Re: Boot Problem

What version of Acronis?

I'm not sure what that number is, but the NT disk sig # is a 32-bit hex dword
(8 hex digits long). If you want to, you could email me a screenshot of what you
are looking at. My address is listed here-
http://home.earthlink.net/~bblanton2/mail/


Do not change the boot sector signature. AA55h is correct.

Another way to wipe the disk signature is to boot with a Windows 98
startup disk and issue an
fdisk /mbr
at the command prompt. 98 is unaware of the NT disk sig, and will overwrite
it. You can download that at http://www.bootdisk.com/





"barrowhill" <barrowhill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:DBC69F43-D1E8-4651-BCF6-B1F112E3A279@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bill,

Checked BIOS; limited options.

If I set BIOS to SATA native mode enabled, recovery console won't run
because as far as it is concerned there is no disc installed.

If I set BIOS to SATA native mode disabled, recovery console runs.

The commands, 'diskpart' and 'bootcfg' show nothing untoward. I ran
'fixmbr' and 'fixboot' successfully.

Despite all this this disc refuses to boot; blinking cursor on top left of
black screen

As regards your other suggestion re NT disk signature number, I do not see
"Windows NT serial number" under Advanced>Edit when drive selected.

I have entries for.....

1) Serial Number: which is 0A996h-05DEh-0FE8h-0F722h
2) Boot Sector signature (0AA55h): which is 0AA55h

The serial number can't be changed as appears auto detected. The boot
sector can. Is this the "signature" you refer to and suggest set to 00000h
???


"Bill Blanton" wrote:

Failing that, open ADD again and clear the NT disk signature number.

Under my version of ADD, it's under: Advanced > Edit > "Windows NT serial number"
Put a 00000000h in the edit field.

Shut down and try again.



"barrowhill" <barrowhill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:531F2EF4-A497-47A1-94EB-1B5ABC5DA0EC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bill,


Thanks for response. I've reconnected Imaged drive as USB drive and opened
Acronis Disc Director. This drive is shown as a primary and active partition

I'm certain that when system wouldn't boot with drive installed, I used the
recovery console and ran fixmbr and fixboot. However, you raised the
question so I'll check this again

"Bill Blanton" wrote:

Assuming you did copy the partition and did not clone the disk,
there may not be any boot code in the MBR. (some programs
will automatically put it in, some won't).

You'll also need to set the partition active. This is never done
automatically.




"barrowhill" <barrowhill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4C6D30DE-09CA-4E20-B39B-39BA1CE6A15D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bob,

Thanks for response...........

1) I'm assuming Acronis Disc Director clones the disk. Normally when I use
with PATA drives, I reformat partion I wish to copy to then copy required
partion from drive in question. I ensure all OK by swapping over drives.
Acronis checks partions, assigns drive letters, syncronises and restarts. No
problems.

2) Interesting......I assume your testing was done on a desktop. I'm
trying to clone from laptop (HP-NC6400) to USB hard drive - It works as every
stage of operation shown as successfull. Your comment ".....that something
had changed,
that the new disk was not the same as the old one. So, the default was to
not assign it" maybe is important. I'll have a look at what BIOS options are
available but RAID won't be one of them.



"Bob Harris" wrote:

Two thoughts:

1) When you say "make an image", do you mean clone the whole disk,
including the boot sector, or make an image file (or file set). To be
bootable, you need to a clone, not just make an image.

2) I just replaced my SATA drives using Acronis True Image, which is
related to Disk Director. The cloning was successful, but my BIOS could not
see the new disk, even though the same PC had just seen it to do the
cloning! Of course, XP would not boot.

The extra wrinkle was that my SATA disk controller on the motherboard is
also a RAID controller. I went into the RAID setup and discovered that the
new disk was found, but not assigned to any RAID array. (Don't ask why a
single disk needs to be in an array; my motherboard simply demands it.) It
became apparent that the RAID controller knew that something had changed,
that the new disk was not the same as the old one. So, the default was to
not assign it.

The solution for me was to define (really re-define if you ask me) that this
disk was RAID array #1.

One I did that and rebooted the BIOS saw the disk, XP booted, and all was
well.


"barrowhill" <barrowhill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5DF21C4D-2375-44BE-A44C-FBE36E5C6ECE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have HP laptop running XP with SATA Drive. I've used Acronis Disc
Director (ADD)to regularly make an image onto another SATA drive.
However, I
cannot boot from the image drive when I install it; I just get blinking
curser top lleft on black screen ?

This is first time used ADD on SATA drives. Use on PATA drives without
problems.

The online drive is running SATA native mode - I had to to disable this
when
installing XP as it insisted there was no drive to install itself on !
Once
installed I renabled (after following procedure to ensure correct drivers
were installed). Irrespective of whether running native mode or not,
just
get blinking curser. Any help appreciated.











.

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