MBR corrupt or volume unbootable on RAID after restoring with Acronis True Image

Cunjo · 10-06-2008, 10:19 PM

As the title says... full details here: http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f76/cu...ml#post1476345 (PLEASE READ!)

Made a thread here because it's applicable, and I need help... Any ideas?

Trotter · 10-06-2008, 10:45 PM

It does look like a Windows problem. Not my forte, though, so I will others more knowledgeable than I handle it.

KurrentEweser · 10-07-2008, 12:12 AM

I'm a long time user of Acronis. I restore images a lot on my 15gb C: partition instead of dual booting.

First I would start over. Make sure your raid is functioning. This won't work if the Aconis image doesn't have the raid driver preinstalled on it.

1. Boot to PartitionMagic and clear all partitions.

2. Create a primary(not a logical) partition the size you want your boot drive to be. Then format it NTFS

3. Create a secondary partition for the remaining drive space.

4. Create and format the number of logical drives you need in the secondary partition.

5. Boot to Acronis True Image.

6. To restore your C: drive. Do use the sector by sector restore method.

7. Locate your saved image and just check the image. DO NOT RESTORE the MBR.

8. As you get further, check the Active box. Select the Primary partition to restore the image. Then adjust the partition size to 0 bytes free before and 0 bytes after the image size. Let it assign the drive letter C. Now allow it to restore.

9. Remove the Acronis boot CD and reboot. If things go well you will get the XP F8 boot screen. Just boot normally. Windows will fix the boot sector discrepancy. Reboot again just for good measure.

10. Windows should assign drive letters to any logical drives in the secondary partition. Use Disk Management to fix any problems.

11. Without using any partitioning tools copy your saved E: drive data back to where it belongs.

Cunjo · 10-07-2008, 03:42 PM

Thanks for the advice. I'll give this a try after work.

Is the sector-by-sector approach an option for restoring, or only for imaging?

Also, I was under the impression it was necessary to boot from a logical disk when dealing with a software array, though I could be wrong, since I know the data partition was marked as a primary.

Finally, I don't recall any option for a "secondary" partition in either Acronis or Partition Magic... it's just Active Primary, Primary and Logical. What sort of partitioning should I be doing for the data partitions? and should I just leave the disk space for the future vista install Unallocated as I have been, or should I partition it beforehand?

KurrentEweser · 10-07-2008, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cunjo

Is the sector-by-sector approach an option for restoring, or only for imaging?

Also, I was under the impression it was necessary to boot from a logical disk when dealing with a software array, though I could be wrong, since I know the data partition was marked as a primary.

Finally, I don't recall any option for a "secondary" partition in either Acronis or Partition Magic... it's just Active Primary, Primary and Logical. What sort of partitioning should I be doing for the data partitions? and should I just leave the disk space for the future vista install Unallocated as I have been, or should I partition it beforehand?

Sector by sector is for both imaging and restoring. It's for coping a whole partition including free space and system files.

I haven't used Partition Magic in years. I though it did secondary partitions like fdisk does.

I've never installed an OS on anything but a primary partition. I use logical partitions for data.

So for now leave the rest of the disk empty until XP is restored. There's plenty of Windows software that will partition the rest of the drive. I prefer using XP's Disk Management to create logical drives.

Cunjo · 10-08-2008, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KurrentEweser

I'm a long time user of Acronis. I restore images a lot on my 15gb C: partition instead of dual booting.

First I would start over. Make sure your raid is functioning. This won't work if the Aconis image doesn't have the raid driver preinstalled on it.

1. Boot to PartitionMagic and clear all partitions.

2. Create a primary(not a logical) partition the size you want your boot drive to be. Then format it NTFS

3. Create a secondary partition for the remaining drive space.

4. Create and format the number of logical drives you need in the secondary partition.

5. Boot to Acronis True Image.

6. To restore your C: drive. Do use the sector by sector restore method.

7. Locate your saved image and just check the image. DO NOT RESTORE the MBR.

8. As you get further, check the Active box. Select the Primary partition to restore the image. Then adjust the partition size to 0 bytes free before and 0 bytes after the image size. Let it assign the drive letter C. Now allow it to restore.

