Every time I get 'Failed to find information about operating system in Master Boot Record.'
Whenever I start True Image 2013 (both the current build 6514 and the previous one, 5551), a warning gets generated in the log:
'Failed to find information about operating system in Master Boot Record.'
I've already done all the standard troubleshooting to completely replace the MBR, replace the boot files, rebuild the BCD database, etc. But nothing helps. This warning still gets generated every time.
Examples of commands I've already run:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd
I've also then used tools such as EasyBCD to write a standard Windows 7 MBR, replace/repair boot files, rebuild BCD, etc.
This is a healthy system running Windows 7 x64, and there is no problem with the boot process. It's very annoying to see this warning in True Image's log every time though. How can I get it to go away?

- Log in to post comments

Maybe someone from Acronis can chime in, since the answer is not going to come from the community?
- Log in to post comments

Can you post a screen capture of your Windows Disk Management screen showing your disk/partition layout.
Does your system have any OEM diagnostic, utility, and/or recovery partitions?
- Log in to post comments

I don't have any diagnostic, utility or recovery partitions.
Attached is a screenshot of my partitions.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
129552-107389.png | 128.03 KB |
- Log in to post comments

Would you also look in Disk Management in top menu
View/Top/disk list/device type
Under device type, is there an unknown device listed for your system disk?
and does this listing show your disk to be mbr or GPT
- Log in to post comments

Attached is a screenshot showing that view. The only device showing as unknown type is a virtual optical drive (Daemon Tools virtual drive).
I should point out though, that I use True Image on two Windows 7 x64 desktop PCs, both of which use a Daemon Tools virtual drive, but I only get the error message on the one. So I don't think that is a factor.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
129557-107392.png | 20.94 KB |
- Log in to post comments

It might be worth disabling the virtual drive temporarily and see if TI still reports the same error. Whilst it might have worked OK with earlier builds that doesn't alwasy mean it will continue in new build, where a fix for one thing might have had an unintended consequence elsewhere.
I recall I tried either ABR11.5 or TI 2013 betas with Paragon virtual drive and one of them had a problem in seeing the drive, but I don't recall seeing any error messages.
- Log in to post comments

I've just tried that as an experiment. After removing the virtual drive and then starting TI, I still get a new warning in the log:
"Failed to find information about operating system in Master Boot Record."
- Log in to post comments

Your 3TB drive is listed as an MBR disk connected by USB.
Can you disconnect it and try to duplicate the error?
If the error goes away, can you connect it to your other system to see if the error moves with the drive?
Since MBR partitions are limited to 2.2 TB, are you running any driver or software that allows the 3TB MBR disk partition to be used as such?
James
- Log in to post comments

James, it looks like you're right in suspecting that drive.
It's a 4TB Hitachi Touro Desk Pro USB 3.0 external drive. When I disconnect it and then start True Image, I don't get the error in the log. It's not so easy to repeat the test on my other desktop PC right now.
Regarding the partition:
There's no need to use any special driver or software to access the full capacity, with it being an external USB 3.0 device. The drive itself manages the access to its full capacity (from reviews I've read, internally it uses 2 partitions visible only to itself) and then just presents itself as a single 4TB mass storage device via USB to the host PC.
- Log in to post comments

Now that the cause seems to have been found, I suggest booting from the recovery Cd and checking whether Linux has any problems accessing that drive.
- Log in to post comments

I'm 99.9% sure I did that very shortly after buying the drive and doing the first backup to it. But that's something I'll try again just to make sure. Bed time for now.
So I guess the ultimate fix for this one will come down to having the software not try to read the MBR for operating system information on a USB connected hard drive that isn't the system drive. I can only think of the system drive being relevent for MBR reading as far as True Image should be concerned...
It might even be the case that the 4TB aspect is not even relevant, if the drive is being presented to the host the same way that other external drives are, in theory. Maybe other users with <2TB external drives see the same things in their logs but no-one has reported it?
- Log in to post comments

From doing some more research online about how the 4TB of space is presented to the host operating system as an MBR partition:
USB mass storage devices larger than 2TB typically use bridge chips to present them as having 4K sector size and with no 512-byte emulation. Such an MBR partition can therefore be much bigger than 2TB (up to 16TB it seems).
In my case, even the underlying 4TB drive (behind the SATA / USB bridge) uses 4K sectors anyway.
So the summary is that True Image 2013 gets confused by large external drives like this, that come preconfigured with MBR partitions. I suppose as more and more people buy and use >2TB external drives, the problem will become more widely reported, and at some point in the future it might get fixed.
- Log in to post comments

I have been working with GroverH for a similar problem at http://forum.acronis.com/forum/55681 but no resolution could be found. What I did discover thanks to GroverH and Collin in this post is:
I tried an experiment this morning. I disconnected the 3TB drive before starting the computer. That drive is my main backup drive. Once the PC was up and running I connected the drive. As soon as the drive was recognized by the computer the Acronis scheduler started the scheduled backup. Acronis is still complaining about "Failed to find information about operating system in Master Boot Record" and now "Sync Agent service error. Restart your computer." since I disabled the service but I don't care about that. It should be configurable within Acronis as well as nonstop backup which I also disabled.
Assuming repeating this procedure yields the same results consistently I have to conclude the Boot Record warning is not the cause of the scheduler problem but it is the external 3TB drive connected to the Inateck Superspeed 4 Ports PCI-E to USB 3.0 Expansion Card. The 1.5TB drive connected to the same card does not seem to be causing a problem.
Note, all the internal SATA devices on this PC are listed as unknown type including the boot drive.
- Log in to post comments