Updated the Bios on my G75VW ASUS laptop, now it does not boot . I have Acronis True Image 2012

Your BIOS is not stored in the Acronis backup files. You would need to contact ASUS to see if there is a way to recover your original BIOS or to perform a BIOS update outside of Windows using some sort of BIOS recovery mode. It is possible that you may have to send your system off for repair to correct this type of issue. It appears that either the BIOS update failed to install properly, or you used the wrong BIOS update for your system. As a general rule, you should not update your BIOS to a newer version unless the update fixes a problem you are having with your system.

Hi James,

Thanks for your reply, even though it puts me in serious trouble, since I'm not getting the needed info from ASUS as to how to recover my original Bios; I'm no expert in these matters, but I have heard that recovering from a RAID0 bios failure is difficult if not impossible task to achieve. In my defence I do have to mention that even though my laptop was running just as I wanted it to, I did have an annoying issue with windows freezing on me randomly (as if the memory was being overflowed.. or something like that) and just leaving the computer for several seconds it would just come back to life and my mouse pointer would start moving once more; I thought that upgrade might solve that problem, but there you go.... So you are completely sure that the bios is not restored with Acronis True Image 2012 restore files? If that is so I am in deep trouble.

I guess that then my only option is to go back to the bios setup as I restart the computer pressing Ctrl-I(for ASUS), entering the Raid setup Utility, removing the old RAID0 and creating a new one.... losing of course all data stored in my drives...
Then after restarting I could then restore all my data and files by inserting the Acronis CD I created and running Acronis restore from there; does that make sense?

I feel like someone who has reached heaven, but the last bridge I need to cross that allows me to reach it has been destroyed; now I have to completely remove heaven in order to construct a new bridge... It sounds nuts, because the chance that my backup fails I guess is also very high...

Thanks anyway (but if you or anyone else for that matter has another way out, please come forward and give me better news).

Spanish Flyer
PS. Since I can enter the Bios setup and it recognizes both my drives, size aso, the only issue being that the Raid0 fails, there should be a way out, even if I have to temporarily remove one HDD (anyone out there????)

Check your BIOS/UEFI settings first. The update may have restored the factory default settings!

Go into the BIOS/UEFI firmware setup and restore the default factory settings. Then try booting your system again. It is possible that you customized the settings in your BIOS/UEFI firmware and the update to the BIOS/UEFI firmware may have set it to the factory defaults. If you can remember what settings you may have changed (esp. concerning the hard disk controller mode) from the factory defaults, you could make these changes again and then try booting the system up.

If you have a current backup, all is not lost. I would suggest that you boot to your Acronis Rescue disk/media and do a validation on your backup files.

If all else fails, you could break the old RAID0 set and create a new one. Install a fresh copy of Windows, download the BIOS update (either current or previous) and run the BIOS update again. Boot the system to check for proper operation. If everything looks good, then boot to your Acronis Rescue media and restore the system from your backup.

Thanks a lot James,

I'm writing this message from my "Acronis restored" computer.
My bios/uefi settings were not configurable; the only option I had was to delete the RAID 0 and create a new one from scratch for the Windows environment. Of course that meant that all the data in both drives was gone and I only had Acronis True Image 2012 backup/restore to rely upon in order to get my data back. I had done a full backup and was carrying out incremental backups (or at least that was what I thought I was doing), since every time I switched on my PC an Acronis window would popup to tell me that some incremental backup was being carried out.... The truth of the matter is that when I managed to do the restore, the only backup I had was one month old, from when I did the Full backup. I have searched the external drive (USB 3.0 Seagate 3TB) unit, but can't find any of the supposed incremental backups that in theory had been going on; I don't even know if they become part of the full backup I had done, but the truth of the matter is that after restoring, my computer was a month old and several programs I had installed were not there any longer, including the emails I had received in that period of time.

Having said that, I must express my greatest relief and thank all of Acronis team, specially you, because you managed to bring back to life my computer I had managed to destroy; more than 300GB of files, folders and programs, miraculously restored as if nothing had happened. Oh by the way, for some reason the sound system did not work, but had all the drivers in the manufacturers DVD and was able to reinstall it and have it fully operational in no time.

I seriously think that the money spent in Acronis True Image was by far the money best invested from all the software I have ever purchased.

Thanks again and just hope you can lead me into making the incremental backup procedure to work in my system, because I'm sure I did something wrong in the setup.

Best regards,

Spanish Flyer (Charles)

Forgot to ask a couple of questions James,

You mentioned that Acronis, at least the version I have, does not save the RAID0 Bios on the backup; is there any Acronis product that does save it?

