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Restoration to bootable USB drive after internal HD failure (Win 7)

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Unfortunately my computer's hard disk has failed on me. Fortunately I did create an image shortly before disk failure. The OS is Windows 7 (32-bit), and the image includes the system partition, Windows 7's system reserved partition and the master boot record.

Since my HD is still covered by warranty I want to send it in for replacement. Meanwhile I had the idea of restoring the image to an external HD connected via USB and to use it as a substitute while I'm waiting for the replacement.

After restoring the entire image to the USB disk the system starts to boot normally from the USB device, up to the point where the animated Windows pictogram appears. Then I get a bluescreen that flashes so briefly that I cannot read the error messages, and then the system reboots. The same happens when I boot in secure mode (the last driver loaded before bluescreen is classpnp.sys).

What have I done wrong? How can I get the system to boot from the USB device?

Andreas

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As an Irishman said when asked the way to Dublin. " Sure I can tell you the the way but not starting from here".
Yes it appears to be possible to boot from a Windows installation on a USB drive but there are many hoops to jump through involving the WIN PE environment and a Windows installation disk. However from where you are starting it cannot be made to work just like that.

I would advise the purchase of another hard drive, place it in you computer and then recover your full HDD image to it. You will then be up and running without having to wait for the RTM drive to be replaced. In any event an extra hard drive to hand is extremely useful in the case of any future breakdowns.

Windows is designed to not boot properly from USB drives. Unless you want to tweak the Registry and make some other modifications (which does not guarantee success), I would just install another internal drive.

If your external USB disk is in an enclosure that you can easily open, open it up and remove the drive. Install the drive internally and it should boot.