cant image hard drive on z520

Is there something special that needs to be done to use software like acronis true image to make a image of the hard drive on a z520?

When running the acronis bootable rescue disk it cannot find any hard drive . I have tried every version of TI from version 7 to 11 & none can even see the hard drive .

Will any imaging software work on the z series?

Also does anyone know how to enter bios ?

 

Acronis should make bootable disk for you, and than you make "image/mirror" disk. Did you make bootable disk with Acronis? I have used Acronis several times on my SZ and it works as a charm. Did you do "image" or "clone"?.
In Bios you can check boot settings (should be first CD and than HDD). To enter bios, when you power on your laptop, try holding F2 or F8 or F9 (I don't know which one enters bios)

Here is Acronis forum maybe you can find solution to your problem:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65

and this forum in particuar (can't see hard drive):
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=220529

BR
Miki

 

I already have acronis bootable disks made for every version of TI from 7-11 . They all work on all other computers i have tried it on . For some reason TI is unable to even recognize theres a hard disk installed in the Z520.

Acronis isnt actually installed on any of my pc's i always just use the bootable disks without issue up to this point . Was attempting to make a complete backup of the z520 hard drive & store the image on a usb hard drive which acronis had no problem seeing .

Im thinking its due to the configuration of the hard disk . Has anyone here sucessfully made a complete image of their Z hard drive using acronis or any other imaging software?

I have tried pressing & holding F1 , F2 ,F4,F8,F9 & the pc still proceeds to start windows . Im at a loss .

Thanks for the links , i will check & see if it remedies the situation .

 

Try pressing Esc to go into BIOS.

 

Nope . That doesnt work either .

Finally got the entire drive imaged using acronis home 2009 beta though .

 

That's weird. I'm pretty sure Esc or F2 did it. That's how I got into my BIOS.

 

Your right , its F2 . In order to get into bios you must wait till you see the vaio logo then press & hold F2 .

Used to be press & hold F2 then hit the power button .

 

I used Acronis on the Z I had. Not sure why it's not working for you.

 

I have Acronis True Image Echo Workstation. I created the bootable CD and it recognizes everything. It's doing a backup right now.

I know older versions of the software had issues with SATA drive controllers but that should be fixed with the latest version 10 or 11.

 

yep, love their software; use True Image Home toegther with Acronis Disc Director 10 and they have yet provided me with reliable recovery since several years now. Just make sure to use the integrity options like 'validate Backup Archive etc. In addition I keep media files, picture archives and such on seperate partitions (and external drives) which aren"t critical data and can be excluded during incremental (or differential) backup ops to save backup space (Acronis Secure zone) and result in quicker recovery.