Back up & Restore
Hi Folks ( another newbie here ).
My current windows 7 has booting issues due to an update, I have tried various steps to try and get it booting again but with no joy, so I have done a full backup of the drive ( hard drive is fit as tested with seatools and others ) now restored backup to another drive and of course the problem is still there just like the old drive.
Can I just backup my user settings and programs, re install windows 7 again and restore those settings and programs? and if this can be done what folders would i need to backup please?
I've used another drive because I don't want to loose anything on the old drive ( just me being cautious )


- Log in to post comments

Thanks Ian, but at present the PC will not boot into Windows or Safemode I have to use the recovery tools but again still no joy- mainly used command prompt ( for sfc scans, chkdsk /f and /r, also dism offline ) but nothing working, last known config also not work, cannot use restore points as it indicates nothing there? yet it was and has been enabled in past. Start up repair is unable to repair too
Have scanned for Virus and Malware ( just in case ) but all clear.
have tried boot logging ( via pressing F8 ) looks like a few drivers have not loaded I can paste this if anyone needs to see it.
Thanks in advance Martin
- Log in to post comments

Martin, perhaps an obvious question but not clear if it has been asked, do you have a full disk backup of your Windows 7 system from before the latest problem started with the bad update?
That would be the best way to proceed if you have one to use for recovery.
If you have no full backup, then how far does the boot get when trying to start Windows? What error(s) are you given?
- Log in to post comments

Hi Steve,
Unfortunately no backup prior ( big sigh, but lesson learnt )
So it goes to the splash screen and stays there for approx 17/18 seconds and just reboots then gives option to repair or start normally to which both options do nothing.
I chose the option to halt on error and this is what i got:
STOP: c000021a {fatal system error}
The verification of a knowndll failed. System process terminated unexpectedly with the status of 0x0000020 (0x0772dda0 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down
The system does not BSOD unless i choose the later option
The joys of Windows is like a box of chocolates----You never know what your going to get.
- Log in to post comments

Martin, sorry that you don't have a good backup to go back to. A quick search on Google shows that this is a potentially difficult issue to try to resolve.
See webpage: Blue Screen -- c000021a The verification of a KnownDLL failed. for someone reporting the same error in the Microsoft forums.
Also webpage: Resolving stop (blue screen) errors in Windows 7 which covers trying to resolve these type of issues but gets to doing a clean install of Windows if nothing else works.
I assume that you also don't have a Windows System Image (created by the MS Windows 7 Backup program) that can be used?
- Log in to post comments
In reply to Martin, sorry that you don't… by truwrikodrorow…

No windows image Steve,
agreed very difficult to resolve which was why I decided to reinstall windows then use the full backup I created from the original drive ( I still have the original drive with the original windows install ).
but I did not realise that the issue would have been copied to the new install via the backup, I used your guide to do the full restore of the disk ( great and easy to follow! )
I can do a fresh install again, but do need the user settings and programs from the original drive it will be windows 7 home again is this possible with acronis 2017?
I can access the original drive externally if this helps thanks for your input so far.
- Log in to post comments

Martin, sorry but doing a restore of a 'bad' backup will put everything back to the same state it was in when the backup was created. You cannot use such a backup to just restore user settings and programs - see KB 19296: Acronis products cannot be used to transfer applications to different system or upgrade OS where this limitation is documented.
The key statements from the above KB document are:
The main reason is that you cannot just copy installed programs to a new operating system. To function properly, programs have to be installed using the installation routine to write various configuration settings and to set up configuration files in proper places. Even if you copy the contents of Program Files folder to the new system, most programs will not function because during installation additional data is placed to other folders and to Windows registry.
In brief, installed applications "integrate" into Windows to function.
You would need to repeat the fresh install of Windows 7 again, then reinstall your applications / programs to get back to a base installation as similar to what you had previously, then make a full backup of the system at this point.
At that point, you can restore any user data that is held in your 'bad' backup image, i.e. your documents, pictures, music, videos etc, along with bookmarks and, provided you can identify the correct locations, you could try copying back folders for your email application, i.e. outlook.pst files.
A lot of data is held in the Windows Registry but attempting to restore the registry files back is fraught with risks that are probably not worth chancing.
- Log in to post comments
