First time restore (Vista)... any tips?

In an effort to fix a problem I was having with Outlook 2007, I managed to really booger up the registry and now many things aren't functioning properly. My first idea was try System Restore, but even that is all screwed up, so now I'm left with trying to recover from back-up.

I have the system configured as a dual-boot system with XP on one partion and Vista on another. Vista was installed first and I've had no problems running with the dual boot. I have TI 10 running under Vista 32, and have been running weekly full back-ups of the complete Vista partition to an external (usb) hard disk. So far so good, right.

After using Acronis for years, this will be the first time I've actually had to perform a restore and I want to be sure to get it right.

Are there any general tips or things I should look out for?

Should I run TI restore from within Vista as the manual suggests or use a rescue/boot cd?

Should I also restore the "MBR and Track 0"?

I noticed that instead of one large .tib file, I have about a dozen sequential .tib files all created during the most recent back-up job. I assume that I select the first one and the restoration process will queue the files as needed?

I'm sorry to be asking so many questions, but I am just a little nervous about clicking the "proceed" button. Any tips or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Brad

 

BTW... I am reading GroverH's "Beginners guide to restoring" right now.

 

OK, another reply to my own thread... I'm on a roll.

After reading GroverH's excellent guide, I've come understand the following.

Q: Restore via TI in Windows or Rescue CD?
A: Rescue CD is preferred, but Windows would be OK.

Q: Should I select the "MBR and Track 0"?
A: It works fine now so it is not necessary to do so.

Q: Will it queue the sequential .tib files it needs from a full back-up?
A: Yes

I guess my only question or issue now is this "Vista MBR repair" thing I've read about here. I am not sure if it applies to me, but I'll just have to read more.

 

I think you should be okay to do a normal restore.

Do you have a standard Microsoft OEM or Retail Vista DVD in case it's needed?

 

I've got a Vista anytime Upgrade DVD, which proved useful in repairing my boot options once XP had been installed on the other partition.

Thanks.

 

What are you restoring ?

What have you Broken ?

Windows does all sorts of crazy unexpected things,
have you really fiddled with Outlook in ONE operating system and trashed the registries in BOTH ?

I suspect you are probably focussed upon your favourite version which is broken,
We could be assuming it is the other version.

I doubt that a Vista CD will help if you are trying to fix XP.

If you can boot into either XP or Vista, it should be possible to restore the partition that holds the other system that is on standby. If the restore renders that partition un-bootable, you still have the other partition to fall back on and continue with Internet access.

If you do a grand slam on both partitions simultaneously, your never tested linux drivers may put both Vista and XP out of action.

Please identify which system you are trying to repair.

 

Hi Alan,

I want to restore just my Vista [C:] partition. My XP partition is fine. Actually, I can boot and work in Vista but all sorts of things aren't working and it now crashes often.

I won't go into all the details of what I did, but it involved accidentally running a script that modified the registry permissions and cannot be undone or repaired (according to others that have done the same).

I don't have an entire drive image, only my weekly back-ups of the Vista C: partition and my occassional back-ups of XP on D:.

My plan is to ONLY restore the Vista C: partition.

Thanks!

 

Keep clear of the XP images. They will not help repair Vista

If you launch restoration of the Vista partition whilst Vista is active,
it will reboot into linux drivers which you have not proven to be compatible with your system.
In your situation Most people are lucky, but some are not, and Vista could become un-bootable.

I think the same hazard applies to using the Rescue CD.

In either case, if you are unlucky you should still have XP to get any downloads you need for mending Vista.

You possibly have an extra hazard using the Rescue CD - you may have to stipulate which partition should receive the restored image.
Linux has different rules about drive letters - it might cause confusion and instead of restoring the defective Vista it will delete the XP partition and try to replace it with Vista - and that will fail if the Linux drives are not compatible.

A L T E R N A T I V E L Y

If you launch XP and run Acronis, you can probably restore a Vista backup to the corrupt Vista partition, and since Vista is not "system" then Acronis can use WINDOWS drivers running under Windows XP to do the restore, after which VISTA should again be viable.

I think this would be the lowest risk option. I could be wrong.

I recommend waiting to see if more expert opinion arrives.

I will also be watching this thread with great interest,
because I am intending to implement dual-booting,
and any advice I see in this thread may protect me from my own assumptions and follies.

One last question
What sort of multi-boot manager do you have ?

Some people use C:\ for XP with D:\ for Vista.
Others use C:\ for which ever is active and in use, and the other partition is hidden.

You answer may well affect how to use XP for restoring Vista,
i.e. whether the Vista destination is seen as "D:\" or whether it is Hidden or Unused space. I cannot answer such questions myself, but others can if you give the information.

Regards, and best of luck
Alan

 

I have no intention of touching the XP images or patition. The goal here is to restore ONLY the Vista partition, leaving the rest of the system intact and untouched. My XP partitition is backed up to a completely seperate archive which won't be used for this recovery.

As I type this the process is currently running from the Rescue disc, and is in the archive validation stage. The only issue I ran into when booting into the Rescue disc was drive letter assignment. The Acronis OS assigned C: to my external HDD, and D: to my Vista partition. So my recovery is restoring C: to D: (not to be confused with how Vista assigns drive letters). I suppose it's OK because that's only the way Acronis sees it, not Vista or XP.

During the recovery set-up I chose simply to restore my image to the partition with Vista on it, nothing else.

As far as boot managers, I am not using any other that whatever is built into Vista. I was installing XP on a machine that already had Vista and it was actually fairly easy to set-up, but I've read it is even easier if XP is first.

Acronis is reporting 3 hours remaining... wish me luck!

Brad

 

Typically Acronis restores an 8 GB partition from a 5 GB image in about 6 minutes, but it initially estimates an hour or more, and then the estimated minutes stop decrementing at several second intervals, so hopefully you will be fully functional before I next log in.

I wish you luck.

 

Just go for it - I have restored many times and I dual boot with Vista and Linux. However, one word of caution - TI10 was not always reliable with dual boot which is one reason I moved to TI 2009 which is reliable.

One classic mistake you have made and that is waiting until doomsday to find out if TI works OK. Why do so many people do this? The first thing I do with backup software is perform a backup then a restore. What's the point in waiting until something goes wrong to find out if ones backup software actually works?

 

Success!!!

In fact I am typing this using my restored Vista partition. All seems to be back to normal with all my devices functioning once again.

It took about 2 hours to verify and 2 hours to restore a 500GB partition which contained 200+GB of data.

Upon restart, as is normal I was presented with the windows boot menu. After selecting Vista it gave me a message saying that Vista wasn't shut down properly at last exit, and asked me to choose between safe mode and normal startup. I elected "normal", and it quickly took me to the login screen. After login it said that some changes were made that required a reboot, so I allowed it to reboot and booted normally once again.

ME HAPPY!!!

The good news is that my back-up archive was only 24 hours old so I didn't loose anything in the process.

Thank you all for your help!!!!

PS - Faust, I hear you, but how does one test it without putting their data at risk? My point is that if I had attempted a test restore and something had gone wrong, then my HDD and back-up set might be toast. I guess the ideal situation is to have another physical drive with which to test, which I didn't. My solution to all of this is simple; I back-up critical files (pictures & docs) to DVD every so often and keep them offsite. The TI images are there as added insurance so that I can restore without having to go through the hassle of rebuilding the OS and all my apps.