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TrueImage 10 build 4942 vs Dell Inspiron 1545?

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Hi, can anyone help with any info?

I'm trying to back up a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop which is running Vista sp2. The machine is about 3 months old. I am used to using this same build on a desktop in the past, so i know my way around using it.

The first back up attempt failed - it just hung halfway through. Using the boot disc, TI didn't even pick up the internal HDD, only the usb drive i had connected to back up to. Second attempt at backing up within vista and it seemed to work, or at least it completed the task. The odd thing is it seperated the back up into 12 chapters - something I didn't choose manually and have never seen in using TI with XP previously. Each chapter is around 3.99gb in size.

So, onto restoring it. I've attempted this 3 times now from witin Vista. I chose the 12th chapter, assuming it will look at all previous chapters like an incremental back up. It started the process fine, right up to the point where it asked to reboot the machine. At reboot however i got a message "non-system disk - press any key". If I press a key it simply boots back into vista. If I don't press a key it eventually boots vista up anyway. I get no error messages from Vista or from TI.

What's even more strange is that TI has now made some sort of system change to the Dell. i thought the message above appeared due to the USB drive connected - i guessed that was the 'non-system disk'. But it now appears everytime the laptop is started up, without any other disks connected. It boots up after this, but obviously something has been changed by TI.

I looked up the Dell model on here and Dell's forums, but couldn't find any direct info. Can anyone tell me anything? I'm willing to upgrade my version to the latest (2010?), which does say it works with Vista SP2, but I'm concerned that it may be some underlying hardware issue with these Dell laptops. I had a similar problem with a desktop I built using an Asus motherboard, which is why I stopped using TI v10... it just wouldn't work with it! I'd like to avoid spending more cash if it's won't work.

Cheers
Mike

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Mike:

TI version 10 is a couple of years old and may not have the driver support for your newer laptop. When you run the Windows version of the program for backing up you'll be fine because Windows drivers are in use. However, you will not be able to restore since a restore of the operating system requires the PC to reboot into the TI Linux-based recovery environment. Apparently, the recovery environment does not contain the proper Linux drivers for your laptop, so the process fails.

You could try a couple of things to get this to work:
1. Look in the Inspiron's BIOS setup for an "IDE Compatibility" mode setting for the disk. If you have this, change the setting from its current "SATA" or "AHCI" mode to "IDE" mode. The TI recovery environment likely contains IDE driver support.
2. Depending on how Dell implemented the BIOS, try booting to the "Safe" mode version of TI from your TI recovery CD while the external USB disk is attached. If safe mode can see the external disk then you can restore from there.

The reason that your backup is in 12 file splits of 4 GB each is that your external disk is formatted as FAT32. If you want the image to be contained in one large file you will have to format the external disk as NTFS. FAT32 has a 4 GB file size limitation.

To get rid of the "non-system disk" message at boot time you will need to either successfully restore your image or else repair the MBR. If you have a Vista DVD you could boot from it, enter the "Repair your computer" section, start a command prompt and issue the command bootrec /FixMbr. Or, if you can get TI 10 to work in safe mode, restore only the MBR from your image file.

Probably TI 2010 will support your hardware. You could always download the trial version and create a boot CD to find out. However, I wouldn't want to recommend installing it on your current PC until you have a way to restore a current image, just in case you don't like the new version. You could, however, always do this on another PC that you know TI 10 will restore correctly. Just make an image of the machine right before installing the trial 2010 version. Restore the image after you have made a boot CD to return to the current state of the PC.

Mark,

It's been my observation that "safe" mode in any recent releases of TI doesn't recognize any USB devices.

Bruce

Bruce:

You're correct that "safe" mode does not contain USB support, but the PC BIOS may. Both my Dell Desktop and Lenovo laptop have BIOS support for enumerating USB disks at boot time, so safe mode works with them.

Whether it will work with Mike's Inspiron laptop is something that he will have to test.

That is very interesting. I would never have guessed that. My PC is eight years old and that option doesn't exist. Thank you for the update.

Hi Kolo, hi Bruce

Ok, great - that's all very informative :)

I also thought that the safe mode on the recovery disc would mean no USB support, but I hadn't considered any USB drivers being within the BIOS. I think I'll also need to format that external HD as NTFS given that it's in FAT32 - the laptop and the usb drive are actually my girlfriend's, and the usb drive must be formatted as FAT32 by default, which I find a bit surprising. Slightly outdated?

I'll try what you're suggested tonight when I get home from work and let you know how I get on.

Thanks again.
Mike