Bootable rescue media does not boot
I'm trying to recover a machine that's had a serious motherboard failure, which cascaded into new just about everything except the old case, DVD and data hard drives.
I logged an issue #94470 about True Image Home 2012 fixing validations as a result of that failure. This is another one.
I managed to make a bootable rescue disk using the TIH 2012 on the new 64bit platform (Win7 sp1 64bit OS). It created the disk OK. Testing it - in the drive, boot priority set for DVD 1st, the BIOS loads the DVD and the screen presents
1. the BIOS ad, then over that a numbered/text menu (eg 1. true image home) of the TIH items on the disk (usually, TIH 2012 and disk director 11).
This is the first notable change - using a rescue disk on prior 32bit platforms displayed a basic graphics screen with each item and a short explanation of each one.
2. pressing the number button associated with TIH, the Acronis loader screen logo appears, with the message "loading ... please wait." And it just stalls there. The cursor below the message is not blinking, the CD drive makes shutting down noises and after 5 minutes or more of waiting (way longer than I ever had to for previous rescue disks with the same application file) I have to push the reset button to get the machine to boot windows again.
3. beacsue rescue disks incorporate their own OS, disks created on other machines will often run on a different one. I tried a rescue disk created on another licensed TIH 2012 installed on a 64bit laptop and tested on it OK. The result was same as that outlined above.
The questions.
1. How can I get the rescue disk for the repaired PC to work?
This (rescue disk) feature of TIH which enables recovery from the sort of hardware crash I am now involved in was a major reason for purchasing the TIH package years ago, and I have religiously performed backups of the system disks ever since. But if the rescue system fails it is not worth very much at all.
2. The properties of the rescue disk which failed are 376Mb used, including the rescue manager folder 24 files 98.5Mb.
3. The drive is an LG BD rewriter BH16. When burning discs with other software, I usually have to set the drive write rate to match the disc. In this case, 16x (because the that's the spec for the TDK DVD disk I use) because the default max rate of the drive is faster and known to cause readback validation errors as a result of 'write too fast'. Matching the write rate to the disk fixed that.
I've looked all over the TIH app/bootable rescue disk creator for any way to similarly adjust the burn rate to match the disk, but it does not seem to be there. So I've assumed (never assume anything!) the TIH program automatically adjusts. But maybe it doesn't. If there is a way in the create rescue disk module to match the burn rate to the disk, please advise.
In the meantime, I am feeling very exposed. The backup rescue package I have relied on for years is not doing what it should be in the very situation it was created for.
Davidk
In the account details for TIH 2012, there's a bootable media tab which has an item in it, about 50mb larger than the TIH2012 build 7133 self-extracting file I've been using. Does not say if this is an .iso image or not. Is this the file you mean? (I have an Active iso burner file that allows burn rate setting when burning the disk).
David
That's the one.
This should rule out any issues with your boot media creation. Just use a standard CD for the media. The image will run on both 32 and 64 bit hardware.
Downloaded the file, saved and then opened it with the Active iso burner I have. The disk it was burned to was a TDK CD -R 700Mb capacity, rated at 52x. The iso burner could only muster a maximum of 32x, so there should be no burn rate issues with the result. The reported burn amount was about 272 Mb (memory item, forgot to write that bit down).
Re-booted the PC with this burnt disk in the CD drive. The machine proceeded to load from it, but the result was a failure, as before. Details follow.
After the Cd loaded, the BIOS entry screen on the monitor was overwritten (the BIOS ad and entry keys still displayed, but extra text also shown) by loader text as follows:
"starting Acronis UEFI loader" on the top line, and below that (say 4cm) a numbered text menu like this:
1. True Image Home
2. System Report
3. continue booting.
pressed 1. to get TIH operating, and the machine then cleared the screen and displayed the Acronis boot logo in the top LH corner and this text below that: "loading, please wait . . . "
and I waited, and waited . . after about 30 sec the CD drive went idle (no more motor and whirring noises), and waited another 5 minutes with no further result.
