[ATIH 10]Windows 7 x64 Recovery on SSD. Stuck on Boot screen.

Addendum:

Alright, here's an update of something i just discovered concerning my issues....

I decided to leave the PC turned on for a while and after 20-30 mins. it suddenly went to sleep.
This is very odd (just as odd as the startup sound you get to hear), since it would imply that the operating system was functioning just fine.
Anxiously i resumed the PC from sleep mode and was greeted by a completely black screen.
Knowing, if the OS was actually working i would be able to just enter in my own password (there's only one account on the machine) and hit enter.
This worked without a hitch, yet i was greated by a completely blank screen. I could tell my OS did actually load up by the sudden change of backlight color of my Logitech Keyboard.

Now, here's the deal...
I have 2 machines (a primary and secondary PC) that are very much alike in terms of hardware (both intel machines, yet a different chipset etc).
I was actually recovering the image from my primary machine onto the secondary (with the new drive attached) just so i could test the new drive and see how it would work with my Windows installation.
Either one of the two following things seems to happen:
- Most likely: My primary machine contains a AMD Radeon HD7970. My secondary machine contains a AMD Radeon HD5850. For some reason, booting up with the HD5850 on the recovered image (with HD7970 drivers installed) seems to create a conflict. The OS loads, yet the monitor output seems to stagnate.
- Less likely: My primary PC has a dual screen setup and has Ultramon installed. The secondary PC only has one screen. When recovering the image and booting onto my secondary PC, the dual screen settings will fail to load properly. Either resulting in a false monitor detection or forced display of the secondary screen instead. This seems a little bit unlikely since i am still staring at a frozen Windows boot logo on startup (yet i am hearing a windows startup sound as if the OS loaded fine). I tried the second output of the HD5850 and got no display at all (rather then a blank screen) implying this was not the answer.
The only thing i did not exclude however, was the Display port, since one of the screens of my Primary PC is hooked up via Displayport as well.

I hope this doesn't get too complicated for anyone reading this (lol).
I will try and recover the same image later this week, while the new drive is actually in my primary PC, just to verify if it works okay.

PS. To anyone taking the time to read this...thanks. But, have you ever experienced something similar??? (interesting scenario if you ask me).

This is posted in the wrong section. You say you are running Acronis True Image Home 2010. Posts for that product should go here: http://forum.acronis.com/forums/acronis-true-image-home-discussions/acr…. But to address your issues, the difference in chipsets is probably more the issue than just the difference in graphics adapters. You did not say whether or not you have the 2010 Plus Pack that includes Universal Restore for just this type of /restore/recovery. Since you didn't mention it, I am assuming that you do not have it and are not using it to do the restore/recovery. Since the system is trying to boot, but you are not seeing any video, have you tried starting Windows using the F8 key option and choosing VGA mode to see if you can at least get into Windows to remove the current graphics driver?

Hi James,

Thanks for your response and taking the time to read about my 'situation'.

Sorry for posting in the wrong subforum, looks like i mistook some product names and posted in the wrong section indeed (perhaps the thread can still be moved by someone?).
Just out of curiousity what exactly is the difference between Acronic True Image Home and Acronis Backup & Restore?).

Personally i have a very good experience with recovering Windows 7 partitions from an Intel based system to another Intel based system (as long as there is no weird discrepancy between SATA Host Controller modes).
To investigate the problem further i will try the same recovery again and will try booting to safe mode with the HD5850 graphics card to uninstall the driver (and perhaps even Ultramon if the first manouvre doesn't work).

Could you please elaborate on the difference by doing a Universal Restore? I vaguely recall trying this in the past (because i do indeed have the option) yet i recall getting error messages from Acronis trying to create a driver package and/or getting BSOD's during the first boot followed after the recovery.

As to look into any possible errors during the first boot (and the different chipset is initialised/installed on the OS partition), do you feel this could actually lead to the system booting up correctly, but not displaying graphics?

Acronis True Image and True Image Home products are consumer versions. The Acronis Backup and Recovery product line is geared more toward business users.

Universal Restore allows the Acronis software to make your system bootable by changing key registry settings and injecting new drivers into the newly restored image. This would allow booting to different hardware (different chipsets, CPUs, controllers, etc). You would need to have the correct drivers (32 or 64 bit depending on your system) available for Universal Restore to inject during the restore/recovery operation. BSOD during first boot could be due to a number of reasons and without specifics could not be addressed here.

As far the the graphics issue on the restored installation you have mentioned in your above posts, try the F8 method of booting into VGA or Safe mode and remove the graphics driver and any displays listed in device manager and then reboot, let us know how that turns out.

Hi James,

Good news:
- I recovered the image again (same problem on first boot).
- I Booted into Windows 7 Safe mode.
- Tried to uninstall the drivers at first (Windows told me: The Windows Installer service isn't running in Safe mode, you can only uninstall programs in normal mode).
- So i went to my Device Manager. Clicked Display Adapter and Uninstalled the Display adapter (graphics card).
- Rebooted the PC in normal mode.
- Worked instantly.

So for some reason it looks like it was the Display adapter detection upon first boot of a recovered image, after all.

By the way... seeing as i am not familiar with the exact difference between Acronis True Image Home and Acronis Backup & Restore...
Would you actually recommend Backup & Restore over Acronis True Image Home for a power user?

PS.

I had a little LOL at your signature.
Me and my colleagues usually talk about 'pebcak' errors. :)
(Problem Excists Between Chair and Keyboard).