Problems when restoring an opensuse 11.1 image using Aronis true image home 2010
Hello,
I'm really at the end of my tether with a certain problem I'm having. I've attempted using Acronis true image home 2010 to backup a Linux system with 3 ext3 partitions (root, home, swap). However, when I restore, to somewhat dissimilar hardware - the harddisk is only half the size of the original, plus it has a different chipset, which necessitates resizing partitions - I invariably get a symptoms consistent with a corrupt MBR that re-installing grub will not fix (on my first attempt I just saw the text "GRUB _", and nothing more, on my second I saw a generic motherboard error along the lines of "Operating system not found". Re-installing grub gives a totally generic error message). I think there may be problems with the partitions themselves too. I was able to mount one partition but not another.
I'd like to:
1) Back up the harddisk, in its entirety, to a FAT32 external HD
2) Restore the image to my machine with somewhat dissimilar hardware (in particular, different disk geometry and size), resizing partitions as necessary (not too complicated - the home partition is rather bigger than it needs to be)
3) Not have a corrupt MBR, or at least be able to successfully re-install grub from the OpenSuse DVD's "repair installed system" feature. I expect to have to repair my system (/etc/fstab entries, /boot/grub/menu.lst entries, etc), but I don't want to have an unbootable system.
Where might I have gone wrong? I'm really getting frustrated with this!
Thanks,
Peter Geoghegan
I am using the ISOLINUX CD, and I believe that I may well be having the problem described in the KB article.
Thanks
Peter:
I had a hunch that would be the case. Without the correct disk geometry, the entries in the partition table will be wrong. One user here recently noticed that restoring just one of his partitions using the ISOLINUX CD resulted in overlapping entries in the partition table and the destruction of adjacent partitions.
Mark,
Thanks for that.
I attempted to restored the same image (which was previously backed up using the ISOLINUX disk) and experienced similar problems( it now boots to "Novell Netware Firmware", as described here: http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-support/windows-xp-support/25… ). I assume that's just a variation of the same problem.
Should I have backed up again using the Acronis Loader Bootable CD? I assumed it wasn't necessary, since the solution you linked to gives "**Restore** your system backup using Acronis Loader Bootable Media" as a solution.
Thanks,
Peter
Peter:
I wouldn't think that the method of backup would make any difference; just the method of restore when TI needs to write a partition table entry before restoring its contents.
You mentioned having different disk geometry and size in your first post. Is the disk that you are restoring to mounted in its final location in the target PC? This is necessary so that ATI reads the BIOS geometry values correctly.
After restoration did you reinstall GRUB? It sounds like there is no bootable HDD being recognized so your BIOS proceeds to the next device (network boot).