cannot restore image after changes to partitions

Hi!

I apologize for my hastily composed Post yesterday with typos and an unclear explanation.

It is difficult to put this problem in to words.


I am running Acronis True Image Home 11:

I run Vista ultimate on multiple partitions (each a vista OS):

I made IMAGES of these drives:

And could restore a drive from these images:

Then I deleted a partition and restored it with an image that worked before (prior to deletion) on this drive:

now when I boot to this partition, instead of the restored OS, I get a mixture of elements from both the back up/restored image AND the OS on the Primary active partition: and I cannot really use this restoration.

I have a SATA laptop (ASUS).

Somewhere there is a confusion or corrupted codes (MBR or some code) on the beginning of each partition, which is list when partition is deleted.

It seems strange that the Acronis image is not more versatile and does not let itself be restored almost anywhere. Perhaps this is a Vista issue or I simply have not thought of something.

Any ideas?

My archive of older Acronis backup images ( a few weeks and days old) appear useless if a solution cannot be found.

All I did was delete and restore a partition as well as add a new partition and now my backup images cannot restore properly!

Some pertinent info has been lost during the delete (or some other change, as adding sa new partition) and elements of TWO operating systems (my multiboot) are appearing. And the restored image does not really work.

I never had this problem with Norton Ghost backup images and could restore a Norton Ghost image to a partition even if it was deleted and then re-created months and years later.

Any ideas?

 

Hi,

I want to re-word my problem to make it more understandable:

I have posted yesterday and today (Ev7) about my problem restoring a TI image.

I was using True Image fine until now. I could make backups of partitions (3 OS + data) and restore them at will.
Using TI 11 home on Vista (Home and Ultimate) Asus SATA laptop.

then for some reason I deleted partition 2 and 3 (partition 1 is my Primary active partition -system partition, with Vista Home and the bootloader files, the BOOT folder.

I use EasyBCD.

Partition 2 and 3 are for 2 Vista Ultimate OS.

I made backup images of all 3 partitions.

Still had the recovery partition on the disc.

I have a second disk, USB, all for data storage (stores my .tib files!)

The partition 2 + 3 are logical drives: and like I said, all was working well until I deleted part. 2 + 3 and then re-created them, same size, same NTFS file structure, using Acronis disk director.

But when I went to RESTORE the images for either part 2 + 3, and booted into part 2 or 3, what happened is that elements of the Part 1 desktop were on the part 2 or 3 desktop and shortcuts to programs on this desk would not execute: got red prompts saying things were missing!

ANd even though I was on part 2 (I thought!!!), when I checked Explorer, it showed I was in Part. 1 (drive 1): the original partition and system partiton that had Vista HOME Premium installed!!

Perviously, when things were working right, and I booted into part 2, it became my NEW C:\ drive and the real system drive (with boot folder in it) was moved over to D:\ .

I tried Vista OS DVD "REPAIR": and command prompt: /fixMBR and /fixboot: to no avail.
I tried to resotre only the MBR file from the TI image files.

All to no avail.

I cannot believe I have lost these image files for ever as so much work went into them.

I did notice, as I pointed out above, that in Explorer, when I thought I booted into Part 2, I was in fact in the SYStem part C:\, and that it did not move over to become D:\ as previously.

Also under D:\ I now saw all the program files etc that I had on part 2 and that should have been my C:\ when I booted into Part 2 option at the reboot menu.


So somehow the normal switch was not made; that is,Where the partition I boot into from the boot menu list, becomes the NEW C:\ and the previous C:\ moves down the line to become D: or E:.


I really think there must be an answer, a solution.
It is just that I have tried for days now to find it and could not.
So I am posting on the forums.

 

Ev7,
Do you have any backups (even old one) where you ticked the "disk" option so the single backup includes all partitions (both hidden & diagnostic) on the disk?

Were all your volume names unique so you can identify them by the names so you can ignore their drive letter? When using the TI Rescue CD, the drive letters are not always displayed in the same sequence as shown in Windows. When booted from the Rescue CD, using drive letters can sometimes lead to the user selecting the wrong partition.

 

Friday, November 07, 2008 11:16 AM



Hi Grover,

One of the first things I did when I got my new laptop this summer was use acronis to make a DiSK backup.

I was NEW to the software so I shortened the size of C:\ (with my Vista system OS on it) to about 16 gb, just enough to hold it.

And I had unallocated space after that (which was the result of shortening C:\ !!) and then a SHORT D:\ with some data (logical drive) about 6 gb, not enough to hold another OS (which I want to load, right! to see if it loads alright!).

