Backup Not Recognized

Last week I installed Acronis TIH 2009 and successfully made a disk image to my external HD.

Yesterday I created a Secure Zone on my internal HD. Changing my mind this morning, I removed the Secure Zone with Tools>Manage Acronis Secure Zone. Now, bringing up Acronis again with my external drive attached, that initial backup from last week is not recognized, even though I can see Acronis checking that HD. When I open Protection State it tells me that System volume backup:Not created. Also, it tells me that I have a Secure Zone with zero bytes.

I'm not too concerned about the zero byte Secure Zone ("My Computer" shows no Secure Zone), but I would like Acronis to recognize the initial backup that is on my external HD.

Or should I just delete that backup image and create a new one?

Thanks,
Bart

 

I had a similar experience regarding the Protection State-System Volume Not Created message. I was backing up to an external USB2.0 HD. I had created a backup with ATI2009 using the installed program (not the bootable rescue CD). The backup completed successfully and could be seen on my external HD. The Protection State was saying my system volume had been created. At some point I disconnected and reconnected the external HD for whatever reason and the next time I launched the ATI installed program, I got the System Volume Not Created message. There was some "disconnect" between the ATI program and the backup file caused by my disconnecting the HD. Others may be able to help you better here, but ATI should still be able to see the backup in Manage and Restore (you may have to use the browse button) and restore files from it. You should be able to clear this message by creating another backup with the installed program.

Keep in mind that if your internal HD crashes and you need to completely restore it, you will need to use the rescue CD. After following the messages here, I was convinced that all backups and restores should be done with the bootable rescue CD and not from within the installed program. Also, you will find several posts regarding problems with Secure Zone and Startup Recovery Manager. I never installed them.

 

Thanks, DH, for this information and your reply from yesterday. You are correct that ATI will see the initial backup when I browse My backups. Given that when I fire up ATI it pings my external HD a couple of times, you would think it would find that initial backup image and turn off that not protected msg under Protection State.

After reading your earlier reply and looking around this site yesterday I did find several posts that indicate that many users do not use the Startup Recovery Mgr and Secure Zone features. It's too bad, as the SRM sounds like a good feature that could be used instead of the rescue CD.

So, is it considered better to use the rescue CD that I created than the bootable CD that came with the ATI2009 box? I did not install ATI from the product CD as I had trouble entering my product code initially and tech support allowed me to download the latest version.

Thanks,
Bart

 

From what I gather after a couple months of following these messages, it is better to backup and restore from the CD you create. The secure zone is stored on your primary partition. If your HD crashes, so will secure zone. This is why it's better to store the backup to an external HD. Also, you'll only be able to restore from your CD as your primary partition is trashed. If you are making all your backups with the CD then you know it works and they should retore.

I originally purchased a boxed version also. I did not install Rescue Media Builder with the installation because the documentation said you can boot from the boxed CD (which I could). However, when a new build of ATI was released (9796), I updated to it but could not create a rescue disk because I had not installed Rescue Media Builder. Even though I could boot from the older version boxed CD, others here said whenever you update to a newer version, you should create a new rescue CD using the newer version. I eventually uninstalled, reinstalled 9796 with RMD and created a rescue CD.

The advice I received here was to create the bootable CD, and use it to make my backups and restores if necessary. I created the CD, booted my computer with it, created the backup to the external HD, validated the backup, and restored a couple files from the backup to my primary partition as a test. It all worked great! It gives me peace of mind that the CD works and I should be able to restore in a disaster.

You can still use the ATI installed program for other features (e.g. mount image). I don't use the other bells and whistles with the program as I primarily purchased it for backup and restore only.

 

DH,

The rescue CD that I had created contains the following:
Bootmenu, Bootwiz, fll.cfg, Kernel, Mouse, ramdisk, and Splash.run. I don't see these right away on the ATI2009 distribution CD, but they may be in a folder somewhere on it.

As I recall, in order to boot from a CD I need to change my BIOS to have it try my CD drive before C:. Is that right? And to do that I slowly hit Del or F1 right as I boot.

You say you booted your rescue CD and backed up and restored from it as a test. What exactly comes up from that CD? I take it ATI shows up in addition to some bare-bones system.

Bart

 

I'm not sure what key you would use on your computer. On mine (Dell desktop) , I got tired of pressing the F12 key during startup to "temporarily" start from the CD. I eventually went into the BIOS (F2) and set the CD are the first boot device. Now, if there's a bootable CD (e.g. Acronis Rescue CD) inserted at startup, it boots right into that.

As far as what you get when you boot with the rescue CD, it is a scaled down version of ATI that allows you access to some basic features (backup, restore, validate, etc). I believe it is Linux based but that's getting into areas I know nothing about.

I have a Dell Inspiron 530 with Windows XP-PRO SP-3. Below is the procedure I used to change the startup order in BIOS. This may not work on yours. I am new to Acronis also and have learned a lot from following this forum daily. Others may want to jump in here and provide information I am leaving out.

1. Restart the computer and tap the F2 key continuously during startup. This boots my machine into BIOS.
2. Use the “down” arrow key and select “Boot Device Configuration”.
3. Press ENTER.
4. Use the “down” arrow key and select “First Boot Device”.
5. Use the “+” key to toggle through the startup devices. Select CDROM.
6. Press F10 to save selection.
7. A red box appears with the message “Save to CMOS & Exit? (Y or N) Select “Y”.
8. Press ENTER

My computer then continues to start normally. Once the startup is complete, I can insert my Acronis (or any other bootable) CD and select RESTART. The computer then starts up from the CD. Once I remove the CD and select RESTART again, the computer does not see a bootable CD and goes to the next startup device (my internal HD). Again, this works for me.

I can tell your questions are good and I may be reaching my limits of help. Good luck!

 

Thanks again for all the help. I'll bid you to have a nice weekend!

 

Bartimus, the boot CD has the basic Backup, Clone and Recovery features of the software. And as has been suggested, better to use it now and know that it works rather than wait until your main drive crashes and you really need the cd to work.

 

Thanks, DnD.

This morning I changed my boot sequence and rebooted from the rescue CD I had made earlier. From it I did another image backup and validated it successfully.

Back in ATI2009 under XP I can see this morning's backup & validate via the Browse function of manage, so I assume I am in good shape.

I, too, noticed the EN down in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. First I thought it was the first two chars of END, but hovering my mouse straightened me out.

Is it recommended that each time you update ATI you should make another rescue CD?

Thanks,
Bart

 

Yes, the updates may have drivers for newer hardware so make another CD even if the one you have works now. Keep all the CDs you make, though.