True Image Cloning failed at 1st reboot - startup repair HELP?

Sandman, welcome to these user forums.

Unfortunately yours is not the first tale of woe that we have had raised in these forums from users who have done exactly the same as you have in attempting to clone your internal HDD drive from within Windows.

Please read posts: 128150: Acronis True Image stuck in an endless loop   128189: Cloning  which are relevant, and in particular see the updates in the first post from Mustang at post #8 onwards which may be able to help you out of your situation.

Just to clarify, nothing has been changed on your laptop hard drive from a partition perspective, so all the partitions you see via the Partition Wizard CD will all be the same as were present before you attempted the clone.

What has changed is that by attempting to start the clone from within Windows, Acronis has modified your Windows Boot Configuration Data in order to point this at a temporary (Linux OS) environment from which the Acronis Clone tool would be launched, but unfortunately it is likely that your laptop does not permit it to boot from this Linux OS environment.

You could try going into the BIOS settings and check to see if you have Secure Boot enabled - if so, then try disabling this and see if you can boot successfully with just that one change.

For a clone operation to work well you need to:

- create the Acronis Recovery medium,

- boot the computer on that. If you can see all disks with Acronis, use your keyboard etc., you are in good shape

- shutdown the computer. Put the original disk on a USB to SATA adapter, or on another SATA connector

- put the SSD where the old disk was

- boot the computer on the Acronis Recovery Medium.

- Clone the old disk to the SSD (pay extra attention to the disk you select as source, and the one you select as target: you don't want to clone an empty disk to your original disk!)

- Shutdown the computer and disconnect the Old disk. This is very important.

- Reboot the computer

Not sure if this point is made in earlier posts, but abundant caution suggests that you create a full backup of the HDD/SSD on which your operating system is located before attempting to clone. I agree that cloning is best done using the recovery media.

Ian

Ian, fully agree about the need for a full backup BEFORE any attempt to clone, unfortunately, the OP would appear to be past that point having gone straight into a clone after installing the OEM ATIH software, so this is now a recovery issue due to corruption of the Windows BCD / bootloader config.

Steve, Ian

Yes. Data backups are available though not in a disk image or anything that I can restore w/o first having a functioning OS.

I followed the instructions exactly, they were straightforward enough, and killed my laptop. My laptop does require a password or fingerprint to boot (secure boot?) and may have had something to do with the process failing to initiate the transfer. Secure boot has since been disabled but the system will only boot to startup repair and fails the repair. Nothing has changed since the first attempt - straight to Startup Repair.

Question: Is ATI on that small partition now? I can get a command prompt from startup repair process selection and wondering if there's something I can run from it to initiate the transfer or backout of the process and restore the HDD boot ability?

Question 2: Do I now have to purchase ATI to get the bootable recovery image? My account shows the ATI 2014 OEM product and licnese key but does not let me download since I'm accessing the account from another PC. Just seems to me Acronis would provide access to recovery images for this situation.

I'll read up on the forum posts you've pointed to. And thank you.

Couple of other thoughts to check/try...

1) Go into the bios and check the boot priority - is the old hard drive still first?  If not, move it to the priority position again

2) Do you have the Acronis media attached or any other USB or eSATA drives attached at the moment?  If so, unplug those and cold boot the computer (after checking the boot prioirty)

3) Is there any encryption on the main hard drive - this is a big one that will get you in trouble if you tried to start the clone from wtihin windows since the disk is encrypted and can't complete modification after the reboot since, the disk is encrypted and can't be modified by any other programs

Assuming it's not encrypted, try to boot into safemode first (F8 on most systems.  On mine, I have no F8 so I have to let it fail to boot twice in a row and then am presented with a safemode F8 option).  That might be enough to get it to boot in safemode and if it does boot in safemode, hopefully it will then boot in the regular manner

If that doesn't help/work, then try to run a startup repair with your original Windows installer or repair disc.  If you don't have one, you can download the Windows media creation tool (from a working computer) and build an official installer for Windows 10, 8.1 or 8.  Then boot to that and go to advanced options and run startup repair.  Even if it says it didn't fix anything, shutdown completely, remove it and try booting after that.  For Windows 7, if you don't have an installer or repair disc, you can get an official .iso online as well:  http://www.howtogeek.com/186775/how-to-download-windows-7-8-and-8.1-installation-media-legally/

Feel free to post with more details on your efforts - no you do not need to purchase another license.  You should be able to download an Acronis .iso from your online account and burn that to CD or DVD to use as well - you'll just need to do that from another computer.  At this point, you could try to take a backup of your drive "as is" before doing anything else - just in case, but it's not going to fix your boot issue on it's own. 

Sandman wrote:

I followed the instructions exactly, they were straightforward enough, and killed my laptop.

Where did these instructions come from?  Were they on a webpage somewhere, or printed on paper etc?

