My Windows 7 SP1 installation nightmare!

[relic]

I'll second the recommendation for Acronis True image.

A Quickie: I've used TrueImage since version 5, but the new ones (2010,
2011) have me stumped. How do you get them to make an "Image" file instead
of a Backup?

 

[G. Morgan]

Well, I'm entering the 4th day of the nightmare installation.

I installed SP1 on all three of my home machines in one day with zero issues.

 

[John Aldred]

relic wrote:

A Quickie: I've used TrueImage since version 5, but the new ones (2010,
2011) have me stumped. How do you get them to make an "Image" file instead
of a Backup?

Back UP > My Disks. Then select the partition. Followed by
Create a new Archive.

Doesn't this then create a complete backup image of the selected partition?
As I understand it the other options are to backup files, or incremental
backups.

 

[Char Jackson]

A Quickie: I've used TrueImage since version 5, but the new ones (2010,
2011) have me stumped. How do you get them to make an "Image" file instead
of a Backup?

When you select "Disk and Partition Backup" from the home screen,
toward the top of the dialog that comes up it says "What to back up",
with a line extending to the right. Follow that line and it ends with
"Switch to disk mode". Click it again and it changes back to "Switch
to partition mode."

At least I think that's what you're looking for.

 

[Char Jackson]

relic wrote:



Back UP > My Disks. Then select the partition. Followed by
Create a new Archive.

Doesn't this then create a complete backup image of the selected partition?
As I understand it the other options are to backup files, or incremental
backups.

As you suspected, that only backs up the partition. If you want to
back up the entire drive, you have to switch to Disk mode rather than
Partition mode.

 

[John Aldred]

As you suspected, that only backs up the partition. If you want to
back up the entire drive, you have to switch to Disk mode rather than
Partition mode.

That option doesn't appear to exist - well not as you described it in your
reply to Relic.

I'm using a bootable CD created by True Image Home 2011.
The options under Back Up are either "My Disks" or "Files & Folders".
Selecting "My Disks" takes me to the "Partitions to back up" page.

From there I can select individual partitions, or, by putting a tick in the
header line against "Disk 1", I can select all partitions. I guess this
would give me an image of the entire drive.

 

[Char Jackson]

That option doesn't appear to exist - well not as you described it in your
reply to Relic.

I'm using the installed version of ATI Home 2011. I see below that
you're using a bootable CD created by that same version, but I have no
experience with using that method.

I'm using a bootable CD created by True Image Home 2011.
The options under Back Up are either "My Disks" or "Files & Folders".
Selecting "My Disks" takes me to the "Partitions to back up" page.

Yep, same here, and on mine when I get to that point I can switch back
and forth between Disk mode and Partition mode. There should be a blue
question mark symbol toward the upper right of that window, and
directly below that is the blue text (basically a hypertext link) to
switch modes.

From there I can select individual partitions, or, by putting a tick in the
header line against "Disk 1", I can select all partitions. I guess this
would give me an image of the entire drive.

I'm not sure why we're seeing differences while we both use the same
version. I used to see what you're describing when I used an older
version of TI. Anyway, I think I agree with you that selecting "Disk
1" would create an image of the entire disk.

 

[Thip]

I'll second the recommendation for Acronis True image.

I used it for years and swore by it, but had nothing but headaches when I
switched to W7 x64. Have those problems been resolved, and if so, with
which release?

 

[Bob I]

A lot of people don't see the need for a spare tire in their car, either.

Guess you never heard of Run-Flats!

 

[relic]

When you select "Disk and Partition Backup" from the home screen,
toward the top of the dialog that comes up it says "What to back up",
with a line extending to the right. Follow that line and it ends with
"Switch to disk mode". Click it again and it changes back to "Switch
to partition mode."

At least I think that's what you're looking for.

Not sure. Up through Version 11 you had the option of creating an Image File
or a Backup. I'll look into what you've mentioned to see if it's what I'm
looking for. Thanks.

 

[Bob Henson]

I used it for years and swore by it, but had nothing but headaches when I
switched to W7 x64. Have those problems been resolved, and if so, with
which release?

I'm using Acronis Home 2011 Update 1 build 9597, which is fine. The last
few versions were fine on Windows 7 64bit too.

 

[Bioboffin]

"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message

Well, I'm entering the 4th day of the nightmare installation. It started
out quite innocently as a notification from Windows Update that there is
the SP1 patch available for download. I clicked to let it download the
package, and went off to sleep. Next day I found that it was stuck still
trying to download the SP1 package. I kept cancelling and restarting the
SP1 download and it would always get stuck at some percent of the
overall complete package downloaded. I figured that Microsoft's update
site must be overloaded. This was the small network stub package of the
SP1, rather than the full SP1 package.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have four home PCs. Three installed first time with no issues. The fourth,
i.e. the one which I use for everything, including posting this message
produced errors. The errors were not consistent, and I went to multiple web
sites to try to fix it. In the end, I did an in-place reinstall (not
something that I approve of, by the way), which did the trick. I had a Xonar
audio driver and IE9 which were not reinstalled, and maybe they were the
problem. I have subsequently installed the latest Xonar driver on top of SP1
and IE9 RC. Everything now back to normal. I suggest you persist.

