Boot-Loop after using Try and Decide

Hi all,

I did a brand new installation of Vista Ultimate 64 on the following hardware:
- 1.8 TB RAID Array (3 x 1 TB Samsung Disks - RAID 5)
- Partitions:
-- 1. 500 GB OS
-- 2. 1 TB Data
-- 3. 200 GB Acronis Secure Zone

Everything went fine so far. Then I tried turning on the TRY-Mode (just to try it out). (Wow 3 tries in 1 sentence).
That was ok but when I wanted to switch it off but this didn't work. There always comes that dialog box asking me to save or discard the changes. I choose save and the system writes the changes successfully. But the TRY-Mode keeps to be on.

Then I thought that a reboot might help. But since then my system is in a Boot-Loop: Directly after the BIOS hands over control to the bootsector I quickly see the Acronis Try&Decide-Bootloader message but then the computer restarts!!!

I haven't tried repairing the system yet (with Acronis Rescue disk or windows repair) but my point is: How can I get this nice feature to work smoothly on my system?
Is my Asus Maximus Formula (X38 ICH9R) Board Controller the cause of the issue? Or is it having a very big RAID Array with the Acronis SAFE-Zone at the end (after some kind of boundary which Acronis can not access at this boot time)?

I'm using the latest build (#9646).

Thanks for any help!

Christian

 

Hello Christian,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

The latest build for the English version is build #9709, re-create Acronis Secure Zone and see if the issue remains. If you use, for example, the German version, let's wait a little bit, we expect the new build release very soon.

If the issue persists, we need additional information to find the reason. I may recommend you to use our Live Chat service here.

Thank you.

--

Oleg Lee

 

Hi,

thanks for the help. I think I'll wait for the German version being finished.
Meanwhile I've solved this problem (found a workaround):

I bootet from the rescue disk and activated the Acronis Boot Manager again.
I don't know if I chose to have it installed by the initial Acronis setup.
But this change let my computer boot again into Vista.

From then on I executed some more tests with "Try and Decide" which were then successful. There were no reboot problems anymore which means that there is no problem regarding my onboard raid or a quite big Raid-Volume.

But at least I'm sure that the initial problem was caused by a faulty first TIH installation program. Hopefully Acronis will have that solved for other users with the same configuration as I think this is reproducable.

Christian

 

Hello Christian,

Thank you for your time.

I am really glad to hear that you've found the solution.

Thank you.

--

Oleg Lee

 

Christian et al,

The same problem exists in the English version, trial downloaded today.

Here are the details.

HP Pavilion Dv5, Factory restored fresh from HP recovery partition. This loads Vista 64 sp1

4 Gig Ram, 250Gig HDD with ProtectSmart

Installed Acronis True Image Home 2009 and made a full backup/image to a separate 50g partition setup for backups.

Setup Acronis secure zone to use Try & Decide.

Setup wireless connection and search provider in IE7 64 bit.

Opened 60 day trial (preinstalled from HP) of Norton Internet Security, answered yes to all the accepts and ran LiveUpdate. The update took a *long* time to install, but seemed okay.

I tried to commit the changes with T&D. It took a *long* time, gave errors reading Hard Drive sectors (ignore all), then seemed okay but wouldn't turn off.

Tried cancel changes, tried to commit changes (about 30 sec pause, then still turned on).

Selected Restart computer from Vista. Stuck in same do-loop, "Starting Acronis Loader..." for about 20 secs, then reboots to BIOS and back to the Acronis error message.

FYI.

I also noticed during the secure zone creation that Acronis moved my HIDDEN recovery partition from HP without warning and without my consent. This partition had a separate drive letter, being neither the drive protected, nor the backup location (!!!)

I ran a BIOS level test of the HDD, which passed without any problems. The hard drive wasn't having any troubles before Acronis, but I tested just to be sure.

My guess is the partitioning software portion has defects, and since Acronis moves partitions around (why?), that would explain the potential for problems.

IMHO, moving partitions is risky anytime, and moving ones without notice or permission is...well...unacceptable to most gov't and corporate security departments.

Here is some additional info from my notes.

During the reboot and before the loop, I got an error that settings.ini was in use by another program and couldn't be opened. This prevented my Windows Sidebar from opening. Catalyst Control Panel also crashed.

