Restore didn't work; no MS recovery console
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 4:55 am
Hello, folks.
I had a crash the other day, and attempted to use AISB to restore my system to an earlier date. It was a total disaster, and I'm pretty sure that AISB is not to blame, but I'm not having any luck finding a solution to my problem anywhere else, so I was hoping that someone here could help me. This is what heppened:
I'm using WinXPsp2, with AISB 2.4.0.303. I installed Microsoft Recovery Console on my computer long ago, using AISB. Every time I boot the computer, I see the choice of booting into Windows or the Console. So, at the appropriate time in the restore process, I rebooted and chose the console. But all that came up was a black screen with a blinking cursor in the corner. So, with no other option, I power cycled the computer and used my "system restore" disk from Compaq to enter the Recovery Console. I found the introductory blurb at the top of the screen, with a list of commands to choose from down the left side. No choices for what Windows system I wanted to log on to. I tried using variations of the batch commands, but nothing did any good. However, I did find something interesting... When I pulled a directory listing for the C: drive, it gave me the contents of the F: drive, which is the first "drive" on my second physical HDD.
So, a little history... A year ago, I was using a 40gb ATA drive (Western Digital WD400BB) as my system drive. Then I bought a 500gb SATA drive (Seagate ST3500630AS). With much difficulty, I used Acronis Disk Director to put the OS on the SATA drive, and it became my C:. The ATA became F: and G:. Everything seemed to be just fine, no problems booting into the SATA, which I verified more than once by physically removing the ATA. So after a few months, I removed everything from the ATA drive and began using it for backups and such. There hasn't been any sign of a problem. The BIOS shows the boot order to be optical disk, then SATA, then ATA. The ATA is device 0 on the first IDE channel, and the SATA is device 0 on the third channel. (Optical disks are on the second IDE channel.)
During the botched restore process, when I realized the Console was showing me the contents of the F: instead of the C:, I tried to pull a directory of every possible drive letter. The console did not see any portion of the SATA drive, only the ATA. When I got the computer working again (more or less) I looked into the C: directory using Windows, and I could see the files that AISB put there. I have kludged my way to getting the computer somewhat stable, and now I'm trying to find out why the Recovery Console thinks my ATA drive is still the C: and what to do about it.
Any advice? Please?
I had a crash the other day, and attempted to use AISB to restore my system to an earlier date. It was a total disaster, and I'm pretty sure that AISB is not to blame, but I'm not having any luck finding a solution to my problem anywhere else, so I was hoping that someone here could help me. This is what heppened:
I'm using WinXPsp2, with AISB 2.4.0.303. I installed Microsoft Recovery Console on my computer long ago, using AISB. Every time I boot the computer, I see the choice of booting into Windows or the Console. So, at the appropriate time in the restore process, I rebooted and chose the console. But all that came up was a black screen with a blinking cursor in the corner. So, with no other option, I power cycled the computer and used my "system restore" disk from Compaq to enter the Recovery Console. I found the introductory blurb at the top of the screen, with a list of commands to choose from down the left side. No choices for what Windows system I wanted to log on to. I tried using variations of the batch commands, but nothing did any good. However, I did find something interesting... When I pulled a directory listing for the C: drive, it gave me the contents of the F: drive, which is the first "drive" on my second physical HDD.
So, a little history... A year ago, I was using a 40gb ATA drive (Western Digital WD400BB) as my system drive. Then I bought a 500gb SATA drive (Seagate ST3500630AS). With much difficulty, I used Acronis Disk Director to put the OS on the SATA drive, and it became my C:. The ATA became F: and G:. Everything seemed to be just fine, no problems booting into the SATA, which I verified more than once by physically removing the ATA. So after a few months, I removed everything from the ATA drive and began using it for backups and such. There hasn't been any sign of a problem. The BIOS shows the boot order to be optical disk, then SATA, then ATA. The ATA is device 0 on the first IDE channel, and the SATA is device 0 on the third channel. (Optical disks are on the second IDE channel.)
During the botched restore process, when I realized the Console was showing me the contents of the F: instead of the C:, I tried to pull a directory of every possible drive letter. The console did not see any portion of the SATA drive, only the ATA. When I got the computer working again (more or less) I looked into the C: directory using Windows, and I could see the files that AISB put there. I have kludged my way to getting the computer somewhat stable, and now I'm trying to find out why the Recovery Console thinks my ATA drive is still the C: and what to do about it.
Any advice? Please?