Unable to restore Vista partition - TI 10

Hi all.

I've spent the last couple of hours searching the forum but couldn't find anyone with a similar problem.

I am having great difficulty attempting to use a True Image Home 10 (Build 4940) Recovery CD to restore a copy of Vista stored on a Toshiba notebook. Here is a rundown of the procedure I used:

• Booted using the Recovery Disk (Full mode, not safe mode)
• Performed a full backup of the Vista partition to a network drive (which worked fine)
• Trashed the now backed up partition using fdisk
• Booted using the Recovery Disk (Full mode once again)
• Followed all the prompts for recovering the partition

The recovery procedure is followed up to the point where it asks for a destination for the backup to be restored to. It is at this point where I cannot select the now unallocated space to restore my backup (some 20GB worth of Vista install). The unallocated space option is greyed out. I have tried variations of this by using fdisk to create a partition but again, when asked for a destination for restoring the backup, the option for the new (empty) partition is greyed out. The reported size of the backup matches the size of the empty partition so I am confused as to why it cannot be restored.

Any thoughts?

 

You say "the reported size of the backup matches the size of the empty partition." I think this is your problem.

What was the original size of the Vista partition?

TI can not restore an image to a partition that won't hold the restored image. You have to take into account the Windows swap file and the hibernation file (neither of which are stored in the image). These two files can easily add 2 to 4 or more GB to the space required. 20GB is way too small for a Vista partition. It should be 30-40GB minimum in my opinion and that's even pushing it.

If you're trying to repartition and want the Vista partition smaller, then just increase it to 30GB and see if it will restore. If it does, then check how much free space is left. This will give you a more accurate picture of how much space is actually required.

 

Thanks for the quick reply

I should clarify. The original Vista partition is 73.06GB whereas the data stored on this partition takes up ~20GB. I have made no attempt to alter the size of the partition (apart from deleting it and, later, recreating it). Sorry for the confusion on that one!

All I did was backup the 73.06GB partition to the network, delete the partition using fdisk and then attempted to restore the partition from the network. The restore procedure would not allow me to select the unallocated space (some 73.06GB!) which is obviously capable of housing the backed up partition since that's where the backup was made from. As I mentioned, I even tried to create a partition in the unallocated space using fdisk, but again the restore wizard would not allow me to select this partition. The whole exercise was done as a test to see if Acronis could backup to the network and restore from the network, which, to me, is one of the software's strong points. I am probably missing something simple but I'm out of ideas at this point!

As far as free space goes, I read ahead in the help file that comes with the boot CD and it mentions an option to erase all data on the destination partition when restoring. I haven't got that far yet but I assume that would be the option that I'm after.

What I am trying to do can't be as hard as I'm making it! Has anyone had a similar problem? (or solution!)

 

This does indeed seem odd. It should let you restore to the unallocated space or an existing partition.

As for backing up to a network share and restoring from a network share, I've done this before many times and it works well.

Have you tried booting the Vista dvd and going through the install steps to create the partition, then cancelling the install?

Have you tried the restore by checking the "Disk 1" box or are you just trying to restore the single partition?

Are there any other partitions on the hard drive? Did you backup the entire hard drive or just the Vista partition?

 

Hello TimboTheGreat,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Please note that as MudCrab said the target partition (or unallocated space) should be at least the same size as the uncompressed image data. Therefore, could you please create a screen shots of all your steps taking during the restoration. In addition, create Acronis Report as it is described in Acronis Help Post. This would provide us with detailed information on the hard disk partition structure.

Then submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with a solution.

Thank you.
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Aleksandr Isakov