Need help with restore

Check out link #3 below and look at item #2 inside that link for a guide on performing a disk option restore.
Boot from the TI Recovery CD for all your restores of partitions.

Once the target disk is selected, no need for additional partition selections.

Or, if you wish to restore only Drive C, then follow the #3 listing inside the same link which illustrates how to restore only C.

It wouldn't let me past that point without choosing the information on the partitions, assigning driver letters, etc. It did finish the restore but what was drive C before is now drive D so the HP Recovery partition comes up at boot up instead of going into Windows 7.

Is there a way to correct the driver letters and/or the active partition instead of waiting for hours on an attempt to restore the backup again?

I will be glad to help but due to Christmas am not sure exactly when.

Before we can proceed further, there is more information needed about your current  partitions.

First, please confirm that you used the TI Recovery CD to perform your restore when booted from the CD?

Do you have access to another computer from which you can download an iso file and burn the downloaded file onto a new blank CD.  This download is a free partitioning utility which can be used to reletter your drives once we decide that relettering might be a fix.  Here is the link from which you can download the file.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/download/pwhe7.iso

Listed below is what I believe your partition arrangement should be.  Your sizes will slightly differ.  Do you have any pictures of your partitions arrangement before you performed your restore?

You have indicated your partition sizes are
System 199MB and the Active Partition
Windows Drive C 441.8 GB
Recovery Drive D 23.64 GB
HP Tools Drive E 107mb

Yes, I am using the TIH 2013 bootable CD. Your image above is correct for what the layout should be. When playing with the TIH options I don't get too many options to choose which parition gets assigned which driver letter. Taking more time perhaps I could have hit the target. When you look at the details of the .tib file on my NAS the layout is just like yours in the pic above. When the backup is restored however this is not the case. The recover partition is set to active and it loads on bootup. Below is a screenshot with my cell phone when looking at the details for the backup from within TIH 2013

The selection process for "What to recover" pretty much forces me down a certain path. It won't allow me to place the partitions where I want but I do see that I can choose which is active and which is not which I assume would ultimately do the trick. However, the pic below shows how the layout would look when restored. In my current case the Recovery partition was made active by default. Why that is I have no idea.

This makes no sense why TIH is doing this. It won't allow me to rearrange them in the order they were are in the .tib file. Odd! As long as they are there and the PC can properly find them I don't see it being an issue. But the case would be will the PC find them correctly. I assume so.

However, since the Z partition is now at the end instead of the beginning I would guess this may be an issue. This is the partition that Windows 7 creates the is to be at the beginning of the disc. Thoughts?

Okay..so I boot up with your disc an make C the active partition. Reboot and I get the Windows Boot Manager that want so "Repair Your Computer". Status 0xc000000f.

Edit:

Okay... so after having made C active I remember from earlier that the Z partition was the active partition. This is normally hidden but I intentionally assigned a drive letter. There was logical reason for me to have done this but it's too earlier to remember why. I am now booting into Windows. So it seems I'm back on track. I am confused as to with TIH changed the layout and won't allow me to change it.

Anyway....I'm sure you can see if I have questions and concerns. Going back to bed for now. Merry Christmas by the way.

I am unsure at this point as to why the program forced you to make assignment of partition location as your choice was to put a checkmark beside the disk so that all partitions became checked. That choice told the program to put the partitions back in the same position as at time of backup. There are times within the program where the user must correct the program choices so it can be very important that the user know their system and even have pictures of the partition arrangement. Any program wrong decisions must be corrected by the user. The program may be become confused due to the presence of the letter Z on as this partition may have special marking intended for the program's use only. Assigning a letter temporarily to that partition is understandable if the contents need to be viewed and then remove the letter. Just curious, was the letter Z assigned prior to the backup (used)being made?

Which language version of TrueImage are you using? My reference is the English version.
Merry Christmas to you as well and glad you are back to normal.
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I wrote all the below before knowing about your preceding post #5 above. I went ahead and posted it anyway. It may or may not be applicable.
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Regarding the Partition Wizard boot CD: Boot the CD.

1. Note in the upper left corner, there is aan Apply or Undo, or Discard option. No changes are final until you click on the Apply option. It is best to make small changes and click the apply option rather than make all the changes at one time.

2. Make an inspection of the partition arrangement from left to right. Are the partitions in the same order as my attachment above?

3. Inspect the drive letters. If changes needed, remove the wrong letters are any letter which must be used. After the removal of letters, then assign the correct letter in letter sequence. Click apply if needed

4. Inspect for which partition is marked as active. If changes needed, change the current wrong active to inactive and then make the correct partition active. Click apply if needed.

5. Make sure all changes have been finalized if not already finalized.

6. Remove the Cd and shutdown. 7. Reboot with only the one system disk attached.
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7.Upon reboot into Windows, if system still fails, try using the Windows installation or Windows Recovery CD and perform the repair option.
Note: the repair option only completes a single repair with each pass. You may have to reboot/execute the repair option 3-4-5 times.

end
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Thanks for getting back to me. About 19 degrees and three inches of snow here in Denver. Probably will be gone a couple days.

