Cannot restore a Backup

If the disk array is set up as MBR, did you restore the MBR/Track 0 when restoring/recovering your system?

This can also be caused if the wrong partition is marked as active on the restored drive array.

Did you include all the partitions in your backup of the RAID 5 disk? (Not just the "C" drive)

Running the Windows 7 Startup Repair (from the Windows 7 installation Media or System Repair disk) several times (at least 3 times) may be able to correct this, if all else fails.

Hi James,
thanks for your reply.
Here are the answers to your questions:

>If the disk array is set up as MBR, did you restore the MBR/Track 0 when restoring/recovering your system?

How to see if the disk array is set up as MBR?
When restoring/recovering my system. i have restored also the MBR/Track all togheter.

>Did you include all the partitions in your backup of the RAID 5 disk? (Not just the "C" drive)

Yes i did how said before.
Any help?
Thanks.
Enzo

Hi James,
thanks for your reply.
Here are the answers to your questions:

>If the disk array is set up as MBR, did you restore the MBR/Track 0 when restoring/recovering your system?

How to see if the disk array is set up as MBR?
When restoring/recovering my system. i have restored also the MBR/Track all togheter.

>Did you include all the partitions in your backup of the RAID 5 disk? (Not just the "C" drive)

Yes i did how said before.
Any help?
Thanks.
Enzo

James F wrote:

Running the Windows 7 Startup Repair (from the Windows 7 installation Media or System Repair disk) several times (at least 3 times) may be able to correct this, if all else fails.

James,
i've tried several times but the window is always empty.

From the Windows 7 installation media, run the Startup Repair and choose advanced options, and open a command prompt.

Type "diskpart" without the quotes and press enter. At the "diskpart" prompt enter "list disk" and press enter.

In the list of disks, make a note of the disk number for your raid array.

Type "select disk X" with "X" being the disk number referenced in the list (probably disk 0), and press enter.

Type "detail disk" and press enter to see a list of partitions on your disk. You should see the volumes on the array.

Type "select volume "X" and press enter (substitute "X" with the volume number you wish to work with)

Type "detail volume" and press enter to see the volume details.

Type "detail partition" and press enter to see the details for the selected /volume/partition.

Do this for each volume/partition and find out which partition is currently marked as active.

If the wrong partition seems to be marked as active,

Type "list volume" and press enter to list all volumes, and

Type "select volume "X"" and press enter, substituting "X" with the volume number of your choice.

Type "detail volume" and press enter to verify the volume you wish to mark active is selected.

Type "active" and press enter to mark the volume/partition active.

Type "exit" and press enter to exit "diskpart", and type "exit" and press enter to close the command prompt.

Restart your system.

If the system still does not boot, repeat the procedure, try selecting another partition and making it active.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

Hi James,
i've done how you said.
At the "list disk" comand, i get this:

N. Disco Stato Dimensioni Disponibile Din GPT
------------ -------------- ---------------- -------------- --- ---
Disco 0 Online 931 Gbytes 931 Gbytes
Disco 1 Online 1863 Gbytes 1863 Gbytes
Disco 2 Online 298 Gbytes 0 byte
Disco 3 Nessun suppor 0 byte 0 byte
Disco 4 Nessun suppor 0 byte 0 byte
Disco 5 Nessun suppor 0 byte 0 byte
Disco 6 Nessun suppor 0 byte 0 byte

The disk shold be "Disco 1" i think.

At this point i gave the comand "select disco 1"
i get that the Acutally disk selected is the disk 1.
Then I've Typed "detail disk"and got:

ID disco: 00000000
Tipo: RAID
Stato: Online
Percorso: 0
Destinazione: 1
ID LUN: 0
Percorso: PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#RAID (P00T01L00)
Stato corrente di sola lettura: No
Sola lettura: No
Disco di avvio: No
Disco file di paging: No
Disco file ibernazione: No
Disco file dettagli arresto anomalo: No
Disco cluster : No

Non sono presenti volumi.
At this point i am stuck because as you see before i get that there are no volume.
What to do now?
Thanks

What happens when you type "list volume" or "list partition" ?

