Restoring an Image File using True Image 2013 (What am I Doing Wrong?)
I am trying to recover an Image file using True Image 2013 of a disk image created 3Apr20 (after MicroSoft issued its last update for Windows 7) on a My Book USB connected drive to a new unformatted hard drive identical (Seagate, Model: ST4000DMZ04, 4 TB) to the failing C: drive. The image file was created from the failing C: drive back before I was having any PC problems similar to those that started in November, 2020. Back around September, 2020, I had to use this image file to restore the EFI System Partition when Windows failed to boot so I think the image file is good.
1. The instructions indicated that the new drive did not have to be formatted before doing the restore; that this would be done during the restore operation. Is that correct?
2. Below are the restore steps I'm following. In Step 7, should I be seeing my new unformatted disk listed as a Disk along with those being shown?
3. Help?
Recover/Restore an Image File to Hard Drive - 18Dec20
Due to PC problems (slow response, numerous "Not Responding" messages on many applications, and suspected failing status of my C: (system) drive (According to Crystal Disk Info) I decided to restore my most recent image file from 3Apr20 onto a new (unformatted) hard drive of the same make (Seagate), model (ST4000DM004), and size (4TB) as the failing drive C:. I used the Acronis True Image 2020 Trial ISO bootable CD because it has mouse support. I also tried my Acronis Bootable Recovery Disk created on 3May19 using True Image 2013. The 2013 version will work but you have to activate the cursor support manually (using < > <M>) and manually navigate the cursor using the arrows on the number key pad.
I am confused by my Acronis instructions for True Image 2013 recovery to a new hard drive. These are notes to clarify.
1. Turn the PC on and it should begin to boot. As it boots continuously hit <F11> and it should load the BIOS screen. Select Setup. Move the UEFI icon (if present) from the 1st position to the 3rd position. Move the CD icon left to the 1st position. Insert the Acronis ISO bootable CD (above) and close the tray. Connect the My Book drive with the latest System Image. Now press <F10> on the Setup screen to save and exit setup. The PC should start to boot and load the Acronis True Image Recovery CD.
2. There will be 5 options shown on the menu when the CD boots up. It may be slow loading so be patient and wait. Select the first option to load True Image.
3. The next screen should ask "What Would You Like To Do?" Select RECOVER. It will then display the Disk Recovery and Backup Management screen. Select Disk Recovery. (Note: Should you have issues with getting to Step 4 due to it hanging up and not going to the next step then restart the PC again. This may/should not happen but occasionally does.)
4 It will then display the "Select a Backup From Which To Recover" screen. This screen will likely not display any backups to select from. Select <BROWSE>. Next you should see "Browse For location" and it will display several lines (options). Select "My Book 3 F:" followed by the folder "My Backups". (Note: This is the current location. Over time with future creations of Image files the path & folder may change.)
5. Next you will see MY Partitions-3Apr20........ Click it. Then select the next entry following that one. Next you should see the IMAGES screen. Select My Partitions-3Apr20...... and <Next>.
6. You should see an entry named "Recover Whole Disks and Partitions". Click it and it should display three lines similar to this:
() Disk 1
0 NTSF (unlabeled)( C:)
0 Track 0
0 EFI System Partition
Select Disk 1 and it should auto select the other 3 options. Select <Next>
7. When I get to the Discovery Wizard, "Setting Partition 1-0", it goes to "Specify recover settings of Partition 1-0" and "Partition Location Required Disk 1". There is a New Location selectable item that must be selected or your only other option is <Cancel>. Selecting New Location takes me to New Partition Locations and displays all drives, USB devices, attached drives, etc. as Disk 1, Disk 2, etc. It does not show the new hard drive in this section at all. Above the list of disks I can select Disk Properties. It shows Disk 1 as a model ST4000DM004-2CV104, total size 3.639TB, Partition scheme: GUID Partition Table (GPT). This is the information on the NEW drive, but it is also the information from the OLD drive as well. It shows a display of the disk as PRIMARY and the entire disk is yellow. So, what am I viewing here, the NEW disk or the Old disk?
8. There are two additional selections for this disk.. They are Special and Geometry.
Under Special it shows:
System Name: \device\0000007A
Model: ST4000DM004-2CV104
Serial: ATA
Bus: 0
Device: 0
Location: 0
Under Geometry it shows:
Sectors Per Track: 63
Heads: 255
Cylinders: 486,402
Total Size: 3.639 TB
9. I select <Accept> and it goes back to Specify Recover Settings of Partition C Disk 1, again showing New Location. Below that is Change Defaults. If I select that it takes me to another screen saying "You can change the size of the partition". Nothing on this screen is keyable (and I would have no idea as to what to enter if it were), so I select <Accept>. It returns to "Specify Recover Settings for Partition C". I select <Next>.
10. It goes to a screen that says:
Operations:
Number of Operations: 1
Copying Partition
Hard Drive: 1
Drive Letter: C
File System: NTSF
Volume Label (Blank)
Size: 3.639 TB
I select <Proceed>
11. It goes to "Operation Progress"
It says "from D:\My Backups\My Partition - 3 Apr20\My Partitions - 3Apr20_full_b1_v1_V1.tib"
The Progress Bar is blank
Two other options:
[] Restart the computer when recovery is complete
[] Shut down the computer when recovery is complete
There is a <Cancel> button.
