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Can anyone help out a newbie with restoring a .tib file to VMware?

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I'm new to the Acronis software so please bear with me a bit here....

My host OS is Windows 10 64bit and I'm working with VMware workstation player 14 and Acronis 2019. 

My goal is to restore an image of Windows XP to VMware. I though I almost had it, Windows XP would start to boot and then go to system repair, which wouldn't work no matter how many times I tried. I thought that the original .tib file may have been corrupted. 

So I have a new image file that I want to try to boot from. I have read that Acronis 2019 doesn't directly support conversions to VMware bootable files, but I somehow got it to kind of work.The problem now is that I have no clue how I even did it before....

I know I used Acronis universal restore but I don't know how I converted the .tib file to work. I also don't understand the "create bootable media" tool. It doesn't let me select any files to convert to .iso, it just asks for a location to save the file to. So how do I know that I am even booting to the correct image? I've been following the instructions on multiple websites including this one but it just isn't working.

I attached a picture of the .tib file that I converted and it now looks like a harddrive that I was able to kind of boot from.

I really appreciate any help, this has been taking up way to much of my time....

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I attached a picture of the .tib file that I converted and it now looks like a harddrive that I was able to kind of boot from.

Eric, the .tib file in your screen image was created by using Acronis True Image to create a backup image of the original Disk & Partitions on your Windows XP computer.  You would need access to the Windows XP computer to be able to create another backup .tib image file.

To restore an Acronis .TIB file to a VMware virtual machine you would first need to create the VM with an empty virtual disk, then boot the VM from the Acronis Rescue Media ISO file then restore the backup image to the virtual disk.  Once Windows XP has been restored, you would then need to power down the VM, change the Rescue Media ISO to the Acronis Universal Restore ISO and then boot the VM from that media and select the XP OS to be prepared to work with the VM hardware.  AUR may ask for additional device drivers needed for XP to work in the VM environment and if so, you will need to identify those drivers and add them to a new build of the Universal Restore media.

Thanks Steve!

Unfortunently I don't even have access to the Windows XP computer which has made this more difficult. I was sent the .TIB file and I'm limited to that.

I must have done something similar to your instructions I'm working on trying it again. From my understanding these would be the step by step instructions that you gave me.

1. Create a empty VM disk (i.e. don't select an .ISO file or boot from CD drive) 

2. Create a Acronis rescue media .ISO file.

3. Boot VM from Acronis rescue media .ISO file.

Now this is where I get a bit confused. Is it supposed to recognize the .TIB file if it is in the same folder as the VMware file? Or do I create a back up of the .TIB file and restore that? I can copy/paste all off the files from the image file but I haven't been able to use those to boot.

When you say change the Rescue Media .ISO to the Universal, do I literally just delete the Rescue media and copy/paste the Universal into my USB? Any advice on determining what drivers might be missing? I think I downloaded the correct Windows Automatic Installation Kit but none of the AIK's listed on the Microsoft site specifically say they are for Widows XP.

 

Walks wrote:

Thanks Steve!

Unfortunently I don't even have access to the Windows XP computer which has made this more difficult. I was sent the .TIB file and I'm limited to that.

I must have done something similar to your instructions I'm working on trying it again. From my understanding these would be the step by step instructions that you gave me.

1. Create a empty VM disk (i.e. don't select an .ISO file or boot from CD drive) 

2. Create a Acronis rescue media .ISO file.

3. Boot VM from Acronis rescue media .ISO file.

Now this is where I get a bit confused. Is it supposed to recognize the .TIB file if it is in the same folder as the VMware file? Or do I create a back up of the .TIB file and restore that? I can copy/paste all off the files from the image file but I haven't been able to use those to boot.

When you say change the Rescue Media .ISO to the Universal, do I literally just delete the Rescue media and copy/paste the Universal into my USB? Any advice on determining what drivers might be missing? I think I downloaded the correct Windows Automatic Installation Kit but none of the AIK's listed on the Microsoft site specifically say they are for Widows XP.

I guess my main question is at what point does the .TIB file come into play? I've backed it up and tried booting with it in the same folder as the Rescue Media .ISO folder. 

When I boot from the rescue media .ISO, specifiying that it will be Windows XP, it will boot the the Acronis Rescue Media Screen but no operating system is found. So i'm not quite sure what you mean by "When Windows XP is restored".

Eric, you need to create 2 different ISO files, one for the ATI Rescue Media, and one for the Acronis Universal Restore media.

In you VMware VM, you need to select the Rescue Media ISO for the CD drive to load and the VM to boot from.  This may require that you modify the BIOS settings for the VMware VM to set the CD drive to boot ahead of any Virtual disk you have created.

You will also need to be able to access the drive or location where your XP .tib image is stored from within the VMware VM, as you need to be able to select the .tib image from the Acronis Rescue Media after you have booted from it and get to the ATI offline application.  The XP .tib image of the disk then needs to be restored to the virtual disk associated with the VM.

If you can achieve the above, then you should shutdown the VM machine, change the CD drive to load the AUR ISO image and reboot again then apply the AUR application to the restored XP OS on the virtual disk.

2018-09-28 19_50_41 VMware settings.png

Does it NEED to be a physical CD drive or am I supposed to mount the Rescue Media ISO? I've been trying to use a USB drive. When booting from what I believe is the Rescue Media ISO, it takes me to a screen where I can choose to either launch AUR or continue to OS. the AUR doesn't recognize and OS to load even when I make sure that my USB is visible within the VM. I can search through some of the files in the USB through AUR but there is no TIB or OS files to select.

The picture is the screen for the AUR showing no OS available.

 

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Eric, you need to mount the ISO image in the virtual CD drive as shown in my screen image above.

AUR will not find an OS until you have used the Rescue Media to restore the OS from the .TIB file to the Virtual Disk.