Restore Issues to newly formatted SSD

Dennis, please remove the image of your Amazon order with all your address details etc.  These are public forums and you are inviting scammers to harvest your information.

I've tried many many options to install any one of several saved disk images to a newly partitioned and formatted SSD after the former SSD failure. The new disk is an exact duplicate of the failed SanDisk Extreme Pro 1 TB SSD. The Recovery process finishes normally, but the machine can not find any OS when rebooted.

 Where exactly are you performing this restore to the new SSD?

Is this on the same computer where the failed SSD was taken from or is it a different computer?

The most likely reason why no OS is being found is that there are two computers involved here and they have different BIOS boot modes being used.  Your screen image shows a Legacy / MBR drive restore which would give this symptom if the SSD is installed in a UEFI boot computer.

Sorry about the file mixup. I've deleted it.

The recovery files were created on the same machine I'm trying to restore. It's always had a UEFI BIOS. The former SanDisk 1TB drive died.

I installed my Win 10 disk on the new drive and the install was successful. I'm not sure if the former partition was MBR or GPT. Windows did not give me a choice when I installed it. Numerous attempts to restore various backups complete successfully, but the machine never recognizes an OS when it reboots. It's very odd (to me) that the "Recovery" partition that appears in the "New partition location" list is Primary, Active - and the C: drive is only Primary. I thought the boot drive should be "Active". I don't see an option to change it during the backup.

My concerning loss is my Lightroom 6 standalone version that I have used to edit thousands of photos. Adobe no longer supports the install even though I have the original key.

I've used the Windows 10 install disk command prompt to convert C: partition to GPT. Apparently it was successful, as I saw no error message. I'm still not certain if the former partition was MBR or GPT, but I assume it's GPT now.

Before I begin another 6 hour recovery attempt, should I recover the MBR (check  box), or only the C: and Recovery partitions?

Update: it wouldn't allow a destination for the MBR, so I unchecked it and began a restore with fingers crossed.

The recovery completed, but now brings up the UEFI  bios settings screen instead of booting. I make no changes, exit, the bios screen reappears repeatedly. The SSD is still visible in the bios boot order, just after the DVD drive.

Now my attempts to install Win 10 from its installation disk fails and claims that (choice 1) a repair is not possible, and (choice 2) that it can't install Windows to a GPT partition.

I delete the two GPT partitions that now show up on the Win install screen ("Win 10 Boot" and "Recovery"), the entire drive shows up as "unallocated", and I'm able to continue with a Win 10 install. This has become much more than I can understand. Certainly Win 10 Pro can be installed on a 1 TB GPT partition, can't it?

If the Win install completes, I'll try another recovery again, but by now I've pretty much given up hope. I had hoped this would be as simple as reimaging a drive. I'm looking at an archive of two years of backups on my raid drive, and I'm left with nothing from all of it.

If it is using EFI then, if I recall correctly, you need to select "Windows Boot Manager" as the boot device, not an SSD/HDD.

IanL-S wrote:

If it is using EFI then, if I recall correctly, you need to select "Windows Boot Manager" as the boot device, not an SSD/HDD.

 

Yes, I see that now after looking at the drive on this laptop.It's a separate small partition at the beginning of the drive. I'm hoping that it's created automatically, because the only option check boxes for recovery are C:, MBR and Track 0, and Recovery Partition. Possibly it's the MBR and Track 0 location?

Although the internal bios is labelled as UEFI, there is no option to change the Legacy Boot to UEFI boot in the bios. It's also too old to have Secure Boot. MB is an Asus X99 Deluxe, AMI bios date 1999. I have the latest bios update installed. Another gross misunderstanding of mine - I thought all UEFI bios's could boot into GPT partitions. Apparently not so.

So, I'm back in Legacy mode, still trying various saved backups, hoping for some better luck. If nothing works soon, I may purchase a new SSD and try that, although Windows installs readily every time.

 

I've been using Tru Image 2021 for backups until recently   I purchased CPHO recently just before this issue began. All my backup history has been done with Tru Image 2021. I was able to burn a CPHO Recovery Disk just before my previous drive died. So, now I have the option of trying to recover with my old TI 2021 Disk, or the new CPHO disk. I've tried both. Neither has been able to recover any of the many backups that were done with TI 2021. They all complete successfully, but never result in a bootable system hard drive. "No OS found."

To help  make my further attempts less frustrating, does anyone know if a CPHO recovery disk can (or should) be used to recover TI 2021 backups? Or should I continue trying with my TI 2021 recovery disk?

OK, misunderstood the reference to UEFI - for some reason I thought there was a UEFI partition on the disk in question.

Generally, backups made by earlier versions of ACPHO/ATI can be accessed by newer versions of ACPHO/ATI. The code for ACPHO is "built" on the ATI 2021 code. The interoperability is explained in Knowledge Base document 1689: Backup archive compatibility across different product versions.

So should be no problem in using ACPHO to restore a backup made with ATI 2021.