Take care,

John

 

[Thip]

Thip wrote:

I'm using Acronis Home 2011 Update 1 build 9597, which is fine. The last
few versions were fine on Windows 7 64bit too.
--

Thanks!

 

[Roy Smith]

Thanks!

One of the things I like about the new Acronis 2011 is how it's
integrated into Windows 7. One of my biggest gripes before the new
version was that when a scheduled backup had started, one could reboot
the PC and it would stop the backup in progress. Now if one tries to
reboot when a scheduled backup is in progress, it logs off the user and
starts to shut down to a certain point, then it displays a message that
backup operations are in progress, please wait (or something to that
effect). Anyway the reboot won't proceed until the backup has
completed, once it's done then it will finish the reboot process.

Though the only thing it doesn't prevent is someone turning off the
power.... :-(


--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Professional
Thunderbird 3.1.7
Tuesday, March 01, 2011 10:43:04 PM

 

[charlie]

One of the things I like about the new Acronis 2011 is how it's
integrated into Windows 7. One of my biggest gripes before the new
version was that when a scheduled backup had started, one could reboot
the PC and it would stop the backup in progress. Now if one tries to
reboot when a scheduled backup is in progress, it logs off the user and
starts to shut down to a certain point, then it displays a message that
backup operations are in progress, please wait (or something to that
effect). Anyway the reboot won't proceed until the backup has completed,
once it's done then it will finish the reboot process.

Though the only thing it doesn't prevent is someone turning off the
power.... :-(

Two of several P/Cs I updated to Win 7 SP1 had some problems.
The last one, a win 7 32 P/C was interesting, in that the update was
without problems. BUT! Crysis and Crysis Wars came back with a "two many
installs" box. Had to call EA, etc. Evidently, the install counter was
triggered somehow by the update.

The first Win 7 64 system was a bit more troublesome.
First, I had problems with several individual updates, including a
daylight savings update. Next, I ended up uninstalling a True Acronis
version that came with the HD utilities from the HD Mfr (WD).
I also ended up uninstalling free AVG 2011 before the SP update would
complete properly. To add insult, the error code when SP1 failed to
install was not in the database. I also ended up updating BIOS, as there
was a minor problem that caused the USB keyboard to be ignored.
This was strange, because the older BIOS version is still shipped on new
same current model MBDs from Asus. And, before the SP-1 problems, both a
PS2 keyboard and a USB keyboard worked (either or, both at the same time
were not tried) The old BIOS version was known to have minor problems
with the selection of boot order devices, so the update was needed anyway.

Two other systems were built with a retail download W7 version direct
from MS that already has SP 1 integrated into it. No problems, other
than a small number of misc updates.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Guess you never heard of Run-Flats!

Otherwise known as a metaphor for Safe Mode, which BTW, also didn't work
in this case.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I'll second the recommendation for Acronis True image.

It's too late isn't it?

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Success!! I've been able to get the restored image to work finally. I
didn't get the SP1 installed yet, but at least I'm able to boot back
into my original Windows 7 setup.

It turned out the problem was that my SATA drives were setup in BIOS in
AHCI-native mode, rather than IDE-emulation mode. It looks I may have
switched over from IDE to AHCI mode sometime after the backup image was
taken. I simply had to go back to IDE mode, and it booted normally.

This is definitely a major flaw with Windows 7, you have to
pre-configure Windows 7 to accept AHCI mode, whereas Linux just handles
either SATA mode transparently.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Char Jackson]

Success!! I've been able to get the restored image to work finally. I
didn't get the SP1 installed yet, but at least I'm able to boot back
into my original Windows 7 setup.

It turned out the problem was that my SATA drives were setup in BIOS in
AHCI-native mode, rather than IDE-emulation mode. It looks I may have
switched over from IDE to AHCI mode sometime after the backup image was
taken. I simply had to go back to IDE mode, and it booted normally.

This is definitely a major flaw with Windows 7, you have to
pre-configure Windows 7 to accept AHCI mode, whereas Linux just handles
either SATA mode transparently.

Major flaw?? Have to pre-configure? Hmmm...that seems a stretch. Glad
you sorted it though and made progress. I thought it was well
documented that changing to AHCI on the fly was not a supported
configuration. It can be done, but it's not recommended and there is
little or no performance benefit for one mode or the other, from what
I've read.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Major flaw?? Have to pre-configure? Hmmm...that seems a stretch. Glad
you sorted it though and made progress. I thought it was well
documented that changing to AHCI on the fly was not a supported
configuration. It can be done, but it's not recommended and there is
little or no performance benefit for one mode or the other, from what
I've read.

It's a flaw because it's not an automatic transparent switch-over. SATA
drives have been around since the early middle part of the XP days, and
since then we've had Windows Vista and now Windows 7 introduced. I can
understand taking special care with XP when going to AHCI mode, but why
is it still such a delicate issue in Windows 7 days? Windows 7 should be
able to handle it in its sleep. I don't understand what Microsoft's
issue is about this, when Linux handles it so easily.

Whether the AHCI mode offers any performance benefits, it offers the NCQ
command queuing capability. And it lets eSATA drives be hot-pluggable.

Yousuf Khan