 will help us to fix the MBR problem. I am hoping that some of the other forum members can help with this problem. Your error message seems to be saying that your Master Boot Record Needs Attention.
    Do you know how to access the XP Recovery Console--Is this an option during bootup ?
    ------------------
    #3. Regarding your device mgr disk drive image:
    The disk drive ST3160023A is a Seagate IDE 160Gig. This is your video storage drive.

    The disk drive hdt722525DLA380 is an IBM Deskstar 250Gig Serial ATA (SATA)
    http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/t7k250/t7k250.htm

    Woul you go back to the Device Manager and open the Disk drives again and right click on hdt722525DLA380
    Click Properties; Click the Volume Tab; Click Populate.
    After a few seconds, the drive info will be displayed.
    Let us know whether this disk is identified as Disk O or Disk 1
    You will see your drive letters listed at the bottom so you know this is your system drive. From reading many of the postings on the forum, we know that SATA drives have caused problems for TrueImage so this serial hard drive may(?) be causing some of your grief.
    ----------------------------------------------
     
  17. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    I think this is a BIOS message. In addition to the request by GroverH, could you disconnect your IDE HD, your external HD and all card reader drives. In the BIOS make sure your SATA HD is the only drive showing and now boot to Windows. Is the error still showing?
     
  18. George Anderson

    George Anderson Registered Member

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    I went into safe mode and looked at the drive letters in disk management and K & L are not there. I will just use the new ones, H & M. Just a small question, what happend to the old lettters? The list only shows letters from M and on.

    I checked the disk and in device manager it is disk 0 witrh drive letters C and D.

    I don't know how to get to the XP recovery console. What does that do?



    Andy
     
  19. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Accessing the XP Recovery Console varies on different computers. Some have it already installed while other requires the user to install from the XP cd.

    During bootup, on the Boot menu where you access Safe Mode, some computers have the Recovery Console as a menu option.

    Your HP computer also has a pdf file on Troubleshooting--which provides instructions on how to access the Recovery Console. The user manual may have some info.

    • Should you decide to implement the suggestion by BrianK, it might(?) help to go into the Disk Management console first, and remove the L & M drive letters so no drive letters are assigned. Then reboot and remove the cables.

      The SATA drive has a thin 1/2" wide cable which should remain connected.
      The IDE cable is a wide ribbon-like cable which is to be removed. Your user manual can be helpful.
     
  20. George Anderson

    George Anderson Registered Member

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    Well I had a Microsoft Certified tech over to look at the pc. He tried to load up the Recovery console but it kept asking for a system password. I have never used one so we were stuck. After an hour of trying to repair the MBR with no luck he had to go to another job. He will get back after Christmas.

    Customer service had me uninstall Diskeeper, Symantic, Norton, and Kaspersky. Then try TI= My Backup, but it still gets an error. They also had me run an Acronis Report.exe.

    It works decent enough with the workaround of going into My Email first. I could live with it if I could get the rescue disk to work in full mode. It only will restore in the safe mode. If if would work in the full mode also I would be satisfied.

    I know Brian K is suggesting to start pulling cables of of drives. I have a stock computer except for the external drive. I would think that I shouldn't have to pull a computer apart to make software work.

    I know everybody is trying to help. And I am grateful. I just am not comfortable pulling wires loose inside the computer.

    Andy
     
  21. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Thanks for the update. I'm reasonably certain that Brian will post for himself but the reason for his suggestion was to try and fix the MBR boot problem. I can understand your reluctance but it is still an option for the technician. There may be other ways to repair the mbr such as using a multi-purpose utility boot CD.If you have a friend ( or even the technician) that has a smaller size usb drive that you could borrow for a couple hours. You could connect their usb drive (with your 500K disconnected) and do a backup to their drive. This test would rule in or out whether your usb drive is part of the problem.

    Have the technician show you how to get into the case. This is something you need to know. Dust is a worst enemy to the computer. You should remove the case every six months or so and blow out (canned compressed air) the dust cobwebs from around all the parts and fans.

    One follow-up question. Can you use normal procedures and do a full image backup direct to your other internal drive? In other words, start up TI and go straight to the backup option. (With usb dis-connected.)

    Merry Christmas!
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2006
  22. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Andy, that's fine. I hope the Microsoft Certified tech can sort out your various problems.
     
  23. mfabien

    mfabien Registered Member

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    If you can access your files, perhaps using the Recovery CD, create a floppy as suggested by MS in the following page:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314079

    I did so and, using the floppy, it makes for a seamless start of Windows XP. Or I guess you could burn that to a CD.
     
  24. George Anderson

    George Anderson Registered Member

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    Sorry about taking so long in getting back. I've got a bad cold.

    GroverH
    I tried that mbautowrite that you suggested. I ran that and now all it will do is come up to "invalid partition". I go to the esc, boot menu and if I select drive 1 I get "invalid partition". If I select drive 2 I get "invalid operating system".
    I tried the TI rescue disk and it starts up and goes through the screens. I have to select full mode because I am restoring from the external drive. I got to the last screen and selected proceed and I waited an hour and nothing started.

    I will have to see if the HP recover disk will do anything.

    Merry Christmas
    Andy
     
  25. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Wow, you're having more of your share of problems. Instead of getting better, it seems to be getting worse.

    Is there a reason why you did not restore using the IDE internal drive as the source for your backup files?
     
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