deadly embrace/lockout

I have restored an XP system partition from a True Image backup. However, when I start up, Acronis Autopart checks partitions, allocates letters, syncs with OS and then messages "Rebooting.." If I leave it it does this endlessly i.e. i cannot boot up Windows.

 

Take a look at this thread and see if it helps. Post #7 shows some of the files to look for. If you need to delete or rename any of them, you can boot to the DD CD, Explore the partition and make the changes.

 

Thanks MudCrab


I renamed the autopartnt files as suggested (via my Linux system) and hacked it up again. I got a message saying that it couldn't find autopartnt.exe and it was skipping Autocheck.

After a couple of reboots it sort of sorted itself out and now the system at least starts.

I'm not too impressed with a recovery system that allows you to restore via TI but then stuffs you through DD! I suppose it could have been worse.

Cheers.

 

A passing thought. The DD Boot CD allows you to edit, copy or rename files, but I can't see any facility in it to delete any.

 

The red "X" by the "Create new folder" icon just above the "tree" is the Delete button.

The problem you had seems to happen when TI or DD don't properly clean up after the procedure is completed. I've never had it happen, though I try to avoid TI/DD procedures that require a reboot (I do them from the TI/DD CD/BartPE/VistaPE/etc.).

 

Thanks.

The Restore produced a whole slew of other problems, mainly concerning privileges under XP (couldn't reinstall some apps etc>) but I've now sorted that.

As I understand you, if it's necessary to restore a whole system partition from a TI backup (as opposed to files, directories etc.), then do the whole thing after booting from Acronis removable media rather than calling the resident hard disk version of Acronis.

The main reason I've had for not doing this is that wireless keyboard and mouse do not always behave well, and I have to borrow a usb mouse to get around. I think I'll spring a few quid for my own mouse after this.

 

I had some more problems with this.

I can't see how if one is to restore an XP system partition it can be done without a reboot. I can see that any AutopartNT files will be restored with the rest, even if they are OK. If previous DD operations were successful and error free, I can't see that there would be junk ledt over.

I restored from a more recent backup (post this last sort-out) and again had the constant reboot problem. However, I had to rejig drive letters, and it all came right as a result of that (rebootable) activity and of course renaming the AutopartNT files. The drive letters seem to change themselves at will when the system is examined from the DD Boot utils.

I currently have Xp on my C: drive and Linux on a second hard drive. I boot to my selected OS with GRUB, as the Acronis OS feature doesn't always work and seems elaborately oversensitive and complex. The AUTOPART and AUTOCHECK seem to be unnecessary in this arrangement as a start up requirement. However, I presume that they are needed to execute any DD disk management changes at reboot when this is required (eg change drive letters).

The only way I can immediately see to perhaps get around this is to alwasy do TI image backups from the Boot disk and not from the resident progs. Incidentally, all backups are made to different disks (not C to C) so the partition image tib file is always other than C.

 

Some further investigation.

When I booted to my Linux system, my XP NTFS system disk couldn't be mounted. The other drives were available to Linux.

Returning to Win, I checked C and found errors. I did a boot chkdsk to fix, after which Linux saw C again i.e. it must have had a dirty bit set before.

Would this perhaps cause my endless reboot Autopart problem?

 

I suppose it's possible. In most cases, if TI or DD have a problem and something doesn't match with what an automated process expects, the program will abort and no changes will be made. The problem with this situation is that the cleanup doesn't get done. As a result, the process is attempted over and over, failing every time. I think there have also been cases where the process was successful and it still failed to cleanup and remove the process from the Windows startup.

 

Thanks for that.

I'm obliged to you as I now have what seem to be working fixes if this happens again, but I like to know the whys of these things.

Prior to these recent events, I've needed to do a system partition restore with TI only once before, and that worked like a dream. Hence my mystification at the problems I've had lately.