Dell Optipliex GX620 Universal Restore Fails
We have several Dell Optiplex GX620s which we need to image, and for some reason the master image we successfully use to restore to our other models will not work properly on the GX620. A universal restore to the 620 yields a BSOD, so we performed a regular install of Windows on a GX620, created a separate .TIB for it, and used that to restore to other GX620s. When using that TIB, restoring to other GX620s (whether we select the Universal Restore option or not) results in the operating system hanging at the splash screen. It loads in safe mode, but not in safe mode w/ networking. Booting with the /sos /bootlog /noguiboot switches shows that the system is hanging after mup.sys is loaded. The last item loaded in the bootlog.txt is "Loaded driver ...mouhid.sys".
We're using the latest build of Acronis V. 9 as we haven't upgraded to 10. Has anyone experienced behavior where true echo w/ universal restore was just not able to back up and restore an operating system to another machine even with similar / same hardware?
-Keith
I've come across this problem before. There appear to be various fixes, some of them Dell related.
1. Faulty memory or perhaps needs reseating.
2. Turning on IOAPIC in the BIOS.
And from another site I found this list.
- Hard disk failure or corruption
- A corrupted registry or registry hive
- New hardware has been installed but not did not completely "Register or re-Register" correctly
- New hardware has been installed but it is faulty or failing
- The new hardware's driver or windows itself has been compromised (Disk data corruption or by a virus) or (rare) needs to be updated
- The power supply is marginal in output or failing (Common per user feedback)
- BIOS\ESCD\Motherboard chipset driver conflict with a component, its driver, or its registry data
- Existing hardware including the motherboard may have failed in a specific way but not catastrophically.
What would be handy would be for you to configure the machine to not reboot when it hangs and post the actual error message at the bottom of the wall of text.
Hi Howard,
Thanks for the reply. I have tried to image at least 7 different Optiplex GX620s with at least 5 different TIBs. I know it isn't a hardware failure or corrupt image as these issues only exist when trying to restore images to 620s, not any other model. These 620s are also new from DELL, so I doubt they all happen to be defective. My thought on this is there must be some incompatibility somehow with Acronis and this model, maybe related to the BIOS. Your mention of IOAPIC seems interesting, what exactly is that? I didn't see anything referring to that in the BIOS to turn off but I'd like to try that.
Hello all,
Thank you for using Acronis Corporate Products
John,
I would recommend you to check SATA mode in the BIOS.
You can disable AHCI (or RAID which includes AHCI in its functions) and use native SATA IDE emulation mode (SATA/PATA).
How to change the BIOS settings on SATA mode is depending on which brand or model or even motherboard of your computer system. Check your system manual for more information.
For example, in Dell Precision workstation, press F2 to go into BIOS, and then go to “SATA Management” to select AHCI or SATA mode. If you don’t find any option in BIOS to change AHCI support for SATA ports, most probably the drives already runs in IDE (ATA) emulation mode. It’s because AHCI support is depending on the chipset (commonly by Intel) and the HDD.
Thank you.