Hi James,
at the "list volume" comand i get:

Volume ### Let Etichetta Fs Tipo Dim. Stato Info
-------------- ---- ------------------ ----- --------------- ---------- -------------- ----------
Volume 0 D GRMCULXFRER UDF DVD-ROM 2971 Mb Integro
Volume 1 C Volume NTFS Partizione 298 Gb Integro
Volume 2 E
Volume 3 F
Volume 4 G
Volume 5 H

at the "list partition" comand i get:

Questo disco non contiene alcuna partizione da visualizzare.
Which in english it means:
This disk does not have any partition to visualize.

What to do?
Thanks
Enzo

What is the size of the RAID array in GB?

James F wrote:

What is the size of the RAID array in GB?

How to know?
In the messages before, i wrote down all that i see in the dos window.

When you re-created the RAID 0 you had to use two drives to create it before restoring your backup image. What two drive are you using? Are they the same capacity, and are you using the entire drives as the RAID 0 array?

If you still have the original backup image and you can restore it again, I would re-create the RAID 0 and attempt the restore again from the bootable media. If possible, save the restore log (to a USB flash drive), and post it here for review

Yes James,
sorry if i missunderstood.
In the original i made a RAID 5 with 3 Hard drives of 1TB each,
then 1 went fault so i made a RAID 0 with the other 2 left.

In post number 7 http://forum.acronis.com/forum/40243#comment-126235 , the disk that is listed as 931 GB is probably part of your RAID array.
Open diskpart and list your disks again ("list disk") , and then select the disk that is 931GB ("select disk X)", then issue the "detail disk" command and post the results here.

Edited to correct the wrong reference to drive size.

James F wrote:

In post number 7 http://forum.acronis.com/forum/40243#comment-126235 , the disk that is listed as 931 GB is probably your RAID array.
Open diskpart and list your disks again ("list disk") , and then select the disk that is 938GB ("select disk X)", then issue the "detail disk" command and post the results here.

Let me see if i do correct.
I've opened diskpart again and typed "list disk" and get these results:

N. Disco Stato Dimensioni Disponibile Din GPT
------------ --------- ---------------- -------------- --- ---
Disco 0 Online 931 Gbytes 931 Gbytes
Disco 1 Online 1863 Gbytes 1863 Gbytes
Disco 2 Online 298 Gbytes 0 byte
Disco 3 Nessun suppor 0 byte 0 byte
Disco 4 Nessun suppor 0 byte 0 byte
Disco 5 Nessun suppor 0 byte 0 byte
Disco 6 Nessun suppor 0 byte 0 byte

How you said i have to select the disk 0 that it is 931GB ( not 938GB ).
If it is correct, i gave the comand"select disk 0 and get that the Acutally disk selected is the disk 0
Then I've Typed "detail disk"and got:

ID disco: 00000000
Tipo: RAID
Stato: Online
Percorso: 0
Destinazione: 0
ID LUN: 0
Percorso: PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#RAID (P00T01L00)
Stato corrente di sola lettura: No
Sola lettura: No
Disco di avvio: No
Disco file di paging: No
Disco file ibernazione: No
Disco file dettagli arresto anomalo: No
Disco cluster : No

Non sono presenti volumi.

It seems the restore did not work properly, as there are no volumes listed, and they should be present after the restore..

When you boot to the Acronis Rescue Media (bootable CD/DVD/USB Flash drive), does Acronis True Image "see" your RAID array as one drive?

If the Rescue Media does not see the RAID array properly (as one drive, not two individual drives) the restore will not work.

Boot to your True Image Rescue Media and start the restore procedure. After browsing to the backup file (disk image) you wish to restore, on the target selection screen, does the RAID array show as only one drive, or can you see 2 individual 1TB drives? If you only see the one drive that is the RAID array, go ahead and perform the restore again selecting the whole disk from the backup image.

Take a look at Grover's guide on how to do disk based restores here http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618.

Can you tell us what drives are being used on this computer. Both the internal ones that make up the RAID and any other internal drives as well as any other drives connected to the system via USB , eSATA, FireWire, etc.?

