Acronis boot disc does not allow accessing outboard USB drives?

Do you mean at one point your rescue CD did see the drives (since the first step is checking to make sure your rescue CD works properly), but now it does not see them? Has anything changed in your system since you last verifed that the rescue CD worked correctly?

If you've never used the CD before then it likely is a "Linux driver" issue. I'm assuming you created the archive in Windows which is different environment with more drivers.

TI8 is very old now. I suggest you download the trial version of TI2010, create its CD and see if it solves the problem. It will let you restore (hopefully V8 archives) but won't create an archive in the trial version.

You could log into your Acronis TI account and see if there is an Isolinux image available that might work. I don't know if this is available for V8 though - under the old numbering scheme TI2010 is TI13 so 8 is quite far behind although your mention of A: drive seems to indicate you machine isn't too new unless you're like my buddy who keeps buying a floppy or an external USB floppy drive for some reason.

Gary Darsey wrote:

Do you mean at one point your rescue CD did see the drives (since the first step is checking to make sure your rescue CD works properly), but now it does not see them? Has anything changed in your system since you last verifed that the rescue CD worked correctly?

I have always used my Rescue CD to acquire a backup from the Security Zone when something loused up my machine. It has saved me quite a few times. As far as I know, my rescue CD is working as far as accessing the Secure Zone and the backups it contains. I just see no other drives except the A, C and CD drive after booting with my rescue CD. I just thought that once I booted with the Rescue disk, I should have had access to the other outboard drives. I never paid attention to this before, because I previously only backed up to the Secure Zone. So, I'm not really sure whether this is the way Acronis 8 works or not.

Thanks for answering.

Seekforever wrote:

If you've never used the CD before then it likely is a "Linux driver" issue. I'm assuming you created the archive in Windows which is different environment with more drivers.

TI8 is very old now. I suggest you download the trial version of TI2010, create its CD and see if it solves the problem. It will let you restore (hopefully V8 archives) but won't create an archive in the trial version.

You could log into your Acronis TI account and see if there is an Isolinux image available that might work. I don't know if this is available for V8 though - under the old numbering scheme TI2010 is TI13 so 8 is quite far behind although your mention of A: drive seems to indicate you machine isn't too new unless you're like my buddy who keeps buying a floppy or an external USB floppy drive for some reason.

Seekforever wrote:

If you've never used the CD before then it likely is a "Linux driver" issue. I'm assuming you created the archive in Windows which is different environment with more drivers.

TI8 is very old now. I suggest you download the trial version of TI2010, create its CD and see if it solves the problem. It will let you restore (hopefully V8 archives) but won't create an archive in the trial version.

You could log into your Acronis TI account and see if there is an Isolinux image available that might work. I don't know if this is available for V8 though - under the old numbering scheme TI2010 is TI13 so 8 is quite far behind although your mention of A: drive seems to indicate you machine isn't too new unless you're like my buddy who keeps buying a floppy or an external USB floppy drive for some reason.

I've used the Rescue disk many times. It has saved my butt a number of times.

As far as getting a newer version of Acronis, I've read too many posts about the inconsistent quality of some recent upgrades.

My machine is only a few months old. It has a dual core super-duper whatcha' callit in it, plus other goodies. I have tons of floppies from decades back that I have been too lazy to convert to CD/DVD, that's why I got my machine with an installed floppy.

Let's get this part straight: If I access the Secure Zone the standard way, without rebooting, but merely accessing the program through Windows, I see all my drives and any backups I have put on those external USB hard drives. I can access those backups without a problem. It is *only* when booting with the Rescue disk that I do not see these external drives in the Acronis screen display. I must pick from the Secure Zone, or nowhere.

This is very disappointing.

Thank you for answering.

Well, that explains why you wouldn't have noticed or suspected anything. I did not have the impression that this was the first time booting with the rescue CD. Again, as Seekforever pointed out, this has more to do with Linux driver issue than anything else. His advice is probably your best course of action. Sorry I can't be of more help, but my only experience is with True Image Home 2010, so I don't know about it's ability to read older archives. Can you start the restore from True Image running under Windows? Does it see the USB drives?

Sometimes on first boot of the Rescue CD, in order to see the other drives, it is necessary to open the directory tree by clicking on "My Computer" selection.

