Boot drive not found
I would like to create a Linux based Acronis Bootable Flash Drive. I am running Acronis True Image Home 2011 build 6942. When I finished following the instructions in section 9.2 of the User's Guide on the screen it said Bootable drive created successfully. However, when I booted from the USB flash drive I received a fatal error message Boot drive not found. Therefore, I search this forum for information and found a ton of posts about the fatal Error Boot Drive not found! Was the issue of how to create a Linux based Acronis Bootable flash drive ever solved?
Hello Pat L - I downloaded Grub4DOS boot manager and its installer from www.mudcrab.com to my notebook; unzipped the files to seperate folders and inserted a flash drive into a USB port. Then I ran grubinst_gui.exe as the Administrator; selected the Flash drive as destination device, Refreshed the Part List, before selecting Whole disk (MBR); checked option Don't search floppy. Then I pressed the Install button. It said, "grubinst: Bad partition table, if you're sure that the partition list is ok, please run the program again with --skip-mbr-test option. Press to continue." I wonder why it didn't say installation successful? I looked at the contents of the Flash drive and saw the files had been installed, so I copied gridr to the flash drive and edited menu.lst, and shutdown the system. When I rebooted quess what? Acronis Loader wtarted and loaded Acronis TIH 20111 successfully.
Thanks for your advise on what Boot loader to use. Why do you think it gave me a fictious error message?
KC
.
KCav:
The error message results when Grub4DOS checks the partition table, expecting to see a layout compatible with the older partitioning layout used in Windows XP or before (63-sector offset). If you formatted the flash drive using Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8, the newer partitioning layout was used (2048 sector offset).
The "error" message is harmless and can be ignored. The flash drive will work fine with the newer layout.
Mark Wharton: Thanks for the explination, onto using Grub4DOS to boot from Acronis ISO files.
I connected a USB cable from an external hard drive to my notebook; ceated an Acronis ISO file with TIH 2011 and stored it in the root directory of the USB hard drive; copied gridr to the root directory of my USB hard drive; revised menu.lst and stored the revised version in the root directory of the USB hard drive. Then I shut down the system.
When I rebooted and I pressed F2 to enter Phoenix BIOS Setup Utility. On the Boot tab I created the following boot priority sequence: Removable Drive, USB Stick, USB Hard drive, CD/ROM -DVD, PATA HD, LAN, saved the changes.
When I rebooted the system I expected the system to boot from the external USB hard drive, but instead Windows started. What did I do wrong?
Next I shut down the system and rebooted. This time I pressed the F12 key and arrived at the Boot Menu. I selected USB Hard drive and clicked Enter. I expected Acronis Boot Loader to load but instead it said Boot drive not found. What did I do wrong?
KC
Did you install Grub4DOS to the MBR of the External USB disk (run grubinst_gui.exe)?
Mark - I did neglect to install gruninst_gui.exe. I just finished running it and when I rebooted the system booted from the external hard drive.
Thank you.
One more question. It said Error 11 Unrecognized devic. Attache is file menu.txt. It has the same contents as menu.lst. Would look at it and tell me what's wrong.
KC
KC:
If you want to boot an ISO file with Grub4DOS you need different syntax. The file you posted is for booting an operating system that is installed to a bootable partition.
For example, if your Acronis ISO is named TI2011.iso and it's located in the root directory of the drive then you would use the following menu.lst file:
timeout 10
default 0
title Acronis TrueImage 2011
map (hd0,0)/TI2011.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
title CommandLine
commandline
title Reboot
reboot
title Shut Down
halt
Hi Mark - I created a menu.lst file exactly as you illustrated and it is in the root directory of the USB drive, and I created an Acronis ISO named TI20011.iso; stored it in the root of the USB hard drive I would like to boot from. After connecting the USB hard drive to the notebook I start the notebook and it booted to menu.lst. However when I click on the menu where it said Acronis TI2011, instead of starting the Acronis Loader it said "Error 11 Unrecognized device string or you ommitted the required device path which should lead to the filename."
Well the iso is in the root, so the device path should be to the root, right? So what does hd0,0 indicate? Could it be map (hd0,0) should be something else?
I made tib files in 2009, 2010, and 2011. What if I made Acronis ISOs named TI2009, TI2010, TI2011 and stored them on the USB hard drive in a folder called Acronis ISOs. What syntax should I use in menu.lst to enable selection of the appropriate iso for the tib I want to restore?
KC:
Your syntax looks correct provided that the laptop assigns disk 0 to the USB disk when you boot to it. Most PCs will do this.
You could try this. Boot to the USB disk and when the GRUB menu comes up choose the "Command Line" entry. At the GRUB command line, enter this:
root (
and then press the TAB key. GRUB should respond with a list of the hard disks on the PC.
For each disk type:
root (hd0,
and then press TAB to see a list of the partitions on the disk. If a second disk was in the list then try it:
root (hd1,
and then press TAB to see a list of the partitions on that disk.
Maybe you can figure out from the listed partitions which disk is the USB disk. Let's say the disk ends up being disk 0 and it has only one partition. In GRUB terminology this would be disk 0, partition 0, or (hd0,0). Then you can browse the list of files as follows:
root (hd0,0)
ls
follow the second command (ls = list; the first letter is a lower-case L) by a TAB to see a list of files and folders on the partition.
From this you can figure out the path to your ISO. If it is on the first partition of the first hard disk in the root directory then the correct path should be (hd0,0)/TI2011.iso
You can put all of the ISOs that you want on the disk. If you want to put them in a folder you can do that also. I would resist putting spaces in the file or folder names, so let's say that you name the folder "ISOs". Then your menu.lst file would look like this:
===============================================
timeout 10
default 0
title Acronis TrueImage 2011
map (hd0,0)/ISOs/TI2011.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
title Acronis TrueImage 2010
map (hd0,0)/ISOs/TI2010.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
title Acronis TrueImage 2009
map (hd0,0)/ISOs/TI2009.iso (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
title CommandLine
commandline
title Reboot
reboot
title Shut Down
halt