Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (error on startup)

I think I really screwed up. I used the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager as I saw it needed to be Activated. When I did so it created a 209GB partition on my C: Master HD unknown to myself.

Well days later I noticed that my 500GB C: HD was only around 250GB so I contacted Dell who found the problem to be the partition that I created. So Dell asked me if I wanted to delete it.

We went into the Admin Tools> Computer Management>C: and deleated the Partition text. At that point I thougt everything was ok and Dell left. Now when I start my PC where is says to hit F11 if you want to boot from the receovery I get a error because that has been deleated. But I have the option to hit enter and boot normally. When I did so the PC would just sit and then I got this message:

C: NTFS Volume is Dirty and the CHDSK ran afterthat was finished it went back to my desktop but would do nothing. At that point I did a system restore using Acronis backup from my External HD. I just restored my C: Matser HD.

So now when I start my PC I still get the Acronis recover manager error, I hit enter and boot normally. Now at least I'm back up. Problem is how do I turn off the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager and would it be safe just to delete the empty partition that is left on my C: HD. Also if I do so will I get all my space back?

I have a arrow pointed to the partition that I would like to delete (if possible)

http://www.angelfire.com/il3/twins/Manager_issue.JPG

 

The SZ partition is already deleted. However, you can delete the Extended Partition that contains the free space that used to be the SZ partition. You should be able to just right-click on it and delete it and it should become Unallocated space.

It's always better to use TI to remove the SZ than to just delete the partition. This is especially true if you activated the ASRM.

The easiest solution may be to have TI create a new SZ in the free space, activate the ASRM and then have TI remove the SZ and apply the space to the C: partition (this is what should have been done).

If you still have problems with the MBR, it can most likely be fixed.

If you have a standard Windows CD/DVD, you can boot to it and do an MBR repair. The instructions are different depending on whether you're using XP or Vista.

If you have a TI backup that includes the MBR from before you activated the ASRM, you could probably fix it by restoring the MBR & Track 0 from that backup.

 

TI what is that? Also what is ASRM? Please I'm a newbee at this.

John

 

TI is True Image

ASRM is Acronis Startup Recovery Manager

 

Ok I tried what you said but the partition still remains. I believe that the only way to get rid of that is to re-format my HD?


http://www.angelfire.com/il3/twins/Manager_issue.JPG

http://www.angelfire.com/il3/twins/Acronis_unallocated.JPG

 

Is Windows booting properly without the Acronis Recovery Manager error now? In other words, is the MBR repaired?

Are you saying you recreated the SZ using the unallocated space and then tried to remove the SZ (using TI) and have the space applied to the C: partition and it didn't work?

 

I can best describe this as when I Activated the Start up recovery manager unknown to mysefl it created a 200+GB partition on my C: drive. Now that I turned off the manager the space is now there empty and I can not remove it so instead of a 500GB HD its now only @2XXGB on the C: and Unallocated 2XXGB that I can not remove.

The only way I a;m told by Dell that I can get the complete space back is to reformat the C: drive. So I guess that must be done. I did turn off the manager and the PC boot ok now but I'm missing all that space.

With all my previous versions of Actonis I always manuallu backed up my C: amd D; drives, but when talking with a tech at AC he told me that I could run the automated BU and save both the C: to my external HD. So that is what I did not realizing that it actually created the BU in a new partition it made in my 500GB C: master HD. Now I can not get all that free space back with out re-formatting the Hard drive.

Hope that helps clear it up.

 

That's the reason I suggested recreating the SZ. If you do that and use the unallocated space you can then use TI to remove the SZ and tell it to add the space to the C: partition. Just don't select the option to activate the ASRM.

 

Hello escorial,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis True Image

Please follow instructions provided by MudCrab to resolve unallocated space issue. In order to solve issue with Acronis Startup Recovery Manager error notification on startup you should fix MBR. The best way to do it is to use full system backup archive and choose only MBR for restore, do not check any partitions.

Best regards,
--
Dmitry Nikolaev