mrboot is missing after restore
Hi all.
I removed the system disk from a Windows 7 64 bit computer. Then i made dis disk a USB disk to connect it to a laptop with Win7 64 bits. I made a disk backup. When i restored this disk i and put it back in the computer this computer did not start and gave that the mrboot mgr is missing.
What am i doing wrong???
I am not quite clear about you did. I assume you are trying to backup your disk so that you can restore to a new disk in the worst case where the original disk completely dies.
They way to do that is the following:
- leave the original disk in place in the system,
- from the recovery CD or from Windows, do a disk and partition backup of all the partitions on that disk and store the archive file on the USB disk,
- remove the original disk, put the new disk in,
- boot on the recovery CD and restore the entire disk (including all partitions and MBR+Track0 and disk signature) to the new disk. If the new disk is an SSD disk or a bigger disk, let us know. The procedure is a bit more manual to make sure everything is the way it should be.
I did what you told but it did not solve my problem. It puts the backup back but i still can not boor anymore from the new disk.
Do you have other sugestions?
The reasons why this missing boot files problem can sometimes happen with a Windows 7 backup/restore operation are often related to the two different ways in which the OS may be installed initially onto the target drive depending on whether or not that drive has been pre-formatted. However, rather than providing a long-winded explanation about the Win7 system reserved partition and related backup/restore issues, I'll assume that you're more interested in a solution. One such solution that is relatively easy to follow is provided at http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/fixing-bootmgr-is-missing-error-while-trying-to-boot-windows-vista/
Marc,
You can get this message in several cases:
- you didn't backup the active partition (the hidden system reserved partition if often the active partition on Win 7. To see it, right click on My Computer on the desktop, choose manage, double click storage, disk management. YOu will see a picture of the disks on your system. Look for the active partition and note where it is. It has to be included in the backup),
- for some reason, ATI didn't mark the active partition active when it restored. You have then to restore the partitions one by one as they were laid out and mark the right partition active. This process will allow you to make sure the right partition is marked active upon restoring.
- for some reason, the boot files were changed during the restore. Using the link that Richard shared above will help you fix that.
What am i doing wrong???
Maybe you are restoring the mbr to a different disk instead of the target disk. By default Acronis always points the mbr recovery to the first disk (on which Windows is running). When you chose to include mbr you have to separately select the target disk for it. (see screenshot attached below)
BTW, it is recommended to do the restore from the recovery CD. It is not a requirement, but it is better. Not necessarily because if works better, but because, at any rate, you have to make sure you can do it: you *will* have to do it from the recovery CD if your disk actually dies.