Skip to main content

Universal Restore issue - corrupt files, can't boot

Thread needs solution

I took the hard drive from my old machine and put it in my new one. (I removed the original hard drive from the new one.)

I managed to make it through the Universal restore CD and find all the drivers needed, so the drivers are all now in place.

I boot up and immediate it says Windows failed to start.

I've gone through the Windows repair CD process (with an actual Windows 7 disc) and it says that it cannot automatically fix the errors.

I believe the error was 0x00007f  (*not sure how many 0's)

Also, in the error details, it says my "pci.sys" file is corrupt.

SO.. I actually retrieved that file from the original hard disc that HAD been working in my new machine. It existed in 4 places.

I put all 4 copies of that file onto the "new" hard drive I ultimately want to be in that machine. (my old hard drive from my old machine)

I tried the Windows 7 repair disc again. This time it gave me the same error but says "acpi.sys" is corrput.

I went through the same process with acpi.sys.

No good.

What do I do now?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

0 Users found this helpful

Mike, welcome to these user forums.

Please see the Acronis Universal Restore User Guide (PDF document) and ensure you have followed the steps described in the guide.

Mike... lot's of missing info we don't know at this point.  

For starters, is the new system UEFI and the old one legacy or are they both the same?  If the new system is UEFI, but the old system is legacy, does your new system bios support legacy/csm and did you enable it?  

Have you disabled secure boot on the new system bios yet?  

Was the old system bios SATA mode set to AHCI and is the new system bios set to match?  Whatever the old system was set as, it cannot be different on the new one and needss to be set the same.  Some new OEM systems don't let you change this so whatever it's set to (which  may be unknown to the user if not displayed in the bios firmware) if it is different and can't be changed, that's a problem.

What OS did the new system come with?  Does the manufacturer support the OS from the older drive? For example, Nothing I could do would allow me to put a fully funcitonal and working version of Windows 7 on a Surface Pro 4 that was built and designed around Window 10.  I could probably get it to boot, but, even if I could, it will never function correctly with Windows 7. 

If you put the original drive back in the old system, does it still boot (did you take a backup before doing anything to it as a precation too)? 

Just because Acronis can image one OS and make it bootable on another one, doesn't necessarily mean you can grab a drive out of one, run UR on it and just pop it in to the new system.  You have to manually make sure the bios configurations allow for this as well.

Example:  I have an older HP DM1Z netbook which is legacy only.  I have a newer ASUS T200 transformer which is UEFI only.  I can never take an image of one and make it boot on the other because of the bios limitation of legacy vs UEFI since neither of them supports the other.  It will never work in this case.  

Steve, Bobbo, thanks for your replies.  Turns out that, in addition to needing to run bootrec.exe /FixMBR and /FixBoot and /RebuildBcd  (the last one after I needed to rename the bcd file to something different in order to rebuild it - per this Microsoft article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/927392)... when I had initially run the Universal Restore disc on my new machine and pointed it to the necessary drivers, I, in fact pointed it to the orginal hard drive that previously worked in the new PC, and that operating system was Windows 10... so, while the Universal Restore process was succesful (reporting "successful"), I actually pointed it to the wrong versions (I guess) of the drivers... So I went back and replaced a couple of those important Windows boot driver files (acpi.sys... and pci.sys, atapi.sys, ataport.sys)... and my computer finally boot up.

I hope that helps someone out there. :)

Thanks for kindly trying to help.

Mike

Mike, glad all is well now!

In the future, when running universal restore, try just running it with the defaults and no added drivers - in most cases, that's all you need to do.  Of course, running it on the correct drive goes a long way too :) .  Think we've all been there in one manner or another at some point in time.

You usually only need to add additional drivers if you are using RAID, in which case, you would need to provide the RAID controller drivers (most of the time the IRST - Intel Rapid storage technology drivers) are sufficient.  But, if you have a custom RAID controller (LSI, RocketRaid, etc), then you'd want to add those drivers instead.  Again though, usally just running UR on it's own is enough. 

Bobbo, the Universal Restore process kept asking me for drivers that it couldn't find... throwing up alert after alert. Finally when I plugged in and pointed to that Windows 10 disc and its various driver folders, the drivers were found.  

What you're suggesting is that I should just skip through the various alerts and let the process finish, and then try to boot up?  

I should say, I think the Acronis software isn't clear...  It seems that I need at least my chipset drivers, don't I? (and other mobo and hard disc drivers.) 

Perhaps the one thing i did benefit from from plugging in that original Windows 10 disc (the disc that came with the new computer) is that at least my chipset driver, etc., was extracted from it... no?

Thanks for your help.

Hi Mike,

I've never been prompted to provide mandatory drivers for any system I've run UR on.  I've just launched it, run it on the detected OS and been done.  With this process, it just generalizes the drivers on the existing OS and does not inject any new ones.

The only time I've had to add drivers is when I know that I'm using RAID as the SATA mode and need to provide the SATA controller drivers.  

Windows 10 especially forgiving when it comes to drivers as it has really good driver support.  Think about it... if you were to take a Windows 10 install CD (or UsB flash drive created from the Windows 10 media creation too), chances are, your system will boot just fine on it's own too - chipset is not an issue - Windows 10 has generic drivers for all of teh current chipsets.  Again, the only time i've ever had to add drivers during a fresh Windows 10 install is with specialized RAID controllers, and Windows will prompt to add those during the install too.  But, if you already have Windows 10 installed (which already has the generic Windows 10 drivers available in it), there shouldn't be a need to provide the same drivers again.  

So, when you were prompted for drivers, was this done automatically, just by selecting the detected OS and pressing continue, or did it occur after you clicked on the option to add drivers?