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Boot from CD to create image (2011)

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I just purchased Acronis True Image Home 2011 through a vendor who indicated that the software could be run from the boot disk to create an image without installing the software. I was unable to do this on a Dell Poweredge 2950 running Windows Server 2003 R2 SE SP2...

The vendor indicated they use the software in this manner quite regularly, but there are some systems where the software won't run in this way, and sometimes it's hardware related. This server has a video card (NVIDIA QUADRO NVS 290 ?) installed that results in a restart taking 10+ minutes, and the vendor speculated this could be an issue with running the software from boot. Before I try removing the video card, I'm wondering if what I'm trying to do is even possible on this machine, and since the 2011 version is no longer supported, it seems getting forum support is my only option.

The server runs a software that is very finicky about having software installed after it, which is why I want to run the software from the boot disk to generate the image.

What happens when I try to boot the software:
The first thing I see is a black screen that says something to the effect of "Acronis"..."unable to run boot menu"..."press enter to proceed". Once I press enter, the screen goes black, then shows garbled colored lines for a while, then black, then I see the Acronis splash screen, then black, then garbled colored lines again indefinately until I hard-stop the machine.

Thanks.
-E

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Yes, you may indeed create backups when running from the ATI bootable Rescue Media.

The display issues suggest that perhaps the ATI 2011 bootable Rescue Media does not fully support your video card. This is especially plausible if the video card is newer than the software. You should at least download the last build of ATI 2011 from your Acronis account, to see if that makes any difference.

The computer was commissioned in ~2008, so the video card ought to be older than the software.

I put the disk into another computer and began the install process to see if I could find out what build I have... it says the Version is 14.0.5519. Is "5519" the build? If so, there's a newer one available online, build #6942.

Eric,
If all you need is the CD, look at the 6942 listing and download only the bootable media iso file.
This is the file which can create a new Recovery CD.

Once you have the iso file downloaded,
If using Win7, RIGHT clock on the iso and choose the open with Windows Disk image burner.
if using XP, right click on the iso and choose to burn with a free program such as IMGBurn.

The result will be a normal build 6942 TI Bootable Recovery CD.
Build and version identification found in the help file (upper right corner) of a booted Recovery CD.

I have Windows 7 and tried doing as you said, but when I try to execute the burn, the status window says "The selected disc image file isn't valid."

[edit] I was able to make the disc using Roxio [/edit]

Re-download it, just in case it didn't fully download the first time. Make sure the file extension is .iso. If it says "partial" anywhere in the name, it isn't fully downloaded.

In Windows 7, you don't need any third-party software. Right-click the .iso and select "Burn disc image".

I tried booting the most recent build and it was no less a failure than the first attempt. It was, however, a much less cryptic failure. This time I got the following prompts:

Starting Acronis loader...
Acronis Loader: Unable to run boot menu. Press Enter to continue...
Unable to execute program. Press Enter to proceed...
Unable to load initial ramdisk. Press Enter to proceed...
Unable to load Linux Kernal. Press Enter to reboot...
(at which point it loops back to 'Starting Acronis loader..." and repeats indefinitely)

I tried booting the newest build disc I just made on a different machine (my Dell Optiplex 980 running Windows 7), and it also came to "unable to run boot menu", but hung indefinitely after pressing enter. I then tried the original 2011 software disc, and it ran fine. I'll try creating a new disc. Does it matter if it's burned to a CD-R or a DVD-R? I used a CD-R...

I created a new DVD+R disc of the bootable media and tested it on my Dell Optiplex and it booted fine. I tried it on the server and got pretty much the same result as the original disc - Unable to run boot menu. Press Enter to Continue... then a black screen, garbled colors, Acronis splash screen, black screen, garbled colors. The only difference was before the "Unable to run boot menu" came up, there was a screen full of (giberish to me) text indicating something about stack traceback EIDs or something like that, with a long list of number sets. If that's pertinent info, I can repeat the action and make not of exactly what it says...

The vendor provided me an upgrade to the 2013 version, and it failed in the same way as the original 2011 disk did, except that it showd me the screen full of jibberish about EIDs first ("Exiting due to signal SIGSEGV. General Protection Fault at eip=ffbc0100, error=83f4" ...followed by a bunch of hexadecimal stuff similar to the "eip=ffbc0100" bit.)

Then it went to the "Acronis"..."unable to run boot menu"..."press enter to proceed" bit. Once I press enter, the screen goes black, then shows garbled colored lines for a while, then black, then I see the Acronis splash screen, then black, then garbled colored lines again indefinately until I hard-stop the machine.