Does Disk Image Include the OS
A major Win10 update has pooched my system drive and is throwing off an error 'Inaccessible Boot Device'. I'm going to try to repair with a recovery disk. Failing that, I'll have to reformat and re-install the OS.
I have a Win8 disk, Win10 was the free download update, so no disk. If I recover the disk image from my backup, does it include the OS and will it 'reinstall' Win10 when I do the recovery operation?
Thanks.
V2014. I do incremental backups and the last one was this past Monday. Win10 was installed, but it was the free update from Win7, so no install media available. I have my Win7 disk, so will install that, if needed (if the rescue/repair option doesn't work), reinstall Acronis, then recover from the disk image on the backup.
Robert, OK, if you took a full system backup with ATIH 2014 within the last week then this will include your Windows 10 OS.
To restore this backup you need the ATIH 2014 bootable Rescue Media which if you have a working system with the same product installed you can create by following KB document: 44353: Acronis True Image 2014: Creating Acronis Bootable Media
If you don't have another working system with ATIH 2014, then you can download a CD image file (.ISO) from your Acronis Account to burn to CD media and use that instead.
Boot from the rescue media and verify that you can see your backup drive with the Acronis backup file (.TIB) and your Windows drive ok, then you should be able to restore the backup directly to the drive.
Note: if the problem is just affecting the Windows OS C: drive partition, then you should be able to just restore that single partition rather than restoring the whole drive / all partitions.
I don't have another system with Acronis installed. I could install it on my laptop, but would prefer not to.
Can I not install an older version of Windows, then download and install Acronis, then restore from the backup? Would that not overwrite the older version of Windows with the current version?
My backup is on a NAS device. Without an OS installed, there are no networking capabilities, or at least not without using command line and I don't do command line. I'm an end user, not an IT analyst.
The entire C drive is a single partition. I don't split drives. That's just asking for trouble. The OS and programs go on the system drive, data goes on other drives.
Robert, you could install your older version of Windows, then install Acronis but that is a waste of time really as the restore / recovery is going to wipe it all out again. It sounds like your intention is to start the recovery from within Windows which is not the best way to proceed as you will still need to boot into a standalone Linux recovery environment and connect to your NAS device where the backup is stored.
If you have a spare external USB drive of sufficient capacity, then I would suggest connecting this to your laptop and then copying the backup file(s) to the USB drive from your NAS, so that you can use this as a local drive to restore from on your other system. That would bypass the need to establish connectivity across the network to the NAS from either the bootable media or the Linux boot enviroment (if starting from within Windows).
Again, I would recommend downloading the Rescue Media .ISO file from your Acronis account and burning this to a CD disc. If you boot from the CD with your USB drive connected, recovery should be fairly straight-forward from that point.
I don't undestand at all what you're saying. You say I'm making it more complex than it needs to be. To me, the process you describe sounds far more complex.
If I install Win7 on the machine, re-install Acronis, then restore from my backup on the NAS, why is it going to wipe everything out again? It should simply overwrite what exists at the time with what is on the backup disk image, no?
As I said, I'm not an IT analyst. I'm and end user. I'm as dumb as dirt. I don't do all this Linux crap, or ISO-whatever. ISO means two things to me. In Search Of, or International Standards Organization. My laptop is not connected to my home network. I can't easily access the NAS from it. I'm not interested in screwing around trying to get a network connection to the NAS from the laptop. Whenever someone who is a techie says something to me like "should be fairly straightforware from that point," I get VERY nervous. Experience tells me that it's going to blow up in my face.
I need a solution for stupid people.
Robert, lets make this as simple as possible:
What exactly do you want to restore from your backup image stored on your NAS?
If you want to restore your old Windows 10 OS installation, then absolutely NO, it cannot simply overwrite what exists on your current Windows 7 installed system. Many thousands of Windows system files cannot be just overwritten from the backup - these are in-use and locked by the system, and can only be replaced from outside of Windows. When you perform a restore (or recovery - same action, different words only), then Acronis restores the whole disk partition, not just the files on the partition, hence whatever is on that drive/partition is wiped out and replaced with the data from the backup.
Sorry but that is the way it works when replacing a Windows OS installation.
Now, if you only want to restore your user files and folders containing your documents, photos, music etc, then that you can do from within Windows using the Acronis application.
Well, then I guess I'm completely hooped because I simply do not have the knowledge to do what you're telling me I need to do. It is just not within my mental/technical/intelligence capacity to do.
