End of the road for me: (possible recovery help discussion)

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by domg, Apr 28, 2008.

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  1. domg

    domg Registered Member

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    I'm also very unhappy with TI11. Went back to TI10. And now, I have just had a disaster (using TI10) where my backups just would not restore in an emergency. Problem w SATA drives? I really don't know. And at this point I really don't care. I just can't carry on using Acronis -- it's too risky. Especially in the situation now where Acronis seems to be completely deaf to its users' requests and opinions.

    ~~ snip request for alternatives - that discussion has been split to this new thread ~~

    dom
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2008
  2. Xpilot

    Xpilot Registered Member

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    Re: End of the road for me: what are the best alternatives?

    Did you attempt the restore when booted from an Acronis recovery CD? If so did you try both the TI 11 and TI 10 CDs?
    They both should cope with TI 10 images though the TI 10 CD cannot "see" TI 11 images.
    How far did the process proceed?

    Where are your backup images stored and were they Disk/Partition images or file and folders backups?

    Can you describe the mode of failure and what were the error messages?

    Sorry about all the questions but there may be a simple answer to the restoration problem.

    Xpilot
     
  3. domg

    domg Registered Member

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    Re: End of the road for me: what are the best alternatives?

    Hi Xpilot -- Many thanks for yr interest. I attempted to restore the entire image of Drive C from an external USB HD (West Dig 1TB) using a TI10 recovery CD, because I suspected I might have caught a virus & wanted to restore the OS from a week previous. All my data is on another partition, Drive D, which was unaffected. (I no longer have my TI11 recovery CD -- when I dumped TI11, I guess I must have dumped it too!)

    It was supposed to be a quick job. I tried the restore 6 times. Three times I got to the final Process screen and Acronis just froze (time remaining climbed to 22 hours, before I aborted). The other 3 times Acronis appeared to start off OK, and each time reached 15mins remaining before freezing. No error messages.

    My Drive C had by this time been thoroughly scrambled, and I had to do a complete reinstall of windows (XP SP2), and THEN reinstall every one of dozens of applications :-(

    Interestingly, after I'd got windows working & had reinstalled TI10, I was able to restore single files from my original backup on the external HD without any problem -- that's from within XP, not using the recovery CD. So I'm assuming the problem lay with the Linux recovery CD. BTW my machine is a Dell Precision M6300 with a 200GB SATA drive.

    Is there any important difference between the TI10 and TI11 recovery CDs, incidentally? I assumed they were probably the same.

    dom



     
  4. Xpilot

    Xpilot Registered Member

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    Re: End of the road for me: what are the best alternatives?

    Domg,
    There are signifigant differences between the recovery environment in version 10 and version 11.

    If you have not had a successful restore before when using a TI 10 recovery CD I suggest you create a Bart PE Cd with an Acronis plug in . To avoid screwing up your fresh installation a restore using the new recovery CD to a spare hard drive would finally sort things out.

    Xpilot
     
  5. domg

    domg Registered Member

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    Re: End of the road for me: what are the best alternatives?

    Hi Xpilot -- Well, I had in fact previously done several successful restores using TI10 recovery CD. But they were just data, never the OS partition. (Not sure if that makes any difference.)

    I've never used BartPE before -- but I've had a look, & it seems pretty straightforward. I hadn't realised that the BartPE plugin is actually provided along with TI10 & 11. All the info at http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/bartpe/index.html

    If this works, it should solve a lot of my problems... though there do seem to be a lot of other problems (esp corrupt data) reported here. Have many others had experience of making their own BartPE CD for Acronis? And was all well thereafter? :)


     
  6. person2006

    person2006 Registered Member

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    i have true image 11 loading problems. i keep waiting for an updated build. finally i made a bartpe disc. works great. i have never had a corrupt acronis true image file. been using acronis since version 6, before magazines even reported it as up and coming "goodware". version 11 has a driver issue. i think and hope acronis will release an updated build for version 11, that will run perfect with windows vista service pack 1. and a boot disc that is perfect with vista sp1. i just wish acronis would get "works with vista" certified. paragon drive backup has the certification.
     
  7. domg

    domg Registered Member

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    Re: End of the road for me: what are the best alternatives?

    I'm a little confused about the BartPE suggestion. If making a BartPE rescue CD would solve all the current rescue CD/Linux problems, why isn't everyone doing it -- and indeed why isn't Acronis advising people to make BartPE CDs?

