Boot CD doesn't see the hard drives

I'm running:

Acronis True Image Server for Windows 8.0, build 1018

Adaptec 29320A SCSI card, setup as HOSTRAID with 2-146GB SCSI hard dives in RAID 1

Windows 2003 Small Business Server.

2 Partitions, setup as dynamic disk.


When I boot to the Acronis rescue CD I don't see the drives attached to the RAID controller, just my USB hard drive that holds the image file.

I can boot to a Win98 floppy and see the partitions using FDISK.

True Image would see the drives when booting from CD in this server when the adpatec card was not configured for hardware raid 1 (we were using Windows software raid 1). Since the switch to hardware raid 1 no drives are visible from the rescue boot cd.

What's the fix

thanks

 

I think I read somewhere that True Image doesn't do dynamic disks. But the Acronis support team will be along shortly to give the official answer.

 

You might try searching for "dynamic disks" - for some reason I think I remember that they are not supported.

LOL - beaten to the punch!

 

wow, you guys are quick.

It has worked for dynamic drives when we were using Windows software mirroring. We switched to the Adaptec hardware mirroring on the 29320 card in an attempt to ease the recovery process.

When we previously restored to the software mirrored dynamic disk we only would restore to 1 of the 2 disks. Typically we would disconnect the mirror hard drive and restore to the single drive. Then we would boot to a boot disk and blow away the partitions on the mirror drive. Reboot to windows and reset all the mirroring again in drive manager.

We were hoping for a "1 and done" solution by switching to hardware raid as windows sees the raid 1 array as 1 drive.

 

more info:

I just pulled the two RAID 1 hard drives I want to restore to (that have existing dynamic partitions). I installed 2 new drives and configured as RAID 1 in the adaptec BIOS. The boot CD still doesn't see the drive(s).

I went into the adaptec BIOS and removed the hostraid setting and returned to card to the single drive(s) configuration and the boot cd will see both hard drives.


sooooo, the 20 dollar question is.

Does this software work with an Adaptec 29320A SCSI card configured for hostraid?

 

Well, I could use the $20 but I'm afraid you just left me in the dust.
You may want to start another thread with "Does this software work with ..." as the Title; might get a quicker response.

 

I'm having a similar problem with an Adaptec 1210SA SATA RAID controller card. And for whatever reason, whenever I try to use the Acronis True Image Server 8 (most recent build) in Windows Server 2k3 SBS, the program hangs whever it tries to read the partitions. Am I completely hosed here, or what?

 

Hello velocitytech and VATech03,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Server Disk Backup Software.

To velocitytech: Please be aware that when you boot your server from the bootable rescue media, you get the Linux environment which does not supports Windows LDM (also called Dynamic Disks).

To velocitytech and VATech03: If you have the Basic disks and the bootable rescue media can't detect them, please try the following workaround:

- Boot the computer from Acronis True Image bootable rescue disc (Full version);
- Hit F11 key when the "Starting Acronis Loader..." message appears;
- After you get the "Linux Kernel Settings" prompt, please add acpi=off noapic parameter to the end of the Linux kernel command line (so it will be "quiet acpi=off noapic");
- Click OK button.

If that does not help, please create Acronis Report and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Please create an account, then log in and submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Tatyana Tsyngaeva

 

The "acpi=off noapic " didn't help. I'll start a request for help.

I don't think it's a dynamic disk problem as the boot CD won't see the brand new empty drives I installed when the SCSI card is configured in the SCSI bios as "HOSTRAID". Here is the SCSI card I'm using.

http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/su...s=no&language=English US&prodkey=ASC-29320A-R


When the Adaptec 29320A is configured as HOSTRAID a completely different BIOS is used for the card and I have to use a different driver for the card in Windows. Seems like the boot CD just doesn't have a driver that will read the scsi card when configured as hostraid.

 

Hello velocitytech,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Server Disk Backup Software.

Please provide our Support Team with the requested information above. Please also make a digital photo of your BIOS settings.
This information would let us investigate the problem under consideration thoroughly and provide you with a possible workaround.

Thank you.
--
Tatyana Tsyngaeva

 

My issue has been resolved and I feel really stupid.

I had the current build installed on our server, but the boot cd I was using was created on an earlier build. Once I created a new CD from the new build everything works great!

 

Hello velocitytech,

I'm glad to hear that your issue has been solved.

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko