Restoring from backup kills network (Windows 7)
Hello I am using TIH 2011, an SSD for Windows 7, and a 1TB HDD for backup.
I go into the boot CD, choose back up my drives, select the SSD drive to backup (whole disk backup, not sector-by-sector) and do a full backup to the 1TB drive.
The backup goes fine, and restoring back to the SSD after a format/messing about/whatever goes fine, SSD is perfectly aligned every time and everything runs fine.
BUT sometimes, seems randomly, when I restore Windows 7 back to the SSD, everything is completely fine except it shows "network cable unplugged", what could Acronis have to do with this?
I've checked the cables etc obviously, network runs fine on a Linux Live CD or anything else, except the Win7 I restored. I tried the drivers, settings, everything...
This has happend 3 times now (every time straight after a restore), it happened earlier today after I restored Windows 7 again.
In my BIOS I have only 1 of the network adapters enabled, and the other 1 disabled, as I only use 1. But Changing to the other 1 and plugging the cable in to it makes Windows 7 network work again (on the new adapter).
If I change it back to the original adapter it doesn't work. I'm trying to explain this the best I can as I'm worried about using TIH 2011 now, EVERYTHING works perfectly when restored- 100% but for whatever odd reason it messes with the network adapter (which it definately shouldn't!)
The first time it happened, straight after restoring, I installed Ubuntu on my SSD and ran it for a few days, then decided to restore my Windows 7 back, and to my surprise the network was working fine (as it was before), up until I restored again yesterday. To avoid any confusion, I want to make this clear- this is not hardware related, or user error, or settings etc, it is 100% to do with TIH and restoring, any ideas? Need an answer asap!
Edit- something definately changes when you restore (I am fully backing up files only, so my backup size is only 7GB although my SSD is 60GB) I noticed it the first time when I restored and opened Steam (which is set to auto-login) and it asked for my password, as if it knew something had changed.
What changes could possibly be made from Acronis? I thought it was meant to be 1-1 backup
I am using partition backup, I'm backing up the whole SSD (1 partition- I formatted the drive before I installed Windows 7 to get rid of the System Reserved Partition).
When I go to choose restore I choose the SSD and MBR (Track 0) this normally works fine except this network adapter bug- I just this second ago read about someone else having the same issue as me but using Acronis Backup and Restore who said after a restart it disabled network.
I am doing a full backup each time, not incremental.
I choose to backup the whole SSD drive, but not sector-by-sector as I read that is a bad choice for SSD and Trim, or SSD's in general.
So from what I gather, I am backing up any files that are on my drive, and it just excludes free space etc and places the files (every single one of them) back on my SSD, therefore the backup file is small in size compared to a 60GB sector-by sector backup.
I'm not going to continue using it until someone knows what could be causing this, as if I continue to backup, they could be getting more and more unstable for all I know.
Possibly SSD related? Trim is enabled. Or just an Acronis bug? As I said everything works fine 100%, completely fine, except it kills the network adapter completely and there is nothing at all I can do to get it working again, apart from a re-install.
I'm using the second network adapter at the moment, as the other 1 "died" from the previous restore, and it's working fine, but if I backup then restore again and it kills this one as well, I'm left with no network/internet at all and will have to do a full clean re-install of Windows 7, all my programs, and endless hours of settings- understand why I'm concerned? lol
I agree, if Matt is using a file backup, that can miss some things. I have had the issue with codecs, or various system keys, for example when I used a disaster recovery from another backup software that is file based.
In ATI, NSB backup and T&D generate other issues in unpredictable ways on Windows 7 (software activations, another key issue).
Definitely use disk/partition images of the full "system reserved" and "system" partitions on Windows 7. For Matt, definitely backup the entire SSD using disk backups.
Thanks for the replies:
Pat- I AM using full disk backup, backing up all the SSD partitions to the full, and restoring them all (MBR Track 0 etc)
It has worked perfectly fine lots of times before.... it happens to kill my network completely randomly, even if I have changed nothing.
