Shadow Protect Restore From CD

[Bigaldoc]

I've been getting some "signs" lately that give me an uneasy feeling that the 80 gig SATA boot drive that came with this 6 year old Dell may be on its last legs. I already have a second SATA drive of 250 gig on which I have Vista and Win7 installed and my system is setup for "triple boot" using Windows Dual Boot Editor (from long ago). This triple boot factors into my question for guidance.

I have a 500 gig SATA drive on order which I plan to use to replace the 80 gig that came with the machine. I plan to remove the 80 gig, insert the 500 gig new drive and restore my BOOT drive (C:) from my Shadow Protect Recovery CD.

I'm not concerned about the partition size of the restoration because I can always increase it with a partition manager program AFTER the new drive is installed and running, i.e. bootable!

My question comes in regard to the MBR. Shadow Protect will ask me if I want to restore the MBR and my inclination is to say YES because the MBR, if it's stored in my backup image, should be the one created by the Boot Pro program. Does anyone have any idea if that's a correct assumption?

I also think that I'll need to tell SP to make the new drive "active" in order for it to boot, but I don't remember for sure. I'm embarrassed to ask these question for the only restorations I've done with SP have been on my drives D: or H: (Vista and Win7) and I've never yet been faced with replacing the primary boot drive. Thanks...

[BobArch2]

My question comes in regard to the MBR. Shadow Protect will ask me if I want to restore the MBR and my inclination is to say YES because the MBR, if it's stored in my backup image, should be the one created by the Boot Pro program. Does anyone have any idea if that's a correct assumption?

Hi Al,

I do not have an environment like yours and so, cannot answer your question with any degree of certainty. Having said that, I would agree with you that the inclination would be to restore the MBR.

Although Tech Support no longer visits the User Forums on StorageCraft, I might suggest that you pose your question there. There is one very knowledgeable user... FTTester who might be able to help. There again, you could always try contacting Tech Support to see what they could offer.

Sorry I couldn't provide any support with your unique environment. (Hey... why not give up on multi-boot and just stick with Win7? )

[Bigaldoc]

... why not give up on multi-boot and just stick with Win7? )

Thanks, Bob. I guess I should make a post over there.

I've been thinking about dumping Vista since I haven't used it in so long that I can't remember. BUT, I still rely mainly on XP 'cause it does what I need and I'm "used to it." Probably the only reason I even HAVE Win7 is that I couldn't resist MS's pre-release special price for Pro.

[viking33]

... why not give up on multi-boot and just stick with Win7? )

Thanks, Bob. I guess I should make a post over there.

I've been thinking about dumping Vista since I haven't used it in so long that I can't remember. BUT, I still rely mainly on XP 'cause it does what I need and I'm "used to it." Probably the only reason I even HAVE Win7 is that I couldn't resist MS's pre-release special price for Pro.

I'm sure you remember that for some time, we had identical partition set ups, triple booting XP, Vista & Win 7?
I have long ago dumped Vista, repartitioned the space gained into Win 7, and dual boot XP & 7.
It is rare that I even go into XP these days and almost exclusively use Win 7. We both received Vista free from MS but it turned out to be a horror show, not worth the space. IMHO.

[Bigaldoc]

BobArch2: I really miss "Nate!" Whatever happened to him?

Well, as you predicted, I've gotten no response to my 3 day old post about the MBR.

So, I guess when my new drive gets here, I'll just do what my gut tells me and if it doesn't work, I can always put the old drive back in. It still runs but I'm nervous about it for discrete reasons I won't bore you with here.

[BobArch2]

BobArch2: I really miss "Nate!" Whatever happened to him?

Well, as you predicted, I've gotten no response to my 3 day old post about the MBR.

So, I guess when my new drive gets here, I'll just do what my gut tells me and if it doesn't work, I can always put the old drive back in. It still runs but I'm nervous about it for discrete reasons I won't bore you with here.

Hi Al,

Noticed that you posted in the "User-forum"... which is no longer monitored by Tech Staff like Nate and others. Try posting to the Tech Support group as shown in my previous response. Or, if you do not want to look back a few postings, link here.

