DR ISO image not bootable from DVD

[altsaint]

Hi

 

I am having problems with Retrospect Express 6.0.222 on my Windows XP SP2 system. This standalone PC has an HP dual CD / DVD writer.

 

Within preparation for Disaster Recovery, the ISO image is created exactly as shown in the documentation / tutorials. However information messages that appear, refer to creating a bootable CD-R. This is simply not possible, because the ISO image is nearly 2GB in size.

 

I can use Sonic Recordnow (v7) to burn a DVD from this ISO image, and have tried doing this to both DVD+RW and DVD+R discs. However the PC will not boot from either of these. ( I know that the boot-from-DVD procedure is correct, because I can boot from another bootable rescue disc that was created with separate HP software. )

 

I have tried looking through knowledge base and forums, but haven't found anything that seems to match my problem. Has anyone else had this problem or know the solution?

 

TIA

Mark

[natew]

Hi

 

Retrospect cannot create bootable DVDs.

 

When you created the DR ISO did you use the i386 folder located on your Windows install CD? If not, Retrospect probably added a bunch of unnecessarry stuff to the DR image. Be sure to use your Windows CD to create the image.

 

Thanks

Nate

[altsaint]

Thanks Nate. I was suspicious that this might be the case. Unfortunately, my PC was delivered without a Windows Install CD. Instead, it has a recovery partition on the hard drive. This recovery partition does have an i386 folder, but as you rightly point out, there is other content there that Retrospect must be adding.

 

What I need, is some sort of solution for dealing with a trashed hard drive. I *do* have a rescue disk that I can boot from, which should rebuild the recovery partition. With that in place, I should be able to recover to the delivery state. Presumably then, I can just follow the instructions in the 'Disaster Recovery.txt' file for manual recovery?

 

The worrying thing about all this, is that I was able to create the DVD without any error or warning. The unsuspecting might do the same and believe they have a DVD they can boot from! Still, I suppose that's a Sonic Recordnow issue, not Retrospect Express.

[natew]

Hi

 

A disaster recovery disc is not required for a full system restore. Retrospect can do live restores over a running windows system. If your hard drive dies:

 

1)Run a recovery of the computer using the recovery discs from the computer manufacturer.

2)Update to XP SP2 if you were running SP2 at the time of backup.

3)Install Retrospect

4)Get any driver and version updates for Retrospect from the EMC Dantz updates site.

5)Restore the C drive, Reboot, done.

 

Thanks

Nate

[altsaint]

That's good enough for me.

 

Thanks a lot for your help, Nate. This has saved me from buying some other backup product for burning DR DVD's ( if one exists, that is ).