Check the *.jpg I include.

Another question is.. As the backup is ongoing, can you continue with your daily chores working with the computer while the backup is taking place?

One more, how can you protect the backup files to avoid them being erased by mistake?

Best regards,
Spanish Flyer

The system BIOS/UEFI firmware contains the BIOS/firmware (software built into the system board/controllers) for your computer. This software itself can not be backed up. It is not stored anywhere except in the hardware itself. Using Acronis True Image, you can make complete backups of your RAID array, but if the RAID firmware becomes corrupt, only flashing the BIOS/UEFI firmware can resolve that. If the data in your RAID array becomes corrupted, you can restore your data to the array, but sometimes must break the RAID and re-create it before restoring, as in your case.

You can continue to use your system while Acronis is making the backup. Any changes you make after the backup starts will not be reflected in the backup files. System performace will be lower than normal if the backup task is running while you use your system.

I like to have more than one set of backup files in case I have problems with them or they "disappear" (normally caused by user error). I have two backup tasks set up. One that runs nightly on a schedule to an external drive. A second one that I run manually when I have an additional external drive attached that I store off site. I only update that backup weekly.

Take a look at the guide Grover (Thanks, Grover) put together for backing up using 2012, for tips and methods to safeguard your data. http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705

Thanks again James,
It's all a bit more clear, just my lack of knowledge in these matters that leaves me with many blank spaces...

Anyway, returning to the success of my experience with Acronis, I decided to go ahead and purchase a 3TB USB 3.0 to have it almost solely dedicated to my backups; the other one I have Is bundled with all my other non system files, mostly photographs that occupy several Terabites. My plan was to move the already backed up files to the new drive, make a new full backup with the computer as it is right now and try once more the incremental backup scheme. Both the older and new USB external drives are from Seagate, both are 3TB in size and work in USB 3.0 that my laptop provides.

The thing is that I tried all day yesterday to create a new full backup on the new drive, but it always came out as: The Last Backup has Failed...
OS (C:) NTFS 245.2 GB of 1,371,9 GB Used
Destination: F:\My Backups 2,591,82 GB of 2,794,51 GB free
Backup scheme: Incremental.

And every time I copy/paste the error code I get in the Acronis Support Center, I get the following message:

We are sorry, "there is no information about this error available now"

I have taken several screen shots that I want to add to this message with the hope that you or someone can help me out here.

Thanks again and will remain waiting for news..

Regards,

Charles (Spanish Flyer)

A couple of basic troubleshooting steps:

- if your disk is empty, go in ATI to tools, choose add new disk, point at the new 3TB disk, let ATI initialize it
- instead of modifying existing tasks to point to the new disk, create new ones.

Do not let ATI use its extended capacity capability here. Your disk should be initialized as a GPT disk and ATI 2012 should be able to handle it normally.

Thanks Pat,

I have just done what you have suggested and I'm now going to try it out by making a full/incremental backup.
Strange thing is though, that with the other 3TB drive I never did the "add drive" thing...

But it makes sense.

Spanish Flyer (Charles)

Charles,
Any time I get a new external drive, I always use the Windows command line tool "diskpart" to clean the new drive and then use Windows "Disk Management" to initalize the drive as either MBR or GPT, partiton it, format it, and assign a drive letter to it.

Ok, first of all I need some input since after following Pat's instructions, my new USB 3.0 Mass Storage was not available any longer in Windows 7 64bit. Entering the Computer Management and so on I got to the disk management where the drive is available but has no letter assigned to it; right clicking on it it does not give me the option of assigning it a drive letter (F:\) in this case, so I need to know how to proceed from here. I include a screen shot of the disk management window.

James, will try that as soon as I get windows to accept the usb drive...

Thanks,
Spanish Flyer

Maybe here... (don't want to do anything before you confirm it).

Charles,
You are headed in the right direction. Yes you do need to partition and format the drive. You should use a different name then "New Volume". It looks like you got the drive partitioned correctly, and you are at the "format" stage. The settings shown are fine except the name. After the format completes (should only take a few seconds), you can then change the drive letter if needed. No need to use "diskpart" after you finish formatting.

