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Can't Create a Whole Disk Backup: New Inspiron 15R 5521
I recently bought a new Inspiron 15R 5521 preinstalled with Windows 8
and I have never powered it on because I want to make an entire disk backup
as it is in a "pure" state.
I removed its harddrive (Western Digital, 1 TB) from my laptop to connect
it to my desktop with 2 harddrives (one for system (Windows 7, 64 bit); the other
for data (2 TB)), but never started the installed system to prevent the system
from writing some system information into the Inspiron disk.
Instead I inserted a Windows PE CD embedded with Acronis True Image 2013.
I chose "Disk Backup". The Inspiron harddrive had 6 partitions.
The destination drive (where the image created was to be saved) was the 2-TB data disk.
Clicked "Finish" and writing Partition 1...done, 2...ok, .... 6 ok and
"Backup Process Failed!" at the final stage.
The final stage seems to be a partition layout.
BTW the Acronis backup system has an option "Ignore Errors" (force complete).
I gave it a try too, but the image created was incomplete with only 4 partitions.
Macrium Rescue Disk is a similar one but with no ignore error option.
I also tried this and failed at the final stage. No image created.
The error message was "Unable to read from disk".
Both the Inspiron disk and the destination drive happened to be Western Digital ones.
I tried Western Digital Lifeguard checker on each and found no bad sectors.
Otherwise perhaps is that a trick or technology to lock disks?
Help would be appriciated.
ejn63
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March 3rd, 2013 07:00
Does your system have the mSATA caching drive?
If it does, you're going to have to make the system image with the hard drive mounted IN the system - this is a type of RAID array (Intel RST) that requires BOTH drives to be present in order to function.
CyberMaxX360
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March 3rd, 2013 12:00
Hmmm Not sure that if the mSATA being present in the system would present a problem of it not being there while the drive was mounted in another system to make a complete disk image from.
Remember the mSATA is exactly as it states, it's a caching drive it learns what files are being accessed (Intel Smart Response Technology) the most and keeps it in it's faster memory for access later on, it really does not need to be present as that information in a whole also happens to be stored on the Hard Driver itself.
Fact here is that the Raid Mode is set to iRST (Intel Rapid Storage Technology) it's Not Raid 0 or Raid 5 or Raid 10. There is no striping, nor is there any parity drives present. Thus, the data is not spread across multiple drives for redundancy. All of these would be valid reasons why in systems which are true Raid 0, 5 10 or some flavor there of consisting of striped data and parity drives for redundancy need to be in a cohesive state to make a full disk image.
Same reason whey Dell support sometimes suggest users having issues with the mSATA to reset the Raid Mode in BIOS to ACHI and the system will still boot there after, there is no rebuilding of data necessary that needs to take place before hand.
With that said... it may be an issue with the imaging software as it may not be configured correctly for dealing with the GPT partitions which the newer Windows 8 Drives are built on, these are not the common MBR partitions that older Windows OS's used.
That may be an avenue to research.
Just my thoughts...
Cheers
Marco_Rossi
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March 3rd, 2013 18:00
Now I used a harddrive managing program to look into the 6 partitions:
WDC WD10JPVT
GPT
Partition #1:
Volume Label, ESP;
File System, FAT32, Primary;
Total Volume, 500.0 MB;
Description, Healthy.
#2:
Volume Label, DIAGS;
File System, FAT32, Primary;
Total Volume, 40.0 MB;
Description, Healthy.
#3:
Volume Label, (None);
File System, Unformatted, Primary (a Microsoft reserved partition);
Total Volume, 128.0 MB;
Description, Healthy.
#4:
Volume Label, WINRETOOLS;
File System, NTFS, Primary;
Total Volume, 500.0 MB;
Description, Healthy.
#5:
Volume Label, OS;
File System, NTFS, Primary;
Total Volume, 922.70 GB;
Description, Healthy.
#6:
Volume Label, INVALID! ("PBR Image"?);
File System, INVALID! (NTFS, Primary?);
Total Volume, 7.67 GB;
Description, I/O Error! Geometry Collapse!
My guess is the cause is #3 and/or #6.
Western Digital Lifeguard checker showed no error however...
Marco_Rossi
11 Posts
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March 3rd, 2013 19:00
Is it the way it goes about Partition #6 (Invalid)?
Marco_Rossi
11 Posts
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March 3rd, 2013 19:00
No, I'm using no RAID system.
CyberMaxX360
272 Posts
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March 4th, 2013 09:00
What hard drive management software did you use? I'll run it against my Windows 8 HDD see what it reports back.
CyberMaxX360
272 Posts
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March 4th, 2013 16:00
No Problem.
OK I don't have the Minitool Partion Wizard bootable CD on hand, when I get the chance I'll create one give you exactly what it's reporting.
But in the meantime.
Using Windows 8 Command Line tool "Diskpart" here's what I see for my GPT/UEFI partitions and volumes.
DISKPART> list partition
Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 System 500 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 OEM 40 MB 501 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 541 MB
Partition 4 Recovery 500 MB 669 MB
Partition 5 Primary 921 GB 1169 MB
Partition 6 Recovery 8 GB 922 GB
DISKPART> list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 C OS NTFS Partition 921 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 ESP FAT32 Partition 500 MB Healthy System
Volume 3 WINRETOOLS NTFS Partition 500 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 4 PBR Image NTFS Partition 8 GB Healthy Hidden
Soon as I get a chance to build the Partition Wizard I'll post back.
Cheers
Marco_Rossi
11 Posts
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March 4th, 2013 16:00
Thank you for your response.
I used a MiniTool Partition Wizard bootable CD.
There seem yet not to be so many programs supporting GPT/UEFI.
Now I am also worrying about whether I can or not come back to my factory defaults by using this INVALID part. because I guess this is a recovery partition...