It runs for about an hour and a half, the progress bar remains blank, and it returns this message:
Failed to write data to the disk.
Failed to write to sector 2048 of hard disk 1.
Failed to access the archive plain disk (0x1000E9).
There is a <Cancel> button which I select.
It displays "Recover Operation Failed".
Deleted - Duplicate Post.
Thanks for your help.
Here are Answers to your questions
Which version of Acronis True Image was used to create the backup image that you are attempting to recover in this scenario?
Answer: With True Image loaded, under "About" it reads:
TrueImage 2013 by Acronis
Build 6514
Serial # (As listed on the Invoice)
Full Version: Activated
This version was purchased June 30, 2013. I assume it is ATI 2013.
Where is the disk drive that you are recovering to? Have you removed the original drive and replaced it by the new identical drive? This is the recommended process.
Answer: The new drive is connected where the old drive had been connected. YES, old C: (system) drive has been removed/replaced by the new identical unformatted drive. The only other thing currently connected is the My Book drive where the Image is stored, and it is shown as Disk 1 in Step 7 of the ATIH 2017 Disk Restore.pdf file. The new unformatted drive is not listed here.
Legacy BIOS vs UEFI:
This is the result of System Info after running msinfo32. I assume it is running BIOS, although in the bootup process and going into Setup it displays a UEFI entry as the first thing encountered in the boot process. Info shows no UEFI entry. However, Windows will not load if the UEFI entry is not there; the boot process just restarts over and over.
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name TORINO72-PC
System Manufacturer MSI
System Model MS-7760
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3820 CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3601 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. V17.1, 2/21/2013
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.24545"
User Name torino72-PC\torino72
Time Zone Central Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 15.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 11.8 GB
Total Virtual Memory 31.8 GB
Available Virtual Memory 26.3 GB
Page File Space 15.9 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
The Firmware.jpg (attachment) shows my REGEDIT - Control data (FIRMWAREBOOT DEVICE). There is no FirmwareType entry.
Charles, thank you for confirming that the backup image was created by ATI 2013 and that msinfo32 shows your Windows 7 OS is booting in Legacy BIOS boot mode.
One further check, if you open the backup .tib image file by double-clicking on this in Windows Explorer, what actual partitions are shown? Given this is a Legacy boot system, then there shouldn't be an EFI System partition shown. Instead you should either have a Microsoft System Reserved partition or else just a Windows 7 C: partition and a Recovery partition.
ATI can migrate a Legacy system to UEFI when doing a Recovery of a Legacy backup image if the Acronis Rescue Media is booted in UEFI mode, but the reverse of this would not produce a bootable Legacy system (migrating from UEFI to Legacy)..!
If the backup image was created of this same Windows 7 legacy system, then your statement
I assume it is running BIOS, although in the bootup process and going into Setup it displays a UEFI entry as the first thing encountered in the boot process. Info shows no UEFI entry. However, Windows will not load if the UEFI entry is not there; the boot process just restarts over and over.
is puzzling, as the BIOS has to be able to boot in Legacy mode and the line in msinfo32 shows this "Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1" - this would show as Boot Device UEFI" otherwise.
One further puzzle is your initial post for this topic you wrote:
Back around September, 2020, I had to use this image file to restore the EFI System Partition when Windows failed to boot so I think the image file is good.
So, the key question here remains: Is your backup image from a UEFI boot system or from a Legacy boot one? Does it have an EFI System partition in the backup image or not?
One final comment, when you are booted into either Windows or the Acronis Rescue Media, open the ATI Tools and use the 'Add new disk' option to prepare your new disk drive to be used for recovery. The choice again is to initialise the disk in either GPT (for UEFI) or as MBR (for Legacy). Leave the disk space as unallocated space without creating any partitions as these would be wiped by the recovery operation!
Sorry for the long non-response time. I finally got the image backup restored to the new hard drive. See the details in the attached Word document below. The new drives seems to be working faster than the old one but, I'm still having "not responding" issues but they are not Acronis related. If you have any suggestions beyond what I've already tried (shown below) or any tools that might correctly diagnose what is causing the non responding issues I'd sure appreciate that.
The attachment on the previous post was the wrong one. This is the correct attachment.
Charles, thanks for the detailed explanation of the issues you faced and the actions you have taken for the same.
One initial thought to suggest to you is to test doing a backup of your smaller 67 GB Trains 2006 game program data when booted from your ATI 2013 rescue media, so that this is being done completely outside of any interference by either Windows 7 or any installed security applications etc.
This should give you an idea of whether the very long backup time you witnessed when running this backup in Windows is related to the hardware or to something in Windows itself?
One further suggestion would be to try an alternative backup application to see whether that too would show the same very long backup times or not? Both MiniTool ShadowMaker and Macrium Reflect have free versions you could use for this purpose.
If you see the same long and very slow performance with the above tests, then this would look more likely to be a hardware issue at work here!