Results of Acronis True Image cloning produces some unexpected surprises
OK, for starters, here is a hint to make cloning a hard drive much faster. I have an external Sans Digital SATA II hard drive enclosure. Your disc cloning instructions say to mount the Source hard drive in an external USB enclosure and doesn't mention SATA but I just finished cloning a 2TB Western Digital hard drive in under 4 hours. I think it was closer to 3 hours but I went to bed thinking it was going to run all night and woke up 4 hours later and it was finished.
Then came the surprises. Upon booting up the newly cloned hard drive I discovered a completely new screen that wasn't there before. A screen that now reads Microsoft Corporation and a blinking progress bar that precedes my mobo screen. Then my gorgeous Gigabyte motherboard logo that used to stay visible for maybe 3 or 4 seconds nows vanishes in a fraction of a second. I would like to get that back the way it was because it contained the F8 and DEL hot keys which only work when the logo screen is up.
And more surprises. My 2TB hard drive was partitioned into 3 logical drives to catalog my huge image collection from my 5 digital cameras. On viewing the files I found one drive now had a list of dozens of EULA texts which I deleted and a list of mysterious files I've never seen before:
VC_RED.MSI 232,960 kb 11/7/2007
VC_RED.cab 1,442,522 kb 11/7/2007
install.res.3082.dll 96,272 kb 11/7/2007 and 8 more that go to Install.res.2052.dll 11/7/2007
I have no idea what these files are or if I can delete them.
One nice thing is the cloning condensed all the data that previously had been spread over the partition. And it all runs much faster, now, too.
Here is a link that may be of some interest.
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/289687-vc_red-files-my-ro…
Thanks for the reply. The original disc is still in the external SATA enclosure which is normally turned off unless I need it. It was a cheap WD Green level disc and I'm going to store it away for backup.
My OS is Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1. I built this computer in 2012 and that was the only OS ever installed. And that adds to the confusion with the mystery files. They were - since deleted, all related to Microsoft Visual C+++ of which I have more current versions installed but these files were last modified 5 years before I built the PC. The new hard drive, a WD Black level disc, was created using the Acronis CD boot disc in MBR. Only other unanswered question is how did my animated Windows logo get replaced with "Microsoft Corporation".
The Visual C files were written by applications which require that particular version of Visual C to run correctly. The dates of these files simply indicate when those files where originally created not when they where written to your disk.
I cannot explain the change in your Windows logo except to say the Microsoft Corp with the blinking cursor is the default.
As for your Gigabyte logo I would suspect that your machine bios reset itself to factory default settings upon detection of the new disk in order to boot. You should be able to set the time display for that logo in the bios settings possibly in boot tab where that logo option is listed.
Gigabyte has an "ultra fast boot" option in the bios. You may want to go into the bios, start tapping F2 super quick after a reboot because you have to get it just right if it's turned on or it will skip straight to windows. If you're using a wireless keyboard, try a physical one, might be just enough lag/delay that it doesnt' give you access to the bios with a wired one if the ultra fast boot is enabled. This is my second gigabyte board (first was a ga77x-ud3h and now I have a GA-Z170X and logos work fine on both with image and recovery (I've never cloned). However, I never turn on ultra fast boot either because it makes it too hard to get into the bios and or the one time boot menu. If you can't get it down, try resettting the CMOS to clear the bios settings back to default and then you should be good to go.
As for the old school green Microsoft progress bar, that seems to be a reminent of Vista - ever upgrade from it? If not, it could be a corrupt bootloader or a change in graphics card? I have not personally heard of this, but there are forums about it:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/…
Its a very annoying and common problem in Windows 7.
As we all know Windows 7 contains a new animated boot screen which shows animated items/balls that come together to form Windows logo.
Sometimes it starts showing the old Vista styled boot screen which contains only a green progressbar with black background.
Most of the time it happens when a user tries to repair the boot loader or adds a new entry for Windows 7.
If you are also facing this problem, then here is a very simple and working solution for you:
1. Boot into Windows 7 and click on "Start button -> All Programs -> Accessories". Now right-click on "Command Prompt" and select "Run As Administrator". If you are prompted to enter password, enter the password and continue. You can also open Command Prompt in Administrator mode by typing "cmd" in Startmenu Search box and press "Ctrl+Shift+Enter".
2. Now provide following command:
bcdedit /set {current} locale en-US
The above command is for English version of Windows, if you are using some other language version, then change "en-US" to your own locale.
3. Exit Command Prompt and restart your system. Now the new animated Windows 7 boot screen should be back in action.
NOTE: If the above method doesn't work for you, provide following command again using Command Prompt:
bcdboot %WinDir% /l en-US
And restart your system. It'll work now.