Restore Full System - Differential

Well I decided to go for it. Booted into my #2 win7 OS, formatted the drive (F), started acronis, selected the last differential file! reviewed all the info and kicked it off.

It all looked good. Took about 30 minutes and finished successfully.

I restarted the PC, selected the restored OS, and got an error. Something like "windows failed to start. A required resource was not available " from boot manager.

I went back in to the other win7 system, looked at the disks in Disk Manager and all looks OK except only one of the disks has boot in it's description - the restored disk.

What did I do wrong?

Thanks!!

It is difficult to say what if anything was done wrong. It would have been safer had you disconnected the disk not involved before the restore and the first boot following the restore.

It is also possible that the disks were dependant upon one another and that relationship has been changed.

If understanding correctly, one disk boots and the other does not.
If true, one possibility would be to disconnect the good disk and use the Win7 recovery CD to do a Startup Repair on the non-working disk.
Don't connect the good disk until and all is working good on the other disk. Many reports of both disks getting hosed when both connected.
I trust you also have a backup of both disks.

As you look at the disks via Disk Manager, does either or both have small non-lettered system recovery partitions?

Hi Grover,

See attachment of the Device Manager image. I don't think there are any of the non-lettered recovery partitions you mention. Let me know if you need more than this image.

Yes, this is a multi boot PC. I have two Win7 systems. I did all of the work on the the OS on C: The system I restored is on F:. After the restore all of the data on F: looked good. Everything looks great except when I select the Win7 system on F boot manager gives the "something has changed, a device needed is not available." Something like that. Let me know if you need more info from this screen.

I do have both disks backed up.

Grover, PLEASE help me with this. If I don't get this going by the end of the day tomorrow I am in deep s***.

1. Both systems show to have the Win7 non-lettered Recovery partition and this partiton is the active partition on both disks--which is as it should be. When you did the restore, did you include this non-lettered partitioon?

If no, then restore that single partition, plus the track0/mbr plus the "recovery disk signature" option if such an option is offered. Do not restore the large system partition.

This "recovery disk signature" option is found on the next to last screen just prior to clicking the proceed option. If offered, it will be found in the lower left corner of the screen--on same where where the target disk is selected.

If you do the above, be sure and do the restore with only the non-working disk connected. Be sure the good working disk is NOT connected.

After that, if the system fails to boot, then you will have to try tomake it bootable by using the Win7 user created Installated disk.
This option to make the Windows 7 recovery CD is usually found on the start/Maintenance folder.

Any work you do on this system should be only with the good system disk disconnected.

I am assuming tht you are using the TrueImage Recovery CD to perform your restore?

I am not a technician. Hopefully the above will get you working again.
Perhaps others that see your response can help you more.

Grover,

I'm beginning to think that I am in big trouble. No, I did not restore using the TrueImage recovery disk. I never created one of these. I did everything from the other bootable Win7 system. No I didn't restore the non-lettered partition because I didn't back this up.

I can't do anything with the good system disk disconnected because the backed up one will not boot.

I tried booting from the Win7 install disk and selected repair. I got the message that repairs were made and reboot. I did this and had the "Prepareing Desktop" for a long time then got the message "This is not a valid Win7 system" or something like that.

Lesson learned. I created another Win7 OS to have a clean system. I had made so many changes that my original system that it was very buggy.

I'm going to start reinstalling Win7 on a different disk. I won't mess with the restored F: in case a solution is found to make it bootable.

Just shoot me!!

Thanks for your help.

Pete Stephans

Pete,
A dual boot system is not an easy system to install and a restore of one of its parts is even more difficult. These are much more finiky to fine tune.

I have not worked with a dual boot system but from what I have read from other posts, it is important to keep the two installations separate when performing troubleshooting (restore or clones). Hopefully, during the installation of your new re-install, you performed the new install with only the single new disk attached.

It has been emphasised that it is important for each disk to be occasionally connected as singles only to make sure either system will boot properly without being dependant on the other.

The Acronis bootable TrueImage Recovery CD (or Flash drive) is a limited standalone version of the program as the recovery CD does not include scheduling. Its main purpose is to provide a software platform in which prior backups can be restored onto old or new disks so the result will be a duplicate of the prior working system--either with the old disk or a new smaller or larger disk. Booting from the CD for the restore or clone removes Windows from interfering. There are a larger number of users which perform all their backups when booted from the CD and never install the program onto their computers.

The CD also provides an alternate cloning process which provides a second method to create a replacement disk. Of the two methods (Restoring a backup onto a new disk versus cloning the source) the backup/restore method is the safer of the two as the restore is made from a backup file. Whereas, the cloning method reads the original source disk and transfers a live copy of that information directly onto the target disk. The clone procedure, if improperly performed, can result in a botched clone with the source disk not being readable; and even when properly performed, the results are not as expected. User error (wrong disk selection) is probably the most frequent error along with loss of power or a program malfunctions--all of which can prevent a successful cloning.

Starting with the type of backup needed, review link 2 below--particularly the first few illustrations where the reasons for a "disk option" backup is illustrated. This type backup includes all partitions on the disk--even the non-lettered partitions. This is the type backup I would suggest you use.

Most of the retail installations of Win7 includes a non-lettered Recovery partition. As this is usually the active boot partition, this partition must be a part of the backup and often times part of the restore--if there are any boot issues.
Note this non-lettered Recovery partition exists mostly on retail systems and may not be created by installations performed by users directly onto their own computers. In these instances, the files normally included in the special partition are instead, included in the normal Windows partition which becomes the active boot partition.

In a dual boot system, if you need to restore one of the systems, it has been emphasized that it is important that the other working system not be connected during the restore of the other system. The purpose of this separation to keep one system from contaminating the other system. When Windows sees two identical systems and the recovery program can often make the wrong choice which can render one or both non-usable. Thus separation is a safety measure. Sometimes better safe than sorry even if it tasks longer. Sometimes shortcuts can lengthen the process rather than shorten the process.

Review link 3 below especially item 2 (disk restore); item 1 (restore to a larger or smaller disk); and item 3 which is a routine restore of C only when booting is not an issue. Note all of these examples emphasize the use of the TI Recovery CD as the means of performing the restore or replication.

Good luck with your new installation/backups and restores.

Grover,

Thanks so much for your generous help. I know now that I was incredibly ill prepared for a complicated restore like this. I've learned a lot in the past 48 hours.

I was able to recreate almost all of the problem system today and should finish tomorrow. Once that's done I will use my new knowledge of backing up and restoring so that I'll be much better prepared from this point on.

I'll also upgrade to the latest version of Acronis.

Thanks again.

Pete

If included in your Windows installation and you have the space for more backups, use the Windows backup tool and do a system backup which will be a backup of your entire system---about the same size as the Windows used space. This is just a added safety measure I use first time I use a new system--before any program installs.

Grover,

An update to this issue.. I was reviewing the responses and realized I never did try one of the recommendations to boot the system with only the problem disk connected.. i did it and it worked perfectly.. i was able to recover the disk 100%..

I didn't have to restore the E disk and was able to manage the whole the thing from the other OS.

Thanks for your help on this!!

Pete

Grover,

An update to this issue.. I was reviewing the responses and realized I never did try one of the recommendations to boot the system with only the problem disk connected.. i did it and it worked perfectly.. i was able to recover the disk 100%..

I didn't have to restore the E disk and was able to manage the whole the thing from the other OS.

Thanks for your help on this!!

Pete

That's super good news. Thanks for the update.