Restoring an Image Using Shadow Protect

I've been using Shadow Protect (SP) in a pretty basic way. On occasion, I've done a restore when my system became corrupted or damaged in some way. All I did was to restore my main drive (c and everything was back to normal.

MY OS is win 8. I've attached a screenshot from SP that shows the partitions that are shown as being available for backup. Although, I've only restored the main drive, I've also been backing up the system drive and recovery drive. When I attempted to backup either of the other 2 drives - "Window Recovery Tools" and "Unknown", I got an error message saying they could not be backed up.

Now it appears my hard drive might be failing. My question is: if I am restoring to a new hard drive - how do I do that? Would I restore the the three volumes that I've been backing up? Or do I just restore the system drive? I've read the documentation and it really doesn't explain this issue. This makes me realize I don't fully understand how this imaging software works.

Can anyone help me understand the restore process (to a new volume) or tell me where I can read about it.

Thank you,
Len

 

Len,

Is this possible? Boot from your SP CD and backup the 1023 MB Windows RE partition. I know you can't do it in Windows.

 

Brian -

As you can see, I'm following your advice from the other Board concerning my hard drive being defective. It occurred to me that I don't know how to restore an image (or set of images) to a new hard drive and that's why I'm posting here..

You want me to put a new hard drive in the computer and then restore the recovery partition. Why would you want me to do that? Are you thinking I could restore the new drive to the computer's original state, and then restore a current image?

If that's what you're thinking, there might be an easier way. I created a set of recovery DVDs when the computer was new. Maybe I could use those DVDs to initialize the new drive and then restore a current image.

Let me know if I'm on the same page with you.

And really, thanks for all your help.

Len

 

Len,

I'd like someone who uses SP to tell you how to restore a UEFI system. I haven't used SP for a few years.

Your HD is on warranty. Is it possible for HP to provide you with a replacement HD containing the factory image with the 6 partitions? Then you would only have to restore your OS image. Otherwise you need to restore these 3 images to a GPT disk...

Windows Recovery
SYSTEM
OS

Using the DVDs you created sounds a possibility too.

 

SP users, why is this happening? These are essential partitions.

 

As far I know, ShadowProtect does not handle Secure Boot in UEFI BIOS.
If you have secure boot enabled, and have possibility to disable it into BIOS options, you can backup your partition from OS/

It is a known issue with ShadowProtect.
http://www.storagecraft.com/support/forum/shadowprotect-recovery-environment-and-uefi-secure-boot

 

I'm no authority, but based on the features added since version 5.0 came out, SP is very, very slowly adding support for everything needed for full Win 8 GPT/UEFI/Secure Boot support. http://www.storagecraft.com/support/book/english-readme/storagecraft-shadowprotect Is it this incrementally slow pace toward full compatibility that is the problem?

Installed SP should support GPT and UEFI fully for backups but I'm not totally sure the recovery disc environment does. At least I don't see it on the release page. (I've casually tried it and the Linux recovery disc seems to work ok for UEFI but for sure it doesn't support Secure Boot.)

Would this be time for a rescue from x64 Ubuntu-based Clonezilla? It should be able to backup and restore a GPT/UEFI/Secure Boot system. Clonezilla is free. If Len has the HD, I can't think of a reason it wouldn't work.

 

the boot media of SP does not support secure boot yet.
Yes I can confirm the x64 version of Ubuntu based clonezilla works great on secure boot.

 

I don't fully understand the concepts you are discussing here - UEFI and Secure Boot. I've done some reading and have only a general idea of what they are.

I can tell you about my experience with Shadow Protect Recovery. I couldn't get the computer to boot from the Recovery CD back when I first got the computer. I spoke with HP - they weren't much help, but they told me Secure Boot might be a problem. I disabled Secure Boot (and enabled legacy boot) and it still wouldn't boot from CD. HP blamed it on SP, which didn't make sense. I did some reading and wound up disabling both secure boot and UEFI (and enabling legacy), and then I was able to boot from CD. On the infrequent occasion when the system was corrupted, my standard procedure was to disable secure boot and UEFI and then boot the recovery CD and restore just my system partition. It worked.

I don't understand enough about these concepts, so I have always re-enabled UEFI and Secure Boot after one of these restores.

I never understood why I couldn't backup all 5 partitions, but I didn't care because the process outlined above worked. Now I realize I might have a problem because I need to swap hard drives without images of all 5 partitions.

Do my secure boot and UEFI settings have any effect when I am running Shadow Protect from the desktop? Would I be able to backup those additional partitions with those items disabled? Of course, it might be too late now that the hard drive seems to be corrupted.

Thanks for all your help.

 

Len,

Your Win8 will not boot if UEFI is disabled and your SP CD will not boot if UEFI is enabled. That's OK. You should be able to cope.

Have you been able to backup the 1023 MB Windows Recovery partition using the SP CD? I know you can't do it in Windows. Then you will have a backup of these partitions...

Windows Recovery
SYSTEM
OS

That's enough for a restore. The 128 MB Microsoft Reserved Partition will be created when you create a GPT disk.

 

I only recently set up my Windows 8.1 ( upgraded from pre-installed Win8 ) machines so, admittedly, I have less (far less) than a decent grasp on the various partitions and the precise methodology for a fully functional restore.

However, I have been able to image all of the partitions with SP v5.1.4 from within Windows (see attached screenshot) and secure boot is definitely enabled.

As an aside, I don't have any idea why 6 partitions are needed on these machines; some are self-explanatory.......the others, not so much.

 

Len, what version of SP do you have? I don't recall seeing that...

 

It's fine restoring from within windows. You'll have problems when your OS is broken and you have to boot from the boot media.
If I were you, I will switch to some alternatives that fully support secure boot.

 

My version of SP is 5.0.1.

I spoke to SP support after i sent them some log files. They said the hard drive is failing - SP reads each and every sector of the drive and is detecting problems in sectors where there is no data. They suggest having HP either attempt a fix or a replacement of the hard drive. (Can hard drives be repaired?)

This is what I think I should do (correct me if I'm wrong)...

- Open the machine and check cables

- UPdate SP and see if I can get images of the other partitions.

- I have a replacement HD. I'll put it in and use my HP recovery disks to get a baseline version of win 8

- Use SP recovery to try update the baseline to my current version of win 8

- If all that fails (I'm not so good at these things), I'll call HP. I have a service contract. At a minimum, they owe me a working HD with win 8 installed.

 

With all due respect............HUH?

In the unlikely event that my HDD goes belly up and/or I need to restore for any reason whatsoever, all I have to do is disable secure boot and boot from StorageCraft's (pre-built) RE.

Of course it's not quite as convenient as **not** having to disable secure boot but it's also not something that I need to do with any regularity either.

Moreover, I'm at least 99% certain that SC will have a solution, in the form of a WinPE that supports secure boot, in the not-too-distant future.

 

Here is a final update on my Shadow Protect Adventure...

- I checked cabling. It didn't help.
- I updated Shadow Protect to most current version. I was able to backup all the partitions except the c drive. Program kept crashing.
- I called HP. They had me run a HD utility, which I didn't know about. You invoke it by hitting F2 during boot. The utility detected a hard drive problem immediately.
- HP sent me a new drive and current recovery disks.
- I ran recovery and machine is running fine - I can now image all partitions.
- I suppose I could use an image from the old drive that was created before I started having problems to update it - but this is my son's computer and he wants to start with a fresh machine.

So, case closed I hope. Thanks everyone for all your help and support.