How to create bootable rescue DVD(s):

me again,

i think acronis should give you a free dual layer burner for this VERY USEFUL booteable technique........when i had to do my very first restore last week...pulled out pre-prepared dvd as per your instructions....it worked!!!! All i did was put the disc in and i had my pc back again....

total novices like me rely on very simple, step by step guides to survive in this hi-tech world.......

official guides are not geared for novices

pics and lots of big arrows help alot.....thx

 

oops lost track with my rant.....

i guess i think it would save angst if the entire image can somehow be stored on the same disk....rather than split up into disks....oh well.....again a mighty big thx.

 

A double layer DVD works fine for booting True Image along with more space for the images.

 

Hi beenthereb4,

That's good to know. Thank's for the confirmation .

Best regards

P.S.

Did it require any changes to either of the procedures?

 

Hello everybody !
Thanks Menorcaman for helping me.Your method work for me(from page 2-post nr.26).

I have 2 questions :

1.Why archive splitting has to be set 635MB?Why I can't set it to fit exactly in one DVD(4.34 GB)?I burn 2DVD's(because my partition C:\ has about 9GB).

2.It appears that my backup is working;I boot from DVD and it is OK.
I also checked with Easy MD5 Creator and no error.Can I go with the restoration process further?I mean,I want to choose to copy all onto D:\ partition to see if it is OK,and after that I will delete.Can I do that ?

Best regards,

Theodor Ardeleanu

 

Hello Theodor,

When you to create a bootable DVD it needs to be burnt as a DVD-ROM (ISO) compilation with individual files that do not exceed the ISO 9660 2 GByte (or 2000 MB in the case of Nero Burning ROM) max file size limitation. Hence the need to create the image to your HD with a split size below 2000MB. Most user's images are greater than the available space on a single DVD. Therefore, 2 x 2000MB .tib files plus the 16MB or so of TI 9.0 boot rescue data would leave a fair bit of waste space on the DVD. Getting TI to split an image into 633 MB chunks will allow you to burn up to 7 x 633 MB .tib files (plus the 16 MB of TI boot rescue data for the first DVD), thereby maximising the use of the available space without needing to use "overburning" (disk overburn may not be possible on some DVD/CD recorders). If you do not intend to also archive the image to CDs then you can set the split size to 1477 MB and burn up to 3 .tib files per DVD.

It depends on what sort of image you are restoring. If it's a Disk/Partition image rather than a Files and Folders image then TI will delete the relevant partitions on the destination drive before restoring that image. If you haven't got a spare HD that you can restore the image to then, personally, I would boot from the new rescue DVD and use TI's "Check Image" tool to verify the image. If it checks out OK then it's fairly certain that an actual restore could be accomplished when required. Note that when verifying or restoring an image that's been spanned across more than one disk you will need to insert the last disk (after booting into TI from the first disk that is!!) and then follow TI prompts for subsequent disk changes.

Regards

 

Menorcaman,now I understand !
Indeed I will restore the partition C:\(all data;when I'll be forced!)

Yes,Acronis said to me:"Hey Big Boy insert the second DVD or else I'll mop the floor with you" LOL
I think now about one scenario.In my D:\ partition usually I put games,softwares,music etc.
When I will do the restoration,all the new added programs from D:\ partition are no longer in the regedit!You understand me?

Thanks...and have a great day.

Theodor

 

Hi again Theodor,

You have drifted off topic but I will try to answer your question nevertheless .

Because you have chosen to intall games and applications on your D:\ partition you will need to create and restore an image of your whole hard drive each time. To do this, make sure you tick the checkbox next to the Disk number when making your selections (see the screenshots in this <previous reply>). Not only will this capture the associated Registry entries that have been written to the C:\ partition, but it will also ensure that your hard drive's Master Boot Record (MBR) is included in the image. The MBR is essential to success if you ever need to restore an image to a new replacement drive (although there are a number of known workarounds for a missing MBR).

Regards

 

Thunder,
one comment

if you are installing PROGRAMS to the D: drive, I'd suggest to NOT do that.

