Can't Restore on Dell Latitude D630

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by Bunky1115, Aug 11, 2007.

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  1. Bunky1115

    Bunky1115 Registered Member

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    I'm trying to image a few new Dell Latitude D630s and am having huge problems. Here's what I've done so far:

    1) Setup the first computer exactly the way I wanted it. Tried to create an image of it by using an Acronis Boot CD and saving it to the network. It said it was going to take a couple of hours and eventually froze up. It did this a few times. I ended up installing True Image Workstation 9.0 on the computer and created an image from that. It saved it to the server in about 10 minutes. (I also have a few new Optiplex's and it worked fine on them.)

    2) After finally getting the server image created, I booted another Latitude with the Acronis boot CD, found the image and started the restore. The time remaining basically did nothing but increase. At one point it said 3 hours remaing and just froze. This happened over and over, and on two different machines.

    3) I figured their must be a problem with the network driver, so I burned DVD backup images. I'm trying to use them. Nothing but problems. The laptops just freeze up at various different stages. I notice that a couple of them now just have one huge partition instead of the few that I had before. (that's after I tried restoring to them).

    I've used Acronis in the past, and have never had a problem. I also don't have the problem on some other Dell models. But, right now this is a huge issue for me as I'm on a time crunch to get these machines imaged (and the two that started and failed I can't even boot to Windows any longe) so I'm really hoping someone out there can help me!!

    Thanks.
     
  2. hgratt

    hgratt Registered Member

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    I can't offer any direct help, but my experience with ATI 10 might help point out a direction to pursue.

    I recently obtained a new laptop, a Dell Precision M4300 (Win XP Pro), to replace my old one. The M4300 should be similar to yours in chipset, SATA drive, Core 2 Duo etc.

    I was able to make an image of the drive to an external USB HDD using the ATI boot disc. However, the attempt to restore the image produced the same results as you have seen - the restore time kept increasing. I quit when it reached over 3 hrs estimated time for a 6GB image.

    I then used a BartPE CD with the ATI 10 plugin. Restoring the image was successful and took about 5 minutes. So, you may want to try using the BartPE methodology so as to use the better set of drivers found in Windows

    Harvey
     
  3. Bunky1115

    Bunky1115 Registered Member

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    Thanks for the info. What is a BartPE CD? I have Ti 9, 10...where can I find instructions on how to do this?
     
  4. hgratt

    hgratt Registered Member

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    I'm not an expert in this, so others may also want to reply. The following is a link to the BartPe utility:

    http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/


    I assume you're using win xp. If you also have ATI 10, you can download pebuider and then install it. ATI 10 (the full install) should have a BartPe folder. From what I remember, you need to create a new folder in the BartPe PLUGIN directory (i.e., name it Acronis) and then copy the ATI 10 plugin to that folder.

    When you subsequently run pebuider, you can have it look for your xp install files. After it finds them, you should check the plugin window on pebuilder to make sure you picked up the ATI plugin and that it is enabled.

    I then set pebuilder to make an iso image which I then burn to a CD. You then boot from the CD to a mini windows environment where you can access ATI. I'm not sure how to handle networking support since I don't use it.

    Hopefully, other more knowledgeable people will add to and/or correct what I have said.

    Harvey
     
  5. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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  6. Bunky1115

    Bunky1115 Registered Member

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    I found Bart and installed it. I can't figure out how to unplace the Acronis Plugin. However, even if I do, I'm not sure this is going to solve my problem - I'm trying to restore to a machine that doesn't have Acronis installed on it yet. (I have an image that I want to place on several out of the box machines (though I've already tried with some and am hoping they aren't screwed up).
     
  7. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Look at the link in my post just above yours.
     
  8. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    The BartPE disk is a bootable disk with Windows. Once you boot from it, you run the TI that you installed via the plugin when you created the BartPE disk. Since TI is now running in a Windows environment with Windows drivers instead of in a Linux environment with Linux drivers, you are likely to be able to create and restore images successfully.
     
