MGood777
07-12-2008, 11:14 AM
I'll try to refrain from posting my feelings about Acronis and their technical support...
I bought True Image 11 about 10 days ago. Installed no problem. When you first run the software to set up things up like a back-up schedule, it asks you to create a "Secure Zone" on the drive that only Acronis can access. That's where it stores backups. The process started and ran in Windows Vista with no problems. Eventually it asked me to reboot, and it started creating it's own partition on the drive. The process was taking quite a while, so I came and went from the room. The last time I saw, it was 74% complete creating the new partition. (Windows is not loaded at this point. Acronis has interrupted the boot to do it's maintenance.) After 74% complete, I came back a few minutes later to a blank screen. Now when the computer boots, I get the Dell intro screen (it's a nearly new Dell XPS box) and then just a blinking cursor. It doesn't recognize the hard drive / can't find a bootable partition on the hard drive. (FYI...There is only 1 HDD in this machine.)
So...After paying $30 for the privelege of talking to Acronis' brilliant Russian engineers (yes...in Moscow) for the last week, here are the brilliant suggestions they've come up with for me...
1. Boot using their recovery CD and try the process over again. Doesn't work. Their recovery CD won't recognize the hard drive.
2. Boot using the Windows Vista CD, go to a command prompt, and try these fixes:
Bootrec.exe /FixMbr
Bootrec.exe /FixBoot
Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd
I tried them without success. Received an error that said, "The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable."
3. Run Checkdisk from the Windows CD (chkdsk c: /f) and the result was "Corrupt master file table. Windows will attempt to recover master file table from disk. Windows cannot recover master file table. Chkdsk aborted."
4. Finally...Their most recent suggestion was to obtain a freeware application called "TestDisk" (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) and run that to repair the Master File Table.
Well...I haven't gotten that far yet. Before I throw an unknown piece of software on my machine and start tweaking with the disk structure, I'd like some advice.
I've also heard that there are other apps out there that can do the same thing...
Zero Assumption Recovery
Get Data Back
Restorer 2000
are all names that I've come across.
Can anybody make any recommendations among these apps, or any others, or anything else I ought to try???
Thanks in advance...I *really* appreciate the help...
I bought True Image 11 about 10 days ago. Installed no problem. When you first run the software to set up things up like a back-up schedule, it asks you to create a "Secure Zone" on the drive that only Acronis can access. That's where it stores backups. The process started and ran in Windows Vista with no problems. Eventually it asked me to reboot, and it started creating it's own partition on the drive. The process was taking quite a while, so I came and went from the room. The last time I saw, it was 74% complete creating the new partition. (Windows is not loaded at this point. Acronis has interrupted the boot to do it's maintenance.) After 74% complete, I came back a few minutes later to a blank screen. Now when the computer boots, I get the Dell intro screen (it's a nearly new Dell XPS box) and then just a blinking cursor. It doesn't recognize the hard drive / can't find a bootable partition on the hard drive. (FYI...There is only 1 HDD in this machine.)
So...After paying $30 for the privelege of talking to Acronis' brilliant Russian engineers (yes...in Moscow) for the last week, here are the brilliant suggestions they've come up with for me...
1. Boot using their recovery CD and try the process over again. Doesn't work. Their recovery CD won't recognize the hard drive.
2. Boot using the Windows Vista CD, go to a command prompt, and try these fixes:
Bootrec.exe /FixMbr
Bootrec.exe /FixBoot
Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd
I tried them without success. Received an error that said, "The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable."
3. Run Checkdisk from the Windows CD (chkdsk c: /f) and the result was "Corrupt master file table. Windows will attempt to recover master file table from disk. Windows cannot recover master file table. Chkdsk aborted."
4. Finally...Their most recent suggestion was to obtain a freeware application called "TestDisk" (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) and run that to repair the Master File Table.
Well...I haven't gotten that far yet. Before I throw an unknown piece of software on my machine and start tweaking with the disk structure, I'd like some advice.
I've also heard that there are other apps out there that can do the same thing...
Zero Assumption Recovery
Get Data Back
Restorer 2000
are all names that I've come across.
Can anybody make any recommendations among these apps, or any others, or anything else I ought to try???
Thanks in advance...I *really* appreciate the help...