First time restore
This is my first attempt at using the restore function. My hard drive died completely last week and I have put in a brand new drive. I backed up to a tib file earlier this year on an external drive and have been been through the restore process twice using the CD. However on rebooting the computer each time the it gets to the Windows loading page it shuts down. Do I need to install Windows to the new drive before I restore the backup tib file or is there a different problem?
thanks
John
Ive just looked and the old drive was a 500G Maxtor Diamond max and the new drive is a 1 terrabyte drive. Is it easier to buy a 500gig drive to back up to?
Only a little bit. When you choose the bakup to restore you can then select which partitions -- they will be listed. Don't select MBR-you take care of that last when restoring to a diff size drive. This will then let you adjsut the size of the target partitions. You want ot keep any hidden partitons the same size as they were originally and let the size difference be made up with the c drive partition or any other drives you have in the original image. Once you resotre those, then go back and select MBR and dsk signature and restore those.
Usually the only time this won't work is when one of the hidden partitions has to be placed ant the beginneing or end of target disk. If so, resotre that one first, follow the instructins inthe user guide for restoring to a diff disk size.
Hi Scott I have tried again but with the same result. I guess Im not that computer savvy so I dont really understand what I need to do. When I get to the restore page details I get the following
Partition location NTFS (unlabled) C This is my new drive
Partition Type Primary - Mark the partition as active
Partition Size Free Space Before 31KB
Partition Size 931.5 GB
Free Space After 7.844 MB
When I restore it takes about an hour and the same thing happens. When it goes to the Windows loading page it turns off the computer after 3 seconds.
If its a no brainer to restore to a 500Gig drive I am really happy to go out and buy one
Thanks again for all your time
John
If this is vista or w7, then there should be a small hidden partition and that's the one that needs to be marked ACTIVE-- it contains the boot manager that controls what OS gets loaded. It could be as small as 100MB or as big as 1.465 GB. IF your oem had any other hidden parttin it's probably larger and contains original disk imaging info.
If you'r going to same size drive thaan you should be able to tellrestore to restore everything, partition(s) and MBR and disksgnature, the whole works, don't adjsut size or anything, accept all the defaults.
Scott its windows XP and I figure Ill try a new 500 gig drive just to make it easy
thanks again
John,
The size shouldn't matter.
What is weird is to have the XP loading page (this means your restore of the MBR, boot records, etc. is OK) but then it is interrupted (which points to some issue with the Windows drivers/registry).
Do you see a BSOD?
Hi Pat and thanks for the input. There is no BSOD it simply shuts down after 3 seconds of the XP windows loading page and restarts. If I leave it it simply loops round ad infinitum.
I really dont know enough about computers to understand the intricacies of registry details etc but should I reformat the drive in a different computer and install Windows to it before I try the Acronis restore or should Acronis simply have everything it needs to do the job?
thanks for any help
John
I have taken out the drive and put it in an external caddy and I can see that all the files and folders have been restored but Windows will not work. Any ideas before I dump Acronis and just start again from scratch?
thanks John
The problem could be one of a number of things and not necessarily an ati problem.
formating the drive and then doing a disk restore won't do you any good as the disk restore will wipe out whatever partitions are on the drive, essentially reformatting it.
Can you start in safe mode?
Does the backup validate under the ati bootcd?
Do you have any other hdisk with xp installed which you coudl test to be sure it's not a hardware issue?
If you have an install disk for Windows, you could try booting it, going to the second repair option and restoring all the system files. This as opposed to doing the repiar that reinstalls the os and wipes everything off the drive.
If you do a new install of the OS, then you could still copy out data files from the backup and paste them onto the new drive.
Thanks to everyone for your help but really I cant waste any more time with Acronis. Its supposed to work and it simply doesnt so Ill just forget it and start again with windows and install all my programmes the old way
all the best
john
John,
If you have the time and willing to try one more time, here is a possibility that I suggest you try. I see you are using XP. What version of TrueImage Home?
1. Remove the old disk from computer.
2. Insert the new larger disk inside the computer attached to the same connector as the old disk was.
3. Bootup using the user created Acronis Bootable Recovery Rescue CD.
4. As the new disk has been slightly used, I suggest you clear the partitions. You can do this from within the TrueImage program using the ADD Disk option.
5. Select the Add disk option and delete the partitions off the new disk. After completion, return to main menu. No reboot necessary.
6. Select the Restore procedure and browse to your disk containing the *.tib backup file.
7. On the screen where all partitions are listed, check mark the disk option as per this example which is also applicable to XP. All partitions will become checked.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/forum/2009/12/7027/disk-op…
7. When you get to the screen where you select the target disk, look around and see if you have an option "Recover Disk Signature", checkmark this option if it exists.
8. Summary screen will show what is happening. Click Proceed
9. After completion of the Restore, you should get a success or failure windows.
10. Assuming that you get a successful restore, shutdown and disconnect the external.
11. Reboot with only the new larger disk attached.
Depending upon which TrueImage version and which build, the new disk will either be
1. Same partition sizes as old disk with the remaining space as unallocated. If this is the result, we can easily correct afterwards.
or
2. The partitions sizes will be automatically expanded by TrueImage. If sizes not correct, we can correct afterwards.
Assumptions by me:
The backup which you are using is a backup of your entire old disk and all partitions are included within that backup. If you had any hidden or utility partitions, those are also included within the backup.
If partition resizing needed afterwards , post a screen capture of the Windows Disk Management graphical view.