Opted out at this point. Up to now, this was the same result I got from the rescue disk previously reported.
Pressed reset to re-start the PC, and booted to the Acronis text menu as before. This time, I selected 2. System report (as I figured you would want that detail). No visible result - if one was generated I have no idea where it might be located. More waiting, andf again opted out after about 5 minutes.
After re-booting to windows, got some system details that may help:
1. The BIOS (from the system information page) is American Megatrends F6 dated 21/4/2015
2. The motherboard is a Gigabyte H97M-D3H
3. The cpu is an Intel core i3-4170 3.7ghz clock 2 core processor
4. 8gb RAM is installed.
The CD/DVD unit is an LG BH16 (stated before), and the system manager says the drivers for it are Microsoft software version 6.1.7160.17514 dated 21/6/2006.
As part of the recovery of the platform from a prior reported crash (motherboard failure -->new motherboard --> new cpu --> new RAM -->new c drive --> new power supply to run it all. What I got back from the repair shop had windows 7 Sp1 64bit OS installed on it from the upgrade disks, but that's all. Backups from the crashed machine were all 32bit OS, available, but now useless. I had to re-install all the applications I was using the hard way (data and disk available, just very tedious frustrating and painful). The point here is that the CD/DVD drive worked fine during that process - no issues at all in loading software from years old distribution disks. I even created a backup DVD with a number handy program tools on it, and that burnt and read back to validate perfectly.
So what is wrong here? The electronic pieces all seem to work fine with windows 7,sp1, 64bit. Yet something is clearly missing when a bootable disk is attempted. . . . . Is it feasible that a BIOS setting (apart from boot priority) related to the DVD might be the cause?
And where would the Acronis system report created in the 2nd cycle I reported here be?
Davidk
Hi David,
Please tell me what you have connected in the way of disks. I know you have a data disk from the previous system. What's primary now? Where is it connected and what operate mode is the controller set to?
Are you using a wireless keyboard and/or mouse? If yes, can you test with wired peripherals. Also try in the USB 2.0 ports next to multi-PS/2 connected (top) if 3.0 is being used now.
Tell me about the graphics. Are you using D-sub (vga, DVI or HDMI) onboard or a discrete GPU. I'll have a look at the board later today... heading off to work now.
Hi,
The drives attached. A picture is worth many words, and I take a DD11 screenshot every 6 months or so for recovery purposes, and after a big one, as happened 4 days ago. The current DD11 disk view is attached: 4 SATA HDD (disks 1-4) connected internally, and 2 USB3 (disks 5 and 6) connected externally (via motherboard back panel connectors).
No wireless accessories at all: useful in some circumstances, but wireless is a party line and an un-necessary security and process complication. keyboard and mouse both cable connected.
Graphics. It has an Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT card installed, in the main to unload the main processors when doing multi-media stuff like video rendering. The monitor is a Viewsonic VX1935wm unit connected to the graphics card.
I've also attached a screen snapshot of the device manager panel with some device types that are in focus for this expanded to show details.
Davidk
David,
Are you trying to force start from UEFI CDROM? ... This is one of two things. Either the program is failing to start from a UEFI boot device, or its failing while trying to scan the disk subsystem. I need to review your BIOS options, but my board (Z97) includes options to disable legacy boot ROM [UEFI only]. If you know of or find this setting, try enabling both UEFI and Legacy option. I'll try to have more for you later.
Hi,
Yep, I made sure I knew how to get into the BIOS at startup when collecting the rebuilt hardware from the shop.
The BIOS is currently set for "Legacy and UEFI". There are options for UEFI only and Legacy only. I have not touched this setting since I got the machine back, but did prowl thru it to make sure that the boot priority was set for DVD 1st. This installation is the first I have seen with a UEFI BIOS: the dead motherboard was also a gigabyte unit (GA-MA78GM-S2H) new in 2009, and even after a BIOS update about 20 months ago there was no mention of UEFI BIOS on that platform. I read the UEFI article on wikipedia but frankly it did not make much sense for such a basic startup function, but the spec has been around for almost 10 years now, and supposedly used by the BIOS makers for some of that period.