The drive letter Z was assigned by me so I could see that partition. The reason I had added it (I remember now) is I have been using a program called Erunt/NTRegOpt. It has to see all the partitions. I can defrag the registry for faster boot. To be hones I'm not even sure it's running correctly in Win7 on either of my machines so I may remove it.

Ya.. as for TIH I don't get why this happens when using the boot CD. It does not when using restore within the Windows environment. I think if I had told it to make Z the active partition it would have been fine as ultimately that's what was needed. That partition is the one Win7 creates. Still don't know why it changed the layout and then didn't allow me to correct it.

Do you know if I will be negatively impacted by the new layout of the partitions?

If the partitions have been restore into different partitions, then yes, there could be issues.
How does the new arrangement differ from the original?
For example, if the Recovery partition is in a different position, then most likely, you have lost the ability to restore the computer back to factory fresh--using the HP Recovery.

Frankly, I would like to investigate more as to what and why this happened. If you have a little bit of spare time, I would very much appreciate your simulating the first steps of your past restore using the same backup file.

Boot from the TI Rescue CD and use the Recovery procedure and browse to the same selected file and then follow the attached PDF GUIDE.
Use this very short PDF guide to adjust the information displayed by Acronis.

Once the guide has been completed with cell phone screen pictures, you can stop the simulation and reboot to normal.

Once we see the results of your pictures, hopefully, this should help us to understand what went wrong.
Your results will show what was included within the backup and will also show the arrangement of your partitions at time of backup creation.

PS: Regarding your shutdown issue, I have some workarounds for you to try but I would like to resolve this first.

PS: Most likely, you are Broncos fan and I too am a fan of the nearby New England Patriots.

Edt: pdf updated Dec 26.

Grover...

Off to work earlier than usual this morning. The before and after layouts are already listed above. Thought you caught that.

If you look at post #161 above with my two screenshots you will see in the first photo the layout of the disc. This is also the layout shown in the details of the backup I have. The second image shows the layout (look toward the bottom of the second pic) of the HDD after the restore is complete. So I'm confused as to what happened. Make sense?

As for the shutdown issue I do want to come back to that. I'm currently seeing two different issues. 1) when doing the backup when telling Windows to shutdown this has been working for a while on my two machines now it's posting the age old message about "please wait...". On a client's machine I have it scheduled to backup at 10pm and then shutdown. The backup will run but not shutdown the PC. Matter of fact it's not doing the backup everyday either. FYI for later.

Broncos! We should be able to handle the Chiefs without issue. If Houston loses in Indianapolis then Brady gets to play in our house. Be fun to watch that game.

If the partition listing in first post was information obtained from the beginning screens of the restore procedure, the list is most likely NOT A TRUE representation of the actual partition arrangement. The true partition sequence can only be obtained from the backup following the procedures outlined in the pdf in post #8.

In post #4, what drive letter is assigned to the Recovery partition?

Why I feel the completion of the pdf (post #8) is important is that after resorting the data to be displayed based on the partition number (1,2,3,4) and the start/end sector, that redisplayed information will provide us with knowledge as to what the true partition arrangement was on your computer at time of backup creation. The old partition information is the basis for what the replacement information has to match. This resorted backup information would match what would be displayed by Windows Disk Management graphical view--if you had such a picture or printout taken before any restoration of a backup.

If and when you can spare the time, executing the steps in the pdf in post #8 could be beneficial but we will only know once the comparison has been completed between the results of the pdf and your recent restore. This comparison will give us a clue as to what the differences might be in partition layout.

.

Jonathan,
Suggest you start an original post of your own as your post about Windows 8 does not relate tho this posting.
you can copy and paste the contents of your posting above into a new post of your own.

I'll admit after busy day starting early I'm not sure I'm fully on track with you. I took a pic with my cell and added below. It's based on figure #10 of your PDF. This is the file I have on my NAS that I just restored from.

No drive letter is assigned to the Recovery partition.

You did exactly what I asked you to do and provided the information requested. Nice job!
Your last picture confirms that your partitions at time of backup were in the same location as shown in my post #3.
----p1= system partition---p2= seagate partition(C)--------p3= Recovery partition------p4= HPTools(D)
starting sector----2048----------------409600------------------------926976000------------------97695699

Now the next step is from within Window, to open the Windows Disk Management console and look at the graphical view--same as post #3.
Does your Disk Management view match post #3. If yes, then the restore was correct. If no, how do the positions differ?

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In Summary:
As to why your disk restore(disk checked) ended up in single partition resizing I do not know. Check marking the disk option is supposed to instruct the program to do all that automatically. The one piece of confusing information about your last picture was that the partition numbers went 1,2, 4,3 whereas the start/end sectors clearly indicated that the structure was actually 1,2,3,4. This may be the cause of the non-standard restore procedure. Or, the 1,2,4,3 could be nothing more than a data display issue.

