TI 2011 Recovery disk backup won't restore system drive (New Destination).

Hello David!

Welcome to our Forum, we're glad to greet you here. I understand your concern, and will be glad to help you.

Usually this happens when one is recovering the system drive from Windows. If you're running the software in Windows, I'd advice you to download the latest updated ISO from your account, burn it onto the CD and boot your machine from it. Also make sure that the size of the backup doesn't exceed the size of the target location.

Should the issue remain, please send us the screenshots of the exact sequence of steps you're performing.

Should you need anything else or have any further questions - feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, we will be happy to help you!

Thank you!

Thank you for taking time to reply.

The backup fails whether I start from Windows (after re-installing it), or from my Recovery CD.

I can't take a screenshot (at least, I don't think I can take a screenshot), because the problem occurs after the machine has re-booted.

I've used Acronis for years, and this is the first version I've had trouble with. I have followed the directions in the Help Manual when making and trying to restore my C: partitions. I make frequent backups and use the Non-stop backup too. But, here I am now, reinstalling everything.

I still have my current backups. Some won't pass validation, but some do. Some can be mounted, so I have all my important data. I'm a huge believer in backing up my work often. But, I feel let down now by TI 2011.

Let me sum up what happens when I try to recover my system disk.

If I start Acronis from Windows, the PC reboots, and there is a fleeting window that looks like an Acronis message, judging by the colors. But, it flashes so quickly, I can't read it. Then the machine reboots, if I remember correctly. Apparently, some error is occurring.

If I start from my Recovery CD or the Startup Recovery Manager, I am able to follow the wizard with no problems, up to a point. I select the backup version (full or incremental). The System Reserved and C: drives are both checked. Then comes the problem.

When I get to the ”choose destination” screen, the "New Destination" link is lit, and "Next" is grayed out below. I believe, at this point, Acronis should assume I want to back up to the original System drive, but I cannot proceed. If I click "New Destination," I see list of all my drives, except the Sysem drive. I can tell by their sizes which drive is which, no matter what the drive letter is. So, I am stuck there.

I've tried restoring to the original drive, with its partitions intact, and to a new, unformatted drive. I've tried full disk backup and partition backup. I’ve validated the images in Windows and with the Startup Recovery Manager. I have uninstalled Acronis and run the "trueimagehomecleanup" tool I got from Acronis, including the Devcon utility. This tool allows a truly clean re-install. But, nothing has helped yet.

Thanks for reading this. What am I missing? I know Acronis isn't supposed to work like this. I'm using Windows backup in the meantime.

David,

I am understanding you want to restore your Windows partition. When the next is greyed out, it is waiting for you to make a choice.

I am assuming that your System Reserved Partition is marked "Pri. ACT" thus is your active partition. Please confirm for your information. Have you looked at the display of your partitions as shown in Windows Disk Management. This will show the sequence of partition and which partition is the active partition. If you continue to have issues, post a picture of your Windows Disk Management graphical view.

1. Boot from the Rescue CD
2. Do manually, do not use the Recovery Wizard. Choose the Recover option and the Restore Disk & partitions option
3. Choose the backup to be restored . Choosing the inc will restore both the full and the inc.
4. When you reach the screen as to what is to be restored, you want only one checkmark when finished.
Uncheck (if checked) the System Reserved and uncheck the MBR/track0

Checkmark the single partition to be restored. This is probably the largest partition . This is the partition you know in Windows as Drive C but on your CD screen it could be any drive letter. The partition you want may be labelled as (unlabeled). Choose the correct partition. Write down the capacity and used space for later. Also write down whether the partition is marked as "Pri" (for primary only) or "Pri-Act" (for primary plus the active partition)
Note: assigning a name in Windows from unlabelled a positive identifier can save a lot of grief so your backups will also display the same name. Something simple from "unlabelled" to "Win7_C" can help (assuming that your drive letter is C).

5. When you reach the next screen (settings of Partition ?), your actions will depend upon what is displayed.
If the top line lists the correct partition as being restored, you do not need to press the "new location" button and you can skip to item 6. Otherwise, if the header shows None selected, then press the "new location" option.
On this screen, click on the target partition based on the size you wrote down so you are sure to choose the correct partition. You have the info about used and unused space to make choosing easier.

6. Next, make sure the partition type chosen by the program is the correct choice (probably Pri). If the default is wrong, change it to match your notes.

7. Confirm the partition sizes displayed but it should be the same as what you wrote down. If there are major difference, something is wrong such as a wrong choice.

8. The next screen is the Summary screen and it should show only two items.
Item 1 is the old partition being deleted.
Item 2 is the partition being recovered. The actual size change should be unchanged from old to new. If the size change is more than slight, something is wrong and cancel. This screen will also show the partition being deleted.

9. Your next choice is Cancel or Proceed. If you still have questions, then click Cancel and ask your question.
If you click Proceed, you are committed and it is too late to cancel once the proceed button is activated.

GroverH wrote:

5. When you reach the next screen (settings of Partition ?), your actions will depend upon what is displayed.
If the top line lists the correct partition as being restored, you do not need to press the "new location" button and you can skip to item 6. Otherwise, if the header shows None selected, then press the "new location" option.
On this screen, click on the target partition based on the size you wrote down so you are sure to choose the correct partition. You have the info about used and unused space to make choosing easier.

Thank you for your detailed reply. I do appreciate the time you spent posting this.

I never get past step 5. All my partitions are labelled, and the drive I want to recover to is the only 300GB on the system, so it's easy to recognize. It does not appear in the destinations list.

I should mention that I removed the original C: drive (1TB, with 500GB for C:) because I thought it might be the problem. I had tried to recover to it, but had the same problem when reaching step 5.

So, just to eliminate the possibility that the drive or the backup were faulty, I made a new backup of the current 300GB drive with my new install of Windows on it. I chose the disk option (not partition or files). The backup went fine.

Then I followed all your steps, with the same dead end. I cannot proceed past the "Destination" screen in CD Recover. One thing I notice, my System Restore drive flag is "LOG." My C: drive is pri-act. See the screenshot. Maybe this is the problem?

I thought if I tried backing and restoring a functioning system I would have no trouble. Had it worked, I would try again on the original backup, which shows a size of 492GB with 111GB used. My understanding is that Acronis would resize backup to fit the new, smaller destination drive (300GB). But, I can't get it to work on this current working machine.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5948724/Acronis%20error%20pic%202.jpg

I've come back to update this topic.

As it turns out, it wasn't an Acronis problem. I had hardware faults, and probably a corrupted installation of TI 11.

1) Windows memory test revealed I had a bad RAM module. I RMA'd it, and ran on the second module for a while. I thought all was well with my hardware while I waited for the RMA, but I was still having the problems I posted above, thinking Acronis had let me down.

2) I also had some problems with the USB3 driver on my machine, which may have contributed to the problems with Emergency Boot CD backup. My main backup destination was an external USB3 drive (which is a wonderful thing when it works). I had other backups on internal drives, of course, but no way to know when the RAM problem had started, or what it affected.

3) Problems persisted, so I RMA'd the motherboard. It took about a month (May-June), but I ended up with a good mobo and 16GB of Dual RAM.

4) Did a clean install of Windows 7-64. Installed Acronis TI 11, and it's working great! I love the non-stop backup.

I've used Acronis for years, and recommended it to many people. I felt really let down when I had a system crash, but the fault wasn't Acronis. It was subtle and catastrophic hardware failure(s) that caused my problems.

Thanks again for those who tried to help. I'm sure you were scratching your heads as much as I was. You may even have thought I was just to dumb to use Acronis (I had flashes of that thought occasionally too!).

Thanks.