Under some conditions ACPHO/ATI will convert a drive from MBR to GPT when restoring a "system" disk; this happens when the BIOS supports both legacy and UEFI mode. If you boot the recovery media in Legacy Mode, this should not happen; if you boot in UEFI mode it can happen. Not sure if this happened, but it can cause unbootable system if you set a boot drive rather than windows boot manager (which, as I understand it, will only be given as an option if the OS boots in UEFI mode. There is nothing in the BIOS/UEFI that sets the mode in which the OS is installed, it is determined by the installation process; so invariably there is no setting to look for. 

Not sure if we are any further in solving the issue. Are the backup all of Windows 10 Pro? 

When booting the recovery media you need to make sure you are not booting it in UEFI mode; when you select the boot device for the USB media there should be two erntries for the USB drive on identified as UEFI and the other either not identified or identified as Legacy.

Thanks for replying, and for the compatibility info, Ian. All my backups were created with ATI 2021, so I assumed that the ATI 2021 recovery disk would be best. After trying both, they both appear to be the same - no luck with either.

After converting my C: drive to GPT using the Win 10 installation disk command line, Win 10 Pro refused to install unless I allowed it to convert back to MBR, which it did, and installed without any errors. I'm sure it's possible, with newer AMI mother boards and bios versions. I build all my machines, and I'm not about to go though that again for Win 11 until I'm forced to. I still don't grok why my UEFI bios won't boot to GPT partitions - probably because it's an older board, I guess. I've checked my Boot settings in the bios, and although it lists it as Legacy, there is not  an option to change it as I've seen in my Google searches for instructions.

It's strange that the destination drives that show up during a new recovery, label the default existing system "Recovery" partition as Primary/Active, and the C drive is only Primary. I can correct this by checking the "make active" box for the C partition, and then changing the Recovery drive's drop-down box from Primary to Logical then back to Primary again (which seems to eliminate the active status and leave only Primary. No idea why the program thinks the Recovery partition should be PrimaryActive. I've tried changing it, and leaving it Active, but both methods fail to boot after completing. Either way, it does offer a choice of destinations for the MBR - C drive, or the connected RAID that contains the backups. Of course, I choose the C drive. I just can't seem to find a method that will boot after all the waiting for each to finish.

The only thing I can think of is that it is a UEFI/BIOS problem - why this should be so escapes me. So, if you have not already done so, check to see if you can find a more recent BIOS, and see if updating overcomes the problem. Back up the old BIOS when doing the installation - normally you are asked if you want to back up the BIOS as part of the process.

Ian

I've checked the the bios versions available, and I have the most recent version.

I woke this morning to find another recovery attempt completed - and lo and behold, the computer booted into Windows after restarting! It was an older January backup that I hadn't tried yet, but everything seems to be there except some Windows and video card updates which are downloading now.

On this attempt I checked the box to make C Active on the destination screen, then on the second partition screen removed the Primary/ Active designation of the Recovery partition to only Primary by using the dropdown box, selecting the Logical radio button, then going back and reselecting the Primary radio button. So, C was now Primary/Active, and Recovery was only Primary. The MBR was added to the C partition. I thought I had done this before, but I've tried so many things I'm now not certain of all the combinations I selected, even with my notes.

I'm still not certain whether the success was due to the combination of choices during recovery, or for some reason the backup I happened to select this time. There was a very brief intro to Windows screen when it first booted, but nothing like the intro during a new Windows install.

Success of less-than-ideal type. BIOS is latest, and now got it working so inexplicable why you have been put through this unpleasant experience.

Have been looking at UEIF/BIOS on several PCs that I have. Some have a setting for UEFI/Legacy (one, other or both), and others have a setting for "use windows boot manager" which is (presumably) for when UEIF is being used.

Ian

It appears that the bios must contain a CSM (Compatibility Support Module) under the Boot tab where the boot selection (Legacy or UEFI) is made. My bios does not have the CSM option or Secure Boot, so I'm now relatively certain booting from UEFI is not possible. I haven't kept myself up to date on such things, as it's been years since I've built a new machine or shopped for motherboards. I have several 3 & 4 TB drives in this tower (all now reconnected) - all functioning with GPT partitions, so I suppose booting to GPT is what my machine does not support. Fortunately, the Boot SSD is under 2 TB, so a Legacy partition is still an option.

I appreciate the flexibility of this recovery software when that's required, but it would be great if there was an "Easy Mode", one where it automatically compares the existing disk size and partition structure to the recovery file structure, and if they match within acceptable parameters, simply re-image the disk to a selected former date, similar to a Windows Restore Point. Of course, True Image guessed wrong every time on my system, insisting that the Recovery Partition should be Active and the System Partition C: should not be during the recovery process, requiring me to change both before proceeding (when I discovered how) - so how well would automation work? Guess my faith in the software has taken a beating.

I just purchased CPHO to replace ATI 2021 just before this mess began, so I guess I'll install it again and set up a backup scheme, but I really, really hope I don't ever have to use it. It's been a week-long nightmare.

My sincere thanks to everyone who volunteered to assist me. It did help, and I learned a few things during my adventure.