*PLEASE HELP!* Acronis TrueImage error - hardware problem?!

[MikeySilo]

Hi everyone. I've just joined the forum in the hope that some of you tech wizards might be able to help me solve a problem that's driving me absolutely nuts. Sorry if this is long winded, I'm not entirely sure this is the right place for the post, but it it might be...

I've just built a fairly hi-spec new PC. I'm by no means a total novice to computer technology, but I'm no expert either, and this is my first build. The purpose of the machine is primarily as a music production tool, but it'll be used to do other general things too. I previously used a Sony Vaio GRT-916V laptop as my main machine and regularly used Acronis TrueImage 9 to back up my HDs and also specific folders. I like this way of working since if I made any changes I wanted to reverse then I could always simply roll back to the last safe image. This gave me space to experiment safely with new software and settings.

With that in mind the first things I have done after building the machine were to run diagnostic tests, install the OS (XP Pro SP2), install all packaged mobo drivers, and then install Acronis TI9. Because of how i use it I decided to make an image at this stage, then tried to reinstall this image to test that it all works. Well... it doesn't... and I don't have any idea why The image DOES reinstall , but upon completion of the task I get a message saying "done but with errors". Windows then appears to work, but I have no notification what the errors were, and I'm worried that it could maybe all fall apart when I've got the PC just how I want it. It sort of kills the whole point of using TrueImage. Here's a list of details about my machine which might help you help me:

Hardware
ASUS P5B-VM motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz CPU + ThermalTake Silent 775 cooler
2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC6400 Ram (2x 1GB kit)
Western Digital Caviar 500GB 7200rpm 16mb cache SATA2 HD
Maxtor 80GB 7200rpm IDE HD (from an old machine)
Sony 1.44mb Floppy Drive
HP DVD940i DVD Multi Lightscribe (IDE)
Gigabyte AirCruiser G Wireless PCI Network Card
ThermalTake TR-2 500W ATX12V 2.0 Silent PSU

other relevant details / tried so far

- DIAGNOSTICS... have been run. My housemate, an IT pro, did this for me with a program he said is better than the rest and won't miss anything. It came back fine. He's away now and I can't get in touch with him.

- COMPATIBILITY... I checked, double checked, and tripple checked all of this before buying parts. I questioned the retailers, got my housemate's advice, and used compatibility testers online such as the mobo/ram test on Crucial's site. Everything fits.

- IDE JUMPERS... I'M NOT VERY CLUED UP ON THESE AT ALL AND A BIT OF A TUTORIAL WOULD BE WELCOME! COULD IT BE THIS? I'm aware that with multiple IDE EIDE drives I need to have one drive on 'master' and the others, including DVD drive, on 'slave'. I have Windows on the SATA2 drive and intend that to be my main drive. I initally had the Maxtor HD set to 'master' and the DVD drive on 'slave'. I've since changed them both to 'cable select' and that seemed to stop TrueImage from restoring the image at all.

I'm very very confused, and since this is my new baby I'm understandably feling very let down, so any help would be VERY gratefully received!

Thanks
Mikey

[Gecko]

Hello MikeySilo, welcome to our forum.

First of all I would reset the jumpers on your IDE and DVD drives to slave and master.
If you have two IDE cables I would put the IDE hard drive on one as master and your DVD drive on the other one also as master.

Second, Asus has an update to your motherboard dealing with an ACPI driver dated 01/04/2007.
This could be something that would resolve the problem for you.

Third, I do not use Acronis TrueImage but there should be a way to find what the error your refer to is?

[MikeySilo]

Hi Gecko, thanks for that.

I know about the ACPI update you've mentioned (although I'm not too cure what it is!). I did install all of the most recent updates from the ASUS site first time around, but came up with this error. after this I re-installed windows and tried making the image with diffrent settings as mentioned, but all before adding any updates other than those bundled with the mobo. I'll try it again anyway.

I'll put the IDE jumpers back too as you've suggested. The mobo is a micro ATX version in ASUS's P5B range, and it only has 1 IDE connector, so effectively I can only connect 2 IDE drives and they will need to share a cable.

I think they may be a way to find an error report in TrueImage, I'll take a deeper look and see what I can find. I'd expect so, but there's nothing obvious. but then again, why should I expect there to be?

I'll report back with any results, and if nothing changes i might even take out the IDE HD and see if that helps. In the meantime, thanks a lot, and everyone else - please add your own suggestions!

Thanks

[MikeySilo]

UPDATE!!

I'm still going to try what Gecko has suggested above, and if anyone knows anything that might help me sort this out, then please go ahead and tell me, BUT... I just found this through scouring the net...

From the Acronis forum on wilderssecurity.com:



posted by acronis support in response to a similar problem...

"there is an issue with Intel 965 chipset. We are still working on this issue along with the Development Team and will do our best in order to contact you with a possible workaround as soon as possible."

Guess which chipset my shiny new Asus P5B-VM uses...