The MVP's have been urging Acronis to make it a whole lot clearer that Clone should NOT be performed from within Windows and certainly, not before a full backup has been made first.

Unfortunately, with OEM licenses / versions of Acronis products, the onus is on the vendor providing that software to give support and provide documentation.  Your original post stated: "Received True Image license with Kingston SSD" which means that yours is an OEM product / license.

See KB document: 2201: Support for OEM Versions of Acronis Products

Guys,

Thank you for your time. I'm frozen in indecision;

1. Simply reinstall Win7 on the new blank SSD and restore my files
   • Huge, time instensive pain and all Apps will be lost requiring install ...where even possible
2. Clone as Steve suggests installing SDD internally, HDD externally. Though it appears I would have to purchase a multi PC license $50

Question: Is the C drive encrypted? I don't think it is though How can I tell?

My HP 8560w required fingerprint or password to boot at power on or restart. I've since removed that requirement thinking it was somehow preventing ATI from doing it's thing. Did I blow it? Note unknown partiton in image below. If it is encrypted it means Choice #1 and the realization that I created a real catastrophe rendering my HDD data unretrievable.

The system boots straight to Startup Repair now and from the very begining. If cloned per Choice #2, won't it behave the same way?

See attached hdd_parts for a snapshot of the partitions of the HDD. Why is the 445GB unknown? This is what makes me think it's encrypted.

sandman, I don't recommend either of the options you have described at this point in time.

With option 1 you are in effect doing a clean install of Windows 7 and if not done carefully you will also lose your HP _Recovery and HP_TOOLS hidden partitions.  As you mentioned, you will have to reinstall all your applications etc, plus recover your user data.

With option 2, doing this now will only give you another drive with the same problem of not being able to boot because the problem will also be cloned, so again there is no advantage to going down this path.

From looking at your screen image of the disk drive, I would suggest that your main partition 445.37GB is encrypted which is why the Unused Space and File System information shows as it does, i.e. there is no recognisable file system because it is encrypted and free space cannot be determined.

What I don't see in the screen image is any obvious EFI partition which suggests that this is a Legacy / MBR system, which would make the 300MB partition the Microsoft System Reserved Partion where the Boot Configuration Data store should be located.

If you can allocate a drive letter to that MSR partition and access its contents, then you may have a chance of editing or rebuilding the BCD data, but again this is made more complicated by having encryption in the mix.

Just following up with additional info. System will not boot from HDD ever since first attempt at running ATI using instuctions at http://www.kingston.com/us/support/technical/acronis-download and the subsequent page at Acronis download. My input stopped at Step #6 - the restart went straight to MBR Error 3 - Startup Repair and repair failed with error code 0x490 - This is the current status

Used BIOS to verify & change boot priorities as appropriate to boot from CD

Used a Recovery CD to boot and run Startup Recovery - although have a recovery partition on HDD which seems to be accessible and working.

Ran diskpart /fixboot -successful completion - no change in boot up problem

Ran diskpart /fixmbr -successful completion - no change in boot up problem

My Account at Acronis shows the product 2014 OEM I was provided with the activation key and a download link which when accessed from another PC (my only option at this point) does not present any thing to download. Seems it remembers the original PC I used to download the product the first time and will not allow another download from a different PC. That's where I need help with getting Acronis to let me download a recovery image and attempt the clone again with the SDD internal and HDD external - though I don't see how that changes things.

Did you see the snapshot of partitions I provided? Does it look like the C partition is encrypted since it shows as unknown & full?

sandman, please see my previous post #9 above which looks to have crossed with your post #10.

Thank you for posting the link to the instructions on the Kingston web site - these are a concern to say the least.  Windows 10 is not a supported platform for ATIH 2014 which appears to be the version you have been provided with, so the list of supported OS versions is incorrect immediately, then the simplified instructions give no warning about the need to make a full backup <<before>> attempting this type of action, plus no warning about checking if any encryption is present as Acronis cannot work with encrypted partitions when in Rescue Media mode (whether this is from rebooting from Windows into the Linux environment or using the Rescue Media created on CD or USB stick).

I would suggest contacting Acronis Support directly about access to any Rescue Media in your Account - I have no direct experience in using any of the OEM versions of the product and have always had access to Downloads in my own Acronis Account for all the install and rescue media as needed.

Do you have a Windows System Backup image for this computer that you could attempt to use? 

Further comment, to fix the problem here, the commands you listed in your last post #10 are not sufficient, you will need to use BCDEDIT commands to try to remove the changes which Acronis has introduced when you selected to do the clone from inside Windows.

