SOLVED: BSOD with Volume Shadow Copy: Due to Acronis TI

[Tim M]

This is my first attempt making a backup of my partitioned drive since upgrading from a 60GB to a 100 GB PATA drive (Hitachi, Lenovo OEM). The original 60GB drive was cloned to the 100 GB drive with Acronis as per directions on the fora. No issues were noted with the cloned drive.

However, I get an immediate BSOD when attempting to backup the Windows system disk whenever a shadow volume attempts to be created; this occurs with DriveImageXML and the XP backup utility.

Any thoughts as to what might be the culprit? The drive has the latest firmware and I hope it's not a dud. It is imperative that I be able to back up my system.

[Tim M]

Some searching indicates that this is an issue caused by Acronis TrueImage corrupting the MBR: http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic94820.html. The result is the BAD_POOL_HEADER error when attempting to use Volume Shadow Copy (e.g. with DriveImageXML or the XP backup utility).

There are two solutions from the linked thread; for convenience, I post them here.

1. Reboot from a floppy or CD so we're not changing the MBR while Windows is running. (I'm not sure this is required, but it's what I did. I am very happy with the BartPE boot disk from http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - it creates a bootable CD with a pared down version of Windows on it. I ran MbrFix from a floppy after BartPE started up. I'm pretty sure any DOS boot disk would do.)

2. Just to make sure drive 0 is the right partition to work on, run the command:
Code:

MbrFix /drive 0 listpartitions

Examine the results to make sure that the drive has the boot partition and is the size you expect.

3. Again, to be safe, tuck away a copy of the current MBR with the command:
Code:

MbrFix /drive 0 savembr BackupMbr0.bin

4. The key step is to generate a new signature for the drive with:
Code:

MbrFix /drive 0 generatesignature

5. Reboot from your hard drive.

6. As halholme mentioned, Windows will detect this as a new drive and ask that you reboot. Reboot as suggested.

I used this solution, which is easier (it must regenerate the MBR).

1. Go to windows Device Manager
2. Click "view" and select "show hidden devices"
3. Scroll down to "storage volumes"
4. Click on the plus to expand.
5. Click on each one listed and right click and uninstall. (you will get a message on some staying to reboot before it takes effect. Select no until you do them all.)
6. Reboot.
7. Wait till windows automatically reinstalls devices. Will prompt to reboot again.
8 Reboot.

I am now able to back up from the system disk using Volume Shadow Copy without incident. So, we can add the BAD_POOL_HEADER issue to the list of problems with Acronis. I don't think I'll ever be using that software again.