James F wrote:

Can you tell us what drives are being used on this computer. Both the internal ones that make up the RAID and any other internal drives as well as any other drives connected to the system via USB , eSATA, FireWire, etc.?

James what you mean?
Hw i said before, at the origin and it was when i made the backup that i am trying to restore,
was 3 Hard drives of 1TB each made all 3 in RAID5.
I have also another 1TB and 1 320GB Sata Drives.
Just to informe you the Backup has been made on the 320GB Hard Drive.
Thanks

To be clear:

You have two 1TB disks set up as RAID - (seems to be RAID 0) - disk 1 in list disk

You have an additional 1TB disk - (is not part of the RAID array) - is this one internal or external?
Does this drive have any data on it?

You have an additional 320GB disk - (is not part of the RAID array) - is this one internal or external?

Is this correct?

James F wrote:

It seems the restore did not work properly, as there are no volumes listed, and they should be present after the restore..

When you boot to the Acronis Rescue Media (bootable CD/DVD/USB Flash drive), does Acronis True Image "see" your RAID array as one drive?

If the Rescue Media does not see the RAID array properly (as one drive, not two individual drives) the restore will not work.

Boot to your True Image Rescue Media and start the restore procedure. After browsing to the backup file (disk image) you wish to restore, on the target selection screen, does the RAID array show as only one drive, or can you see 2 individual 1TB drives? If you only see the one drive that is the RAID array, go ahead and perform the restore again selecting the whole disk from the backup image.

Take a look at Grover's guide on how to do disk based restores here http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618.

James,
When i boot to the Acronis Rescue Media (bootable CD/DVD/USB Flash drive), yes, Acronis True Imag sees the RAID disk as one drive.
This is what i do:

Boot to True Image Rescue Media.
Select "Recover"
Browse to the Hard drive that contains the Backup file and selected it.
Right click with the mouse on the Backup file shown in the IMAGES window and select rcover ( i have to repat several times this step before
it goes to the next window ).
Select "Recover whole disks and partitions" and click on NEXT.
On the next window, put the tick in the Disk box automaticaly is been checked NTFS and MBR.
On the NTFS line i sse as Flags: PRI and as Capacity: 1.819 TB.
Click on next and after a while a get the next window that shows me 2 hard drives:

Drive Capacity Model Interface
Disk1 - Not Initialized 1.819 TB iswstripe RAID
Disk2 - Not Initialized 931.5 GB Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 RAID

Select the first one, the top one and click next.
I Get this Summary window:

Operations
Number of operations: 3

1: Clearing Disk
Hard Disk 1

2: Recovering partition
Hard Disk: 1
Drive letter: F
File system: NTFS
Volume label:
Size: 1.819 TB

3: Recovering partition structure
Hard Disk 1

Click on Proceede and the restorebeibg start.
At the end of the Operation,i get a window that says "RECOVER OPERATON SUCCEEDED"
I click on OK, Close ATI and the PC restarts.
When loading i can see on the screen:

Loading Operating System ...

BOOTMGR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

This is all i do.
Am i doing something wrong or missing any step?
Thanks
Enzo

Have you deleted and re-created the RAID array? It seems the Hitachi drive is reporting it is part of the RAID as well. Is this correct?

James F wrote:

Have you deleted and re-created the RAID array? It seems the Hitachi drive is reporting it is part of the RAID as well. Is this correct?

Yes i\ve deleted and re-created the RAID array several times.

No the Hitachi drive is not part of the RAID.

At this point, I'm not sure what else to try.

I would suggest one more attempt at the restore, but add one additional step to your restore procedure as described in post #20.

After booting to the Rescue Media, use the Acronis tool "Add a new disk" to initialize the RAID array as MBR. You do not need to create any partitions. Then perform the restore as you have described.