Please see webpage: Repairing A Broken Bootloader Or Master Boot Record In Windows 7, 8, And 10

Scroll down this webpage to the section: An Alternative Method and review the information in that section for issuing the command bcdedit to get a list of all the current entries stored for the boot configuration.  Look at the descriptions for the entries shown to try to identify which one may have been added by Acronis.  Take some screen shots of the entries with your digital camera / phone etc in case you make any mistakes and need to re-add an entry.

ATI Product and Download from My Account view images attached.

As you can see the download presents nothing to download. The 3 down arrows only turn blue when clicked.

Is there any other way to get access to the ATI recovery ISO ?

Steve,

Just catching up on your posts. Thank you. I will look into the BCD edit. Not sure where the Windows 10 comes up but I'm running Windows 7.

Try signing in at https://www.acronis.com/en-eu/my/products/index.html which is the older version of the site, otherwise you will need to speak with Acronis Support to see what they can do to help.

Windows 10 plus 8.1 etc was listed on the Kingston web page you provided for the OEM Acronis download but anyone trying to install ATIH 2014 on Windows 10 will hit compatibility issues and be prevented from installing!

The 'Alternative Method' looks promising. Currently running a Parition Wizard scan - 27% - and will do the bcdedit once the scan completes and reboot to get to cmd prompt.

My new concern now is that I modified Security in BIOS to remove the bootup password/fingerprint requirement. May have locked myself out permanently from the encrypted partition. That is if it's encrypted. IDK. But the screenshot uploaded with Post #8 showing the partitions with a 445GB unlabeled and unkown type is big cause for concern. cripes.

I did send an email to support. Though it states I don't have support, I only asked for access to recovery image download. We'll see.

The link you've provided shows me Get Serials but alas no option to download anything else.

See webpage: BCDEdit Command-Line Options for more information on using this tool, in particular, see the option to export the current BCD store content.

Also webpage: How to Use the BCDEDIT Command Line Tool which has examples to help understanding.

Steve,

Do you have any comment of the HDD partition screenshot I've upload in Post #8? In particular the 445GB partition marked as unknown and the 300MB partition marked as active.

btw, Thanks for the bcdedit usage info. Still awaiting completion of the partition scan - 61%

Sandman, please see my comments in post #9 above https://forum.acronis.com/forum/128215#comment-402684 where I posted about the 445GB partition, that this is most likely encrypted.

With the disk being encrypted, until it is descrypted, nothing is going to work - the disk is locked/encrypted - it's going to do it's job to project the content of the drive until the proper decryption key is provided.  I would agree the disk appears to be encrypted based on the original screenshot showind the main parition allowable space and usable space being the same.  At this point, to absolutely verify if the drive is encrypted, you can disconnect it from the main pc and try to attach it to another computer via an external USB case or USB to sata cable.  If you can view the content of the drive, it's not decrypted.  If you get a message that the disk needs to be initialized - DON"T DO IT THOUGH, then the drive is encrypted.

The million dollar question, since you don't seem to be aware that it's encrypted is how/what was used to encrypt it and where is the encryption key at if it is encrypted?  If this is/was a bitlocker machine, if you are using TPM, you should be able to unlock it and then do a startup repair.  If not using TPM, when the drive was encrypted (assuming bitlocker) then you would have had to create a decryption key that you were told to store somewhere always accessible (such as usb flash drive).  Regardless of the encryption method/product that was used, there is always always a decryption method, but if you don't know what it is, or have the decryption key, there isnt' much anyone will be able to do for you.

Here's why encryption (if it was applied - which seems to be the case at this point) has probably done you in unless you can decrypt the drive...

1) it's intended to protect your data - encryption prevents any modification to the disk or access to the data on it, until it is decrypted.  Decryption happens with the TPM built into your motherboard (it stores the key in the bios) and verifies the disk belongs to your motherboard and the key matches - if it does, it decrypts the disk and then the OS can boot.  If TPM was not used, then you would have had to store the key somewhere else (a USB flash drive) and point the system to that key during each boot to unlock the drive so the OS can boot.  This is how all encryption works by design, otherwise, you'd just be able to pull the drive, attach it to another computer and copy data off of it like a regular external hard drive.

2) You started the clone from Windows where the disk was unlocked/decrypted at that time- the OS was live and working, hence, unencrypted at that point.  You then told Acronis to start a clone process from Windows (a decrypted state), which the instructions clearly state will require the system to be rebooted to complete the process.  The moment you rebooted, the drive immediately becomes encrypted again and Acronis is no more capable of breaking through that encryption than any other application or person - if it could, then your encryption would be pointless.  Unfortunately, by starting the process in Windows, Acronis was allowed to make some of the changes to modify the bootloader so it could boot into the third party acronis Linux bootable recovery environment at that time, but after the reboot, the disk is encrypted and the booloader change cannot be completed.  The bootloader information is partially modified, and the OS cannot boot because it needs to be repaired.  To fix this, you must decrypt the drive, then run a startup repair and should be booting into windows again and can then encrypt the drive after that. 