What I want to do is restore my applications, associated settings, etc. I am NOT looking to restore data. Data is stored on completely separate physical drives. All that exists on the drive I need to restore is the OS and applications/associated settings.
Robert, I am in danger of just repeating myself and not adding much to be able to help you with this situation as it seems we are at an impasse at this point.
In order to do what you require "to restore is the OS and applications/associated setting" you will need a level of help that I cannot provide directly via these forums given your stated inability to be able to do this for yourself.
I can only suggest contacting Acronis Support directly per article: 18623: How to get Technical Support: Tips, Tricks and Useful Information - in particular with regard to the following sections of the article:
4. Priority Pay Per Incident Support
- Related to the technical issues with the product
- Priced per incident
- Valid for 1 incident only
- 24x7
- Provided via e-mail, chat, phone
Response time:
- 1 business day
- immediate via chat
- immediate via phone
5. Recovery issue
- Related to recovery issues with the full version of the product
- Free of charge
- 24x7
- Not limited (Assistance with the recovery issue can be requested any time, even if you’re out of 30 days free support and don’t have PPI)
- Provided with e-mail and chat
Response time:
- 3 business days via e-mail
- immediate via chat
You have a recovery issue but I am not sure that Acronis will provide free support given your product is non-current, hence suggesting their Priority Pay Per Incident Support option which I believe they charge at $20.
OK, I have attempted to work through this and am having zero success.
I downloaded the recovery file from my account and burned it to a disk. There are two optical drives in the computer. I have tried setting the boot priority to each one and in both cases, the computer just boots into Windows. I have unplugged one of the optical drives to try and eliminate any possibilities of error in boot priority and the computer still just boots into Windows. The optical drive spins, but the system still boots into Windows. The disk image is sitting on an external hard drive connected via USB, but at this point that doesn't matter because the system won't boot into Acronis recovery.
Robert, take a look at the YouTube video tutorial: [Tutorial] How to Set your BIOS to boot from CD or DVD and see if this looks similar to the steps you have tried when setting the boot priority on your system?
See also: How to Fix Issue Booting to DVD/CD with New UEFI BIOS Boot Order if your computer has the more modern EFI BIOS rather than the older legacy BIOS shown in the first video.
The problem with those videos is that every BIOS is different. Mine is nothing like those. It is UEFI, but there are no options to turn off security, nor any options to use a 'classic' version vs. UEFI. The video says Acronis has an option to burn a UEFI-compatible disk, but no explanation of how to find that information on the Acronis site. And I can't find anything. Guess I'm looking at $1500, or so for a new computer and starting completely from scratch.
Robert, I understand that the videos show different BIOS settings / versions. It is difficult to give you more precise instructions as we do not know anything about your computer system such as the make, model, etc
All of the recent Acronis Rescue Media support both UEFI and Legacy systems and can be booted in either mode.
You should not need to pay out for a new computer if the system you have has just become inoperable due to a failed Windows 10 update.
The simplest method of resolving that issue would be to use the Microsoft Media Creation tool that can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and can be used to create a new copy of the Windows 10 Installation media on DVD. You could use this to start your system and perform a repair or a reinstallation of Windows 10.
For the record, and future reference, it is possible to recover a disk image from inside Windows.
It appears that when this is done, Acronis installs its own boot data initially, then when the computer reboots, it boots into Acronis Recovery and the recovery of the disk image procceeds from there.
That is what I did this morning, and it appears to have worked.
Robert, yes, you can do this from within Windows and Acronis allows for this option, but your original post stated:
A major Win10 update has pooched my system drive and is throwing off an error 'Inaccessible Boot Device'. I'm going to try to repair with a recovery disk. Failing that, I'll have to reformat and re-install the OS.
If the above was true then it would have been impossible for you to recover your backup disk image from within Windows and hence why I focussed on the Acronis bootable rescue media approach.
Bottom line is that you look to have got the problem resolved which is good news.
Yes, but I also asked whether re-installing and then doing recovery would work and you said, unequivocally, no it would not.
Bottom line, many hours of my time have been wasted.
Robert, I am sure that we could waste much more of your time here debating who said what and in which context.
The folks in this forum are volunteers and I have give you my time trying to help you out of a difficult situation - I am sorry that you feel that your time has been wasted in trying to follow the advice I have offered. I guess it is for the best that this has not cost you anything more than just time. I don't consider it a waste of my time to try to help people but perhaps I should revise that consideration and enjoy my retirement doing something else.