(I apologize if my interpretation of your D: drive scenario is wrong)l.

Install the PROGRAMS to the C: drive, games, etc; BUT, make your DATA paths point to the D: drive.

Then, you could do independent backups of the c: drive and MBR, and the D: drive
(example, if programs are not changing, but data is, do a full bckup of C: and Mbr, infrequently, or only when something is added), and do the D: drive more frequently, since it is your DATA

There are concerns with this; sometimes the program might change parameters in the registry, when it changes its data, so that you might actualy need both the c: and d: drives to be fully up to date, but other programs might only alter their data paths, which would be the d: drive, thus making it not neccessary to repeatedly back up a stable c: drive,but only the d: drive.

just my two cents
Nick

 

I really need help
after following the steps mentioned Menorcaman in post 171 and going through the posts of other who have succesfully done it.

I cant get the DVD created succesfully but whenever i try to reboot it fails with unable to boot press any key when ready.

If i try to see the DVD in ULTRAISO it does says it is bootable. So far i have created 7 coasters I have tried both dvd-r +r with same results

Some differences that i have noticed not sure if those are any cause
- DVD is stil open after burning the DVD. ultraiso used nero v7 api to write the iso succesfully.
- I am using the new dual core laptop which i dont think should make any difference as the normal Bootable CD works.
- the file size of my image is 650MB but i have only included only 3 file so there is till plenty of room on DVD.

I Can't think of anything else that i could be doing incorrect.

Please help

Harv

 

Just to add to my previous post here is the error that i am getting

"Starting Acronis Loader" "Boot Failed" "press any key"
I have tried to boot from DVD on other machines as well it is same thing.

Harv

 

Hello Harv,

If you followed the steps in Post #171 exactly as written then, all things being equal, the rescue DVD should boot correctly. The only difference seems to be your use of Nero 7's API rather than Nero 6. I'm afraid I still use Nero 6 (too many reported bugs in v7 for my liking) so am unable to confirm whether Nero 7 is the culprit. You state that the DVD is still "open" after burning. Have you tried Finalising" the disks after the event to see if it makes any difference?

Anyone out there tried the Ultra ISO procedure in conjuction with Nero 7?

Regards

 

Thanks for the reply

To answer your questions about
- DVD being open:- I was not able to find on how to close the session atleast in NERO and i dont know of any other way on how to do this; Because when ULTRAISO is burning the disc it do not finalize the disk.

I was able to finalize one of the disk using SONIC once but that didn't help either. The other that still confuses me is that the If i read the new DVD from ULTRISO it says it is bootable

I will try your suggestion to go to older version of NERO and also will try to burn the ISO individually using NERO and finalising it. Will report back how it goes.

Regards
Harv

 

Heloo

Update regarding the rest of the things that i tried

Some more coasters and it still dont boot. I have included a screenshot.
I downgraded to Nero-6.6.0.18 burned at 4X but it is still giving me the same results went over the steps all over again.

the other alternative that i have is to use the normal BOOT CD and then boot with it but there is no way for me to put another DVD and pick up the images for restore as once booted from CD and selecting the recovery option it donot display CD drive as a source from where i can select the file.

unless i am missing something really important. This image is going to be used by my parents who are not that tecnical so i want to make as simple as possible.

hope u have some other sugestions.

regards

 

Hello harv,

You might want to try another approach. Take a look at my post to THOR33 at https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=120885 regarding including an image in a bootable BartPE disk.

mustang

 

Hi harv,

Something strange going on here. According to the screenshot, your .bif file is only 2048 Bytes whereas my screenshot in Post #171 shows the TI 9 Build 2289 .bif as 16352 Kilobytes (probably will vary only a little bit for different builds). It's no wonder the DVD wont boot!! A small .bif file can be the result of either trying to extract the TI 9 boot information via UltraISO's "Bootable" > "Extract Boot File from CD/DVD" menu item rather than the "File" > "Open CD/DVD" menu item or using a version of UltraISO prior to v7.6.5.1225. As you say you have followed the steps in Post #171, I have to ask - what version of UltraISO are you using?