Just in case you are in this situation again where a disk option restore does not work correctly, review this link.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2009/08/3426/mar15-g…
This will give you a feel for how to work with single partition assignments. As to why the wrong partition was marked active, this is something the user must recognize and correct /overrule the program when working with the partition which should be active.

I will await your response about the Windows Disk Management comparison.

PS: I wish I could take Cell phone pictures as good as yours.:)

Not sure how this is really different from the images I posted earlier. You can see the partitions are different.

Windows has been running ok. But so far. No issues with apps as of yet. But the partitions are shuffled around. Z is at the end instead of the beginning for example.

**reminder that I hope we can hit on the two different backup issues. 1) backup then shutdown 2) backup at windows shutdown

Just to butt in on this, go to the Windows command prompt and type in:

diskpart

list disk -- check what you see here against what either TI or Windows Disk Management show

select disk -- get your disk number from the above list

list partition -- this will list all the partitions in the order they appear on that disk.

Regarding the pictures in post #4. I have repeatedly 'suggested" to acronis that they use equal size windows so you can read the labels and information about the partitions. To little information is provided by the small windows for me to ascertain its content to be anything like what you have shown in post 15. I was surprised to say the least. It was not what I was expecting.

At it stands now, I believe you will be unable to use the HP Recovery should you have a need and perhaps have other future issues Unfortunately, my suggestion is that you start over with a fresh start.

If you had considered moving to a larger disk, now might be the time, otherwise, we will restore onto the old disk but use different procedures.

My suggestion is that you use the guide #1 as shown in link #3 inside my signature.
This guide illustrates (from the CD) how to

Step 1 will be use the Add disk option and delete the existing 4 partitions on the old disk so all space become "unallocated". Be careful to choose the correct disk for partition deletion. Don't choose the one containing your backups. NO reboot necessary.

Step 2 -- restore partition 1 but make sure the space preceding partition 1 is set for the 1 mb offset. Click proceed & without rebooting

Step 3 - -restore partition 1 (system z) and click proceed. Without rebooting, start again

Step 4 -- restore partition 2 (seagate) & click proceed.

Step 5 -- restore partition 3 (recovery) & click proceed

Step 6 -- restore partition 4 (Fat32) also check mark "Recovery Disk Signature" found on target disk screen, & click proceed

Step 7 --we will NOT restore the track0/mbr due to your prior restore issues

Step 8 -- Upon completion of the restore. Shutdown and remove the disk containing backup.

Step 9 -- Reboot with the Partition wizard and remove the drive letter from partition z.
The view provided this program will also be a clue as to the approaching boot. Confirm that the system partition 1 is marked as active.

Step 10 --Finally reboot into Windows.

System information you will need for your restoration.
Partition 1= system Z, ....Primary partition,...ACTIVE,...size= 199MB (note this is MB and not GB)
Partition 2= Seagate, .....Primary partition, ... size= 441.82 GB
Partition 3= Recovery, ....Primary partition, ---size= 23.654 GB
Partition 4= HPTools, ...---FAT32 partition, .....size= 107 MB (note this is MB and not GB)

Review the guide and review how the above will fit into its procedures. My suggestion is that you read or practice with the guide a few times until it feels comfortable. We can always start over so take your time when time is not an issue.

After your review, let me know if you have issues.

PS: If the disk option restore had been offered to you , it would have been so much easier. But..., since you had the same problem twice or more, this is why I am suggesting a different method which should not offer any restrictions.
Note: this will be my last post tonight.

.

Thanks for the info Grover.

A couple of thoughts: 1) I chose to restore the MBR. Do you think this was the issue. I would have thought this would be fine. 2) The HDD is a hybrid disk. 500Gb and I'm not sure if I'm using 100Gb. I've restored before without issue. 3) I have the .tib file on the NAS. 4) I also have a .tib of the out of box state as well. I wanted to preserve it so I have this .tib on my NAS on secondary drive on my desktop. It's what the HP recover state would be.

I don't think restoring the mbr would have been the cause but the disk being a hybrid may be the cause of your partitions not being properly recognized for a disk option restore. That is just a guess on my part and your guess is as good as mine.

Just for the heck of it, after you use the add disk option and delete all existing partitions on the disk, simulate doing another disk option restore and move through the screen and see if any the screen presented are any different.
If the disk option restore was working correctly, you would
1. Single check the disk as to what is to be restored.
2. Click/select the target disk
2a. Checkmark the Recover Disk signature option
3. click Next and the next screen should be a summary screen with the proceed option.

If the above is what you get, then you can proceed with the disk option restore as all the above is normal. However, if you are pushed back into same as before, then cancel and use the instructions provided last night.

You did see my posting on your shutdown issue page?