Serious problem with Disk Directors Suite 10

I am new to using Disk Directors Suite 10 i only purchased it a couple of weeks ago, there are three PC's in my home one of which has a RAID 0 array. After purchasing this product i tried to change my Drive letter assignments on my RAID array, as my Windows volume had ended up as D:\.

This happened after i had a problem with a dual Windows boot of XP Home and X64 Edition, where Home had to be clean installed. Apart from the headaches of a now unbootable x64 Edition, my Home XP install changed the drive letter assignments placing x64 Edition as C:\ it's self as D:\.

Anyway when i tried use Disk Directors Suite 10 to change the drive letter assignments (something Windows Disk Management would not let me do), i got an error saying

"GetDriveLayout: CreateFile fail !
Access is Denied"

Now i know i should have paid proper attention to this warning, but while playing around with it somehow i selected to commit the changes on exiting the program. This left my system dead on the next reboot, Windows XP Home would start booting get almost as far as the Login and then hang!
I tried booting to the Media Builder Disk i had created to try and change the drive letter assignments back but it seemed that they had not been changed? In the end i had to just wipe my system lose my data, and bought Ghost to make sure it does not happen again. As this is my first experience of anything outside of Disk Management my confidence in this product is now very shaky, is this sort of thing common, and does this product work properly with RAID 0? And if anyone knows why did this happen?

 

Hello GRiT2005,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Partition and Disk Managing Software.

Yes, Acronis Disk Dsirector Suite 10.0 supports all levels of RAID arrays. It does not support Windows Dynamic Disks only.

Please also create Acronis Report in the way described below:

- Download and run Acronis Report Utility;
- Select the "Create Bootable Floppy" option;
- Insert a blank floppy disk in the A: drive and proceed with creation of the bootable floppy;
- Boot the computer from this diskette and wait for report creation process to finish;
- Collect the report file from the floppy.

Please submit a request for technical support. Attach the collected report file to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko

 

See below!

 

I tried to send this to "Contact Acronis Customer Service" but it kept saying my key was already registered (yeh obviously to me). So i have had to post it here! Plus the new problem this caused!!!

Problem 2: I posted this on the Wilders forum, and it was recommended to me that I create the Acronis Report boot floppy, boot to it, and attach the report to this request. I did this and on the reboot my PC didn’t boot from the floppy as the boot sequence was set to HDD first. So when I got to the log in screen I choose the Shut Down option to restart my PC (not actually shut down). This produced an error I have never seen before, with:
VProSvc.exe
On the restart the BIOS screen (LOGO) hung up for about 20 seconds (note that this has never happened before), I was then able to get in and change the boot sequence to floppy 1st. Then on exiting the system again hung for about another 20 seconds, again on the POST Logo before continuing to boot from the floppy. When it was done the system rebooted and on restarting after another 20 second interval continued to boot normally until it got into Windows, where my USB Belkin Wireless Adapter had disappeared from the System Tray and Device Manager. I had to unplug it and then plug it back in to get the PC to recognise it (again a 1st).
So I am a little bit upset about this currently, can you please look into this and tell me what just happened to my PC and how I can fix / make sure it does not happen again.

**Update**

I found out that this VProSvc.exe was a part on Norton Ghost so it was this Ghost process that the Acronis Repot Floppy caused to crash out.
Since then on just booting my PC i got that error back again:

"GetDriveLayout: CreateFile fail !
Access is Denied"

This time on the Desktop at boot!

 

Hello GRiT2005,

You can contact us either by submitting a pre-sales question which does not require a serial number or by sending the letter directly to support@acronis.com.

Please also create Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post and attach it to your request.

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko

 

**Hi everyone here is the follow up**

~Private email removed - Ron~

My Response:

Sorry you are wrong. I detailed the description to the extreme (took 40 mins to type), and you had to be read it thoroughly!
I gave you all the details you needed and a follow up today!
Basically your software does not work on my RAID 0 Array!
Because of your software I lost all the data on my PC, had to set the whole thing back up with a clean install of Windows XP and spent two days on the NET retrieving my software!
I got the same error again after this on my Desktop, so this response is not appreciated!
If you can't be bothered to this degree, than I would like my money back and you can keep your software!
I have to uninstall it to make my system more stable, and I will be sure to post your cop out response on the end of my post!
The fact that your software can crash Norton Ghost is not something I thought you would be proud of?
Nor the problems you have caused me for my £50!
Refund Please!

Forum Note:

What is that reply from Acronis supposed do? Do they honestly think sending me an abbreviated version of my submission (question) back at me is a proper response?!!??!!

Please take heed from this and stay away from this software!

PS by the way i do want that refund as if you can't be bothered than i definatly can't, so if you can notify me of when i will be likely to recieve it i would appreciate it.

 

When you click on "Contact Acronis Customer Service", just leave the box for license key blank, otherwise, it will say that the key has already been registered. I had this experience before. Since you are trying to contact customer service within your account, I suppose they may know your license key details already.

 

Hi, you can guess from my last post that i had been in contact with them. Anyway its really pointless, either the person i am speaking to on this matter in not very bright, has exceptionally bad English skills (cant read properly), or is trying to say stupid things. They can't seem to get past the initial problem, then a wipe of my Hard Disk Volume (because it would no longer boot), and a clean installation of Windows, and then a new problem caused by there software. Apparently though its still the old one causing problems? Which is just ever so slightly completely impossible!

 

I have had this "GetDriveLayout: CreateFile fail !" error many times also, but I just discovered that it was coming from my VIA raid utility tool and not DD. After I shut down the tool, I haven't received that error yet. I don't know if any of the above posters are using a VIA raid chipset, but if so, please note that herein this forum! And I am not using the RAID feature, but just have a single SATA drive controlled by the chip. Thanks!

 

It is not possible to change the boot drive's letter on a Windows XP installation.