Basic question...
The most basic of questions: I can't get ATI2012 to restore an image file...
Just got a new computer: i5-3570, 128GB Vertex4 dedicated system drive, Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H motherboard, with a few older hard drives installed.
Installed Win7 Professional with SP1, created an image file using basically default settings (just changed some performance options and added validation). The image file creates and validates fine.
To check if the backup worked, I tried to restore this file. After thinking for an (annoying) few minutes (saying 'calculating') it eventually reboots and I get the 'Starting Acronis Loader' message. Then the PC just hangs with a black screen...
Now I could spend hours trying to figure it out, but IMHO this should just work.
Some background:
I'm a computer professional, and have been using imaging software since before Norton Ghost was bought by Norton. I got fed-up with its bloating, so in 2006 bought my first copy of ATI.
I've been extremely happy with Acronis products until probably the 2010 or 2011 version. It started becoming finicky, and in the interest of user-friendliness (I assume) Acronis added this IMHO unintuitive user interface layer that continuously got in my way: for instance showing me image files I wasn't interested in, but not the ones I needed (possibly because I don't use the 'My Backups' or whatever they call it, location.)
But ATI was still fundamentally reliable. So I forked out for a family license of ATI2012, which I seem to recall worked fine on my old Core2-Duo XP machine.
Then in January this year I got a new i5-2500 computer (Gigabyte Z68 MB) and went from XP to Win7.
Now the ATI problems started. The PC was bricked multiple times in different ways, and in the end it would only restore an image if I disconnected one of the hard drives... (I believe this started happening after I enabled AHCI)
I recently moved countries and sold the i5-2500 in Australia. Here in Holland I got the i5-3570, and thanks to ATI have wasted two days just getting my English Win 7 copy to run:
- I bought it with a dutch testing version of Win7 on the SSD, which I imaged and then (foolishly!) tried to restore: ATI completely bricked my machine. Because I only have an ISO file of my Win7 DVD with me (limiting luggage weight by not bringing discs was a silly choice in the end ), I couldn't access that anymore.
- So I borrowed a Win7 OEM disc from a local computer store, hoping to burn a DVD of my ISO. However a non-activated version of Win7 disables all kinds of stuff with no, or very cryptic error messages, preventing me from burning DVDs.
- Eventually I paid for a copy of MagicISO (I'd been very happy with their freeware MagicDisc, so I didn't mind giving them some money), which then allowed me to burn the Win7 DVD.
- So now I've got my English Win7 going, but ATI2012 still doesn't work. At least it didn't brick the PC this time...
Sorry if I bored you with the above elaboration, but I'm about ready to ditch ATI altogether. I've now had fundamental problems getting it to run on two different machines, and I basically know what I'm doing. What do non-computer literate people do? (yip I know, they don't image their HDs... :)
With the first machine I thought it was bad luck, but it's getting ridiculous now.
On a superficial browse of this forum I couldn't find a mention of my ATI problems, so I'm hoping I'm doing something silly and one of you can set me straight... Thanks in advance!
Hi James - thanks for your comprehensive and helpful message to wake up to!
I was/am hesitant to do what you suggested, because that's how I bricked the PC with the dutch Win7 installation the first time: it didn't reboot from w/in windows (just like now), so I used the Rescue Media, where it did seem to restore as per normal but still bricked the PC: after restore it booted into the Windows recovery environment which then couldn't fix the problem.
But I guess there's not much to loose, at least I have a bootable Win7 DVD now...
I am surprised that not many other people have reported problems. With the previous computer I could've done non-standard things (I can't remember), but with this one on purpose I kept it all plain and simple.
I'll have breakfast now and will try the Rescue Media restore unless there's any other suggestions.
Thanks again!
You say you restored a backup, but what sort of backup? If you backed up only the OS partition, but attempted a full restore, that could be the problem. You may have missed a necessary hidden partition, and/or the MBR.
Create a full disk backup, selecting the checkbox for the entire disk (not just individual partitions). That ensures that you have everything you need, and you won't need to understand how the disk is laid out with possible hidden partitions. A full disk backup captures everything, and is the simplest, safest backup method.
Tuttle, you're right, I had only backed up the C partition initially, so I made another backup of the entire disk.
