Macrium corruption / boot disc questions

Since posting that last post, I did exactly what you suggested, I tried my factory restore disc, and the Windows 7 home premium disc.

They ALL exhibit the exact same problem.... I now realize that it is not a problem with the Macrium windows PE disc or the Acronis Windows PE disc... Its occuring with all my boot discs.

I just posted the problem in another area hoping for some help, I put it in the hardware and devices forum.... Needless to say, my problem has become even more concerning since I can't boot to anything right now.

If you can sort out this issue then I would recommend Macrium - like many on this forum I have had very reliable imaging and restoring (many restores all fine) although I had a similar experience using an earlier version of Acronis. Hope you find the problem quickly.

:)

I wrote to Macrium sales support to confirm two things since the macrium FREE edition did not recognize my 3 TB, USB3 external hardrive. I did not include the name of the macrium sales agent who replied to me, but this is what the reply said.

Thanks for contacting us.

1. Yes we support both USB 3.0 and 3Tb drive without any issues, if you want to backup the 3Tb drive you will need to ensure that you have the professional version as it supports GPT (over 2Tb) drives.

2. We are currently working on enabling USB 3.0 support with our linux rescue CD and this support should be implemented within weeks, but at the moment to support USB 3.0 you would need to use the WindowsPE rescue CD.


So for those of you with large external harddrives... I don't think the free version is going to work for you. You would need their paid PRO version.

harleynut97 said:

I wrote to Macrium sales support to confirm two things since the macrium FREE edition did not recognize my 3 TB, USB3 external hardrive. I did not include the name of the macrium sales agent who replied to me, but this is what the reply said.

Thanks for contacting us.

1. Yes we support both USB 3.0 and 3Tb drive without any issues, if you want to backup the 3Tb drive you will need to ensure that you have the professional version as it supports GPT (over 2Tb) drives.

2. We are currently working on enabling USB 3.0 support with our linux rescue CD and this support should be implemented within weeks, but at the moment to support USB 3.0 you would need to use the WindowsPE rescue CD.


So for those of you with large external harddrives... I don't think the free version is going to work for you. You would need their paid PRO version.

I was just about to bought acronis as it was the one that keep popin up with google. but after I came here, and as senior members suggested, I did some research and then I realize how good is macrium and now Im experiencing how best it is.

for your 3TB problem, don't you have your drive partitioned? I suppose macrium free support those partitions under 1TB or 2TB, cant be sure exactly, and of course you should have it as GPT.

and here bro, I would suggest you a senior member, he will answer your any problem regarding macrium and disk imaging, I think he is the best experienced member in here about backup and restore. Windows 7 Forums - View Profile: whs

Well, I know that the program is well respected here, and I agree the free version has worked well for many people. BUT if you have a large hardrive over 2 tb, (mine is 3 tb) the free version is not going to recognize it. You would have to purchase their PRO version, at least according to the Macrium sales representave who wrote me.

You asked the question about partitions. I did not do anything special to the 3 tb drive when I bought it. It was purchased to do nothing but hold my image backups and I also purchased it because of the USB3 option which speeds up greatly the data transfer to the drive.

Perhaps you could partition this drive and the free program would be able to recognize it, I have no idea, and wouldn't even know how to do it, but the way it is set up now, Macrium free, will not recognize it.

Thanks for your input and suggestions- Carl

yup agreeing with you, I purchased pro version so I'm not having this issue with larger drives unless they are connected to usb 3.0. I won't recommend you acronis because I did loadz of research on this and have found it everytime everywhere buggy but yet here some advance members use it without any issues. and of course acronis and norton ghost are most feature rich products but crap in my opinion. I suggest you to take a look at EaseUs Todo Backup and Paragon products too. good luck on your quest :)

Well finally some good news regarding what started this post. At first I thought there was a problem with the macrium discs I was making. as it turns out it was a bigger problem on my system that made impossible to boot to ANY cd no matter what types of recovery discs I used.... I spoke with 4 different techs where I bought the computer, none of them could figure out why I couldn't boot to disc.

Hours of troubleshooting later here is how it was finally resolved. I am now able to boot to any type of recovery cd providing I do the following.

1) unplug all my USB devices except keyboard and mouse
2) go into bios and ENABLE legacy USB, save and exit
3) insert recovery disc... reboot and press any key at the prompt
4) wala.... finally a boot to CD occurs properly
5) in the case of linux recovery discs for acronis... once it actually boots to their start page (within the recovery cd environment, I am able to then plug in my external drive, I can than continue on and then see the image on the external drive.
*whether it can be successfully recovered remains to be seen, but at least I can now access it.
6) After escaping out and removing the recovery disc, I can reboot... go back into bios and DISABLE the legacy USB setting.
7) Rehook up all my extraneous USB devices and carry on

The shame of all this is someone at this forum did recommend the enable USB legacy, and I did try it, but I got a catostrophic crash, and couldn't even enter into the bios to fix it. That is why I had ruled out using that advice. HOWEVER, when that all occurred, all my USB devices were connected to the computer, I made the change in the bios... and then it was instant black screen upon save and reboot.

So I guess I'll mark this solved, but I still have no clue as to why I can't boot to CD if USB legacy is disabled, and I have NO idea why it would be required to have it enabled in order to do something as important as being able to boot to an emergency recovery CD or even the Windows 7 install disc.

So thanks to everyone who tried to help! - Carl

Good to hear you figured it out. I just thought I would quickly add my experience with backup programs since it may be applicable. I too tried using Macrium and I am still trying, but I have the free version and unfortunately, no matter what solution I try, I cannot for the life of me get the boot disk to recognize my 3.0 usb (2tb). I have tried just about every solution possible I have read in their forums and I will keep trying since I really like the features macrium offers.

In the meantime, I have been using EaseUS Todo 4.0 backup which is a free backup software that I installed and it worked perfectly the first time. I will give Macrium one more night of trouble shooting, then I will just give up and use EaseUS till it no longer works for me.