Msg "ACRONIS Autopart completed" at all boots

Hello,

I use Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 build 2173 on a laptop Toshiba (X200 20G) with two 149Go SATA hard drives and I am running Vista.

This software allowed me to resize partitions and change drive letters without problems, but since the last change, each time I reboot Vista, I get an unexpected message:

After the Microsoft Windows screen with the green progressing line, the display shows a black screen, at the top, written in white I can read "Windows Vista" and at the bottom appears two line:

"ACRONIS Autopart" then "Completed"....

And the boot completes properly.

This should not be a big problem as at the end the boot completes, but it is annoying me as I requested no actions to the Disk Director Suite...

Could you please let me know how to suppress this boot message?

Thank you.
Guy

 

Any suggestion to solve this problem?

Thanks a lot to post me something....

Guy

 

The only thing I can think is that the "hook" for the changes didn't get removed after DD finished its job. There may be an entry in the Registry that didn't get removed, though I've never looked to see just where DD "hooks" to process these changes.

If you do another DD job (resize the system partition just a little, for example) and reboot to let it finish, does it clear it after it's finished or do you end up with two "Autopart" messages?

It's generally a better idea to perform any actions that will require a reboot by booting to the DD CD. That way Windows isn't involved.

Do you have a backup of the drive (a TI image, for example)?

 

Hello MudCrab,

I really appreciate that you took time to read my post and answer it.

I agree with you, very probably one previous operation didn't complete properly, and question is now, how to fix it?...

Answer to your questions:
I already tried launching another DD job: a partition check, on the C: drive, as this requires a reboot and an off Windows job, but it completed with no problems, and... the msg was still there after.

Yes I do have a Ghost image of this partition, but I would prefer to find another way to proceed as I made changes since I took the image...

I will perform the test you suggest (resize a bit a partition), I will perform this on a data partition to prevent killing the Windows one if something gets wrong, and I will let you know the outcome.

Tks again,
Guy

 

The thing is, it needs to reboot. DD may not need to reboot to change a data partition. Also, running a chkdsk on the drive (what DD does) is probably handled by Windows and doesn't load the same way as DD when doing partition changes.

If I have time later and you haven't found a solution, I'll run a few tests and see if I can find out anything.

 

Hello MudCrab, me again...

Yes, I agree with your comment, DD has to reboot to make the test valid.

I resized the data partition which is located on my first hard drive, the one with windows, and this required a reboot.

All steps performed properly and I got a nice msg Acronis complete after the operation ended, and then the second msg arrived, still with the term "Autopart"... which didn't appear in the resize related msg.

Windows completed its boot, I then re-resized this partition to its original size, and this time Windows didn't call for a reboot.

I rebooted anyway to check what happened and I still got the msg which I quote at the beginning of my post...

What is an "Autopart completed", does that ring any bell to you?

Which type of change could call for this

I remember, before the problem appears, I had to change drives letters, does that give you any hint?

Let me know if you want me to do any other try.

It will make a lot of sense to identify were this "hook" can hide and close it??

Hope to read you soon.
Guy.

 

I didn't find the "hook" but it seems to be hooking in where chkdsk does. However, I did find the files DD uses to run the script. If you setup a task for DD and reboot into VistaPE (instead of letting Vista boot) and delete these files, DD won't make any changes. I didn't notice any error messages caused by doing this.

Look in your C:\Windows\System32 folder for any AutoPartNt files. There should be up to four files. The names are: AutoPartNt.exe, AutoPartNt.let, AutoPartNt.nam and AutoPartNt.scr

If the process completed properly, my test showed only the .exe and .let files remained. The others were deleted.

Try renaming the files to something else and rebooting. For example, rename them to AutoPartNt_old.exe, AutoPartNt_old.let, etc.

If you use DD to do any other task that requires a reboot, these files will be recreated so you can delete them if you want after you verify your system boots correctly.

 

Hello MudCrab,

it's nice to read from you (and even more to see your action plan).

In fact I have installed on my laptop two operating systems (XP and Vista), one on each hard drive and I use the BIOS menu to boot on one or the other, so I can access the Vista partition from XP without any problem.

(by the way I didn't know what VistaPE means, is it safe mode?)

I have found only two of your files: AutoPartNt.exe and AutoPartNt.let in the Windows System32 folder. I ensured hidden and system files were visible.

Reading your post, it could be because DD considers the last run was OK, so only these two remain...

I am going to rename the two files I have and make a reboot, then I will post an update.

See U soon

Guy

 

Hi again, here is the result:

The Vista boot starts, the Microsoft Windows screen with the green progressing line appears, then the display shows the black screen with at the top "Windows Vista" and a msg says" Autoprtnt program not found, skipping AUTOCHECK", then the boot completes properly.

So the good news is that we are seeking in the right direction, we just need to find which "process" calls for an "autocheck"...

I am ready to perform the next step, roger.

Guy

 

Boot up Vista (if not running) and start the Registry Editor.

Go to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\currentcontrolset\control\session manager

Look at the value for the BootExecute entry. It should be autocheck autochk *

If it has autopartnt at the end, edit the entry and remove the autopartnt program from the list.

 

The BootExecute entry shows the value : autocheck autochk* autocheck lsdelete autocheck autopartnt

When I edit the entry, I have three lines:
autocheck autochk*
autocheck lsdelete
autocheck autopartnt

Should I delete "autocheck autopartnt" or only "autopartnt" ?


EDIT: I removed the complete line "autocheck autopartnt", rebooted and guess what: it works perfectly!...

Thank you very much MudCrab for your help, well done!

Kind regards from Paris.
(hope you have a better weather in California, here, it's hard rain, but solving this problem brings me some sun ...)

Guy

 

You're welcome. Glad to help.

I don't know why the other autocheck entries are there, but if it doesn't cause a problem it's probably okay. I only showed the one on my computer and also when looking up the standard entry.

For some reason, it just didn't get removed from the BootExecute key. I suppose when you did the other DD/reboot scenario, it just added another one and then removed it, leaving the original.

It rained here most of last week and it's supposed to be mostly sunny this week.