Thinking about what I saw - repeatedly on test with several TIH rescue/bootable disks - several things seem to stand out:
1. the CD is accessed for boot - the noises it makes, and the text on the screen which says "starting Acronis UEFI loader". I don't think that could come from anywhere but the CD in the drive. Incompletely, because the message and menu text described is overlaid on the BIOS logo screen (ie that BIOS screen is not cleared). Commentary: on the old (new dead) machine, it cleared the screen and just showed the starting loader message on the top line, and this was followed quickly by a lo-resolution image (blue background, Acronis logo and a menu of bootable items each in their graphic box.
2. selecting a menu item does clear the screen and shows the Acronis loader and wait message, as described. On the old machine it took a short time - several seconds before the loader displayed a line or two of activity and them the higher resolution screen of the booting application. In this instance, there's nothing after the please wait message for a very long time.
So I think your remark about mis-reading the boot files on the CD looks to be in the right direction. But it does not make much sense to me - the same BIOS setting reads the windows boot files from the 2nd priority HDD (if there is no disk in the Cd drive) in a normal boot cycle and starts windows fine. Those internal HDD units are all WD Caviar black units: the C drive is 160Gb, and the rest newer 500gb items.
David
PS. Noted that you use the overclocked version of the same motherboard I've wound up with. Coincidence.
Update. I've been RFM'ing the motherboard manual re the BIOS.
According to the manual data, the UEFI option is for GPT formatted or partitioned disks. The example of the latter given is Windows 7 64bit, which is the OS now installed. And the default boot mode of "UEFI and Legacy" seems to be only changeable when Windows 8 features are enabled (CSM support set to Windows 8)(manual attached pages 25, 26 and 27).
So, if the bootable disks created by TIH are "legacy" format, they probably would not be read by a UEFI BIOS boot sequence, and even if the boot mode could be changed to legacy only, the normal boot with windows 7 64bit on a GPT partitioned disk would probably fail. Catch 22. Is there a way to use DD11 to detect the format of the boot partition of the C drive? All windows explorer says about it is that its an NTFS folder, and DD11 similarly says it is primary, active and NTFS. (top drive bar in the DD11 image I attached previously).
With some trepidation, I took one of the rescue disks (the bootable one downloaded per your advice) that failed on this motherboard to my wife's computer and tried to boot it there (she has issues with me fiddling with 'her' machine, at least until something goes wrong on it). And it worked fine. There's nothing in the BIOS of that PC about UEFI, so one presumes it is legacy. But why it won't work on my desktop with the boot mode set to UEFI and Legacy beats me.
David
Hi David,
Yes I have a Gigabyte Z97 board. I do not OC however. Have plenty of horse power. This is my first Gigabyte product. I dumped Asus after 13 yrs.
I looked back and confirmed the following in 2012's documentation. It states 2012 latest build Update 2 supports UEFI BIOS and GPT formatted disks. So it shouldn't have a problem starting on a UEFI capable machine, regardless of BIOS settings.
Then I dug up a 2012_7133 boot cd.
Guess what.... select #1 and I received an EFi runtime error.... then a black screen. So I was right about there being an issue with UEFI, even though the documentation states support. May support other hardware, but not ours.
I know one thing for certain. 2015_6525 works perfect with this hardware. I'd say its time for an upgrade. But at least we have our answer.
What a relief. In part, anyway. Details and some commentary/suggestions follow.
Downloaded TIH2015-6613, installed. Did a backup of the C drive, and that ran to completion. Good so far. The backup files (in 4.7gb parts) have an unusual filename suffix after the partition name, eg SYSTEM64 (C)_full_b1_s1_v1.tib. I'm guessing that the full bit relates to a full backup, but the rest (b1_s1_v1) is ???? Is there an explanation of that anywhere? In the older version there also used to be an option to include things like a date in the filename. Useful because when copied the stored date of the file is the date of copy, not date of creation. That's gone, it seems. Is there a reason why?
