Problem assigning drive letter

I just installed the trial version of True Image 8 to see if I wanted to purchase the software. I am running Windows XP Home Edition on a Dell Inspiron 4150 with a 30 GB hard drive. I recently installed a pcmcia card with a USB 2.0 port and have attached a 40 GB USB hard drive to it. I ran the "Add New Disk" wizard, then the "Create Image" wizard, and everything seemed to work OK. (I didn't realize it, but my on-board hard drive apparently has 2 partitions: a FAT16 (31.35 MB, 6.85 MB used) and an NTFS (the remainder)). When I ran the "Explore Image" wizard, I could explore the NTFS partition OK, but ran into a problem when I tried to explore the FAT16 partition. The following error message popped up: "Cannot assign a drive letter to a partition from the image archive." What gives? Did I make some mistake when creating the disk image?

 

No, the special partitions on Dell computers for utilities and backup images aren't meant to be Explored. Don't worry about it. If you need to restore those special partitions because you are replacing the hard drive, they will restore correctly.

 

Hello hps68,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

The FAT16 partition you mentioned is most likely EISA partition, which is a special service partition on DELL PCs.

I'm afraid that this type of partitions can not be explored, so I recommend you to select the "Do not mount" option for it when you exploring your image.

Please also note that while ESIA partition can not be explored, it still can be restored without a problem.

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Thanks for your help. I have two follow-on questions. (1) If my hard drive crashes and I have to replace it, do I have to partition the new drive exactly the same as my current drive BEFORE I restore the old drive's image, or does the image restoration process actually recreate on the new drive the same partitioning I currently have? (2) Is there any way to know whether or not an image created on my USB drive will restore and work properly on a new hard drive, without actually reformatting my C: drive and restoring the image? Obviously, if it didn't work at that point, I'd be up the creek without a paddle. I guess I'm asking if there is any type of live, "non-destructive" test I can perform. Thanks!

 

Hello hps68,

No need to partition the replacement drive first (in any case, TI deletes any exisisting partitions before doing the actual restore). However, in order to retain all the features of any Dell diagnostic and recovery partitions you MUST create an image of the whole of your hard drive by ticking the checkbox next to the Disk number rather than the checkbox next to an individual partition. This will ensure Dell's modified Master Boot Record (MBR) is included in your image.

Be aware also that activating the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager will overwrite the Dell proprietary MBR, thereby preventing you from booting into Dell's special recovery partition.

Well, short of installing a spare hard drive, you should be able to obtain reasonable peace of mind by following this precedure:

1. Create a "Full" bootable rescue CD (or floppies if you have to).
2. Use TI's Check Image Wizard to verify your recently created image.
3. Rename your hard drives/partitions so that they are called something meaningful e.g. System, Backup, Data, etc. The reason for this is that the drive letters seen after booting from the Linux based rescue disk will be different to those seen in Windows.
4. Use the Explore Image Wizard to mount the image as a virtual drive and check that you can copy files from it to your physical hard drive and access them without errors.
5. Boot from the rescue CD/floppies and check that TI correctly detects your hard drives/partitions, be they internal or external, RAID or otherwise.
6. Work through the Restore Image process up to but not including clicking the Proceed button (nothing gets commited until the Proceed button is selected).

If everything is alright up to this point you can be pretty confident that, when the time comes, an actual restore will work as advertised.

Regards

 

Thank you!