Linux won't boot after restore

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by drhanso, Apr 30, 2006.

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  1. drhanso

    drhanso Registered Member

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    Hello,

    today I've backed up a bootable Linux partition on my PC unsing TI8 (there are 4 primary partitions, 1st with XPpro, 2nd just data, 3rd W2003Server, 4th Knoppix Linux which is derived from Debian). Then for testing I restored the Linux part while booted from the TI CD and now Linux won't boot. The message 'Grub loading stage 1.5.' will come up and stay forever.

    What is the cause for this and how can I solve this other than reinstalling Linux?

    -Hans
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2006
  2. MarkA

    MarkA Registered Member

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    Hi,

    This is a long-standing issue. Acronis says it's because of the way True Image backs up the partition. <snip>
    Mark


    edited to remove off-topic comments - Detox
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 27, 2006
  3. drhanso

    drhanso Registered Member

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    Hi,

    that's not good. TI is on Linux when booting from CD, so they should have no problem fixing this. I'd be very interested in what is causing this. My impression was that TI is doing a bit-by-bit copy of used disk space. There must be some boot info that either won't get restored or is restored to the wrong location.

    Maybe someone from the Acronis team can shed some light on this. Or is this fixed in Version 9??

    -Hans
     
  4. MarkA

    MarkA Registered Member

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    Not fixed in version 9.

    Mark
     
  5. b_k

    b_k Registered Member

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    GRUB relies on sector adressing for some parts of it. Since Acronis does not make a bit-by-bit copy (which would result in a Image as big as the partition), files tend to be located in another hdd sector then before the restore. So after a restore GRUB fails to load parts of it, cause it doesn't know where the files are now.

    That's what Acronis says (AFAIK). So your only option would be to repair GRUB after the restore, from a Live-CD or your Installation-CD/DVD.
     
  6. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello everyone,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

    b_k is absolutely correct. We do not consider this as an issue because in case of the supported\non-corrupted file system Acronis True Image does not create a raw sector-by-sector image. Instead, it back ups only the actual data in this way decreasing the size of the resulting image archive (please see this previous thread for details). Therefore, after the image is restored files are not placed to the exact same sectors they were residing originally which "confuses" Linux loaders such as GRUB. The only way to avoid this is to create a raw sector-by-sector image of all sectors of the backed up partition. That's why we do plan to implement the ability to force the raw sector-by-sector image creation in the future Acronis True Image versions. However, the exact time frame for this feature to be implemented is not decided yet. At the moment, you need to re-activate Linux loader after you restore the image which is by the way not so complicated procedure.

    If you want us to change the behaviour of Acronis True Image in any way or add some new features to this product, please feel free to post any of your suggestions in Acronis True Image WISH-LIST thread.

    If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexey Popov
     
  7. gkweb

    gkweb Expert Firewall Tester

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    Hello,

    I will try today to clone an OpenBSD 40GB HDD to a 80GB HDD, and see if the cloned HDD is bootable and working. As I understand it, the UFS partition not being supported by TI, this will allow me to do a raw byte-to-byte cloning.

    But before I try, doing a clone like this, at worst the destination HDD fails and is corrupted, but the source HDD is not modified in any way ?
    I will keep you informed of the results.

    Regards,
    gkweb.
     
  8. gkweb

    gkweb Expert Firewall Tester

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    Hello,

    As promised I keep you informed. I sucessfully cloned a 40GB IDE HDD with OpenBSD (only) on it to a 80GB IDE HDD. I have choose the "manual" way (not automatic), I said to TI (TI 8 build 800) to "keep data" on the old disk, and to not modify anything ("as is" option). The cloning took 4Hours with both disks plugged in IDE inside the machine.

    After the cloning, I unplugged the old drive, and left the new one plugged in.
    It booted fine, without any trouble. I now have a backup HDD in case my current HDD crash.

    Great job Acronis :thumb:

    Regards,
    gkweb.
     
  9. Modred

    Modred Registered Member

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    I was a little concerned by this thread, as I regularly use TI-8 to image and restore a linux partition. I have not had any problem doing restores, so perhaps this doesn't affect me. Just to be safe, I did a little research on what is involved in restoring the grub. I use Ubuntu linux and found the following (it refers to recovering after Windows but the process is the same):

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows

    This page also has a link to a utility disk called the "Super Grub Disk." I haven't used this disk, but it might be helpful.

    It's unfortunate that we have to be concerned with this, but I think it's better than a raw sector-by-sector image.
     
  10. Detox

    Detox Retired Moderator

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  11. Detox

    Detox Retired Moderator

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    OK since this seemed difficult to follow, I have removed all the off-topic material from this thread - let's try to stay on track from here on out.
     
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