Then I tried the Rescue Media Restore as James suggested.
However that hung while starting True Image (black screen, no messages, just as with the restore from within windows), so after the initial boot where it showed the Rescue Media boot menu.
Because I didn't want to risk wrecking my system again, I installed Macrium Reflect Free and made a system backup with that. Its rescue disk didn't boot initially either, but selecting the compatibility mode when creating the rescue disk fixed that.
So I'd love to get suggestions on what Linux boot switches I should try.
Bernt,
I believe your problems with the Acronis bootable Rescue Media are related to the fact that you have UEFI based firmware on your system board.
A simpler more direct way than creating bootable media with Linux parameter switches might be to use YUMI (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/) and create a bootable USB flash drive with the Acronis bootable Rescue Media ISO that you can create from within True Image or download from your Acronis online account. This tends to bypass Acronis' detection of UEFI and skip the Acronis UEFI based program selection menu.
To do so you would need to format a small USB flash drive (500MB or more) as FAT32, download, and then run YUMI. When in the YUMI program, there are only a few steps to create the bootable flash drive with the Acronis ISO on it.
While in YUMI:
Step 1. -- Select your freshly formatted USB flash drive
Step 2. -- Scroll to the bottom of the list and select: Try an unlisted ISO
Step 3. -- Browse to the Acronis ISO file
Click create.
Then boot to the flash drive and select Acronis True Image for use with backup or restore operations.
Hi James, I did what you suggested (and btw I like YUMI!) but it didn't solve the problem. The system hangs with a black screen after the ATI Splash screen appeared, which is way past the boot stage. So I doubt it has anything to do with the UEFI motherboard.
If this is anything like problems I had with ATI on my previous setup, it seems that ATI doesn't like the info it gets from the Linux environment, which could of course be related to Linux boot switches. However I'm out of my depth here, and could be completely wrong. Hopefully you can point me in the right direction!
Are you getting to the Acronis product selection screen (where you get to choose Acronis True Image, System Report, or Windows)?
If so read on. If not please describe what you see exactly in the process of booting YUMI and then Acronis.
Assuming this is related to video (not sure, but start here), using the YUMI bootable media, after booting to the Acronis product selection screen, press F11 and type in vga=ask (you can remove "quiet") then press enter to continue. http://kb.acronis.com/content/2921
You will then be presented with a screen that allows you to select your VGA mode. Choose one that is less than your max resolution (800 X 600 x 32 or 1024 x 768 x 32 are good choices) and enter the appropriate mode and press enter. When you get to the Linux prompt, enter /bin/product and press enter to start Acronis.
Other switches can be tried using the F11 method, see here for a small list of Linux parameters that can be used: http://kb.acronis.com/content/1891
"acpi=off" and "noapic" are commonly used for troubleshooting. They can be tried separately or in combinations with other parameters.
You can press F11 and remove the default "quiet" and not enter any new parameters to see how far the Linux boot process proceeds. Once you have determined if any of the paramenters work for you, you can re-create the bootable media from within Acronis and use the paramenters as additional options when building it. (You could also re-create an ISO and then use YUMI to place it on a USB stick).
I experienced this hanging at the "Starting Acronis Loader" screen many times when I first installed TI2012. The only way out was a forced switch off.
I seemed to resolve most of my issues by doing the following and I'm afraid I don't know enough about the whats, whys and wherefores, just my observations along the way to getting a trouble free installation.
The PC was a new Dell Vostro and installing TI2012 was buggy. It often wouldn't even open from withing Windows. When I wanted to restore there was a good chance of encountering this hanging problem. I updated the program to the latest version. That did not fix the issues. Also recognition of USB drives was very slow before and after the updates.
I always knew I would do a clean install of W7 and it was here I discovered that the Dell has the start up files on another partition. I used diskpart and totally wiped and formatted the HDD to just 3 partitions of my choosing and installed W7 pro. Then I installed TI2012 using the latest (still current) version. That seemed to have resolved most issues. I don't get the hanging at "Starting Acronis Loader". TI opens every time. USB drives are quickly recognised.
The USB issue seems to show that upgrading TI is not the same as clean installing the latest version.
Whether any of that helps I don't know but that was my story and how I stumbled to a working solution.
Anyone having this problem solve? Having the same issue.