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Extended capacity disks

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Hi, I'm experiencing a very strange inconvenience and I hope someone can help me.
I've been using Acronis Trues Image 2012 on my main Seagate Barracuda 3TB hard disk, with the Extended capacity disks feature to have it hosting 3 partitions. One with the Windows 7 o.s., one with a sound library (I'm a musician) and the last one (the one created by Acronis feature) containing my personal data.
Recently I tried to use it with a different monitor, but weird enough, windows was stuck with the logo, not going anywhere and safe mode was making reset the system over and over again. I tried everything to solve the problem, because also all restore points were vanished mysteriously. I immediately thought it was a virus, so I started using several rescue disks, but with no apparent result. I tried also from dos with the chkdsk command... but nothing.
Then I had a crazy idea: to use it again with the old monitor attached, and after a few tries and a little re-adjustments the computer started again!!! But I was horrified when I saw that everything was ok, except the third partition of my hard disk, the virtual one created by Acronis with the extended capacity feature. That was completely EMPTY, with only a file (I don't remember the name, sorry, I can check it going back there, if it's useful)
I tried some recovery programs, but with no results, since everything is just rubbish and not files I recognize. Now I removed the internal Seagate hard disk and mounted on an external case and I'm trying a different recovery software on another pc. But I fear that it's not going to find anything else because of the strange nature of that partition, that's a virtual one and not a normal one... Maybe it was the chkdsk command who made the partition to look completely empty now? I hope someone can help me to solve this thing. (I had to use the acronis extended capacity feature, because the bios of my pc didn't have the uefi bios, so it was impossible to install Windows 7 64 bit and have recognized my internal 3TB hard disk fully without that trick, but only 2TB...)
Thank you in advance for the help. Cheers

0 Users found this helpful

Adriano, welcome to these user forums.

Do you have any backups of the data held in your 'lost' extended capacity drive area?

Have you checked that the Acronis Extended Capacity Manager is active?

See the ATIH 2012 User Guide: Acronis Extended Capacity Manager which states:

To start Acronis Extended Capacity Manager, select the Tools and utilities tab and then click Acronis Extended Capacity Manager.

I am sorry but I know of no way of recovering the lost extended capacity data if you do not have a backup of this, I can only suggest opening a support ticket with Acronis to see if their engineers can offer any help?

See article: 18623: How to get Technical Support: Tips, Tricks and Useful Information

4.    Priority Pay Per Incident Support
- Related to the technical issues with the product
- Priced per incident
- Valid for 1 incident only
- 24x7
- Provided via e-mail, chat, phone
Response time: 
- 1 business day
- immediate via chat
- immediate via phone

5.    Recovery issue
- Related to recovery issues with the full version of the product
- Free of charge
- 24x7
- Not limited (Assistance with the recovery issue can be requested any time, even if you’re out of 30 days free support and don’t have PPI)
- Provided with e-mail and chat
Response time:
-  3 business days via e-mail
 - immediate via chat

Hi Steve, thanks :-)
Unfortunately I didn't have any backup of the data that was on the extended capacity manager part of that hard disk, since that was ALREADY a BACKUP :-(
And incredibly unlucky was the fact that this disaster happened the day after the original hard disk  (the one containing the stuff that the acronis managed disk was a backup of, got broken!!!
Have you heard of such misfortune? Me not. 
Anyway, I think I won't use that Acronis feature again, because it turned to be very unsafe. Maybe this is the reason why they removed that feature from all recent versions of True Image...
P.S.: regarding your other question, yes, Acronis Extended Capacity Manager was turned on on all computers I tried. The one which originally was hosting the hard disk and all the other ones where I tried to recover unsuccessfully the lost data...
Idon't think I can open a ticket from Acronis either, because my True Image was a trial version... Anyway they wouldn't have given my precious data back... :'(
I've always thought Acronis was the best software of this kind, now I have many doubts about it..
Thanks anyway for your kind reply!! Cheers