Bare Metal Recovery Stalls: Six Steps to Identifying the Cause

The restore keeps stopping mid-run — what should I check?

Check the target partition first: that's where the most common cause lies, and the check takes a minute. After that come the image, drivers, and hardware.

Good to know: don't rely on the remaining time displayed. Whether the restore is still working is something you can see from the indicator lights on the drives and from the growing used space on the target.

Step 1: Is the target partition big enough?

In the rescue medium, compare the size of the image with the size of the selected target partition. The target partition must be at least as big as the image.

It's easy to make the wrong choice, because in the rescue medium the drive letters can differ from those under Windows. If the message “The partition is too small” (ERROR_TARGET_PARTITION_TOO_SMALL, -1073610750) appears, select the correct target partition and start the run again.

Step 2: Is the restore still running?

• Are the indicators on the source and target drives lit?
• Is the used space on the target growing?
• Does Task Manager show CPU usage?

If any of these values is moving, the restore is running — give it time. If nothing is happening anymore, start the run again and check your choice of target partition while doing so (Step 1).

Step 3: Are your files readable in the image?

Open the image on a Windows computer with Langmeier Backup: under “Tools,” click “Mount disk image.” The image appears in Explorer like an additional hard drive.

If you can open the contents, the image is fine — and you should copy urgently needed files out individually right away, even before the cause has been found.

Step 4: Check the image completely

Click “Verify backup” and select “Full verification.” Langmeier Backup reads through the entire image and reports read errors. With several terabytes, this takes hours.

Wait for the result of the check.

Step 5: Is the environment right?

• Target drives missing from the drive selection or their size is wrong? Load the RAID controller driver.
• Can the backup medium be read without errors? If copy operations abort with read errors, the medium is the problem.
• Do you have a second copy? Restore from it or copy the image to another medium. If it works from there, the medium was the cause.

Step 6: Is the target hard drive in good shape?

Repeat the run on a different disk. If the restore completes there, the original target disk is defective.

You can confirm the suspicion with HD Tune: the read test across the whole disk shows drops in read speed, and the SMART values show how worn the disk is.

Practice the restore regularly during quiet times — that way you'll know the process before it really counts.

Further reading: Restoring a computer with the Langmeier Backup rescue medium and Backup tests and disaster recovery drills.

The most common cause — a target partition that's too small — can be cleared up in a minute.