TI-2010 boot: 2 partitions with same drive letter
When I boot with TI-2010 build 6053 to backup a partition, the partition list contains 2 entries having the same drive letter.
Please see the attached image.
Same behaviour using TI-2010 build 6029. In TI-2009, this was OK.
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It happens only when I use a boot CD.
As a consequence, partitions represented by a already used drive letter are *not selectable as backup target* ! In my case, this concerns two partitions of the main disk drive, whose partitions appear *after* the ones of the externally attached drive (a WD Mybook).
Under Windows, TI takes the drive letters from the OS, and Linux partitions have none. This is OK and consistent.
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Understood. That would cause a problem. I wonder if it thinks the partitions are the same, for some reason.
Are you booting with the external drive connected or connecting it after TI is running? Maybe if TI adds the drive after it's already found the internal it will give different results.
If the SafeMedia version of TI will see the external drive, does it have the same problem?
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I think I can see where the problem lies, but I don't have a clue if it could be resolved.
TI has taken the Linux EXT3 partitions and attempted to display them in Microsoft format and has also taken the partitions on the NTFS drive and correctly displayed them via it's Linuxi- node to MS format mechanism.
From the rescue CD I always go via the more accurate and non changing disk label information than the partition drive letter.
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Thank you for your replies! Unfortunately, I see no solution so far.
Connecting the ext drive (MudCrab):
I do it before reboot, but without powering off. And I would probably lose it when using "Safemedia", because it's connected by Firewire, but I guess that this is not the reason of the mystery. (By the way, TI dropped the "SafeMedia" boot option from the image).
P.S. Thanks for your tips on your web site. Good to know about it.
About the problem (bodgy):
Fully agree about distinguishing volume labels. But how should a user choose properly a *backup target file location*, if two completely different physical locations are represented by the same drive letter? - In fact, browsing with TI thru my drive letter E: leads me to the Linux partition ! Or should I say Winux ? Anyway, my 2nd drive letter E: is inaccessible as target.
My conclusion:
Something odd happens on startup of TI-2010, during enumeration of the available partitions. But i don't exclude that WD Mybook drives might behave strange too, due to their built-in unforeseeable power management.
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Freddy:
Your statement "Anyway, my 2nd drive letter E: is inaccessible as target." may be key. Perhaps the recovery disk does not properly support Firewire in its Linux environment and that's why the partitions on the WD disk cannot be selected. Have you tried the latest version of the recovery disk, available as an ISO download from your account page on the Acronis web site? This version differs from the recovery disk that you would create using Bootable Media Builder; it uses an Isolinux loader and may have newer driver support.
The Safe Media option is now also a separate download.
Strange problem! I hope you are able to resolve it.
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Thanks Mark (Kolo), and all the others
Still no solution so far, and sorry about this long report. I tested it again ...
- by using Ti-2010.6053 iso image from Acronis site
- by using the external drive's Sata interface
Always duplicate drive letters in the "backup" section. And even worse: On browsing for a backup target, the drive letters in the browse window are different from the ones in the source partition selection window !
The "coup" happened in the RESTORE section. Browsing for a source, drive letters were again different compared to BACKUP. So far so bad, but Acronis might handle it ... Nope, "proceeding" with the restore, I get an error msg that the program is unable to find the source disk ! No wonder. Fortunately, programmers were wise: The msg window had a "browse" button, and after reselecting the source, I was able to restore my main partition, which I lost during my tests. Uff!
I think they completely screwed it up with the drive letters. (Have a look at the number of forum requests). What they need is a consistent partition selection mechanism.
Last to say: Maybe, the program gets confused about my ext drive. It contains an MBR pointing to Linux' Grub, which allowed me the other day kind of a dual boot (i'm not a Linux expert).
I'm sorry that I have to stop my investigations, it took me that much time. I will clean the ext drive by removing the Linux partitions. One drive, one system.
I hope Acronis will take a look back at TI-2009 or Echo-9 or DD-10, which handle the partition selection properly.
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