Acronis True Image 7.0 with IBM ThinkPad T40

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Chan
  • Start date Start date
J

John Chan

Hello:

Is there anyone using the Acronis True Image 7.0 with ThinkPad T40 and is
able to boot from its rescue CD? I have used True Image Server within XP
Pro to create the bootable rescue CD. When I boot from the CD, I can see
the True Image logo come up and then it give me a blank screen and just
stop booting.
 
John said:
Hello:

Is there anyone using the Acronis True Image 7.0 with ThinkPad T40 and is
able to boot from its rescue CD? I have used True Image Server within XP
Pro to create the bootable rescue CD. When I boot from the CD, I can see
the True Image logo come up and then it give me a blank screen and just
stop booting.
Click to expand...


Have you tried the "failsafe" bootable CD? It's more of a minimal
configuration, so it's less likely to have issues with your hardware.
When you create the bootable media, it should give you the choice of
which type of disc you want to create. Unless the Server version is
different than the Standard. (I have only used the latter)



-WD
 
I tried the demo version on a ThinkPad T30 and had the same problem.
My solution was to upgrade to the new version of DriveImage instead,
even though Acronis otherwise would have been my choice.

John Chan said:
Hello:

Is there anyone using the Acronis True Image 7.0 with ThinkPad T40 and is
able to boot from its rescue CD? I have used True Image Server within XP
Pro to create the bootable rescue CD. When I boot from the CD, I can see
the True Image logo come up and then it give me a blank screen and just
stop booting.
Click to expand...


John Craig
(e-mail address removed)__________________________
Remove NOSPAM from address to reply.
 
Have you tried the "failsafe" bootable CD? It's more of a minimal
configuration, so it's less likely to have issues with your hardware.
When you create the bootable media, it should give you the choice of
which type of disc you want to create. Unless the Server version is
different than the Standard. (I have only used the latter)

-WD
Click to expand...

Yes, I had tried the Safe Loader Rescue CD. It boots okay with my T40 but
it doesn't provide USB support and therefore I am not able to restore from
the external USB drive using the Rescue CD. It looks like the Acronis True
Image 7.0 is not really compatible to IBM ThinkPad T40 (if you are planing
to use external USB drive).
 
.....Unless the Server version is
different than the Standard. (I have only used the latter)
Click to expand...

I believe they are different as this topic has appeared before. I've used
the standard version without any problems also (just two days ago).

B~
 
John said:
Yes, I had tried the Safe Loader Rescue CD. It boots okay with my T40 but
it doesn't provide USB support and therefore I am not able to restore from
the external USB drive using the Rescue CD. It looks like the Acronis True
Image 7.0 is not really compatible to IBM ThinkPad T40 (if you are planing
to use external USB drive).
Click to expand...


Technically, it's an incompatibility between Linux 2.4 and the Thinkpad
T40's ACPI/APM features.
http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~amurphy/linux/IBM-T40.html

I do not have access to an affected machine, so I cannot say for sure if
any of these will work, but they are educated guesses for your options:

1) Try using the bootable TrueImage CD with APM and/or ACPI disabled in
the BIOS first. (and re-enable it after you're done)

2) Create a set of bootable TrueImage floppies.
On the first floppy, edit BOOTWIZ.CFG
Add this line after "MBRCRCS ON" :
ACPI OFF
Now boot using the floppies

3) Create an image of the Bootable CD.
Extract the files and edit F11.CFG
add this line after "mbrcrcs on" :
acpi off
Re-create bootable CD with the updated F11.CFG
(This option is non-trivial, but if the floppy method above does fix the
problem for you, it may be something to look into)


-WD
 
1) Try using the bootable TrueImage CD with APM and/or ACPI disabled
in the BIOS first. (and re-enable it after you're done)
Click to expand...

There is no BIOS option to disable ACPI in ThinkPad T40
2) Create a set of bootable TrueImage floppies.
On the first floppy, edit BOOTWIZ.CFG
Add this line after "MBRCRCS ON" :
ACPI OFF
Now boot using the floppies
Click to expand...

There is no floppy drive on ThinkPad T40
3) Create an image of the Bootable CD.
Extract the files and edit F11.CFG
add this line after "mbrcrcs on" :
acpi off
Re-create bootable CD with the updated F11.CFG
(This option is non-trivial, but if the floppy method above does fix
the problem for you, it may be something to look into)
Click to expand...