There we go.....
Thanks again
Charles

Backup onto drive F:\ ongoing..
Charles

Still performing the backup; still I wanted to mention something I've just noticed. The new drive F: is being treated as a standard hard drive and not
a USB external device. Just wonder if that will bring about issues later on. Take a look at this screen shot.
Charles

You should be fine. Nice choice of volume name. :) According to your task list, you are doing a partition backup. I would suggest that you switch to "disk" mode from the backup selection screen to be sure you are backing up your whole hard drive. You should take a look at Grover's guide http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705 (Thanks, Grover) for tips and help on backup settings in 2013. The guide was written for 2012, but pertains to 2013 as well

Thanks for the comments James,
I just noticed your mention about switching to "disk mode", so if this works and the validation completes with no more issues I will do as you say.

I include a couple of shots more of how things are developing.
And thanks again.
Charles

James,
I'm afraid the problem is still there; the validation FAILED.
Please check the screen shots once more.

I'm going to bed... over here in Spain it is already 23:19. If you write something I will read it tomorrow.

Don't give up, because I'm not..

Charles

My USB connected desktop drives show up as local disks. My USB connected portable drives show up as removable. This is normal.
If your "partition" backup contains all the partitions on your hard drive, you do not "need" to switch to "disk" mode. I prefer "disk" mode backups for system restore purposes, although either will work fine. "Disk" mode makes sure the entire disk is backed up. "Partition" mode will also backup the whole disk, as long as you have selected all the partitions on your drive.

James

Click on the "gear" icon on the right hand side of each of your old tasks and click "more", then click on "Remove from the list". Do this for each of your old tasks. Then try validation again on your current backup.

Back into the battlefield...

just go through the images and try and guess what is happening. Right now I've gone back to my original external drive where I did the first successful backup and I'm trying out a new complete save; if this one works it must be something to do with the fact that ATI is seeing one drive as a hardwired one and the other as a USB external drive; the thing is that both are external USB drives and from the same manufacturer and model.

If it works, I plan on shifting all my data to the new usb drive for the time being and leaving the old one for ATI to carry out the backups. Still, it is rather annoying that this is happening and for no apparent reason.

Another thing I've noticed is that when I try and safe-remove the USB drive, in the case of the drive that is not allowing me to create a *tib backup file, Windows does not accept the safe removal of the drive, stating that the drive is being used, pls. check the last image. With the other drive making good backups, when I select the safe removal it immediately shows a little pop-up window stating that it is fine to remove the USB drive... strange since as I said, both drives should be identical (and I want to remind you that both drives have been treated differently by ATI from the beginning, even prior to me doing the formatting and so on on the new drive).

BR,
Charles

I can't explain why your backup is not validating on your new drive. Is it a USB3 drive? Do you have it connected to a USB3 port? If yes to both of these questions, can you connect it to a USB2 port? Are you connecting it directly to your computer (no hubs or extension cables)? Can you boot to the Rescue Media and do a vaildation to see if it validates outside of Windows? What is the model number of your new drive? What is the model number of your older external drive?

Hi James,

If you can't explain, neither can I, but the strange thing is that both my Seagate external 3TB USB 3.0 HDD are the same.
Link to manufacturers *.pdf: http://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/expans…. They are both connected directly to my computers USB 3.0 ports and sorry, they are all 3.0, but backwards compatible with the USB 2.0. I have even tried different ports from the four my laptop has, but with the same results. Part numbers are totally different though, but I guess it only has to do with the fact that one is manufactured in China and the other one in Thailand ( p/ns 9SEAN-500 3TB and 1D7AP3-500 3TB respectively).

Anyway, I did another full backup on my first drive and it all went well; the validation was confirmed after 14 minutes. This means that for the time being I will do as I mentioned before, and that is to migrate all my other files and folders to the new drive and leave the one that gets along with ATI for my Acronis backups.

I include a couple of screen shots of success stories for a change.

Thanks and keep me posted if you happen to find an answer to this dilemma... I will do the same if I manage to make it work.

Best regards,
Spanish Flyer (Charles)

I would be very concerned about the integrity of the data you put on your new drive if Acronis validation fails on it and not the older one. You may want to exhange the drive for another one if you can still do it.
Did you install any of the Seagate software included with the older or newer drives onto your system?

James

James,

I cannot return the HDD after I formatted it; I lost all the Seagate data it came with, but strangely enough, the other "GOOD"drive (let's call it that way), still has everything including a Memeo (or similar name), free trial software for backing up; similar to Acronis, but never bothered to check it out. the strange thing as I say is that this software already embedded in the Seagate USB drive does not affect ATI in any way, but every time I plug it into my computer a Seagate/Memeo window crops up offering the backup services; I just close it and continue with my chores.

It is my belief that the new HDD is safe enough to store my other data, but just in case, I will maintain both drives with a copy of my files for a while, because in the digital era we live in it is just plain silly to trust any data storage device.

BR,
Charles