Bootloader fails

After installing Disk Director Suite 10.0.x and reboot i get black screen with:

Acronis loader...
Esc to menu
F6 skip menu

And then... nothing! Keybord doesnot react, i'am done, out, what to do

Thx

 

Unfortunately, Crosscutb2, I got the same error this morning. Acronis has managed to turn a week-old laptop into an expensive paperweight. Unfortunately, I left my bootable Windows XP CD at home, otherwise I'd try booting off it, doing a Fix MBR, and stripping the Acronis OS Selector off my laptop.

Pressing "ESC" does nothing, pressing "F6" does nothing. I'm not able to use my laptop at the office today and there's work on it like I'd to get off it. I'm none-too-happy with Acronis OS Selector at the moment.

 

I am assuming that your OS is Windows XP.

You should be able to boot from a Floppy. To create a Floppy boot disk you need 3 files:

NTDETECT.COM
ntldr
boot.ini

These 3 files create a simple Boot Loader, which is what you need.

You can copy the first two files from another system that has an IDENTICAL installation of Windows (e.g. XP Pro SP2). The boot.ini file looks similar on a lot of computers but obviously could differ. On the other computer copy that computer's boot.ini file to the Floppy. If you know where your OS was on the computer that won't boot then edit the copy of the boot.ini file to match that computer's setup.

Typically the boot.ini file will look something like this for a system that has only one OS loaded on a Basic disk :

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

This means that the OS is on the 1st disk in the 1st partition.

Put the Floppy in the computer that won't boot and see if it will boot from the Floppy. If it doesn't then try other location options for OS in the boot.ini file.... e.g.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

This means that the OS is on the 2nd disk in the 3rd partition.

 

How do i fix my MBR?

 

The problem is that the PC that won't boot doesnot have a floppydrive, so what to do now?

 

Reply to crosscutb2

To fix the MBR Click Here > http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/bootcons_fixmbr.mspx?mfr=true

If you don't have a Floppy drive you can do the same thing from a CD. Just interrupt the boot process to get to the Boot device (varies depending on BIOS but is often F11 ) and then select the CD drive.

 

Thx, it worked !

 

Glad to be of help

Now the REAL problem......

Acronis Support need to sort out why DDS10 screwed up your system in the first place. This is absolutely not acceptable. Disasters like this give Acronis a bad name and only create a sense of distrust of the products in the user community.

Software that makes fundamental changes to the system must work first time, every time. No ifs, no ands, no buts. Only 100% is accetable.

So in the interests of improving the product for everyone it would be helpful if you raised a formal support call with Acronis providing in detail the exact specification of your system and a step-by-step recall of the installation and the resulting problem.

TiA

 

I ended up fixing my hung bootloader with a Windows XP CD and running "fixmbr" from the command prompt. I then uninstalled the "OS Selector" once Windows loaded.

What is Acronis OS Selector doing differently from other bootloaders such as GRUB and LILO? While I appreciate the pretty GUI, I was alarmed that I couldn't edit my boot options using ESC or F6 when I was having issues yesterday. Both would speed past, not acknowledging any keypress, and eventually my laptop would beep with every keypress indicating the keyboard buffer full.

I'm very impressed with Acronis Disk Director Suite 10, and I'll continue to use it for handling multiple OS partitions. I was very alarmed and disappointed with my OS Selector experience, and I wouldn't recommend it to others based on that experience.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Partition and Disk Managing Software.

Actually, Acronis OS Selector has different features allowing you to manage your operating systems bootup process which other bootloaders do not have. Could you please clarify what exact boot options you are interested in?

We recommend you to read the Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 User's Guide. It describes all the features of Acronis OS Selector.

First of all, please download and install the latest build (2117) of Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 which is available at the Product Updates section at our web site.

To get access to updates you should create an account then log in and use your serial number to register your software.

If the problem with boot menu (Esc and F6) remains then please create Acronis Report in the way described below:

- Download and run Acronis Report Utility;
- Select the "Create Bootable Floppy" option;
- Insert a blank floppy disk in the A: drive and proceed with creation of the bootable floppy;
- Boot the computer from this diskette and wait for report creation process to finish;
- Collect the report file from the floppy.

Please create an account, then log in and submit a request for technical support. Attach the collected report.txt file 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.
--
Kirill Omelchenko

 

I had the same problem, I rebooted my computer and all of a sudden I got the same thing as described in the original post.
then I read this thread and I tried to do the fixmbr thing using the recovery console on the Windows XP setup disk and now i get

"Error loading operating system.."

I need to use my computer for work and I can't get into it!!

Please Help.

Thanks

 

Hello fahad,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Partition and Disk Managing Software.

Please create Acronis Report as I have suggested above and submit a request for technical support. Attach the collected report.txt file 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.
--
Kirill Omelchenko