Help for a total noobie with HD problems

First, Windows is designed to not boot and run correctly from USB drives. It can be done with XP, but it requires some special modifications. Also, the performance is bad due to USB speeds. In other words, unless you're willing to modify XP, don't bother trying to boot it from a USB drive.

OSS has an option for "protecting" the files/folders of an OS. This option causes it to move these files/folders into the BOOTWIZ folder when the OS is not booted. The first thing to try is turning off that option. Start OSS, right-click on the OS menu entry for the USB XP, select Properties, select Folders in the list on the left. Next, for each folder listed on the right, click the Properties button and select the Disable option. This should move the contents back to the normal places. --- NOTE: You said that OSS doesn't see it at all, but it must have seen it enough to have moved the folder contents.

If this doesn't move the them, some users have reported success by manually cutting & pasting the contents to their correct locations.

I would recommend you create a backup image of the partition before trying anything if you are concerned about losing data.

Thanks for replying

Opened up OSS and it only lists Win 7 on the blue right hand side panel named Operating systems

Any other ideas ?

thanks

In my experience, if OSS "loses" the files, it won't get them back. Even if OSS eventually finds XP on the drive, it won't move the folders back. You will probably have to move them yourself.

I assume that you have tried having OSS detect XP on the drive and it has failed.

OK, thanks to your advice I seem to be getting somewhere.

I have copied over all the BOOTWIZ folders and Acronis OSS picked them up and now shows XP alongside Win 7 as a boot option.

I have no choice at the moment, and have to boot this HD via a USB connection because using the normal IDE connector the PC just doesnt see the drive properly.

Put the XP CD in the drive and tried to boot into the XP Recovery console.... it starts loading filesthat windows needs etc but then it asks me for a Administrator password.... WTF, I have never ever used a password on any PC for Bios or user accounts.
Tried the usual like "Administrator" "Password " etc but it only gives me 3 attempts and chucks me out.

I realise that this part isnt an Acronis issue but any help or suggestions will be most appreciated.
Meanwhile I am Googling if there is a way round this, so far nothing

Thanks

Try your normal Windows password or try leaving it blank (just press ENTER). There are also times when the Recovery Console just refuses to accept anything. You can search the web for "xp recovery console asks for password" and get an idea.

Unless you've modified XP, trying to get it to boot from the USB drive is a complete waste of time.

Just when I thought things were looking up its gone bad !
I am not going to wast any more time on this Drive enough is enough !

Tried everything I could find on this password issue but either nothing worked or it made no sense whatsoever.
Luckily I have an other old PC to use that just about lets me connect to the Internet

This morning when I booted the mainWin7 machine in question I get the following from OSS :-

"Error 3
Acronis OS Selector cannot find the necessary configuration files. Please reinstall Acronis OS Selector."

Can I get round this ?.... can I heck, nothing nada, zip, the PC just powers down !

Now what, I tried the Win7 recovery console, made no difference OSS has now got total control of my PC ! Oh what joy !!!

I can get to the HD by using the command prompt from the Win7 Recovery console, so any ideas on what I can do now ?

Thanks

Yeh ! Join the club... OSS/DD 11 is a real pain the bxxt.. pray for something of a fix by Acronis... should be around somewhere in October... not stating what year though,,,pffff..

My primary focus now is how do I remove OSS via the command prompt, as thats is the only way i can get any sort of access to the Pc).

the command propt is by way of the win 7 Cd recovery console.

Also going to ask this in a new post

Just run bootrec /fixmbr from the Windows 7 Repair Command Prompt. This will replace the MBR with standard code. Note that you will have to uninstall OSS once back in Windows if you don't want OSS installed (it will automatically reactivate itself). Also, you may need to use DD (or Windows DISKPART) to set the correct partition Active. The partitions will be in the state of the last boot-up, which may not be what you want (may boot into wrong OS, for example).

The MBR 3 error is caused because the OSS files got moved. This usually happens because of a defrag.

With DD 10, you would just boot to the DD CD and reactivate OSS. However, this isn't possible with DD 11 because the current build doesn't let you include the OSS programs on the CD.

Hi MudCrab

Thanks for all your help

Tried the bootrec command in all its variants and all sorts of other "fixes" i found on google but unfortunately none of them worked.
Used Hirens boot disk and another fixer disk but nothing worked

I managed to copy via the command prompt all the various files etc that i needed over to my second HD and totally wiped the disk and reinstalled Win7
and now peace and harmony has returned.

i will continue to use Acronis DD but will stay a gazillion miles away from OSS

Thanks

Me too!

DD *may* be OK, but last time it killed all my data in a partition i resized!

Why?

Because it needed to reboot for that operation and THEN, suddenly the laptop went into sleep mode.
Could not recover from that even if i invested several days!

The Acronis support started, this may have been related to my "ThinkPad Rescue & Recovery partition".
Who wants to believe this ...
Anyway, i kill the R&R partion after that too.

And also, DD cannot backup a partition block-wise!
It just copies the filesystem and there is no option to copy all block - which means, you cannot use such a copy for a filesystem-recovery!
Also, it just CANNOT copy partitions with a broken filesystem!
:-|

*unbelievable*

So, want i learned:

1) Do NOT use OSS!
2) Let DD NOT reboot the computer - if it wants to do that, use the Boot-CD instead!
3) Do not try to copy a partition with DD if you want to run any undelete/rescue software.

I do not even start to brag about TIH 11 - that is a *real* desaster!
DD can be used at least ...

:-|