If this still fails, I would try the following:

Disconnect or remove the Hitachi drive.
Delete and re-create the RAID array (again, sorry).
Install Windows 7 (from your Windows 7 installation media) to the Array, and confirm it boots up okay.
Boot to your Acronis Rescue Media. Browse and select the backup to restore from.
Restore the "C" drive (your OS partition) from the backup image over the OS partition on the RAID array. (Do not change any of the displayed drive letters while in the Rescue Media.
Do NOT use the "Add a new disk" tool during the restore procedure to wipe the drive RAID array, as you would want to keep the automatically created 100MB System Reserved partition (created by the Windows 7 install).
Your OS partition should end up being the second partition on your RAID array.
Do NOT restore the MBR / Track 0 from your backup image, but you can restore the Disk Signature if you wish (not necessary).
After restoring the OS partition, The system may or may not boot.
If so great, if not, boot to the Windows 7 installation media, and run the Windows 7 Startup Recovery procedure and check to see if the system will boot. This may have to be performed several times.

To me, it seems the problem may be that the System Reserved partition or other partition that may have been on a different (Hitachi disk for example) drive may have contained the active boot partition and is no longer available after the restore.

Using the method above, you will have re-created the active System Reserved partition during the Windows 7 install, and this may help after restoring the OS partition when attempting to fix any boot issues using Windows 7 Startup Recovery from the Windows 7 installation media.

If you finally can get your system working again, re-connect the Hitachi drive.

Just updated the above post, please review changes concerning the MBR restore.

James

James F wrote:

At this point, I'm not sure what else to try.

I would suggest one more attempt at the restore, but add one additional step to your restore procedure as described in post #20.

After booting to the Rescue Media, use the Acronis tool "Add a new disk" to initialize the RAID array as MBR. You do not need to create any partitions. Then perform the restore as you have described.

If this still fails, I would try the following:

Disconnect or remove the Hitachi drive.
Delete and re-create the RAID array (again, sorry).
Install Windows 7 (from your Windows 7 installation media) to the Array, and confirm it boots up okay.
Boot to your Acronis Rescue Media. Browse and select the backup to restore from.
Restore the "C" drive (your OS partition) from the backup image over the OS partition on the RAID array. (Do not change any of the displayed drive letters while in the Rescue Media.
Do NOT use the "Add a new disk" tool during the restore procedure to wipe the drive RAID array, as you would want to keep the automatically created 100MB System Reserved partition (created by the Windows 7 install).
Your OS partition should end up being the second partition on your RAID array.
Do NOT restore the MBR / Track 0 from your backup image, but you can restore the Disk Signature if you wish (not necessary).
After restoring the OS partition, The system may or may not boot.
If so great, if not, boot to the Windows 7 installation media, and run the Windows 7 Startup Recovery procedure and check to see if the system will boot. This may have to be performed several times.

To me, it seems the problem may be that the System Reserved partition or other partition that may have been on a different (Hitachi disk for example) drive may have contained the active boot partition and is no longer available after the restore.

Using the method above, you will have re-created the active System Reserved partition during the Windows 7 install, and this may help after restoring the OS partition when attempting to fix any boot issues using Windows 7 Startup Recovery from the Windows 7 installation media.

If you finally can get your system working again, re-connect the Hitachi drive.

James,
done how you said.
The first step has failed.

Made the second Step:
Disconnected the Hitachi Hard Driver.
Installed Windows 7 again, after have deleted and recreated the RAID.
Tried to see if it just work. I booted up and it work.
Tried to restore the Backup without the MBR and Track 0 but have a problem.
When i have to choose the new partition location i get a window which shows:

Partition Flag Capacity Free Space Type
Disk 1
NFTS (Reserved for the system) (C:) Pri.Act 100 MB 75.87 MB NTFS
NFTS (Unlabeled) (D:) Pri 1.819 TB 1.799 TB NFTS

But they are both greyed out so i cannot select none of them.
If i close the new partition location, and rechoosethe location,
i get again the above windows but not greyed out but cannot select
just the C: drive.When i click on the C: drive, both drives, C: and D:
were selected.

If i go back to the selected backup file. and select to recover all, also the MBR and Track 0,
then i do not get the Partition location window but i get the window which shows me just the RAID Hard drive:

Dive Capacity Model Interface
Disk 1 1.819 TB iswstripe RAID

Tried to restore. It took about 30 minutes but did not work.