Recovery Boot Disk not selecting backup file
I've been using, and restoring, with ATI for years in our office. This is a new and puzzling problem. I am trying to restore the boot drive on a Windows 7 computer. I boot from the recovery disk, browse for and find the backup .tib file, enter the encryption code. As is normal, the list of .tib files is shown. Normally, I right-click on the desired file and select "Recover" and (sometimes there is a pause) off it goes!
This time, it does nothing after selecting "Recover". It likewise does nothing if I select either "Validate Archive", or "Details". It just sits there. I've tried selecting different archives, even ones from older full backups. I've tried booting both the ATI 2017 and ATI 2018 recovery DVDs. Nothing. It just sits there at the Data Recovery and Backup Management screen.
Suggestions? My only alternative is to wipe the disk and reinstall Windows from scratch, which I don't want to do and why I have ATI in the first place.
So, being incredulous that I couldn't get the 'Recover' option to work, I retried a few hundred-dozen more times (or so it seems), and finally got it to work. The difference? The keyboard and mouse were plugged into a KVM switch. When I removed the computer to a more accessible location, and connected a keyboard/mouse directly to the computer (USB), it worked! Very strange because I was actually able to use the keyboard/mouse on the KVM to browse for archives, select/highlight the desired archive, enter encryption code, right-click on the selected archive and get the "Recover", "Validate", etc. menu ..., but that was it. Selecting anything on that menu was completely ignored until I connected a keyboard/mouse directly. I don't know what's up. Does actual menu selection use a different keyboard interface than all the rest? This was true of both ATI 2017 and ATI 2018. A mystery for the developers.
Excellent that you were eventually able to get it work.
I have had similar issues in the past, particularly with older hardware that can have difficulty with USB keyboard and mouse - they prefer the older style connection.
Come to think of it, had that happen to me yesterday.
Ian
Interesting about the KVM being involved here. I have 4 computers all sharing a keyboard & mouse via a USB KVM so will have to try some testing at some point to see if I see the same issue.
I have seen issues where the KVM keyboard & mouse has not been recognised when booting from boot media and thus it ignored all attempts to select a boot option to boot to the default option!
Glad it finally worked. Tough one to figure out here. 2019 scans all connected locations (and attached network shares) for .tib files by default and this has slooooooooooooooowed down performance for recovery for a few people in the forums. It may just be "stuck" trying to parse through all of those locations looking for more .tibs to add to the console.
But, drivers in recovery media can be a bit odd too. Which recovery media are you using? I'm assuming the default Linux rescue media since this is 2018? You could build WinRE media which uses your system default drivers at build and/or can add additional drivers to if there are more specific KVM, usb, mouse and/or keyboard drivers from the manufacturer(s). WinRE should basically already include those for the most part, but the nice thing about WinRE or WinPE (ADK) is that we can add these drivers into the rescue media, but not so much in the default Linux rescue media.
If you haven't checked it out already, try the MVP rescue media builder. It essentially does the same as Acronis, but adds in extra features like file explorer, start menu, web browser... and at build, has options to add custom drivers and things like that.
Yes, I'm using the default rescue DVD. I tried using both ATI 2017 and ATI 2018 boot disks. The really odd thing is that the KVM connected mouse/keyboard worked fine on the Acronis menus to add new drive, browse for backup .tibs, select an archive, enter the password ... everything down to an including right-clicking on the desired archive and selecting 'Recover' from the drop-down menu. Clicking on 'Recover' is where it stopped responding ... repeatedly. When I directly plugged in a mouse and keyboard the 'Recover' action started up in under a minute.
BTW - right there is one of the biggest problems/confusions for ATI recovery novices. First, given the list of archives on the 'Data Recovery and Backup Management' screen, it is not obvious that you have to right-click on the archive to get the "Recover", "Validate", etc. menu. Double-clicking does not do it. Some instructions on what to do next would be very helpful. Second, once the archive is right-clicked and "Recover" is selected, there really needs to be an hourglass/clock/spinner letting the user know it's doing something; it can take up to a minute, sometimes longer (probably dependent on archive size), to get the 'Recovery Wizard, Choose recovery method' screen. I am always tempted to right-click again as, with no feedback, I am unsure if it "took". If it did take, I am greeted with a beep, so I know it's thinking.
Thanks for all those tips on WinRE, WinPE and MVP. I will save your message and experiment when I have some spare time.