9. Remove the Acronis boot CD and reboot. If things go well you will get the XP F8 boot screen. Just boot normally. Windows will fix the boot sector discrepancy. Reboot again just for good measure.

10. Windows should assign drive letters to any logical drives in the secondary partition. Use Disk Management to fix any problems.

11. Without using any partitioning tools copy your saved E: drive data back to where it belongs.

This worked, thanks!

One thing that was a slight annoyance at least was that after restoring the image, the partitions had to be resized again, since Acronis shrank the partition to the original image size, and I didn't catch it until I had booted onto the Array and disconnected the IDE HDD again...

It's also interesting to note, that although I can image a working XP partition, with drivers, onto the 1.5TB HDD, the drive cannot be seen by the BIOS, and thus is not bootable... which leaves me without a plan to restore the backup images when a drive in the array fails and the system actually goes down. Is there a way to make a bootable DVD of said XP partition, containing all of my disk tools and the like?

KurrentEweser · 10-08-2008, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cunjo

This worked, thanks!

One thing that was a slight annoyance at least was that after restoring the image, the partitions had to be resized again, since Acronis shrank the partition to the original image size, and I didn't catch it until I had booted onto the Array and disconnected the IDE HDD again...

It's also interesting to note, that although I can image a working XP partition, with drivers, onto the 1.5TB HDD, the drive cannot be seen by the BIOS, and thus is not bootable... which leaves me without a plan to restore the backup images when a drive in the array fails and the system actually goes down. Is there a way to make a bootable DVD of said XP partition, containing all of my disk tools and the like?

Good that your back in business.

Acronis should have resized the image to fit the new partition. I can't say for sure what happened.

I don't think Acronis can be merged with other utilities other than Acronis Disk Director. Disk Director is pretty much the same as Partition Magic. I've seen other posts here where large SATA drives weren't seen in the bios. My SATA raid array are 2 IDE drives connected with 2 Rockethead 100 adapters.

Cunjo · 10-08-2008, 07:24 PM

Here's the thing... the 1.5TB HDD is interfaced with a PCIEx1 SATA RAID card (not using RAID, but it still requires updated RAID drivers to see individual disks attached to it, and the firmware does not support booting from it, apparently, in spite of what the Engrish manual says. Since the BIOS doesn't see anything attached to the card, I'm stuck up a creek.

The BIOS can see the onboard RAID and boot to it, although Windows needs special SATA RAID drivers installed from a floppy during setup in order for the OS to see and install to it. Such drivers are also supplied for the PCIEx1 SATA RAID card, though they do me little good as long as the BIOS doesn't see it, so I have to install Windows first, then the drivers for both the onboard RAID and PCIE SATA in order to see and mount both disks with Acronis or Partition Magic... thus, the Acronis and Partition Magic boot disks are useless in restoring the backup images I make if the array won't boot.

I can restore the image, by borrowing and plugging in an IDE HDD, installing Windows on it, and all the storage drivers, and my disk utilities.

Since I can't leave the IDE HDD in there all the time, it would be nice to have an actual plan to boot with the drivers and utilities necessary to operate my disk management tools... in other words, I need a way to burn my utility drive Windows partition with the necessary storage drivers to an emergency boot DVD.

Is there a tool I can use to do this?

KurrentEweser · 10-08-2008, 10:50 PM

I suppose you could make a BartPE CD. You should be to add everything you need to it.

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD

Does the Acronis boot cd see the 1.5tb drive on the PCIE card at all?

Cunjo · 10-09-2008, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KurrentEweser

I suppose you could make a BartPE CD. You should be to add everything you need to it.

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD

Does the Acronis boot cd see the 1.5tb drive on the PCIE card at all?

Nope, doesn't see it. It only sees IDE drives on my machine (which I currently have none).

I'll look into PE again... it's been a few years since I last poked at it, and hopefully it's either gotten easier to use, or I've gotten better at working with it.

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