    Would there be any difference making a BartPE CD with TI11 or TI10 plugins? -- or are the Acronis plugins all the same?

    I'll give it a whirl in any case. (And am also considerably tempted by the $29.90 pricetag for Paragon..)

    dom



     
  8. shieber

    shieber Registered Member

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    Making a BartPE disk or a VistaPE disk is more work than just making and ATI boot disk so most folks don't do it unless they are led (or pushed) to it. I think most folks that take the step, swear by it.

    Licensing issues prevent Acronis from using XP or Vista on its bootCD although this could be overcome with an appropriate licensing arrangemt. (another brand, ShadowProtect, for example, uses VistaPE on its bootCD). So, instead, ATI using linux on its bootCD and linux doesn't necessarily have drivers that work onthe same hardware for which XP or Vista have drivers.

    So that's why everybody doesn't do it, why ATI doesn't do it (although it provides a plug in for BartPE) and why so many clamor for Acronis to adopt the same strategy as ShadowPortect and use windows on the BootCD. Until Acronis does, one can make one's own bootCD with ATI and windows (that is, a BartPE disk with the ATI plug in or a VistaPE disk with ATI on it).
     
  9. domg

    domg Registered Member

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    I don't use Vista, & don't intend to. at least for the time being. But the BartPE route seems a good one to explore. Or maybe, who knows, Paragon for $29.95 may prove irresistable after trying it out for free ! ;-)

     
  10. person2006

    person2006 Registered Member

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    i bought paragon 3 days ago. someone said paragon is slower than true image. i said it seems the same, i was WRONG. 21 gigs took 8 minutes from bartpe true image 11 xpsp2 boot disc. backed up vista sp1 partition. did it with paragon, comparable settings, vista sp1 partition. 21 gigs took 15 minutes.
     
  11. Earthling

    Earthling Registered Member

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    You don't have to be using Vista to build a VistaPE bootdisk with ATI plugin, and VistaPE works on both XP and Vista computers.

    VistaPE solved absolutely every problem for me (and I had some!), and I would swear by it. It is also very easy to build.

    http://www.mechrest.com/plugins/BartPEGuide/VistaPEGuide.htm
     
  12. person2006

    person2006 Registered Member

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    i wasted 9 dvdr discs trying all kinds of different things with vistape. did everything by the book, perfect. will not load raid driver. acronis will not see discs.
     
  13. Earthling

    Earthling Registered Member

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    Why you would waste dvdr disks when the whole thing is well under 300MB I can't imagine. One CD-RW would have sufficed.

    I believe you have been offered a solution to your RAID problem in another thread. There is no need to knock VistaPE, it is the answer for ppl who have problems using ATI.
     
  14. domg

    domg Registered Member

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    Hi -- I hadn't read beyond the "Required items: a valid Vista source". Since I don't have Vista, that means I have to use Windows AIK to build my VistaPE bootdisk?

    And if you think the instructions at your link below make it "easy to build" -- well, sorry, in this case I'm even worse than a beginner! :-(

    Do think VistaPE is greatly superior to a BartPE boot disk? -- or would BartPE do the job just as well? If just as well, I'd breathe a sigh of relief.

    dom

     
  15. Earthling

    Earthling Registered Member

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    Hi

    Yes, you would have to install the WAIK.

    Don't be put off by a quick look at the instructions. Once you start it really is perfectly straightforward.

    I don't know whether it's superior to BartPE or not, only that I found it a lot easier to build than BartPE and it has worked absolutely flawlessly for me and for many others too. It seems it is also being adopted by several of Acronis' competitors in preference to Linux.
     
  16. person2006

    person2006 Registered Member

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    i use winbuilder. maybe that is messing me up. i do not use play button i just creat iso, maybe thats it?
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2008
  17. Earthling

    Earthling Registered Member

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    You do need to follow the guide exactly. If you have not used the Play button then you have not followed the guide.

    Try again - once you've got your VistaPE CD you will wonder how you ever managed without it.

    Mine is now installed in its own bootable partition on a SATA drive, which gives very rapid access to it, and includes both ATI 11 and Disk Director Suite 10.
     
  18. person2006

    person2006 Registered Member

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    yur operating system drive is sata or ide pata?
     
  19. Earthling

    Earthling Registered Member

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    Dual OS (XP / Vista) on internal SATA, also has an eSATA, where VistaPE is installed.
     
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