restore: "specify where MBR will" ??

hi
if you restore your system (win xp) partition in the content selection there's 2 entries: the partition itself and master boot record. if you just restore the partition itself you cannot boot from that partition right? at least that's what i just found out.

so you have to select BOTH the partition and mbr. but once i select mbr it will ask me :
"specify where mbr will" what exactly does that mean ?
both my disk are listed - secondary slave and secondary master which should i choose and what happens on the disk that i choose?

here's what i wanna do: i have 2 disks and on both discs there's a small (10gb) partition for win xp, i wanna be able to boot from both disks and i thought i just connect (change the plugs disk1 >< disk2) whichever disk i wanna boot from on the first sata slot on the mainboard.

 

Hello baracus22,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

If you select an entire partition to restore, you will recover the entire partition, and MBR will be already included. Please note that you are unable to select MBR and a partition simultaneously during the recovery. If you choose to restore MBR only, this operation is considered to be a sort of Fix MBR operation, i.e. you will recover MBR only.

Please note that in order to set the system in the desired manner you should perform several steps that can be executed without using Acronis software.

You can use Google search for more information.

Thank you.

__

Oleg Lee

 

The MBR comes from the original drive from which the backup is created. When restoring, the MBR is to be restored to the drive receiving the restore. Whatever drive you restore the MBR to will assume the MBR identity of the orignal disk.

If you are restoring only the C partiton overtop the same orignal C partition (not another disk), then the restore of MBR is not usually needed. When restoring the system partition, you will have the fewest problems if you restore when booted from the TI Rescue CD.

Should you proceed with your plans, be sure and have only one drive connected during the first bootup following the restore or a cable connector switch. Windows does not like see two identical drives on first bootup.

 

It's usually best not to restore the MBR from drive A onto drive B. If drive A is a 100gb hard drive, and drive B is a 300gb , restoring the MBR from drive A will make drive B into a 100gb hard drive (requiring some complicated repairs to regain the unallocated space).

A backup of a bootable partition will always be bootable when restored, whether the MBR was backup/restored. I never backup or restore the MBR and all my backups have always booted up (usually with no major problems) when restored.

 

That isn't correct. This is a common misconception about how TI handles the MBR.

When you restore "Track 0 and MBR" using TrueImage, the contents of Track 0 (the first 63 sectors on the disk) are restored except for the 64-byte partition table. TI does not touch the partition table, so it will NOT change a 300 GB hard disk into a 100 GB hard disk, nor will it modify the partition layout. To do so would be folly. It would potentially destroy data on the target disk.

The inclusion of the function "Track 0 and MBR" is to allow users with custom boot managers to restore them. Examples are the custom Lenovo/IBM master boot record on ThinkPad laptops, Linux users with GRUB or LILO installed to the master boot record, or other non-Microsoft boot managers. Those who use exclusively Microsoft operating systems do not need to restore "Track 0 and MBR" unless something has damaged the MBR.

 

I have been using TI version 10 on a dual-boot Vista and XP system with no problems at all. Can someone tell me (step-by-step) how to restore ONLY the MBR on a system using the Vista bootloader. I do not see anywhere in the help files information on How to restore the MBR only. if you click the MBR box only when doing a restore, it will always click the C Drive at the same time. I do not want to restore the C Drive. I just want to restore the MBR.

FyrmnJ

 

Can't you just uncheck the C: drive?

Are you doing this when running TI in Windows or when booted to the TI CD?

What build of TI 10 are you using?

 

I just tried this with TI version 10 build 4942 in a virtual PC:

1. Here I am selecting a .tib file to restore. The .tib file is a backup of the D partition:



2. After selecting the backup archive to restore, check off only "MBR and Track 0":



3. Select the DESTINATION of the restore. Here I've selected the (only) disk drive, Disk 1:



4. Ready to proceed:

 

Mark,

That's the same thing I got. Even with an image of a drive with only one partition (it looks like your test was one partition of several on a drive), there was no problem just checking the MBR box.

 

Ok Kol0 and mudcrab, I did it as you each described how to do it and it worked. I'm using version 10 build 4942. Thanks.

FyrmnJ