Can't restore yesterdays C backup to C today because the disks partitions are different sizes/names?
Ok, I screwed up. I backed up my C drive before I made a change to some Windows settings so I could revert back if I didn't like them. When I told TI2020 to restore from the backup it went ok, and then rebooted and all I got was a Loading... then a black screen. I let it sit for 30 minutes hoping it would start up and restore. But it didn't. (I had validated that backup Twice today!! So, then it would not boot into Windows at all.. What to do...???
So, I had an 5 month old C backup that I thought I could restore the C drive to, so I could at least boot into Windows and then use Acronis again to restore yesterdays backup again. Big mistake, I forgot that that old backup was made when I had C on a RAID drive. So that C drive got messed up pretty good with the MBR I think. I started getting Blue Screens saying INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE whenever I tried to use usb stick Windows Repair, Windows Install, or pretty much anything I tried. But I was able to boot into Windows 10 Install with USB stick and get a dos prompt. So, I ran DISKPART and deleted all the partitions. I was then able to install Windows 10 Home. So, I thought I was almost there... NOT!
I installed Acronis TI 2020 on that fresh Windows install and when I go to restore yesterdays backup the 'Restore Now' button is disabled. I think it's because the backup's three partitions(System Reserved 500mb; Local Disk C:; and Recovery Partition) have different names, sizes, and are in a different order than what the disk currently has(see pics). The Acronis TI2020 usb stick still boots to a black screen too!
I always thought you could backup a disk and restore a disk, and it didn't matter what was on the disk you were restoring 'to' because it was going to overwrite every byte (aka image?). So why does it care what is on the destination disk???
And what do I do now?
Your next step is to go back to the new install of TI in Windows and create a recovery media using the default Simple option. This will give you a WinPE recovery media that will boot on your hardware.
In TI 2020 Tools > Rescue Media Builder, the Simple option for my USB stick says it will be WinRE-based media, 64-bit media type. Not WinPE. I do find the WinPE option under the Advanced option. And it has these 3 options:
- Windows Recovery Environment
- Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10
- Windows 7
I assume it is the Windows 8, 8.1, 10 option that I should use???
And it says I need to download a Windows ADK & Windows PE Add-on? Is this the correct path to take?
BTW, Thanks a ton for your help!! Really appreciate it!
WinRE is the same as WinPE without needing to download and install the Windows ADK & PE Kits - the files are taken from the Windows Recovery Environment instead.
Mustang wrote:You're going to need to know how your Windows system booted (UEFI or Legacy BIOS). The recovery media MUST be booted the same way your Windows system booted for the restore to be successful.
Do you mean how my C: ATI Backup system booted, or how my current new install of windows booted?
(At first I thought you meant that when the Rescue Media booted up it would prompt me for UEFI or Legacy)Booting the recovery media UEFI will give you a restored disk formatted to boot UEFI/GPT.
Booting the recovery media Leagcy/BIOS will give you a restored disk formatted to boot Leagcy/MBR.When you boot the recovery media you will have the option to choose. The UEFI option will start with UEFI followed by the type of media (USB or CD/DCD). The Legacy/BIOS option will just be listed by the media type (USB or CD/DVD).
When you say "Booting the recovery media..", do you mean setting the UEFI(BIOS)'s CSM to 'UEFI Only' or 'Legacy OPROM'. My ASUS Maximum VIII MB also has an option called 'UEFI and Legacy OPROM' (which has always been the default for years.
I first tried building rescue media using that Simple WinRE option and it just gave me the ROG logo with spinning dots at the bottom or the Windows blue Logo with spinning dots. It just got stuck there. I tried different UEIF and Legacy settings. One thing I think I noticed just recently is that I think that when I change CSM from UEIF or Legacy, I need to reboot back into the settings again and then select the boot disk. Before I was changing the CSM and also the boot device. But I noticed that UEIF prefix did not show on the any disks at all sometimes, and I think I need to reboot first so it can repopulate the list, select the disk, then boot again?
What version of Windows did you use to create the WinRE media? The spinning wheel suggests you used Windows 7 or an early version of Windows 10. You should download the MVP Tool and use it to make the WinRE media. That should correct the spinning wheel problem.
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2017-forum/mvp-tool-custom-ati-winpe-builder
The WinRE media will be able to boot in both UEFI and Legacy modes. I don't know what your CSM options are. Can you set CSM to Enabled or do you have to choose either UEFI or Legacy? Do you have any idea how your Windows booted?
Your screenshot shows the 2 grayed out disks at the top. This is probably because the backup you're trying to restore was on a RAID0 array on those same two disks. That would mean the backup is twice as big as the disk your trying to restore it onto and it won't fit. You may need to put those disks back into a RAID0 array so the backup can fit.
You will also need to add the RAID driver to the WinRE media so that it will see the RAID0 array as a single disk.
I could not get the WinRE to boot no matter what I tried. So, I made a WinPE with the ADK and Plugin. I can get that to boot into UEFI, but not into Legacy Only.
When I boot into the rescue media under UEFI I get into ATI and when I try to restore, the Destination disk that I want to use (the first one in the list), is Disabled!? So, I'm thinking that is because you can see in the list that it has a MBR (see below)?? And MBR is for the Legacy CMS boot option right? So I would need to boot into Legacy? (maybe I am getting confused.)
When I set the Bios CSM to Legacy Only, and boot into the Rescue Media I get this error. I am booting into the rescue media, so why does this say Windows Boot Manager in the titlebar?? And how do I fix this error if this is how I need to boot?
I just got it FIXED!!!
YEA!
I had to Clear the CMOS. I always forget about that!! So, I just taped a note by my power button that just says CMOS!! Most of the time when suggested solutions for these types of problems don't work it has been fixed by Clearing CMOS. So easy to do, but I always forget!!
I booted from Legacy to rescue media and it finally loaded ok and I restored.
Thanks for all your help.
I'm glad to hear you had success.
Thanks.
Another caveat though..
Once restored, I could not get my onboard hdmi to work. I tried all kinds of settings and nothing worked. Reboot, reboot, reboot... Then I started getting where when I booted, it would not display the boot logo and bios hotkey. It just skipped it and loaded windows. I had to Clear CMOS every time I wanted to get the bios boot menu.
So I bought a new CR2032 CMOS battery for my (probably 9-10 year old) MB, pulled my GB Aorus 1080ti and put in the new battery, and Windows booted right up and automatically showed my onboard graphics. My triple screen on my 1080ti and my 4th monitor now work.
Hopefully I'm good to go with these problems for another 10 years. I'm guessing that this was also the cause of ATI 2020 not booting correctly on my first restore, and several rescue media usb sticks.