Win Me & WinXP Dual Boot Universal Restore
I had Windows ME originally then added Windows XP as a dual boot. I stopped using WinME long ago but still needed it to boot into WinXP. I now realize that WinME is not supported in Acronis True Image 2010 Plus Pack Universal Restore. So HOW do I get my current WinXP onto a new computer with different hardware with universal restore? That's the only reason I bought the upgrade but it doesn't seem to work. The universal restore option is not there. I need to do this ASAP.
Please read my post again. I want to restore to a "new computer". The only way to do that is with the CD that was made after plus pack install. So in short, I've been using the CD. Universal restore option is NOT there. My boot files are on C: WinME but I need to restore only the I:WinXP that I have on a separate hard drive because WinME isn't supported. Is there a way to do this?
Karen,
Understood. Let's get some obvious things out of way.
- After the installation of the Plus Pack, you need to create a NEW Acronis bootable recovery CD. The universal restore option will show up as you restore on the new computer,
- I understand WinME and XP are on different disks. Boot the computer on the new recovery CD and do a full (all partitions) backup of your XP drive onto a USB disk
- Validate your backup
- COnnect your USB disk to your new computer,
- Boot the computer on the recovery CD and you should now see the Universal Restore option
1 - I am using a recovery CD that was made after plus pack was installed.
2 - I did make backups of my partitions onto an external usb drive.
3- I used said recovery CD in the new computer and tried to restore BUT universal restore is not an option that shows up.
4 - Windows ME is not supported in universal restore so I cannot restore it. BUT that's where my boot files are.
So:
Windows ME is on C:\ (first hard drive) This drive has 4 partitions.
Windows XP was added to I:\ (second drive) dual boot This drive has 3 partitions.
Data/Programs are on a separate partition (D:\) on second drive.
So C:\Windows ME is the primary\boot partition but I want to restore I:\Windows XP partition to new computer but cannot since the boot files are on C. No universal restore option is given to me on the new computer.
If you can transform your XP installation on second physical disk in such a way that it boots being the only disk in the system, you might succeed. (May be first make a copy of it on a separate clone of second drive to keep existing as is) What files do you have in the root of active partition on first disk (C:, with win ME) , and second ( with XP)?
Root of C:
.rnd
~SYSTEM.BCK
ASPI.LOG
AUTOEXEC.001
AUTOEXEC.BAK
AutoExec.bat
AUTOEXEC.NU4
BaseClass.txt
boot.ini
BOOTLOG.PRV
BOOTLOG.TXT
BOOTSECT.DOS
caisslog.txt
CLASSES.1ST
COMMAND.COM
COMPATID.TXT
CONFIG.BAK
CONFIG.SYS
CPREGXP.LOG
DETLOG.TXT
hcwclear.txt
hpfr5600.log
INSTALL.LOG
IO.SYS
MSDOS.---
MSDOS.SYS
NETLOG.TXT
ntdetect.com
ntldr
NULL
pcrecbox.err
PDOXUSRS.NET
SETUPLOG.TXT
SETUPXLG.TXT
SUHDLOG.DAT
SYSTEM.1ST
WINDOWSWININIT.INI
Of XP:
hotfixes.htm
pagefile.sys
The first part of your reply isn't clear. I have to have both to be able to boot into XP even though I don't use the first one (WinME)
I assumed that UR doesn't see the XP os because it's on other disk and can't boot without the disk with ME.
The second disk alone doesn't boot because it doesn't contain ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini. The two latter can be just copied, ntldr in most cases can be just copied too. So I would first make a clone of the second disk (using 'clone' or backup the old disk and restore to the new one ( as primary and active partition) ) just to be safe, then attempt to copy these files onto it, the fix mbr using fixmbr command booted from xp installation cd. Then you will probably need to edit boot.ini.