I am assuming this is due to these items or Vista 64 going (around?) the container that T&D creates...something to look into.

And here is the *really* weird thing. Although my system time was correct before the loading and after the Norton update, the T&D counter displayed in the lower right part of the screen said I was using T&D for "14292:19:57" The 15 day trial date hadn't changed, though.

Then T&D upon launch gave a bunch of failed to read sector errors for about 30 sectors.

Once tech support allowed me to download a True Image bootable iso, we restored the MBR/partition from my backup created just before I turned on T&D. This eliminated the T&D boot loader and windows booted normally.

All the data is fine, but this is one scary problem from a security and data integrity point.

I am in the process of updating Norton and checking all the partitions for errors from disk manager without T&D running, then will try it again.

FYI. The changes I tried to commit did not take, so it seems that the software had an error and did NOT write corrupt info (thank goodness!), just the boot problems.

Stay tuned for updates as we track this down.

- JC

 

More info....

My partition set aside just for backups is now RAW (corrupt), and T&D partition is corrupt. A real heck of a time deleting it and reformatting the partition. After deleting it, my HP recovery partition showed up twice with different drive letters. A reboot fixed that!

I plan to make a new Acronis full backup/image since both are now lost

I will then try to recreate the T&D system and cross my fingers

More evidence that the partition portion of this program has problems...

I've noticed in the downloaded documentation it says Vista 64 SP2. This is SP1. If it is that particular, perhaps a better emphasis and explanation would be helpful?

Stay tuned. I'm reformatting the corrupt partitions and backing up....again...and again....

- JC

 

I am using ATI Home 2009 on a Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M laptop running Vista SP1 (32 bit) and have experienced the boot loop problem today. Foolishly I bought ATI (English version) rather than opting for the trial version, relying more on past experiences with Acronis products, brand reputation and good reviews I had read. I'd heard of software licence problems with the boxed UK version so opted for the web download version instead (perhaps I should have done more research on problems with ATI at this point!).

The reason I bought ATI was I had been experiencing problems with Adobe Updater installing security updates. I'd tried Windows system restore but this failed to fix the problem which left me no alternative other than to do a clean install.

After the clean install I set about re-installing my programs, buying an external hard drive and ATI. I am aware some viruses now spread through PDF format which is a format I often use so although my system is clean thanks to ESET Smart Security, I decided to try re-installing the Adobe security updates as an extra preventative measure. Using ATI’s 'try & decide’ feature should have allowed me to try the security updates on the system before committing them permanently to make sure they didn’t mess up my system again.

As it happens I did get the same Adobe error message pertaining to the security updates. When I got back to my desk I noticed an Installation Incomplete message saying

'Your system must be restarted to continue this update. If you select Restart Now, Adobe Updater will continue installing the remaining updates after your computer has restarted.'

this was hidden behind a newer pop up stating

'C: Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\ACE.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the original installation media or contact your system administrator or the software vendor for support.'

By now I am not surprised at an Adobe updater error however I decided to reboot whilst remaining in 'try & decide' mode to see if the updates were in fact successful and/or what impact the process had on all of my Adobe applications or Windows before ultimately deciding what to do.

Unfortunately ATI would not let this happen; when I rebooted I got an ATI screen asking me if I wish to stay in 'try & decide' mode or would I like to purge my system of the changes made since T&D was activated. Any attempt to remain in T&D mode resulted in the system rebooting to exactly the same screen over and over again. If you did nothing then there was a countdown timer to yet another reboot to the same screen.

This groundhog day moment has annoyed me as I am not able to try & decide as advertised and this was a key component of the software which persuaded me to parting with hard earned £'s. The only option to break the loop was to select the option to purge the system of changes making the entire 'try & decide' feature completely useless, especially as many software titles require you to reboot afterwards!

Of course I’m left with the option to run a backup of my entire system in ATI before installing said updates and if I run into problems simply restore the image but if the T&D feature doesn’t work then what other features of this package don't work correctly - making an image or better still restoring an image? It's knocked my confidence to even attempt this!

Unlike the other posts on this page I returned no Acronis or Windows error messages at all, my hidden system restore partition is fine. The only error message received pertained to Adobe Updater which was the same problem I experienced with Adobe Updater prior to the clean install. Now I feel I've been ripped off as I have the same old Adobe Updater problem and now I have a new software application that does not work as advertised. Sweet!