Can not restore images???

Hi folks...hope you all can help.

I just had my HD crash. I bought a new one, re-installed windows and now I am prepared to restore my images from DVDs.

Originally my boot disk will not read? Kept saying Hard Disk not found...really, it's brand new and is working fine? How do I even get that to restore?

I tried then to reinstall by using just the DVDs with no success. So from reading on previous posts I figured restoring from DVDs was not a good idea. My first move was to copy all DVDs to my HD. (some DVDs read "cycle redundancy" and unsuccessful...good thing I made two copies!) Now I'm stuck again. What do I do now? I tried restoring from images from HD and it keeps giving me a screen saying processes are using the files? It allows for 3 options...retry, reboot, and back.

Please help me here! It's bad enough to have my HD crash, but now not being able to restore my backups is excruciatingly painful.

 

I think you are in Windows and are running TI to restore your C drive from the image files on a different partition on the HD. Is that correct?

If so, the 3 options are normal since TI can't restore the C partition from within Windows. You have to select reboot and it will automatically start the standalone version of TI and then it will, depending on the version: If prior to B3567 it will require you go into the Recovery wizard and enter the restore data again. If B3567 it will already have the data and will proceed.

Since you have Windows running on the drive the MBR is already on it. If this is not the case you have to restore the MBR which should be easy in B3567. If you are running an earlier build you need to restore a whole disk image to get the MBR. If you don't have that you can boot up your Windows install disk recovery console and issue a FIXMBR command or use a W95/98 recovery diskette and issue FDISK /MBR.

 

Ok??

Here is where I stand, and maybe this answers your scenarios.

I installed a new HD (original HD crashed.). Reinstalled windows. Reinstalled Acronis since I kept that on separate media altogether. I am now trying to restore the 13 tib files. This is where I keep getting the message, files are in use and the three options of retry, reboot, and back comes up. Also when copying the TIB files some of my DVDs it reads, "cycle redundancy...". Fortunately I have kept older copies of the TIB files from previous backups and are using those. Again, all my TIB files are residing currently on the HD and I am running the TI to try to restore them from normal Windows operation.

I am new to trying to restore data using TI. What are the proper steps in restoring the TIB files when a new HD has been installed and WIN XP has been reloaded?

 

Create the bootable Rescue TI cd and boot from that instead to carry out the Restore. First try it with the DVD images and if that doesn't work, you will have to put the images on another hard drive to try the restore process from it.

 

Are you asking me to create a bootable rescue disk from my new HD

If I cannot reload all original 13TIB files from my DVDs to HD, will it allow me to "skip" from, say...TIB file XXXXXX3 to XXXXXX5?

 

I'm lost here!

I have BOOT DISK and 4 DVDs WITH 8 TOTAL TIB files on them(tib2 file seems to be corrupt as I can not dl, it gives me a cycle redundancy check.) I purchased a new HD and re-installed WINXP to it. As of right now my PC is fully functional with no software installed except Acrons TI. My only questions is this, how the heck do I restore my information? I thought this process was suppose to be simple?

 

Normally when you install a new disk you do what Chutsman describes. You boot up the recovery CD version of TI (you don't load windows or anything else on the HD since it will all be overwritten) and you start the recovery process from the DVDs. You have already loaded windows so your new HD has a Master Boot Record already and that is fine.

Since you have Windows you are running TI from within Windows and as I said in my earlier message it cannot restore an image to the partition it is running on so it wants you to let it reboot which will automatically start up the linux recovery version of TI and you can recover your image with that program since it is memory resident only and is not running from the HD. If you have the images on another partition on the HD you can select them and restore from them.

Unfortunately, you indicate that you do not have a complete set of image files for the entire archive. Some apparently are giving a CRC or Cyclical Redundancy Check error which means the file cannot be read properly. If this persists check the disk for dust particles or other dirt and clean carefully by wiping from the center out, not wiping in circles around the disk.

If you cannot read the DVDs to get all the .tib files to create the whole archive you have a major problem. TI will not let you skip image files.

You can try to restore from the DVDs, TI may have more luck reading the image file but I wouldn't bet on it. Read the section in the user guide about restoring.

 

When I originally tried to restore the boot disk from how you explained it "Normally when you install a new disk you do what Chutsman describes. You boot up the recovery CD version of TI (you don't load windows or anything else on the HD since it will all be overwritten) and you start the recovery process from the DVDs." it said HD can not be found, and this was even with the new drive.
Now looking at where I am, I am sitting with a set of 8 DVD (backed up late June) and 13 DVDs (backed up last month). Each one of these sets has at least one DVD that has the cycle redundancy check error. FANTASTIC!!!!

SO much for backups. Even when I did backup it still doesn't make a difference, they don't work!!!!! What do I do now? Especially since I will be starting all over again. Do I save the TIB files onto a separate external HD? As well as save the data files separately as a double backup. I figure this way I can save the programs thru the TIB files, and the data files just as data files.

 

Using DVD media as your primary backup storage is the more difficult way to do things as you are finding out. Backup to another hard drive is always less problematic. What version and build # of TI are you using?

I don't know what else to suggest except that you try the TI bootable Rescue CD which you can make since you have a booting XP drive with True Image installed.

 

Yes but if the DVDs I am using have check redundancy errors in the series and TI will not skip files, then I am hosed, right?!

Acronis 7.0 (build 572)

 

Yes, if you can't read the DVD then you are up the creek. Who is reporting the CRC errors, windows or TI?

Did you create the image files on another partition first and then burn them to DVD? If so, did you use your burning software's "verify after burning" option? My personal opinion of burning a backup DVD without using the burning program's verify is that it does not give me any confidence.

 

Windows gave me the errors. I copied the TIB files to my HD and then copied them to my DVDs and not to a separate partition. Thing is, the data and files I saved were more recent than that of the backups. I wanted to use the bu for restoring all my programs.

I ended up staying up until 5am installing all my programs. Setting I will handle as I go on. The data and files I downloaded from the DVDs and I am back up and running. Lesson learned...save to a separate HD and restore from that HD when needed.

 

I think that saving and restoring to/from a separate HD is a good idea. I also think burning a copy of an archive to DVD from time-to-time is a good idea too; even though the odds both your drives will die together it never hurts to have another backup. The nice thing about DVDs is that you can keep them for a long time at minimum space and expense.

Two days ago I was burning a copy of an image onto DVDs. I always use the "verify after burning" option and I got a failure. This doesn't happen very often to me and the media was TDK which I have good luck with. Couldn't see any dirt on the surface but when you tilted it you could see little "lightning bolt" patterns in part of the disk. The disk after it in the spindle was OK. If I hadn't done the verify I would have a dud copy of my image on DVD.