Need help with image restoration !!!

Hey, I have Acronis True Image 7.0, build 613, I am running Windows XP, I just have one internal hard drive, a floppy drive, 2 CD-ROM drives, and I use a new 80 GB external USB hard drive by Western Digital for my Acronis backups. Nothing else is stored on this drive. OK, this is what I need help with: I wanted to install the beta version of windows service pack 2, and so I did a COMPLETE backup of both partitions on my drive, C and D. D is just a system restore partition allocated specifically for HP Recovery. Ok, so I backep up the whole system on the external USB hard drive, then I verified it to make sure it was a good copy. I installed Windows service pack 2, and then after 2 weeks, I want to restore my system to the way it was before. I started Acronis from windows, and initiated a complete system restoration of both partitions. Everything worked flawlessly up to this point, and it recognized my USB backup drive, which is assigned drive J when plugged in. The system rebooted as expected, Acronis began to start, and I get the error message "Self ID received outside of bus reset sequence." Then about a 30 second pause, then two more error messages flashed, and I did not have time to copy them down, but I do remember what it said to some extent. Two error messages came up that said it was unable to assign an IRQ (or interupt request) to my external hard drive. I guess it made two attempts to assign it an IRQ, and it failed both times. ACTUALLY, I don't remember if it was trying to assign an IRQ or something else, but whatever it was trying to assign to the USB HD, it failed. Acronis continues to start, and I get to the screen where it lets you choose the image you want to restore. The USB external hard drive was no where to be found, and yes, I do realize it might not be under drive J, so I carefully looked at each drive letter, and I could not find it. I about had a heart attack, I thought I had just lost all the data on my internal hard disk. I exited Acronic and prayed. My system booted up normally, and it is all ok. I went under My Computer to see if it still recognized my USB external HD, and it still does, so I just don't know what to do! Even though no permanent damage was done, I would still like to restore the image I have saved on the external HD since I know it's a good copy, I just can't use it until I get this problem resolved. Anyone who can respond, I would be very appreciative. Thanks so much !!!

-Pete
Las Vegas, Nevada

 

As they say, an untested backup is no backup.

If you are backing up to a USB drive, it would have been a good idea to test that your rescue CD can access the USB drive properly.

First, try unplugging all other USB devices.
If that makes no difference, when your rescue CD boots, press F11 and add the options "noapic acpi=off" to the Linux kernel parameters.

 

Ok, I tried running it again, this time from the rescue CD. It recognized the USB hard drive this time, but I still get the error message "Self ID received outside of bus reset sequence." Does anyone know what this cryptic thing means?

 

I've only seen it in reference to firewire devices under Linux.
If it is interfering with ATI, then you could try disabling firewire in the BIOS and/or unplugging any firewire devices before using the rescue CD.