Please try to mount your drive in an external case or in another working computer and see if you can access the data or are prompted to initialize/format the drive.  If you can see the data, that's promisinging.  If prompted to format/initialize DON't DO IT yet - that will immediately wipe the drive and there will be no chance of getting it back then.  For now, if it is encrypted, you may be able to contact HP to find out how to decrypt it if they sent it in an encrypted state, but if they didn't, you're going to have to think hard who, when and with what was it ecnrypted to figure out how to decrypt it so you can then run a Windows startup repair to get it booting again.

There's also the possibility that the OP knows he has an encrypted disk and doesn't have the key because it's not his disk/computer. I don't know that that's the case, but it makes me suspicious.

:)

Yes, also a possibility, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt.  I won't,however, provide any details as to how it may be possible to circument encryption, although, it would be nearly impossible to do so anyway.  Mostly just want to point out that if anyone is using encryption and there is an attempt to modify the bootloader (or even the partitions in Windows) while encrypted, in anyway, your system is most likely not ever going to boot unless you can deccrypt it first and then run a startup repair or bootrec commands to repair it. Only way to do either though is from a fully decrypted disk. 

If this is BitLocker, then even if the BCD store can be cleaned to allow booting, then a Recovery Key will still be needed to get past the encryption, which again only the user / owner can / should be able to provide.  All bets are off in any other circumstance.

Ok I get the suspicion that this may not be my PC. Nothing I can say other than it is, always has been and has been solid as a rock.

The reason I don't know is because it has just always worked. It's a business grade laptop I purchased through HP employee purchase. It was actually refurbished. But man it's been a good box.

I went into BIOS, Security and removed the requirment to enter 'password or fingerprint' at boot -after- several reboots and attempts at Startup Repair . Ijust got tired of entering password or swiping my finger several times in order to get it read. Not realizing that removing the need for password at reboot would lock me out of the drive entirely. I never had to enter password or swipe finger to log into windows, only at power on boot. And I simply do not recall if it was/is encrypted. The OS was preloaded.

Attached a few screenshots here. Only BCD file on C: volume. That is the small on. Remember from the very beginning of this whole mess at the first reboot after running Acronis through windows, the bootup goes straight to startup recovery process and fails the same way with error code 0x490

This main drive says it's "raw" under your diskpart "list volume" screenshot. It is a sign that the parition is indeed encrypted or that it has lost it's partition scheme (I suspect encrypted based on all that's been written so far though).  The need to use password or fingerprint in the bios is also suggesting that was being used to decrypt the system with TPM security.  Not a smoking gun, but very likely. 

At this point you may have to get with HP to see if they can offer a suggestion, but not sure if they can to save/recover your data.  You can probably wipe the drive and load Windows fresh - assuming you have a license key or a recovery disk, other than what was loaded on the HP recovery patition.  

If HP can't offer any help, you can try to use a third party tool to try and recovery a raw partion back to an actual parition scheme (assuming encryption is not applied), but it will be a crap shoot as well.  

It doesn't look too good at the moment though. 

Attached HDD externally to another PC and sure enough the partition is encrypted. Found a thumbdrive with what appears to be the decrypt key - filenamexxxx.xxx.dat . The thing is still though that the only boot I can get out of the HDD is straight to Startup Repair. Never gets further or any indication that the drive is encrypted or otherwise. Acronis did a number on me. That is 1 expensive SSD from Kingston.

So now I have to figure out the utility I need to either boot from and recover or recover files while it's external. - backups not exactly up to date :(

For now though I have the Win 7 product key and will reinstall onto SSD. Our datas are backed up so that's no problem, the problem is all of the Apps that were installed over the -years-. ouch

I have the decrypt key but just can't seem to get past Startup Recovery boot to get to the point where it would be needed. It seems so simple a fix now. But beyond me on what to change in BCD - if that is what is needed. IDK

Well, you have some promise with that key.  You should be able to decrypt with your bitlocker key from a startup repair advanced command prompt (or insert a Windows installer disc and click on advanced options and the command prompt from there).  Then follow this tutorial to decrypt the drive by pointing it to your usb key decryption file from command prompt.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/210058-bitlocker-drive-encryption-unlock-locked-os-drive.html

Once decrypted, you should be able to run a startup repair with the installer disc as well, - run it twice (for good measure).  AFter that, even if it says startup repair failed, power down completely and remove all external drives and thumb drives.  Boot into the bios and make sure your main OS drive is first in the boot priority and try to boot then.  Hopefully, the startup repair will resolve things for you on its own.  

If not, you can go back to the advanced command prompt and run 3 bootrec commands, but try the startup repair after decryption before trying that.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/32523/how-to-manually-repair-windows-7-boot-loader-problems/

bootrec /scan os (just to see if it finds the windows OS install).

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot