Acronis Recovery zone and MBR

Hi

Last week I turned on Acronis Recovery Zone (boots from F11) because I was having trouble booting from CD.

I am now able to boot from CD, and want to turn off the Acronis Recovery Zone (when I activated it, I did not realise the implications for my Master Boot Record).

When I turn it off, will my MBR roll-back automatically to the previous one? It is an Acer laptop and I want to go back to the factory-installed MBR where pressing F11 starts Acer recovery manager.

Can anyone help with this question?

Thanks, H.

 

Hello hooly,

When you activated the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (SRM), TI will have also created the associated Acronis Secure Zone (SZ). To deactivate the SRM, use the Acronis Manage Secure Zone Wizard to remove the SZ. Unfortunately, this will only restore a standard MBR.

Did you image your hard drive before activating the SRM? If so, let us know what version/build of TI are you using. The answer to that will determine which procedure you use to recover your original MBR out of the image.

Regard

 

Many thanks menorcaman, I was afraid that might be the case.

Well I imaged my C: Drive before i activated the SRM, and I am not sure whether that image would include the MBR?? I am using TI 10, latest build.

The main reason I'd like to restore the original MBR is for when I come to sell the laptop if/when I upgrade. Do you think I will be able to restore my original MBR or is it too late already :O)

 

Good news provided you have still got access to that original image.

From TI 9.0 Home Build 3567 onwards, TI included the MBR in the image irrespective of whether you imaged the whole drive or only some of its partitions. In addition, it also allows you to select just the MBR for restoration, without having to also restore the disk or partition. However, if you are only restoring the MBR rather than the complete disk then you must ensure that number of partitions currently on your hard drive is the same as when your original image was created. Please do read this previous thread titled <Reflections on Build 3567 and MBR > for a full explanation.

Regards

 

Look at Mustang's guide for instructions to make an XP CD from you current installation. This would let you reinstall XP when you get rid of the laptop. You have to transfer the XP OEM license to the new owner anyway. Begginer's Guide to Creating a BartPE CD.

 

> Good news provided you have still got access to that original image.

I still have it

However, if you are only restoring the MBR rather than the complete disk then you must ensure that number of partitions currently on your hard drive is the same as when your original image was created.

I have not changed the number of partitions, though I have channged the partition size

Thanks for the link to the other thread. I guess this is a case in point of a majot advantage of having the MBR automatically backed-up with the C: partition.

The only thing I'm confused about now: my disk image was spread across three 4gb ish .tib files. When I restore the MBR will I need to restore all three files as I do when I restore the C partition (but just selecting to restore the MBR each time)??

 

I assume those three 4GB .tib files are all part of the same image because you saved it to a FAT 32 formatted drive. FAT 32 drives have a 4GB individual file size limitation, which means TI will automatically split your image into 4GB chunks during its creation. During the restore, just click on any one of the three .tib files and TI will recognise them as part of the same image. Later in the restore process you can opt to restore the partion(s) plus the MBR/Track 0 data or just the MBR/Track 0 data on its own by checking the appropriate tickbox.

Regards

 

Thanks again for your advice.

It's a brand new USB drive; I havent checked whether it's FAT32, but I did wonder why it split the back up. Maybe it's because my main harddrive (from which I backed up) is FAT32?

Yes I definitely just want to restore the MBR, I don't want to roll back to that version of the C: partition just want to do the MBR... that's why I wondered if I would have to read all three files.

I'll suck it and see later, thanks again you've been reallly helpful !!!