Modified the F11.cfg with "acpi off" on the bootable CD but no effect at
all. Still getting a blank screen during bootup.
 
John said:
Modified the F11.cfg with "acpi off" on the bootable CD but no effect at
all. Still getting a blank screen during bootup.
Click to expand...

I was able to find a man page for the boot loader that TrueImage appears
to use, and I believe I had the syntax wrong. Instead of adding the
line "acpi off", it should instead be something like:

kernel kernel.dat acpi=off
-or-
kernel kernel.dat acpi=off pci=noacpi

That passes the ACPI option to the kernel, and also gets rid of the
"quiet" option. (Which displays the text on the screen as the modules
are loaded, so you can see exactly what it's doing)

*BUT*, that may all be a moot point as I believe the F11.CFG file is a
bit of a red herring. The F11.CFG file that you can see on the CD
seems to just be a copy of the config file that is embedded in the boot
area of the CD. I've gotten as far as extracting the BootImage.img
file from the TrueImage CD, but I am unaware of any way to view or
modify its contents.

If you're using the floppy disk version of TrueImage, editing the
bootwiz.cfg file does indeed apply the changes that you make. I can
see the linux kernel information displaying to the screen as it boots
up, and ACPI is indeed disabled. But when using the bootable CD,
editing F11.CFG has no effect whatsoever. (in fact, it still starts up
without a hiccup even when I delete F11.CFG from the CD!)

So unfortunately, it's not looking too good for you since you don't have
a floppy drive. I guess at this point:

1) Make sure you're using the latest build of TrueImage (597)
2) Consider upgrading the laptop's BIOS to the latest version
3) You mentioned there's no ACPI option in the BIOS, but what about APM?
Perhaps try disabling that if it's there.
4) Try to see where the bootable CD actually gets its configuration
information from. Part 2: See if you can modify this information and
get it back into a bootable CD format. I tinkered a bit with this, but
it's just a little beyond my skills.
5) Try contacting Acronis support to see if there's a way to disable
ACPI using the bootable CD. (From what I have heard, Acronis support is
a bit lacking though)

I guess the route you take depends on how badly you want to get
TrueImage working on that laptop.


-WD
 
I tried the demo version on a ThinkPad T30 and had the same problem.
My solution was to upgrade to the new version of DriveImage instead,
even though Acronis otherwise would have been my choice.
Click to expand...

I'm using the full version (currently at 597) and it works fine on my
T30.


Neil Maxwell - I don't speak for my employer
 
I'm using the full version (currently at 597) and it works fine on my
T30.


Neil Maxwell - I don't speak for my employer
Click to expand...

I had tried the full version (build 597) with my T40 and still unable to
boot with the Rescue CD that True Image created. Always stud at a blank
screen and stop during boot up. However it works fine within Windows (just
unable to boot from its CD). Is there any T40 users able to boot up True
Image 7.0 with its rescue CD?
 
I had tried the full version (build 597) with my T40 and still unable to
boot with the Rescue CD that True Image created. Always stud at a blank
screen and stop during boot up. However it works fine within Windows (just
unable to boot from its CD). Is there any T40 users able to boot up True
Image 7.0 with its rescue CD?
Click to expand...


have you contacted Acronis ?

TrueImage is based on Linux. You might grab a copy of Knoppix
(http://www.linuxiso.org/) burn it into a CD and boot it. The verbose
startup messages may give you a clue as to where the problem is.

That's what I'd do, anyway.
 
TrueImage is based on Linux. You might grab a copy of Knoppix
(http://www.linuxiso.org/) burn it into a CD and boot it. The verbose
startup messages may give you a clue as to where the problem is.
Click to expand...

I have no problem booting up Knoppix from CD. Knoppix even able to mount my
external USB drive okay. I am just unable to boot with the True Image CD.
So not quite sure if it is caused by Linux issues with Thinkpad T40.
 
This thread is ancient, but I just noticed there's a way to pass kernel
parameters using the Acronis TrueImage recovery CD:

Press F11 during bootup, and you can pass the parameters:
acpi=off noapic
for systems which are exhibiting problems booting.


-WD
 
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