[Bigaldoc]

Noticed that you posted in the "User-forum"... which is no longer monitored by Tech Staff like Nate and others. Try posting to the Tech Support group as shown in my previous response. Or, if you do not want to look back a few postings, link here.

Oops, sorry Bob, I really wasn't thinking. Knowing I'm a forum member, I just automatically went there to see if anyone had any advice.

I WILL try tech support when I get back this afternoon. Thanks...

[Bigaldoc]

Well I've been tearing my hair out all afternoon and have given up for the day. I put in my newly acquired 500 gig boot drive and have been restoring form my Shadow Protect CD without success. The resulting drive says it's ACTIVE and PRIMARY but will not boot. I get two or three messages from XP that it's not "configured" properly and therefore not bootable.

I've tried restoring to the new drive WITH the MBR and hidden sectors from the backup image; with an original Windows MBR and the hidden sectors, and finally NO MBR or hidden sector restoration.

I've not yet heard from SP Tech Support and as you can tell, have had to put the old drive back in the machine until I can (hopefully) find out what's wrong. I hope it's NOT the fact that the original disk (Dell) has a partition that I've never backed up and never needed. While I'm in limbo I'm gonna try backing up the first partition and then try my restore again, putting the first partition on the new disk first.

Sheesh, I hope I'm not SOL because of the stupid Dell partition that's never been of any value to me. See attachment.

[Bigaldoc]

Coincidental as it may be, just this minute had a phone call from a support guy at Shadow Protect. He wanted to try to walk me through the restore process but it would have been impossible for me to hold him on the line while I RE-INSERTED the drive and booted from the CD.

So, I got from him a few pointers that I'll try in the morning, at the top of which is that I should use HIR and I had no idea. He then said some stuff about post-restore and using SP's Tools menu. I'm not sure I got it all written down correctly, but he said he'd send me an email as well.

I'm probably more confused than I have been for a long, long time...

[Bigaldoc]

Here's the content of the supporting email I received from SP Support. Middle of the night now and I'll wait until morning to have another go:

• • Per our conversation today:
    I suggested you make sure that you are using the latest 4.15 recovery CD.
    The link to download the latest ISO to create the recovery CD is below:
    http://www.storagecraft.com/release/sprelease.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
    You will need your license key to download the application that you can create the ISO.
    Once you have the 4.1.5 recovery CD, boot to it and select the 2008 option.
    Select the restore option.
    Once the restore is completed, run the HIR.
    Once the HIR is completed click on the Tool option on the Menu bar, select the Boot Configuration Utility, look under the status menu.
    If you see "broken" select the "Auto Repair" button on the right hand side.
    Once that is completed you should now see "bootable and be able to reboot with Windows loading.

[BobArch2]

Here's the content of the supporting email I received from SP Support. Middle of the night now and ...

Hi Al,

I have read all of your last three missives. The only suggestions/comments I was going to tender were 1) do not concern yourself with the Dell "special" partition as that would be to reset your environment the way it was when the system was bought and 2) to use the HIR feature in SP when restoring.

Unfortunately, I do not have any experience with multi-boot systems and I'm at a loss as to what to do when attempting a restore for those situations. I suspect that the instructions from SP tech staff will at least get you into a bootable Win XP environment... considering that seems to be your prime/active O/S. I'm not too sure if the HIR process allows you to "shrink" the Win XP partition to it's original size... but I expect that it should. Then you should be able to re-allocate the remaining space for the other desired O/Ses and data partitions.

Best of luck in getting back to a normal, stress free environment. I'll keep an eye on this thread should anything else pop up that I might be able to contribute something more worthwhile.

[Edited to correct spelling... thanks Hans !]

[HansV]

(...) I have read all of your last three missiles. (...)

I know that Big Al has had a career in the US Army, but that was a long time ago!

[BobArch2]

(...) I have read all of your last three missiles. (...)

I know that Big Al has had a career in the US Army, but that was a long time ago!

OK, OK... me bad... have corrected the spelling! Thanks for the eagle eye

[Bigaldoc]

(...) I have read all of your last three missiles. (...)

I know that Big Al has had a career in the US Army, but that was a long time ago!