It also doesn't matter what way I format the drive before I restore- I have tried formatting using GParted, Parted Magic, NTFS, Unallocated space, or just letting Acronis format it for me, nomatter what way I format it sometimes it works fine, and other times my network adapter is completely screwed (unrecoverable)
Matt,
Then you are doing the right thing from a backup perspective. BTW, you don't have to reformat before restoring.
I am curious: how do you restore the NIC after a restore screws it up?
Hi yes I sure am backing up correctly, this is why it's frustrating me.
As for restoring the NIC, I can't! This is what I'm saying, I enabled the second network adapter in the bios and I'm using that as obviously the other 1 is completely out of use (unless I want to do a full re-install of Windows...) this is why I won't be using ATI until some knowledgeable person could explain to me a possible reason for this.
If I restore 1 more time and my current network adapter gets borked I'd have no choice but to do a full clean install, completely defeating the object of this BACKUP program.
This problem has really put me off using Acronis, if I choose to backup the whole drive and all it's partitions, I expect a 1-1 backup with NOTHING CHANGING BY ITSELF.
The thing is, all the files etc are restoring FINE, it's as fast as ever when restored but just this ONE thing (network adapter) is changing, WHYYYYYYY??????
Matt,
From you posts, I understand that the screwed up adapter is working in other environements (recovery CD and Linux). That tells us that this is not a hardware or Bios issue.
The only thing I can imagine is that the image your are restoring includes a software issue between Windows 7 and the adapter.
What stumps me is that you cannot fix it in Windows. But this is where I would concentrate my efforts. I would assume I have a driver installation issue in Windows 7. Did you try to uninstall the driver using a Revo Uninstaller like solution?
No it's not a driver issue, I've tried all that anyway.
I could have a fully working network adapter and Win 7 install, make a backup of it, then restore it straight away and the network adapter will be broken, straight away.
I always seem to get problems no one knows an answer for :(
No it's not a driver issue, I've tried all that anyway.
I could have a fully working network adapter and Win 7 install, make a backup of it, then restore it straight away and the network adapter will be broken, straight away.
I always seem to get problems no one knows an answer for :(
I am afraid you don't have many alternatives: (a) either fix it in windows (which it seems you have tried already), (b) repair windows, (c) reinstall windows.
It is possible that the imaging/restore process doesn't go exactly right every single time. Among all the ways to "go back", this is still the best way. I have now restored my Win 7 ultimage x67 on SSD about a dozen times. I remember having restored once and seen some issues afterwards (printer sharing in homegroup functionality). I solved it by restoring another image (I have daily and weekly backups that run in parallel).
Sorry I cannot help you more.
I THINK I might know what is causing this.
I've recently been playing around with a Hackintosh install (Snow Leopard) a few times and I've been unsuccessful, which is irrelevant, but the first time I had this network trouble I backed up my Windows 7 SSD, went to install Snow Leopard and failed, then restored Windows 7- then had the network problems.
Installed Ubuntu on SSD instead which worked fine, then after few days went to restore Windows 7 and networking worked all of a sudden.
Apparently, Hackintosh installs can (and mostly do) mess with the CMOS (something about it being reset) although the BIOS looks exactly the same settings-wise, I think something in the CMOS has changed and the restored Windows 7 is recognising it, maybe that explains the Steam auto-login not remembering either.
Maybe this also explains that the Windows 7 restore worked after a few days of the Ubuntu install- the PC has been left off for a while maybe allowing CMOS to sort itself out.
Maybe I'm not making much sense, but it's the only thing I can think of that relates to this, as most of the time I've been restoring has been after playing with a Hackintosh install.
I've given up on the Hackintosh now, and now that my Win7 network is currently working with the second adapter I decided to make a back up, secre erase the SSD (for the sake of it) then restore- network is still working!
This could all be a coincidence, but I'll post more if I get the problem again.