  9. hgratt

    hgratt Registered Member

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    Out of curiosity, I looked at the BartPE creation link. I had also made a new BartPE CD for the Dell M4300 and the process succeeded without needing the "fixdell" patch - i.e., pebuider found the i386 directory to be valid.

    Is this patch no longer needed, in general, for Dell computers (win xp)?

    Harvey
     
  10. Bunky1115

    Bunky1115 Registered Member

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    When I try to create the bootable Windows XP Professional disk, I get errors...one of them says the files won't fit on the CD. I could use a DVD, but the directions said that won't work....does anyone know if the program has been updated?
     
  11. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    BartPe 3.1.10A is the latest version. What steps did you take to create the CD? What are the errors you received and where in the process did they occur?
     
  12. Bunky1115

    Bunky1115 Registered Member

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    I followed the steps in the above referenced article to create a Windows XP Pro Installation Disk. When I tried burning that image to the CD (as per the instructions), it started to go through the process but then said there wasn't enough space. The directions had said not to use a DVD as it wasn't supported.
     
  13. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    I take it from your comments that you did not have an XP Pro installation disk available. If you do have one, then the steps to make a bootable disk are not needed. Unfortunately the person who wrote the guide has not been active here for sometime. Can you locate an XP Pro installation disk? If so you can use that to build a BartPE disk.
     
  14. Bunky1115

    Bunky1115 Registered Member

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    No, I do not have one available. I just went out and bought Ghost. Hopefully that will work. I like Acronis much better, but not much good when it doesn't work (out of the box so to speak)
     
  15. hgratt

    hgratt Registered Member

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    If you start pebuilder, under the tab labeled "Source" there should be a search function. This will search your HDD for a valid i386 folder (installation folder). I do not believe you need to make a bootable win xp pro installation CD.

    On my M4300, it found the i386 folder and also indicated that it was valid. I was able to use that to complete the BartPE build process.

    Harvey
     
  16. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Good point Harvey. I had forgotten that feature.
     
  17. Bunky1115

    Bunky1115 Registered Member

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    Yes, I did that, it seemed to boot fine, but I couldn't start networking services.
     
  18. hgratt

    hgratt Registered Member

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    Hopefully someone who has done this will respond. One suggestion is to go to the pebuilder3110a/help/english folder and open up the drivers.htm page. This will give some instructions on how to add networking drivers.

    However, I don't know where or what form you should get them in. You might try looking on your HDD for a drivers folder and see if it contains the extracted files that are used to create the network drivers for your laptop. If you find them and they seem to be in a similar form to the instruction page, try placing them in a subfolder in the pebuilder3110a/drivers/net folder ala the instructions. It's at least worth a try.

    That's as much as I know.

    Harvey
     
  19. hgratt

    hgratt Registered Member

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    In addition to the above, you might try getting the drivers from the Dell Support site. It looks like the network drivers (wired and wireless) can be downloaded and extracted to a folder without actually having to run the install.

    If so, this may be a way to get the drivers into the folder described above.

    Harvey
     
  20. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    If I remember correctly PenetCfg should start automatically. I can't check that right now. Start Pebuilder and click the plugins button. There are two Penetcfg entries make sure both have "Yes" next to them. If not click on each entry and click "enable". If you need drivers there is a link in the directions to a driver pack http://downloads.littlbuger.info/?dlid=528. This provides Network and Mass Storage drivers. Download to your PEbuilder directory and double click to extract. The drivers will be extracted to the correct location.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2007
  21. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello Bunky1115,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Please make sure you use the latest build of the respective version of Acronis True Image. To get access to updates you should first register your software. Don't forget to recreate Acronis Bootable Rescue Media after updating.

    If updating doesn't solve the problem, please try booting with "acpi=off noapic" parameter as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

    If the issue persists, please collect some information to let us investigate it thoroughly:

    Please create Acronis Report and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

    Then 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 a solution.

    Thank you.
    --
    Marat Setdikov
     
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