how to include MBR in a partitions backup

Are you certain the MBR is missing? I would think you would have better luck attempting a repair Windows install than what you are suggesting. You would need a Windows installation disk to do that.

Yes it is not showing up. I recently found another backup using Acronis 2013 Plus Pack Bundled and used the boot manager to start it up. Found another disk backup and validated it. This time it is showing the MBR. I have no idea why this happened. However, when going through recovery page process, it is treating this one disk backup as three disks. My complete valid backup was of one hard drive only. I included MBR to back up also. The disk had two partitions. One is C partition, or OS drive. The other is Factory recovery partition, which is usually hidden or untouchable. The MBR is showing here. However, recovery page is using each partition as a drive asking for location to place it. I cannot understand this and I am getting same BSOD code for each attempted recovery. BSOD error code indicates Stop 0x0000007B or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE for each attempt. Shouldn't this have been taken care of by using a validated disk backup of complete hard drive including MBR?

Yes, I agree I should have tried Windows Installation disk to recover this BSOD error first but did not have any installation disk to use. I went to Lenovo site and found repair for this error, downloaded it, installed it, and really screwed it up then. I have no other choice but to recover using these disk backups.

The only other thing I can think of is that this backup could have been made with another earlier version which could be the issue, but it is allowing me to recover, and no errors, so I must be setting up the recovery page wrong as I indicated above. Can someone walk me through the steps and I can report back what is being shown or wanted on this recovery page? And yes, I am getting different responses in trying to use 2014 vs 2013. And as I said, this backup was not made by Acronis TI2014 and possibly not by 2013. Is there any way to tell or how to find this out? Do I need the same program the archive was imaged with to recover with? I do have universal restore, but I am not recovering to a different laptop. I am recovering to same laptop and hardware. Nothing has changed. I need help as I do not understand what Acronis is trying to do. I am totally confused at this point and my only hope is to get this archived validated disk image backup to reinstall successfully.

As a last PSS, this all started as a result of my negligence in trying to insert a USB stick in while Windows XP was booting. All USB ports work, so nothing is broken, but clearly this is the issue and I thought these images would take care of this and really should. Am I wrong???

Here are some snapshots of what this looks like. I will also get the recovery page for you.

Your disk recovery_photo_2 indicates that this backup is a full disk backup. That backup should be your entire disk image including the MBR. Are you saying that this backup does not contain the MBR?

I take it that your scenario in which the app is asking for the location to place the C, D, and MBR files is referenced by disk_recovery_photo. Using this backup will the app allow you to switch to Disk Mode which is located in the upper right portion of the recovery screen? If you can switch to disk mode then you should be able to recover all the listed partitions including the MBR. The reason the app is asking for a location is because the app is in a partition mode recovery rather than full Disk Mode.

Enchantech, thank you for responding back,

In looking at the Recovery Wizard of Acronis TI 2014 Premium, which was booted from USB stick with app, here is the process that is not making sense to me.

I am looking at other computer screen now, and since I cannot provide shots of this, I will relate in words.

I started program as first stated, and went to Recovery option.
On the Recovery page, it shows Disk Recovery in top right hand side only. I clicked on to "Browse for backup."

I also clicked on the option for "Disk Backups". I assume this means it will show all "Disk backups from my external USB hard drive I have image on.

I browsed for indicated backup as shown in photo shots sent in previous post, and it is indicated under Disk Backup heading. There is no option to do anything at this point on the screen headings. No next, no nothing. I then right clicked and hit "Recover."

Recovery Wizard comes up and has Recovery Method highlighted on left side. It expands out to check what I want to do. I have option to "Recover whole disks and partitions" bulleted or checked.
I then hit next at bottom.

"What to Recover" is highlighted on left side of screen and expands out to show "Disk 1." I checked Disk 1 and it also branches out to include
NTFS (Windows7_OS)(C) Flagged as Pri
MBR and Track ) No Flag
NTFS (System_DRV) Flagged as Pri,Act.

This does not appear to be correct. Shouldn't C partition be Pri, Act.?

Anyways I will continue on,
If I check Disk 1 in tree format, it does not highlight last two options (MBR, and Syst_DRV)

I therefore manually check these other two options. I might say also I have no idea why the Recovery Partition Q is not included here. I cannot remember is I was manually able to check it off or what and this may be also why I am getting these individual settings location questions in the wizard.

When I manually click on MBR I see "Settings of Partition C" come up on left side under "What to Recover."
When I manually click on the last item NFTS (System_DRV), another listing comes up and that is "Settings for Partition 1-1".

Clicking next brings up "Specify recover settings of Partition 1-1, which came up when I manually selected the last item in previous page. It wants location of Partition 1-1. I cannot continue until I set this. I clicked on "Set Location" and "New Partition location" box comes up under "Partition Destination." And this is where Disk 1, Disk 2 and Disk 3 shows up. I have no options other than to enter into this box and you have just read where I started out under Disk Recovery.