So just before your post I was working on that angle:

I restored the WHOLE disk, and then with disk director I made a new D: partition and then restored the Ultimate OS on D:\ (the Ulitmate I had originally on a D: drive and had backed up! a week ago).

Well same problem! even if I restored from the rescue DVD and not via Windows! (as one post suggested!)

What I did notice though was EasyBCD had an entry: BOOT:

in addition to the usual C: D: drives etc. (the list of my partitions)
The whole disk restore restored the Recovery drive.

SO I thought maybe this would help (the BOOT drive option).
It made no difference.

Linking C: or D: OS to BOOT (instead of to C: and D: respectively, did boot the OS (Vista home and ultimate) but the same old thing:

the OS on D: (the Ultimate OS) never loaded to C:\!!!

This never happened before when things were working.

If I at that time selected D:\ OS or E:\ OS to load via EasyBCD, then that OS was put on C:\ and everything worked.


The system OS (Vista Home with the bootloader etc) would take up residence on D: or some other drive, but it would VACATE C:\ for the new OS I selected via EasyBCD.

So it really puzzles me.

Wish I could just phone Acronis!

I might have to build all over but what really bothers me is not knowing WHY this happened, I worry this will happen again and again!

unless I back up the WHOLE disk: which defeats the purpose of Acronis and making backup images of a Partition as you go along.

SO I think there MUST be an answer. But maybe not.

Maybe I lost some CODE and can never get it back.

I DID Not make a WHOLE disk backup when I had the 2 additional OS installed on D:\ and E:\. I did that install of the mutiboot later on.

I just saw as I was working with True Image, that I had no problem restoring a partition so I never thought I would have this problem.

SO I never made the whole disk backup.

I thought if I have the original WHOLE DISK image, I can restore that and "then" create partitions on which to restore any partition images.

But as I said, doing this just now has not worked!!!

 

Friday, November 07, 2008 11:36 AM



When I restore via the Acronis Rescue DVD, I go:
restore (option) and browse to my USB external HARD DRIVE > locate the .tib image I want to restore, then follow The process to restore to the partiton I want.

I do notice when I select my .tib in my hard drive, Acronis will see it as:

"U 1" on D:\ which is how I named it (U 1) and where I backed it up from (D:\).

But then Acronis (TI) gives me a list of drives I can restore to:

and I choose D:\.

That is, I am careful to create a D:\ partition if I do not have one.
Just so acronis is not confused even more!

But NOTHING! No go!
Nada!

Any restore OS does not load or install to C:\.

I did find that :

If I do a fresh install of an OS (say Ultimate) on D:\ and back it up, and then use EasyBCD to boot into this NEW OS: it will WORK!

It loads to C:\ and there is no clutter of icons or files on the desk that originally are the elements of Vista Home on C:\ (the origianl system OS).

BUT when I restore "OVER" this new D:\ with an older Ultimate OS that I originally installed on D:\, there is this clutter and the thing does not work! (that is, the Ultimate I chose to load via EasyBCD to become the new BOOT OS, will not load to C:\ !!!)

So I am wondering what the codes are that get created and LOST that determines all this and if they are or can be irrepairably LOST when deleting a partition and re-creating it, even if you keewp the same NAME and file type: (logical drive or primary).

This puzzles me!

 

Friday, November 07, 2008 12:13 PM



just a thought:

the reason I deleted and re created D: and E: drive and created a new F: drive was to ADD XP to my list of mutiboot OS!

SO I worked with dual boot Vista (first, as I already had it installed) and then add XP: and this meant a lot of NTLDR and ntdetect.com and boot.ini additions to the Vista SYSTEM OS and drive (with the bootloader, BCDEDIT.exe etc)

could it be XP left some residual debris on the disk that is throwing me off?

I did a whole disk restore so that should have flushed everything out, right?

So just a thought.

Anyway, the MBR would be safe in the Acronis backup I had made days ago, right?

anyway, seems something got into something and is throwing things off.

But what

bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd does not help.

A Win 98 startup disc fdisk /mbr would not help on Vista, right?

 

Ev7,

For each OS, C: was assigned to the Vista partition and then D: was assigned to the booting partition for just Vista 2 and Vista 3 (Vista 1 would still be C: for the booting partition).

Your images should be okay and you should be able to restore them. The problem you're having has to do with how Vista reassigns drive letters, the fact that you're using Logical partitions and that you're booting the Microsoft way. All of that should be able to be repaired.

