Restore will not boot.
Windows 10 + the latest version of ATI 2016.
I have a series of differential backups of my Samsung SSD C: drive.
Wanting to cure a software problem I ran a Restore from my bootable CD. My pc uses UEFI so i booted the cd in that mode. After the recovery the drive would not boot. If I select the UEFI drive to boot from I get "Your device needs to be repaired". My other option is to boot from Windows Boot Manager (P1:Samsung SSD)
How do I get my pc back to where it was before I started this fiasco?
Restoring from a backup should not be like this.
John

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OK. Here's a question.
I have a good backup, a bootable Acronis CD, and UEFI bios.
How do I create a bootable pc? I have tried every restore option I can think of but not one creates a bootable pc.
TIA
John
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1) Make sure you're booting your recovery media to match how the OS was origially installed when it was taken (are you sure it was UEFI and not legacy before, even though the bios supports UEFI? - what partitions exist on your image?). How you boot the recoveyr media, determines how the OS is restored - boot it UEFI will result in a GPT/UEFI layout, boot it in legacy will result in a MBR/legacy layout.
2) On a UEFI system, you need to make sure the 1st boot option is windows boot manager and not the speicifific sata disk like it used to be on older legacy/mbr bioses.
***For what it's worth, I have a gigabyte motherboard - my second one. both suffer from the same problem where the bios firmware was retarded and did not update the bootmenu options and would hold onto old "ghost" instances that caused me all kinds of headaches. i found that setting the bios to defaults would help with that issue, although very inconvenient to have to configure the bios again because of the buggy firmware.
As of yesterday, I found that Gigabyte is now pushing a single version to all newer motherboards. I went from F6 to F20beta in one swoop and my bios issues are resolved. Just wanted to put this out there in case you might have a bios issue like I did. ***
3) Did you backup the entire disk originally, including all paritions? Did you restore the entire disk including all paritions?
Assuming 1-3 are all good to go and it still won't boot, next step is to try a Windows installer disk and attempt a system repair. If that doesn't do it, try the bootrec commands from the advanced command prompt... https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-rebuild-the-bcd-in-windows-2624508
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Thank you Bobbo.. Much appreciated.
1) I have booted my recovery CD in UEFI and Legacy. If the latter, after selection of source and destination I am given a warning that the recovery will not boot in BIOS. When I get to boot the recovered disk I get 'bootmanager missing' message. If I use UEFI to boot the CD there is no warning message but when I boot the disk I get a blue screen with 'disk needs repairing' message.
I have used my Windows 10 install disk but the repair options do not work. One message says the disk is 'locked'
2) In my BIOS boot order I have 'Windows Boot Manager', 'Windows Boot Manager plus the SSD drive'.
I have tried every combination of that order possible and either get the blue screen saying the drive needs repairing or bootmanager is missing.
3) The differential backup scheme contains ALL the partitions of which there are 4.
NTFS (Windows 10), MBR and Track 0, Recovery Partition and EFI System partition. I select them all to recover.
I am writing this from a WinPE CD I have "EasyRE". It has a number of utitlities on it which I will try out.
Thank you again for your assistance. This is driving me mad.
John
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John,
Attempt to boot the machine into Safe Mode. If that succeeds then simply select the Power button or option and from that list select Restart. Your machine should now boot back into Windows normally.
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What/how did you try to boot into safe mode? Did you use a Windows 10 install media?
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That will not work. Do you have an Windows 10 install media? If not you can get one here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10/
Click on the (+) next to Using the tool to create installation media for details on what to do.
Once you create the media boot to it. Select the language and keybord, then click on the box at the lower left of screen that says Repair your Computer.
On the next screen select Troubleshoot, then Advanced Options, then Startup Settings.
On the next screen select Restart.
When the computer restarts press the number 4 key to start the machine in Safe Mode. If the computer will restart into Safe Mode, which it should, then click on the Start button to access the power button and choose Restart.
Your computer might boot back into the install media again. If so you can simple click on the X top left corner of screen and you will get a prompt to confirm that you wish to quit the installation, choose Ok. Your computer should shutdown. Once shutdown remove the bootable install media from the computer and then reboot the start the machine. It should boot into Windows now.
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Thank you Enchantech.
I have a Windows10 install cd and when I get to the Startup Repair (not settings) Repair fails, as always. The pc shuts down, on reboot key 4, or F4 does not boot into Safe Mode.
Why I should have these problems from a perfectly good backup is anyone's guess. I have had it with ATI.
I have even tried installing from the Windows10 boot cd but that fails also because the disk is GPT!
John
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Do not run the repair option. Select the Troubleshoot, Advanced Options, Startup Settings as outlined above and then choose the Restart and follow the other steps outlined.
Your porblem is that your hard drive is locked. This is a by product of Windows 10 Fast Startup feature. The only way to unlock the drive is to restart Windows but you cannot do that without booting Windows first. So booting into Safe Mode and Restarting the computer is the only way out of the loop your in.
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Thank you again.
I do not see Startup Settings on the Advance page.
System Restore, System Image Recovery, Sytem Repair, Command Prompt and Go back to previous build.
I tried using a Windows 7 install cd but that told me it was not compatible with the current version on Windows.
Thank you
John
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I have now bought a flash drive with windows 10 install on it.
There is an option to boot into safe mode but that still does not work.
Booting from the fd, I have a choice of 64 or 32 bit. I choose 64 bit. Pressing f8 takes me to dos screen where I choose safe mode.
That brings me to windows setup box after which I have the usual options of installing windows or repairing. Choosing advanced options still does not give startup settings. There is uefi firmware settings but I am reluctant to pick that.
John
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John,
It is very strange that you cannot find the Startup Settings option with the Windows 10 install media. I have no idea why that is.
If it were me at this point I would use Diskpart to Clean the disk and then run Convert GPT on it. After that I would run the restore from the image you have again on the drive.
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Success. From a command prompt I ran fixmbr, rebuildmbr etc. and that fixed it somehow.
Now, if I restore again from a backup what do I need to do not to have to go through this horror again?
John
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Ok, if you are restoring to the same disk then when you do not include the MBR and Track 0 partition. If you are restoring to a different, new, or wiped disk then the MBR and Track 0 partition should be included.
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Thanks Enchantech. I never knew that so will remember that for the future. It seems odd that not restoring ALL that was imaged is not Restored.
Thank you very much for your very patient and informative advice. If I could buy you a drink I would. Cheers.
John
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https://craftbeerclub.com/?gclid=CIKd_9bvrtACFYMCaQodesgMOQ
Just saying :)
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