As I said, the recovery partition that is on this computer is not showing up. It is Q partition. I do not remember, nor do I know how it was possible for this to show up as a disk backup and the Q partition is not showing in the recovery tree. That is the issue and this should have never happened regardless as one should have canceled out the other, or in other words, this should not have shown up as a disk backup if Q was not included, regardless how it was left out. I will insert the boot disk for Acronis 2013 and see if I get the same issue, but as I said, I do not think so, but will still report it here as there is some serious issue going on, whether on my end which is not expert by any means, or on the program's end.

Thanks and please stay with me on this.

One important fact that stands out is that this boot usb version of Acronis TI 2013 correctly shows the Active Primary partition as the C drive. In using other version 2014 it showed my Factory Recovery partition as the Primary Active partition. This is clearly a technical issue that must be corrected by Acronis as this should not happen in any case whatsoever. This may be the reason it is so confused as it is not interpreting this images in the same way from 2013 to 2014 is my guess but I know nothing about this and don't pretend to know so please understand this.

As stated above, I would try this with boot USB containing Acronis True Image 2013 with Bundled extras included. What was amazing was is this,

When advancing through the wizard for recovery and coming to "What to Recover," this is shown as below.

Recovery Wizard>What to Recover>Select the Items to recover:
Disk 1

NTFS (Preload) (C) Flagged as Pri.,Act.
FAT32 (SERVICEv001) (D) Flagged as Pri.
MBR and Track 0 No flag

My C drive partition is Primary and Active (which is correct) using this bootup as shown, but using Acronis TI 2014 Prem. this is not the case (and not correct), and a very important case I might add. Can I change these options, and if so, how? If not, what has happened and why? Should I use the 2013 version for backup?

I will need to advance more to see what happens, so let's see what is going on with this version of 2013.

I checked Disk 1 as the What to Recover option. Here it automatically checked the lower level three tiers as listed above, where in other 2014 version this did not happen. Clicking next...

Recovery Wizard has Settings of Partition C highlighted and asking for new location of this partition. I cannot advance until I set this as "next" is grayed out. I click "New location" and there it is again, Disk 1, Disk 2, and Disk 3 showing. Disk 1 is grayed out but shows FAT32 (Unlabeled) (E) all greyed out.

Disk 2 is able to be selected and shows NTFS (Elements)(F) Flagged as Pri. which is my external USB drive where my backup is located. I am not sure what this means and brings me back to my original question. What does "New partition location" refer to? Does it mean where is the backup located or where do I want to put it? It surely knows it is located here as I already browsed for the location of the backup so I am somewhat confused here

Disk 3 is also able to be selected. It shows NFTS (Preload) (C). I again and confused as to what they are asking for. It is under settings of Partition C and under New Partition Location. What are they asking for as this is totally confusing to me, as I already browsed to location of backup and it surely knows it is going on the computer is has just booted up from. What new location? Let's advance and I will select this as meaning I still don't know, but the only option that makes any sense to select is the Disk 3 option as the other two refer to drives that have nothing to do with this.

Clicking accept generated "Settings of Partition D" and also MBR of Disk 1 on left side menu.
Now I must specify new location of this partition D and here is shows it for size as being the Recovery Partition since it is over 5 GB large. All three Disks show up again, and only one that makes sense is this one which is Disk 3 Fat32 (ServiceV0001 (D) tagged as Pri. I highlighted this and clicked accept. This is clearly the Recovery Partition Q which I was not sure was ever imaged, but here it is for sure, tagged as Pri.

Setting new location for MBR of Disk 1 brings me up to a screen that shows "Select target disk for MBR recovery."

This is in reference to MBR of Disk 1. Again, Disk 1, Disk 2 and Disk 3 are show up. Only one that makes sense is Disk 3 which references the model of my hard drive on this computer. I highlighted it and clicked next.

This finally brings me to Summary of Operations to be performed and I will write them down here.

Number of operations: 5

1. Recovering MBR
Hard Disk 3
2 Deleting partition
Hard disk: 3
Drive letter C
File System NTFS
Volume label: Preload
Size: 460.1 GB

3. Recovering partition
Hard disk: 3
Drive letter C
File System: NFTS
Volume Label: Preload
Size 461.3 GB--460.1 GB

4. Deleting Partition
Hard disk: 3
Drive Letter; C
File System: FAT32
Volume Label: SERVICEV001
Size: 5.671 GB

5. Recovering partition
Hard disk: 3
Drive Letter: D
File System: FAT32
Volume Label: SERVICEV001
Size: 4.499 GB---5.671 GB

That's it. I can proceed and it will not work, as I already tried it. I am completely confused as to why this is so confusing to begin with. I have no idea why this is bringing in all these disks and can only relate that I read somewhere that Acronis reverts to a Linux form of numbering hard drives when these locations are in or on different USB hard drives, as well as using a USB stick to boot from. Could it be that it is as totally confused as I am about what is going on? I have no idea, have not read any research or troubleshooting such as this and was always let to believe that if I imaged as a disk backup, I only had to reinstall it back. Can you or anyone else please help me? This is very long but I had to explain each step as everyone was thinking I had not gone to disk backup in the original recovery phase, which I did and explained what had happened. Would Acronis please step in and help me as this needs their feedback, as I have never encountered problems to this degree before and I was one of the persons who first tested out your product years ago when offered for free.