Do you know how to mount Registry Hives from another Windows partition?

Basically, you need to "force" the correct assignments because Windows will not get it right no matter how many times you try (as you've found out). In the end you get cross-linking. In other cases like this, the system often won't boot because files are missing. However, in multi-boot systems using the same OS, the files can often be found on the other OS partition and this creates all kinds of problems.

Take a look at this post which describes how to load the SYSTEM hive from another partition's registry. It deals with XP, but the procedure is exactly the same for Vista. You'd boot into your Vista 1 system and then load the hive from Vista 2, change Vista 2 so it's correct, etc.

You will also need to make sure the BCD OS entries are correct. You can use EasyBCD for this. Just make sure that each OS has the correct "boot" partition set and the correct "OS" partition set.

Note: I would recommend you restore your Vista 2 and Vista 3 partitions again before you try this just in case there is some corruption caused by the cross-linking.

The basic steps would be as follows:

1. Boot into Vista 1.
2. Start the Registry Editor.
3. Browse to the MountedDevices entry and notice the drive letter assignments. This entry can be found here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
4. Load the SYSTEM hive for Vista 2 and browse to it's MountedDevices entry. (Loading the hive is detailed in the link above.)
5. Change the C: entry's value for the Vista 2 hive to match that of the drive letter assigned to that partition in Vista 1. For example: If Vista 1 has E: assigned to the Vista 2 partition, use the value assigned to E: as the value for C: in the Vista 2 hive. (I hope this doesn't sound too confusing).
6. Change the D: entry's value for the Vista 2 hive to match that of the drive letter assigned to the C: partition in Vista 1.
7. Delete all other drive letter assignment entries in the Vista 2 MountedDevices entry. The only entries you need remaining are for A: (if you have a floppy drive), C:, D: and (Default).
8. Unload the hive.
9. Vista 2 should now boot properly if the BCD file is correct.

Repeat the procedure to fix the Vista 3 MountedDevices entries.

---

Since Step 5 may be a little complicated, I'll try to explain it in more detail.

When you look at the MountedDevices entry for Vista 1, you'll see something like this for the C: assignment:

Code:

\DosDevices\C:     REG_BINARY   6c d3 51 26 00 7e 00 00 00 00 00 00

This is your "booting" partition. This value (6c d3...) is what needs to be assigned as D: in the Vista 2 and Vista 3 MountedDevices entry for the \DosDevices\D: entry (the previous booting partition assignment).

If Vista 1 shows E: as the letter for the Vista 2 partition, then use that value for C: in your Vista 2 loaded hive. For example:

Code:

\DosDevices\E:     REG_BINARY   6c d3 51 26 00 b6 3c 4c 3f 00 00 00

This would be your "Vista 2" partition's C: drive so use that value for the \DosDevices\C: entry in your Vista 2 loaded hive.

 

Thank you very much, MudCrab.

You must know where I am coming from: it is good to hear my images will be fine:

just need to get some details worked out! Thanks!!!

I will post if I solve this matter. And post how I did it. So someone else will know.

 

When using TrueImage Home double check that you have the most recent version which is build 8101 for version 11.

 

Well it worked MudCrab!!!

Thank you very much for your help.

I never would have gotten it without you and the Posts.

I knew somehow it was a small matter of some lost or scrambled "code".

But this solution was like doing Brain Surgery.

Exciting and rewarding.

I spend hours trying to get a solution. Days!

And it boils down to a few very small entries of values!

Thank you!

...

Now since this can crop up again when I do some significant re-ordering of my partitions, this TECHNIQUE is not the last time I will make use of it so I am writing down the steps in my own way,as a guide for the future.

Thanks again very much!

 

I have build 8027 and it works fine!

Thanks Grover!

 

I did write up a detailed guide but as it has a lot of images in it, it will be difficult to post for others to see.

 

Ev7:

That's very good news. Ironically, problems like you ran into are much, much easier to avoid than they are to fix.

One of the easiest ways to avoid the drive letter change issue is to make only one change at a time. Reboot into Windows after each change to allow the system to assign a drive letter to the changed partition. If you are aware of how Windows assigns drive letters you can know what to expect. If it comes out wrong then you can either edit the registry or you can hide other partitions before the first boot to "persuade" Windows to get it right.

Making changes to several partitions simultaneously is a sure way to invite trouble. I know. Been there, done that!

 

That's really good news and you're welcome.

Send me a PM. I'd be interested in seeing what you have. This type of procedure, while (hopefully) not often necessary is one that would probably be good to place on my website.