Yes, I can start the restore from True Image running under Windows. I do that all the time. That's no problem. In that mode TI sees everything that Windows file Explorer sees. That's why I cannot understand what happens with the Rescue disk method. There, I see only the choices between the Secure Zone, C, and the CD drive.

GroverH wrote:

Sometimes on first boot of the Rescue CD, in order to see the other drives, it is necessary to open the directory tree by clicking on "My Computer" selection.

That was the first thing I tried. Thought that like file Explorer, I just had to open the tree. Ain't no tree view, except for the backups that show when you select to view the backups in the Secure Zone.

I'm going to download a newer version and see if there is any difference.

Thanks all.

Hello all,

Gary, Seekforever and GroverH, thank you very much for your help.

Ardell, let me assist you. I may recommend you to try a special version of Acronis Bootable media. Acronis Bootable Media that you can download as an ISO file from your account on the Acronis website is based on a different loader (ISOLINUX) than the one you create from your Acronis product. It also has a number of parameters, selecting which may help overcome possible issues.

You need to have your product registered at the Acronis website to be able to download Acronis Bootable Media. See Registering Acronis Products at the Website.

1. Log in to your account (if you do not have one, you will need to create it);
2. Once logged in, click My Products & Downloads:

   

3. Scroll down to the registered product and click Bootable Media:

   

4. Click Download:

   

5. Acronis Bootable Media will be downloaded as an ISO file. See Burning an ISO Image.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Thank you.

Ardell Saul wrote:

Yes, I can start the restore from True Image running under Windows. I do that all the time. That's no problem. In that mode TI sees everything that Windows file Explorer sees. That's why I cannot understand what happens with the Rescue disk method. There, I see only the choices between the Secure Zone, C, and the CD drive.

Hopefully, Ilya's offer of the Isolinux CD version will correct your problem and it's nice to see that they have it for Version 8.

The reason for your comment above is that even though you start the image restoration in Windows, it reboots the computer and loads the Linux environement. This is the same environment that is on the TI CD and is necessary because Windows can't be running when the active partition, typically C, is being restored.
When you restored from the SZ, the Linux environment needed the drivers for your internal HD and that was fine. However, in your problem situation, it needed to access and external USB drive and did not have a driver or had some other problem with the USB chipset such that the drive could not be seen.

There is no Bootable Media link on my account page. The page only shows -

==============
My Products & Downloads

Get All Serialsdownload

Acronis True Image 8.0 (English) 1 license(s)

Get All Serials

Latest Build: #937 (24.72 MBAugust 9, 2005 )

DownloadDownload
Older builds: Download older builds and read version history

Free after-sales support (Pre-March 2 2009) for consumer products Expiration Date: April 14, 2010

Available Acronis True Image Home 2010 Standard Upgrade (English)
========
That's all that is there.

I'm going to download the newest version and see where that takes me. Unfortunately, I guess I'll lose my present Secure Zone and the backups in it after installing the new trial version. However, this is getting to be like the dog that chases his tail all day, getting nowhere.

Thanks to everyone for trying to help.

One approach you might consider (although it requires a gamble of money) is to pay for the current 2010 version, download only the ISO and make a bootable CD from it - this would not require installation of the new version. See what you can do with this ISO version, it may well see your drives. If so, you can proceed from there. If the ISO version does not see your drives, and you have not downloaded the full installation package, perhaps Acronis could readily process a refund. I used the downloaded ISO for some time before I installed True Image on my system - even had to do an emergency unplanned restore. Just a suggestion.

Or put the trial on a different machine and create the CD to test it. The rescue CD is independent of the machine it is created on.

Hello Ardell,

I was reading through the thread and just got an idea.

Can you confirm you are using Full mode of Acronis True Image 8.0 bootable media?

The problem may actually be related to the fact that you're booting in Safe mode from the media, which is based on DOS, not Linux and does not have USB support (from what I understand this is USB drive which is not visible).

There should be an option at booting up where you can select which version to use Safe or Full.

If you do not have this selection just let us know - we will provide you with link to ISO image which has.

Andrey.

Good thought, Andrey. The Safe Mode was a lot more obvious and readily available in TI8 compared to current versions.