Just to update. Have used both boot CD's and each one results in BSOD on recovery process. Same error code I am getting when original drive went done. Anyone know why? Can I recovery files or folders from a disk backup since I cannot seem to recover the actual Windows 7 OS and program structure on the recovery reimage?

Joe,

Referring back to your post #2 and your reference to BSOD Stop error I am attaching a link here that may help you in your resolve of this issue. Since you indicate that the recovery CD's are resulting in this same BSOD it appears that you have a disk, controller, driver, or possible other hardware issue. Hope this link will be of further help:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff559218%28v=v…

Not sure that applies here but I know little about it. What I did do was a Factory Restore via the Lenovo Factory Restore DVD set I had gotten. I just completed it and it installed fine, but remember this is about worthless now as everything is either unsupported or outdated. Nice of MS to do this. This brings me to the question would this have worked had this boot device error been the problem?

What I have done is now start on another recovery via Acronis Boot USB and see if I can get back one of these images now since I no longer have the BSoD stop error. I am recovering from the Factory recovery to this backup image made some time ago. Not sure if this laptop supports Windows 7, but I will have to go to Windows 7 now as it is not worth the hassle. I have it on a few other laptops and really liked to keep XP on here, but as I said, I would have to find a copy of all updates, get IE updated before I even began to start reinstalling programs, and not worth it. I will save what I can and just go on from here.

Lesson to be learned by all who read this is why all the trouble with Acronis Recovery process? Is there a difference in recovering from the two (Acronis failed vs. Lenovo Factory Recovery successful)? I have to feel more secure than this for backups, and this experience taught me a valuable lesson. I am going to do some recovery files from original drive status if I still can, which I should have done to begin with, as I did try to repair boot device error to begin with, but had no idea Acronis would fail me. One thing led to another and here I am, with lost data files. Not sure what has happened before I can be too critical. Please comment if you have some idea of what happened. I also will comment back if the Acronis Recovery attempt was successful from the newly installed Factory Recovery I just did. Can't understand why I would have to do a Factory Recovery to do a successful Acronis recovery but I will see in a few hours and let all know as their data must always be secure and knowing all these issues will help others prevent needless loss as I have encountered.

Well reporting back for all those who are reading. It appears that after I did get a good recovery using Factory Recovery disks from Lenovo, I tried to reboot computer via Acronis Loader on USB stick. I tried to recover the backup I have been talking about as there was some issues with BSOD stop screen error 07B relating to boot device. Since I cleared that issue up with the factory recovery and all was well, I tried to get my Acronis image back on, and wouldn't you know it, doesn't work. On reboot, got same BSOD stop code ....07B. I have no idea what is going on, but Acronis will not perform a recovery no matter what I try. What the problem is I have no idea. Maybe it is unique to me and has never happened before, but the whole idea of using this backup program is to assure the user and buyer of this software that a validated disk backup will work. This is not the case with me and your case may differ, but how can you trust this? It has been around for some time and unfortunately I can no longer support the buying of this program as it has deviated away from a backup and recovery program too much. It should stick to that and do it better than any other program on the market. This is the first time I have ever needed to use it after countless hours of reading new versions and figuring out how they work, only to find that the day I needed it, it failed..

I have no idea whether other factors unique to my computer are the reason, but it matters not, as this should be already figured out by the writers of this program ever since v7 was out. I am very disappointed that this has happened and appreciate the comments of Enchantech who tried to help, and I realize this is very hard to do as so many factors are hard to report and understand.

One factor that is not hard to understand and I will summarize my findings are these;

1.) version 2013 and 2014 are not bug free in recovery process. Even if I got backup to work, I cannot trust getting a Pri. Act. C partition on one version, and a Pri. C partition on the other version.

2.) I have a Lenovo laptop, actually three of them, different models, different OS. XP was my most stable by far until last week when I did a booboo by trying to insert a USB stick while starting. However, the factory recovery disks provided by Lenovo worked without a hitch. No problems getting back to factory condition. However, with XP that is now worthless to me. Too many updates that no longer exist or if they do, I would have to search them out, download them, update XP, update IE, and just about every other program. Hence the importance of these disk images performed and verified by Acronis.

3.) Do not trust a USB boot on Acronis. This is a bad thing to do and using DVD's would be much better or at least have both.

4.) Stay with the same version regardless what it says. This is hard to do and you get confused. Another reason Acronis needs to do disk backups and do them well instead of complex screen recoveries that sometimes error.

5.) Acronis appears to be unable to provide trustworthy backups as I have tried and tried, yet nothing works save the Factory Recovery Program on DVD.

That's my report and all who are using it should make sure it works for them on a laptop or computer that has no important info on it. Hope this helps others as I know nothing about this and all these findings are what happened in my instance. Your mileage may vary.