External Drive Problem After Creating Macrium Rescue Disc


  1. CBM
    Posts : 104
    1.Windows 7 Ultimate x64; 2.Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #1

    External Drive Problem After Creating Macrium Rescue Disc


    I'll explain my problem in the order it occurred:

    1. I completely uninstalled Acronis TIH 2012 yesterday and rebooted. Everything was as it should be.
    2. I had in excess of 700GB unallocated space on my internal drive; I successfully created two equal logical partitions out of this unallocated space and Windows labeled them as drive L and drive M. I could still see my two external drives, the drive letters as they have always been, being drive J and drive K. No problem.
    3. I installed Macrium Reflect for the purpose of creating backups and created a backup of the OS partition located on my internal drive, saving it to my external J drive. No problem.
    4.I decided today that I would create a Macrium Rescue CD, using the default Linux boot method. No problem.
    5.I booted with the Macrium Rescue CD so that I was sure the rescue CD would recognize the location of my Macrium backup on drive J. If not, I would then have run the rescue CD in compatibility mode. The Macrium rescue CD recognized my external J drive and K drive but the drives would not expand so that I could locate the Macrium backup. It appeared as if they were there but empty.
    6. I removed the Macrium Rescue CD and rebooted. I checked Computer and Computer Management and the only thing listed was my internal C drive. The two newly created logical partitions, L and M, did not show either in Computer or Computer Management. In addition, the listings for these "Devices with Removable Storage, did not show in Computer: DVD RW Drive (D) , BD-ROM Drive (E) , SD/mini-MMC/RS, CF/MD, SM/xD and MS/Pro/Duo were missing and not listed.
    6. I unplugged both external drives, J and K, and replugged them. No go. I then turned them off and restarted them. No go. I then turned them off, unplugged them and rebooted, turning them back on after logging into Windows. No go. I then turned off the computer, unplugged the computer and held down on the computer's power button for appx. twenty seconds, replugged the computer and started it. I still had only the C drive showing in both Computer and Computer Management. Furthermore, I noticed that all my AutoPlay configurations had gone back to "Choose a default setting" or whatever it normally says.
    7. I then searched, on the Internet, for appx. one hour, trying to find a solution to the problem, to no avail.
    8. I did a System Restore to yesterday, which completed successfully. This restore point was after I had installed Macrium Reflect, which of course was not removed during the restore and is still on my computer.
    9. I am now able to see all the drives but the drive letters have been changed. Drive C, of course, remains Drive C. The two logical partitions I created on the internal drive are now showing, in both Computer and Computer Management, as F and G, instead of the initial listings as L and M. The Devices with Removable Storage are also now showing in Computer but the drive letters have been changed, with the exception of D and E, which remain D and E. I have no idea what Devices with Removable Storage SD/mini-MMC/RS, CF/MD, SM/xD and MS/Pro/Duo are but the drive letters for all of them have also changed, which is to be expected if the two newly created logical partitions on my internal drive changed letters. I don't know if this will cause problems and as I have stated I don't even know what they are. Talk about a novice!

    Can anyone explain to me what caused this problem, why the internal drive letters changed and what these "Devices with Removable Storage" are and if they will be adversely affected by the change in drive letters? The drive letters of my two external drives did not change at any time. They listed and remain listed as drives J and K. I have added no new programs, made no changes or done anything that would have caused this with the exception of creating and booting the Macrium Reflect Rescue CD.

    Update: My AutoPlay configurations have changed back to the default "Choose a default setting" two times in the past thirty minutes. I don't know if they will change again.

    C.B.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails External Drive Problem After Creating Macrium Rescue Disc-computer.png   External Drive Problem After Creating Macrium Rescue Disc-computer-management.png  
    Last edited by CBM; 22 Sep 2011 at 13:57.
      My Computer


  2. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #2

    1. The good news is that you got it fixed with the restore point.

    2. The change of drive letters happens all the time depending of what you have plugged in. It can be annoying but is not serious.

