Cannot activate Recovery Manager
Today downloaded and installed ATI2012. When I tried to get it to replace the MBR bootstrap code with its Recovery Manager, it reported "Failed to activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager". So it reports that it errored but doesn't say WHY it errored. I click the "OK" button (obviously it is not okay but there's isn't a Close button) and then that dialog disappears and a 2nd copy of the same error dialog appears that have to OK out of again. Obviously the coding tested for some condition that aborted the action or some action failed but the user isn't given any details. This leaves the user shotgunning around trying diagnos the cause that isn't revealed by the software.
I do NOT have any 3rd party boot managers, disk overlay, or anything else in the 446-byte MBR bootstrap area. It's just the standard boot code. Regardless of what might be there, I want ATI to usurp the MBR bootstrap code to put its own there so I can get the F11 key upon startup to go into its Recovery Manager (rather than have to dig around for the bootable rescue CD).
I have 3 hard disks with 1 partition on each that spans the entire hard disk:
disk 1: SATA - no drive letter, Acronis Secure Zone
disk 2: SATA - D: drive, data files
disk 3: IDE - C: drive, Windows XP
The above drive index number is what diskpart.exe reports when you run its "list disk" command. This is NOT the discovery order by the BIOS which is: IDE drives (HDD, CD/DVD), then SATA (via the separate SATARAID BIOS). Despite the IDE drive being lastly enumerated, it is the first HDD detected by the BIOS (IDE first, SATA 2nd). It has 1 primary partition marked as "active" in which Windows XP is installed. It is where the MBR bootstrap code is read. It is where ATI should put the Recovery Manager.
The error message when trying to active ATI's Recovery Manager is worthless. Yeah, it failed. Why? Acronis followed Microsoft's lead in providing worthless error messages. It obviously failed for a reason but it's not revealed to the user. The programmer didn't bother to bring out the error or the table of error codes is missing or incomplete or it doesn't have a comment record to show to the user but just for internal graceful recovery from an error. Since it gives absolutely no details, the user has nothing on which to focus their troubleshooting assuming the problem is correctable by the user and not some defect in the software.
I don't understand your reply. I downloaded this software. It didn't come as a retail package with an install CD.
It sounds like you want me to use the installed software to create a bootable rescue CD and then drop out of my current Windows session to use the bootable rescue CD to modify the MBR. Why? I can use lots of software while inside of a Windows session to modify the MBR. Nothing in it is curently in use. It's only used by the BIOS and MBR bootstrap code. It's not part of the file system for any operating system so nothing of the MBR, including the bootstrap code, is in use or locked by the OS. I've never had a problem with any software running in Windows to access and modify the MBR bootstrap code. Other backup programs can do. Why not ATI2012? After all, what will be different to the software running under Windows to the program running from a bootable CD regarding the MBR?
It looks like ATI2012 has a defect with its Windows software not being able to modify the MBR. In fact, I've used Acronis True Image Home in the past (version 11) and it managed to modify the MBR okay. What went bad in the 2012 version? You want me to try a workaround. You don't know if it will work so you're guessing because you don't know the real cause of the failure of ATI2012 to modify the MBR (which is understandable since it gives absolutely no useful information in its error message).
Your solution is to dump Windows (shutdown), reboot using the rescue CD, and add/remove the Recovery Manager. That means if I add it that I had to reboot. If I remove it, I have to reboot. All for a process for a disk area outside the OS and its file system and for a disk area that isn't locked (i.e., it's always accessible and why malware can put itself there, too). Yes, eventually I'll get around to creating the bootable rescue CD but having to use it should ONLY be required in an emergency, not as the casual means of using the software.
Even if there was already a 3rd party bootloader in the MBR bootstrap area, any boot manager that usurps the MBR bootstrap can simply step atop of whatever is there. GAG can do it. Grub can do it. Disk overlay managers can do it. I don't use any of them now (but have experience with them in the past). They don't try to merge with whatever is already there. Rare are those that will chain themself with the existing bootstrap code (by moving the current bootstrap code into the unallocatable 1st track and then putting itself in the MBR bootstrap area and showing you the option to use the new bootstrap program or the one it can chain to in the rest of the 1st track. Most don't even try to decipher what is already in the MBR bootstrap area. They just warn you that they will replace whatever is there. If you say Yes, the old bootstrap code gets squashed and replaced by the new code.
Is there a trouble ticket on this defect? Obviously it was intended by its presence in the program running under Windows that it could modify the 446-byte MBR bootstrap area. If it cannot do that then the program has a bug. I've seen prior reports on this same issue (with typically the same guess/recommendation for a workaround). I was hoping Acronis had already addressed the issue. Guess not.
So after I get done with my inital testing of ATI2012, I'll get around to making the rescue CD and see if that works. And what if it doesn't? I will not be tied to a boot CD for a recovery. Even Easeus ToDo Backup has its own boot-time recovery manager and it works (but they add it as a selection in boot.ini which means the Windows boot loader in sector 0 of the OS partition has to work plus a small kernal with file I/O available to read boot.ini before you can load a selected OS - and why I don't like Microsoft's dual-boot scheme since you have to load [part of] an OS before you can elect which OS to actually load). Yet there scheme works. ATI's scheme used to work in past versions. Something broke since then in ATI.
Remember that this is an advertised feature of Acronis True Image Home 2012. They are not honoring their advertised feature set if they aren't looking into fixing this old bug. Customers really shouldn't be expected to come here to find workarounds for their advertised features. I haven't found a customer accessible ticket database to know that Acronis is addressing this defect. That means in scoring this product as a potential candidate for a backup solution that it's now received a negative mark. I don't like workarounds since that means the product is not working as designed.
Thanks for your suggestion. When I get around to making a rescue CD then I'll see if that works since the Windows software doesn't.
I had the same problem and stumped tech support with this one- see error report attached. I actually found the solution on my own: make a bootable recovery flash drive using rescue media builder. Reboot your computer into Acronis recovery using the bootable flashdrive you just made (make sure your computers bios boots to the flashdrive before the harddrive). You can now activate startup recovery manager from inside Acronis. For some reason you can't activate recovery manager from inside windows on the 7119 build of ATI 2012.
Good luck with Acronis tech support, they can help you with the obvious (like locating the F11 key) but not much more.
