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restore to new HDD questions

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I'm currently running a Restore (of a Win8.1 OS system drive) operation to a brand new HDD, meticulously following the manual 5.1.1.4 steps.  Some stuff confused me.

A.
When I got to step 7 (p80) I was surprised to NOT find a partition graphic at all when I clicked Details on the wizard's toolbar.  On the graphic I was expecting to see a partition for Window 8.1's System Reserved partition.  Now I wonder: could my full disk backup somehow have failed to image the System Reserved partition?  Looking at manual section 4.1 on page 41, I see "To view hidden partition, click Full partition list"; I wonder if I needed (I can't recall for sure if I did) to click it?  (If so I guess this new HDD won't boot and I'll need to swap the old system drive back in and create a new backup image.)

B.
When I got to step 9 (p80) I was surprised to be instructed to NOT check the "MBR and Track 0" box (how is my brand new HDD going to get a MBR, and the previous disk's signature?), but 

C.
On page 83 (after the "recovery is complete") I see instructions for "Selecting target disk for MBR recovery".  What do I do here?  As noted in (B), up on p80's step 9 I was told NOT to recover the MBR(!).

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Edit: Post-restore the new HDD is not bootable (as expectable, I guess).  But I have no idea whether that's due to A or B (or both).

Please help me, kind people.

coyote

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Coyote, I suggest you visit https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B8uZDIFmupY7X01OQ1NqY0VWa2M. Download ATIH 2017 Disk Restore.pdf written by MVP Steve Smith. This document should help answer your questions.

Thank you very much for your reply, thomasjk!

(But first, I tried a second restore of just the MBR/disk signature, and that didn't help [though it did change boot results from black-screen-with-flashing-cursor-in-upper-left-corner to pale blue repair windows screen].)

I'll try the pdf you recommend; I hope it works (unlike the manual's advice)(even though the pdf you recommend isn't specific to restores to New HDDs).  (If so, perhaps I should infer the relevant manual section is problematic.)

It seems my concern (A) that I wasn't properly handling a System Reserved partition was irrelevant, since now that I've swapped back in the old system HDD, in Disk Management (and in the ATI Backup source Full partition list) I see no SR partition(!).  (Heck google says Win8.1 has a System Reserved partition.)

My only *other* PC died after I posted this thread; from now on I'll only be able to get online and see this thread (1) if the restore works, or (2) if I fall back to the old system HDD.  Frustrating.

Coyote, the key with doing a full disk restore is to ensure that you have selected *all* partitions on the source disk when making the backup, then select just the very top option for the disk when doing the restore (letting ATIH automatically select all the partitions listed below the disk).

With a new disk drive, then the MBR and Track 0 is required if this is a BIOS / MBR installation plus the Disk Signature is needed if you have software which is activated based on this data.

It is important that the new disk drive is connected in place of the original drive, i.e. connected to the same SATA port / connector, plus that you check that the correct boot priority setting is selected in the BIOS settings.

Ref: the Microsoft System Reserved partition, if you have one, then this is normally around 100MB in size, but it is quite possible to not have this partition, in which case the BCD data is stored on the first OS partition. I have this on my Windows 10 laptop which originally had Vista installed and has never had a MSR partition.

In reply to by truwrikodrorow…

Thank you very much, once again, Steve!

I see my first error was trusting the manual advice (to "not select the MBR and Track 0 box") instead of my experience.

I only have one partition on the source disk, so I was good there.  Ditto connecting the new drive in the same SATA port/connector.  (Hmmm, interesting, I'll then make sure the new HDD has the same BIOS priority, I foolishly forgot to look at that!)

Ahhh, yes, I guess I lacked the SRP because it was an upgrade (from WinXP).

Now to make an incremental backup, and try again!  

I am NOT happy with the manual section 5.1.1.4 right now (plus swapping drives in/out of this PC [and this next bit is my fault] takes an absurdly long time).

coyote

If you read the manual carefully you will find that the only time you are to NOT restore the MBR and track 0 is when you are recovering an image to the SAME DISK from which the backup was created.  When restore is to a NEW (different) disk (known as a bare metal restore) the MBR and Track 0 must be included in the restore process.

The blue screen you experienced is indicative of improper boot device order in the bios.

First, many thanks to Steve, and for thomasjk for pointing me to Steve's PDF.

Because when I followed Steve's instructions, my Restore went perfectly!

Enchantech, I think you are not correct about the manual being correct.  In the ATI2017 manual at https://www.acronis.com/en-us/download/docs/ati2017/userguide/ take a look at the spot I cited above ("5.1.1.4
When I got to step 9 (p80) I was surprised to be instructed to NOT check the "MBR and Track 0" box"); I think it's clear I was following the prescribed steps in the proper section.  And when I followed Steve's SUCCESSFUL instructions, everything *else* I did was identical, but I did check that box.

(I am puzzled why restoring just the "MBR and Track 0" in a 2nd operation didn't rectify the situation.)

Plus, I checked my boot order: it was perfect all along too.

Oh, and Enchantech, it seems your advice in my post at https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2017-forum/ati2017-noob-questions-re-asz-startup-recovery-manager-sshd that "hybrid ...drives are not supported by the bootable environment required for system drive recovery" was also not correct, because (thanks to Steve for advising me to go ahead since I had said I was deploying it as a single drive) I have just switched my system drive to a hybrid HDD.

coyote,

In step 9 you are instructed not to select the MBR and Track 0 at this stage of the process.  It says nothing about not recovering MBR and Track 0.

If you continue to read the documentation beyond step 9 in step 12 you are instructed to include the MBR and Track 0 if your disk contains a hidden partition created by a device manufacturer. I have no idea if yours did or does but chances are this applies to you.

In the case of the Hybrid drive you misunderstood my intention and I may have not been clear in my posting.  My point was to advise that certain Hybrid drives are not supported by the boot media, it is up to the user to determine if that applies to their equipment or not.  Sorry for the confusion. 

Glad to hear that the disk restore went through successfully, and thanks to Bob for helping with this issue too.

In reply to by truwrikodrorow…

"If you continue to read the documentation beyond step 9 in step 12 you are instructed to include the MBR and Track 0 if your disk contains a hidden partition created by a device manufacturer. I have no idea if yours did or does but chances are this applies to you."

No, it does not apply to my system.  (As I said [in my original post] I "meticulously follow[ed] the manual 5.1.1.4 steps", I certainly did "continue to read the documentation beyond step 9".)  I still really believe the manual is thusly wrong.  

And I agree you were less than clear in your posting that I simply

'rethink the hybrid drive for your system as such drives are not supported by the bootable environment required for system drive recovery"

if that might not apply to me.

Enchantech, I truly and sincerely appreciate your taking the time to share your knowledge of ATI with desperate noobs like me.  I'm just saying that in these few instances, I'm beginning to get a bit cautious about leaping to act upon your advice going forward.  I'm sure it's just a matter of there being so many of us noobs to help, that maybe sometimes people might not have enough time to fully consider part of a question, or carefully craft a perfect reply.  But hey, you're doing this out of the goodness of your heart, so I really do appreciate your help.