Also downloaded the bootable .iso disk image for 2015, and burned a disk. And it works when booted from CD on the UEFI BIOS. hallelujah!. On both the UEFI BIOS and (my wife's laptop again, sour looks) a legacy BIOS.
Feeling good, I burned a copy of the bootable download .iso file for DD11. That fails on a UEFI BIOS. It runs a bit further than the TIH2012 rescue disks did, got to the "Acronis, loading please wait" screen, ran many lines of a script and finished on a line that said "no raid disks', and broke there. On the legacy BIOS machine, the disk booted and ran as expected. Disk Director versions generally match the operating system releases, and DD11 was the version that went with Win7 (or so the message notes on versions at the time indicated). Despite windows 8 (DD12) being available, and soon windows 10 (presumably DD13), there are and will be a lot of win 7 machines around for a long time. DD11 users who expect that tool to work on a UEFI platform will get a rude surprise if they attempt to use a rescue disk to recover (eg, new disk for C drive, create and format a primary and active partition on it,) on a UEFI Bios platform to create a partition as a precursor to recovering a backup image to it. I didn't have to do that because the repair shop did it, but that was the approach I was initially expecting to take with the latest failure event. Being dragged into a software upgrade after the fact of a failure, and because of a BIOS technology change is not a good look. I think it would be a good customer support idea for Acronis to release an patch to DD11 to fix that UEFI boot issue.
Another approach to DD11 on a rescue disk involved creating a bootable rescue disk from the module in TIH. In 2012, that method had the option to include all the Acronis tools installed on the PC, and I used it: the recover process from a crashed disk or anything similar would generally involve re-creating the partition before restoring the image: 2 tools. One bootable rescue disk was better than 2. Acronis clearly recognised this in the way 2012 created the media.
So I opened 2015 and used the rescue module to create a rescue disk. No options to include all the Acronis tools on the PC this time: disk in the drive and go. There was an indication that including all the tools might now be automatic because of the size of the burn files. Inserted the burned dual item rescue disk in the desktop and booted. But the only item on the menu was TIH2015. DD11 conspicuous in its absence. The boot with just that app loaded OK. Took that disk to the legacy laptop (lots of pointed looks from herself now) and booted. And both apps are now in the menu. DD11 ran Ok from there.
The results clearly suggest that UEFI BIOS support is in the DD11 application it self - as it was for TIH. Patching it for UEFI BIOS support would probably also get both items displayed on any 2015 rescue media disk used on a UEFI BIOS system.
Thanks for the help and solution. I was feeling pretty stressed for quite a few days.
David
FIX FOR THE BLANK SCREEN!
This Fix is from the user
Alan Rowe
i hope that helped you all, Thanks
The BLANK screen occurs due to me using 2 monitors, one from a graphics card and the other from my 3770K CPU!
I saw a video on YouTube of someone doing this on an ASROCK motherboard so I thought I would give it a try.
I have an ASUS motherboard and have the iGPU Multi-Monitor ENABLED I had to DISABLE it and then the USB recovery disk worked.
iGPU is found here in the ASUS BIOS :-
- Advanced\System Agent Configuration\Graphics Configuration
Hopefully someone from ACRONIS will read this and come up with a fix to this annoying problem.
I hope this helps some of you others on this forum.
The way I have my monitors setup is the main display is taken from my GTX 970 and my secondary display is taken from the motherboard/CPU output. I think this is what causes the problems for Acronis maybe?
JannahPro, Thank you for bringing this up! And of course many thanks to Alan! We will check your scenario.
thanks regarding the GPU tip in the BIOS. I had a different naming but played around with some settings (VGA something and EFI) and its working now for me.
not a helpful comment but wanted to say thanks :)