AND, I never fired a "missile" during my military days, unless you count tapping the guy with the rocket launcher on the helmet so he'd know it's time to fire.

And thanks, Bob, for hangin' in with me. I never even gave HIR a thought in the case of a hard drive, but I'll see as soon as I shower and dress. Hope I'm not "goin' down for the third time!"

[viking33]

(...) I have read all of your last three missiles. (...)

I know that Big Al has had a career in the US Army, but that was a long time ago!

AND, I never fired a "missile" during my military days, unless you count tapping the guy with the rocket launcher on the helmet so he'd know it's time to fire.

And thanks, Bob, for hangin' in with me. I never even gave HIR a thought in the case of a hard drive, but I'll see as soon as I shower and dress. Hope I'm not "goin' down for the third time!"

So I'll show my ignorance again by asking what is HIR?
Since I don't use SP but do use True Image, is it term unique to SP?
I googled HIR and one of the first hits was for the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale and didn't think that was it.

[HansV]

Apparently it's this:

x780.png

and not:

Halogen Infrared (lamps)
Honiara/Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands - Henderson International (Airport Code)
Hologram Image Register
Hydrostatic Impact Rocket
Hypervelocity Impact Research
Horizontal Impulse Reaction
Handbook of Inspection Requirements
High Impact Resistant

[Bigaldoc]

... If you see "broken" select the "Auto Repair" button on the right hand side.
Once that is completed you should now see "bootable and be able to reboot with Windows loading.[/list][/list][/b]

Didn't happen. It shows the new disk as "broken" even after his "auto repair."

I think I'm up a creek without the proverbial paddle! Somehow I can't help but think it's the multi-boot that's causing this.

I've removed BOOTPRO and now I'm afraid to reboot my machine for fear it won't boot at all and then I'll be faced with a total loss!

I'm running a SP full backup as I write, after removing BootPro in the hopes that my C: drive will be the only "active" drive in the mix.

This is turning out to be a real nightmare and I WILL contact SP support again, IF I STILL HAVE THE MEANS to do so!

[BobArch2]

So I'll show my ignorance again by asking what is HIR?
Since I don't use SP but do use True Image, is it term unique to SR?

StorageCraft's definition of HIR is Hardware Independent Restore where you can restore a backup image to a different environment from which it was created. Which also means that it could be to the same PC but one where some of the critical components might have changed... like hard drive, CPU etc.
ATI has a similar function included in its Plus Pack.

[BobArch2]

I think I'm up a creek without the proverbial paddle! Somehow I can't help but think it's the multi-boot that's causing this...

I also am leaning to the multi-boot scenario that might be complicating the restore process. If memory serves me right, FFTester might have posted something on this topic. I'll go searching.

Stay tuned... and calm!!!

[BobArch2]

I'm running a SP full backup as I write, after removing BootPro in the hopes that my C: drive will be the only "active" drive in the mix.

First finding of Multi-Boot (in the User Manual)

Multi-Boot Environments

If your system has multiple boot partitions, install ShadowProtect on each of the bootable Windows
partitions to guarantee that ShadowProtect recognizes changes to ShadowProtect-managed volumes
from these secondary Windows environments. You do not need to activate ShadowProtect, but the
snapshot driver (stcvsm.sys) must be available in each Windows partition.

The snapshot driver manages the fast incremental tracking in ShadowProtect. If you boot to an
alternate OS environment where the snapshot driver is not loaded, ShadowProtect cannot track
volume updates from that OS boot session. This means that your next Incremental backup misses
any changes made from the alternate OS.

If one or more of non-Windows operating systems, such as Linux, can write to a ShadowProtect managed
volume, you can make sure ShadowProtect recognizes those changes by doing the
following:

Create a script, that executes during the startup/logon phase of the non-Windows OS, to delete
all VSM000.IDX (case-sensitive) files from the root directory of each ShadowProtect-managed
volume. Removing these files forces stcvsm.sys, when your primary Windows volume boots, to
use a Full Differential/Comparison backup, which captures any changes made to the volume from
the non-Windows OS.

For info purposes... continuing the research...