Unless you can get the normal TI 9 boot rescue CD to detect your CD/DVD drive correctly, being able to boot from the bootable rescue DVD wont make any difference - you'll still not be able to restore from DVDs (or CDs).

Have you contacted support@acronis.com about the TI 9 boot rescue CD not detecting your CD/DVD drive? If not then I recommend you do so as detailed in the Acronis Support Sticky titled <Please Read Before You Post>.

Regards

 

Hi Menorcaman,

You were right about the .bif My ULTRAISO version was two build before the one you mentioned. I though the main build was the same.

After getting the newer build and now the Bif file is 16352 Kilobytes which matches you post screenshot. so i think this time i will be succesfully able to create the bootable DVD.

But the other hurdle is now of acronis bootable media not detecting my DVD drive. It gives me strange error message which might make sense to someone who has Linux background

This is what i get at the time of startup
pci BIOS bug #81[000fdca0] found
Loading, please wait
ide0ort already in use, skipping probe
ide1;port already in use, skipping probe

But after the initial message the acronis manager comes up fine after that only thing it donot recognise DVD drive.

I did some searches on google but could not find anything. I will be contacting acronis support as well. unless you have any other siggestions. The other thing is this laptop has sata drive rather than normal ide but i dont think that should be acause as it is related to DVD ram the drive is manufactured by LG fot the toshiba model m100

Thanks for all the help you have given

Harv

 

Hi again Harv,

I guess that's the downside of a thread with 9 pages containing 216 previous replies - there's a lot to wade through if you want to understand the in's and out's leading to the latest solution. If you check back to Post #164 you'll see I warned that the then current version of UltraISO (v7.6.2.1180) was incompatible with TI 9. Still, I'm glad we sorted out the mystery of all those coasters!! Perhaps you could post back sometime advising whether or not the procedure in #171 works with Nero 7's API ? Thanks

The problem with the basic Acronis bootable rescue CD not detecting your DVD drive is too far off topic I'm afraid. Can I suggest that you contact Acronis Support as mentioned in #216 above whilst at the same time starting a new thread in this forum. That way I'm sure you will receive a faster and better response to your problem.

Regards

 

Hi

Apologies for late response but got stuck on other things and couldn't get a chance to work on this project.

I did manage to send email to support and here is the reply from them
====================================================
Dear Sir,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image 9.0
(http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Please be aware that Acronis True Image 9.0 trial version has the following limitations:
* Windows: all functions available, 15-days trial period
* Bootable media: Recovery feature available only

Thus we recommend you to purchase the full version of Acronis True Image 9.0 at http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/sales/online/

Please find User's Guide at http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/docs/

We are always at your service should you have any further questions.

Thank you.
--
Best regards,
Konstantin Kovtunets
=================================================

They are talking about limitation on trial edition which i find unacceptable "* Bootable media: Recovery feature available only" I understand that but even though it should recognize the DVD drive.

i wil be writing back to them and as per your suggestion wil also open a thread as this has become a long thread now.

Thanks for all your help. I will post the final result once i get more answers from support team

till then
njoy
HARV

 

If there any way to create this disc without using the loader.bin file? I do not use Nero and my buring software only supports creating a bootable image from *.img files. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Hello n8chavez,

Which procedure do you intend to use - Post #1, Post #26 or Post #171? Also, I think it would probably help if you advised what CD/DVD software you're using.

Regards

 

I was using the instructions given in post #1. It seems to be the easiest. I have gotten it to work before but used Nero. But my current software does not support bootable discs via *.bin files.

 

O.K. thanks. What's the answer to my second question though ? The reason I ask is that someone else might be using the same software and has found a workaround.

Regards

 

Well I've really tried every software product there is. I'm currently trialing Seteria CD/DVD burner...but that's not set in stone.

 

OK, I've just downloaded a copy of <Sateira> and will have a play with it to see what gives. Watch this space as they say .

Regards