    3. I do not think that Macrium has anything to do with that. It is only an application.

    4. Hard to tell what the real cause can be.

    5. Does the Macrium Linux CD work now?
      My Computer


  3. CBM
    Posts : 104
    1.Windows 7 Ultimate x64; 2.Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    whs said:
    1. The good news is that you got it fixed with the restore point.

    2. The change of drive letters happens all the time depending of what you have plugged in. It can be annoying but is not serious.

    3. I do not think that Macrium has anything to do with that. It is only an application.

    4. Hard to tell what the real cause can be.

    5. Does the Macrium Linux CD work now?
    I don't think I'll try the Macrium Rescue CD again. That's what apparently caused this mess in the first place. It's possible that I may gain the courage to try it again. I'm going to create a System Restore point now.

    C.B.
    Last edited by CBM; 22 Sep 2011 at 14:36.
      My Computer


  4. CBM
    Posts : 104
    1.Windows 7 Ultimate x64; 2.Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #4

    I've been doing more research on my problem and have been unable to arrive at a solution as to what caused my problem.

    I just did a backup using Macrium, saving it to one of my external drives. I was surprised to find that the backup created a 129GB file. This is the second Macrium backup I have done, the first one made yesterday being 126GB. This is very hard to understand. I backed up the OS partition only, which has a total size of 201GB. I checked the OS partition before backing up and it showed a total size of 201GB with 152GB free space. Now, in my manner of thinking, if there is 152GB of free space that would appear to indicate that only 48GB was being used by the OS and the programs installed on it, yet Macrium made a backup of 129GB. I fail to understand how this can be. Furthermore, the backup took 90 minutes to complete.

    I decided to do a Windows Backup and Restore backup also, which by default contains my OS partition and the Recovery partition. That backup took 20 minutes and was 31.3GB in size.

    I have uninstalled Macrium Reflect and its backups. I'm going to try Paragon's free backup, which I use on my laptop, and also install and try EaseUs.

    C.B.

    Update: I was sitting here thinking (Yes, I know. Some of you, after reading my posts in these threads are probably thinking that it's not possible.) and something hit me like a pumped up bar bouncer. When I configured the Macrium backup I chose "clone" as opposed to "file system" so I suppose that's the reason for the huge backup file and the 90 minutes it took to do the backup. I installed Macrium Reflect again. I just started another Macrium backup and the estimated time to completion is 15 minutes. I'll check the backup folder and see just how big the file is once the backup completes. I'm still hesitant to try the Macrium Rescue CD after what happened the last time.

    Another Update: The Macrium backup completed in 13.34 minutes and its size is 19.1GB. Live and learn. I created two new Macrium Rescue CDs, the second one in Compatibility Mode. I still haven't developed the courage to insert the rescue CD because I'm afraid I'll have the external drives problem again.

    I've decided not to install the EaseUs backup software. Once I started to install it the UAC prompt indicated that it is made by Chengdu Yiwo Tech Development Co. I'm familiar with Chengdu, China because its only a one hour drive from where I stay when I go to China. I don't trust any software developed in China.
    Last edited by CBM; 22 Sep 2011 at 17:12.
      My Computer


  5. CBM
    Posts : 104
    1.Windows 7 Ultimate x64; 2.Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Well, after running a Macrium backup I found that my external drive listings and the listings for the Devices with Removable Storage disappeared again. I didn't try the Macrium rescue discs I made again. I checked Device Manager and the drives were indeed listed and showed the drivers installed and the devices functioning properly; however, there were yellow exclamation marks next to all the drives, just as it occurred the first time.

    I've had it with Macrium; I uninstalled it and did another System Restore. End of story. Of course, the problem could arise in the near future, which would mean that I'm whipping the wrong horse.

    C.B.
    Last edited by CBM; 24 Sep 2011 at 12:55.
      My Computer


 

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