TI 11.0 can't find hard disks but TI 10.0 can find them

I searched and read the various threads in the TI forum and could not find a resolution that helps me. To summarize, my Acronis 11.0 boot CD doesn't find my hard drives (error E000101F4), but my Acronis 10.0 boot CD finds my hard drives.

I have a brand new PC (Gateway FX530XV) with Windows Vista Business. I installed Acronis True Image Home 11.0 in it (I had to turn Windows Vista's DEP off temporarily. Can't believe this issue isn't fixed already...). There were no previous versions of Acronis installed in this PC in the past. My PC has two 500GB Western Digital SATA drives (model WD5000AAKS-2). The drives are in a RAID 0 configuration. They use the Intel RAID Controller built into the motherboard (82801GR/GH SATA RAID Controller). I use a USB mouse & keyboard.

I created a boot CD with Acronis 11.0. When I boot up and try to do an image backup (a "My Computer" backup), I get the following error message:

E000101F4: Acronis True Image Home has not found any hard disk drives.

Based on suggestions in other threads in the Acronis forum, I created another boot CD with the following startup options:
"acpi=off noapic" parameter". I get the same E000101F4 error.

So, I tried a boot CD that I created on another PC with Acronis True Image Home 10.0 (build 4942, the latest available 10.0 build). I booted with this CD, and when I selected "My Computer" backup, it recognizes my RAID 0 drive and its two partitions. I haven't actually tried to do the backup yet, but it does recognize my drives okay.

So, I have a some questions:

1. Any suggestions on how to make an Acronis 11.0 boot disk that will recognize my drives?

2. I want to install a new Raptor drive in my PC and make it my C: drive that will contain Windows Vista and Program Files. My existing RAID 0 configuration will be used for data instaead. I suppose I can try to clone my current drive to the Raptor (from withins Windows Vista), but I prefer to take an image backup of my current drive and do a restore to the Raptor (doing the restore from a boot CD). I figure it's good practice to ensure that I have a working disaster recovery solution. So, my second question is: if I were to boot using Acronis 10.0, I should be able to create an image backup and do an image restore just fine, since I'm not even using Windows Vista, right?

3. Acronis 10.0 supposedly supports Windows Vista. If I don't actually need some of the new features of Acronis 11.0, is there any reason to not use Acronis 10.0 with Windows Vista?

Thanks,

randman

EDIT: I am using the latest version of True Image Home 11.0 - build 8053.

 

If ATI 10 does everything you want, then stick with it, at lest until ATI11 is substantailly further debugged. ATI10 is pretty solid except for a few hardware setups. AI 11 ads a few setups that 10 couldn't see but loses a whole of corral of others that ATI 8, 9, and 10 could handle. 11 has other probs too, like file backups that stall, schedules that don't run, the list goes on. many of us that have used ATI for several years were very surprised at the condition of ATI 11. Many folks don't have the option of choosing 10 vs 11. Many of us that had 10 and tried 11 reverted to 10 very soon after trying 11.


Otoh, you can try it for free and see if it's probs bother you.

 

Shieber,
He He. When I saw your slip of the finger in the sentence " many of us that have sued ATI for several years were very surprised and the conditon of ATI 11."

It just seems so apt though I doubt it will ever come to pass.

Xpilot

 

You shoulda seen what I typed the frist time

 

I use Acronis 10.0 in my other PCs, which run Windows XP. My new PC has Windows Vista and Acronis 11.0. I haven't used Acronis 10.0 with Windows Vista yet.

Does Acronis 10.0 works just fine in Windows Vista?? I know the Acronis 10.0 marketing brochure says it supports Windows Vista, but just wanted to know the scuttlebutt.

Thanks.

 

TI 10 works perfectly fine in Vista. I've been using it successfully on my Vista machine for over a year. There is one issue to be aware of, however. If you restore a Vista partition that has been created by Vista and has a 2048-sector offset, all versions of TI will move the partition slightly so that it has a 63-sector offset after the image is restored.

In TI 11, some magic goes on behind the scenes and the restored partition will boot up properly even after it has been moved. With TI 10, the partition will not boot until it is repaired by using a Vista DVD. Or, a repair can be avoided by preparing the partition before imaging as described in this post. If you do this before imaging, the restored Vista image will boot up immediately.

 

Thanks for the info, Mark (that was your 1000th post!).

From what the other post says, the offset thing isn't an issue if the entire disk is imaged? This is what I plan to do. Let me know if it should work okay (and not have the offset issue):

- My disk has 2 partitions. I plan to create an image of the entire drive (i.e. I'll put a check mark next to "Disk 1" when doing an image backup).

- I'll be replacing this disk with another (faster) disk. So, I'll be doing a restore of the entire disk image to the new disk.

- The new disk is smaller than the old disk, but the new disk is more than large enough to hold all the data from the old disk. When I do a restore, I plan on specifying the partition sizes of the 2 partitions and possibly specifying free space before or after the partitions.

Anyone see any problems with this? I don't have to worry about the offset issue, or do I?

Thanks.

 

Usually if you do a full-disk restore and there are no resizing operations then you are correct; no repair will be needed.

I don't think that's the case if you resize partitions while restoring. If your Vista partition's starting sector gets moved during the process then it will require a repair. It's probably best to first apply the "fix" in MudCrab's post so that you don't have to worry about this issue at all. The fix will make the references in Vista's Boot Configuration Database (BCD) be independent of partition location; all pointers in the BCD will reference the partition that Vista just booted from. In a normal single-boot PC this is correct, and you can then freely move partition locations around without needing a repair.

What is in your two partitions? Is Vista the first partition?

 

Physically, the first partition is D: and is a recovery partition that Gateway placed files for recovering applications and drivers (it's a basic/simple/primary NTFS filesyistem). The second partition is C:, which has my Vista install (basic/simple/primary/active NTFS filesystem).

I'm not familiar with that BCD stuff... I guess I'll read more about it. I have the Vista OEM CD that came with my PC, so I ought to be able to do the repair. How big a deal is it to do a repair (not sure entirely what's involved)? Just wondering, given that I have the Vista media, whether it's easier to mess with the BCD stuff or do a repair.

Thanks.

 

Randman, the repair takes less time than it would to boot your OEM Vista dvd, maybe two minutes tops.

 

randman:

Then from your description, if the Vista partition is the second one on the disk and you resize the Gateway recovery partition, you will need to do a repair after your first restore operation. Like DwnNdrty says, it is a very simple and quick operation. So is modifying the BCD so that a repair is not needed - that'll take you about a minute to do. Either way, it sounds like you have it covered so you will be fine.

 

Thanks folks for all the advice. I'll try to do the backup/restore with TI 10.0. These issues are a bit frustrating - first, had to mess with DEP to get TI 11.0 to install in Vista, then I can't use the boot CD with 11.0, and then there's issues with restoring Vista with 10.0. Seems these issues are not rare and Acronis ought to have fixes for them. Anyone have any idea when the next TI 11.0 patch will be (or 10.0 patch, since 10.0 was advertised as being Vista compatible)?