ATI 2011 seriously unstable, even dangerous
I have been using ATI since V6 and used every version since, swore by v9 but it doesn't run on Windows 7 for me. I have two internal HDD, C with two partitions C and now E (was O but ATI changed right through a reinstall to E) and D which the ATI Boot CD sees as F now. Windows shows C, E and D following a reinstall necessitated by ATI 2011 but ATI and every other program now see C as a reserved partition and D as F so no restore is possible. This all came about as a result of a restore that ATI said was successful but really wiped my C drive clean and switched drive letters. Even after a total reinstall there was no Windows Old folder as Windows said the drive space was unallocated, even after this clean reinstall my drive letters in Windows show as one thing and in any programs Boot CD as another, ATI and all see a fictitious F drive and only one can restore to D which should show as C. ATI seriously altered something deep within my computer that I'm not sure even a reformat will fix. By the way, both Computer Management and a partition manager say all is fine too.
It may help if you can describe the problem in more detail.
Drive letters are not stored on the MB or in the BIOS. They are stored in the Windows Registry.
A "clean" install of Windows will reset the drive letters back to normal. TI can't stop that. I have to assume that you didn't do a clean install.
Drive letters when booted to the TI CD may be different than those in Windows. It's important to label the partitions and use that instead of the letters (Win_C, Data_D, etc.).
The System Reserved Partition should be Active. The Windows partition should be Primary. These are the defaults. If you haven't been restoring them that way, you might want to try again.
Also, is "v9" TI 9 or TI 2009 and what version are you using for the restores?
Could be doing things wrong but, in my experience, something would have showed in 6-7 years, right away actually. Maybe ATI shouldn't be capable of doing this but it has and the v9 is TI 9 and now ATI 2011, build 5519 and its predecessor. The details are been using ATI since TI 6 and never had a problem, using a Boot CD only (ATI isn't installed) as ATI started getting rather bloated around TI 9 and only create full backups. Windows 7-32 bit, 2 discs, 3 partitions C, D and O,( now showing as E), using AtI 2011- I successfully restored (ATI said it was successful) an image but when I went to boot couldn't. I tried to restore from ATI again but no longer showed a C drive except as a 100 MB Reserved and as all my partitions and writers had new letters. I then reinstalled Windows but even a backup no longer works as ATI shows C as reserved, Windows sees all partitions fine and all my backups are where they should be, the reinstall showed C as unallocated space with no OS. A clean install, and it was, shows C, D and E partition that had been O, wiith backups on D where they were, the reinstall created no windows old file as there no longer was an OS and the ATI Boot CD now shows C as reserved, nothing on D or E and a new drive F (from Boot CD only) where the backups show. Can't restore but another utility shows the same and will restore to D which is actually C. A second clean install (choosing custom rather than upgrade) shows the same but with a windows old folder and a message all my data will be overwritten. Partitions show as active or primary as they should and there is no use changing drive letters as if this happens again I can't boot no matter what letter the drive has, changed D and E anyway and they showed in Windows but not the Boot CD plus there is no F to change. Also, a minor frustration but now I wonder is 2011 would freeze on the loading screen about 30-40% of the time causing me to do a hard shutdown and then restart, 2010 too and it wouldn't continue on to Windows either. The odd thing is this F drive any Boot CD shows but doesn't exist that ATI created, the Boot CD shows C, D, E and F but windows shows no F. Thanks
Could you post a screenshot of what Disk Management shows for the drives?
Also, one showing what TI sees when booted to the CD would probably help. You would need to use a digital camera and then post the picture.
Here is a screenshot of Disk Management and also from a partition utility. F only shows as an extra partition from within the Boot CD and can't be changed because it doesn't exist.
Things appear to have changed again within the Boot CD, froze again today but booted into Windows after the time counted down. Sees C as a the proper drive and backup on E (is really on D) but haven't gone through a restore yet, not sure if I should. Still shows the F drive though.
You really should label the partitions. You can do this from Disk Management or from Explorer. Right-click on the partition/drive and select Properties. The box for the label is at the top.
Drive letters should not be used for recognizing which partition is which between Windows and TI's CD version. TI uses Linux and drive letters in Linux are usually not assigned in the same order as Windows (Linux does not even use drive letters). This is especially true if the user has changed any drive letter assignments in Windows. It's much better to use labels as those are shown correctly for each partition in both environments. If you don't use labels, you have to go by the drive, partition size, and format.
There should not be a problem restoring the Windows partition image back to the Windows partition -- it just needs to be the correct partition.
Have you downloaded the ISO file for TI from your Acronis account and created a CD from it? It uses a different loader and may have more current drivers. It may work better than the CD created using TI.
Ok, this is officially odd. I just used 2011 to see if a restore would work and it did but totally freezing on the boot screen first requiring a hard shutdown, no counter to Windows was even visible this time. The restore did work and now F is gone. I realize the Boot CD uses Linux but where did F come from and ATI still completely wiped my drive and may again. I still think 2011 was rushed to release and is unstable, just wish I could use TI 9, probably used it 3 years with no problems. I will label my partitions, just never had any problems before. Thankyou for the help.