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Can't restore image to HD labled as System Partition, even after Formatting with OS DVD Win 7

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The problem started a few days ago when I removed a partition on a back up hard drive that had a back up OS. Apparently, the back up OS held the boot info, so when I re-booted, I got a an ntoskrnl.exe missing message.

I've used the OS DVD (only the RC as I'm not sure where my purchased OS disk is) and Easy BCD boot manager, but it's all quite a mess now. I had to re-install the RC ver of Win 7 so I could run Easy BCD. I had things somewhat running (my working OS) but have now found that I can't boot it, and when I tried to restore a drive image, it won't run, even after a re-boot.

I've formated the drive the running the OS DVD and the cmd prompt. But I still can't restore an image to it as it's still labled System Partition in the RC ver of Win 7.

If I can't restore to a formated hard drive, I don't know what to do except buy a new HD and try to restore to that.

Any ideas? I'm computer savy, but I'm reaching the end point...

Thanks,

Reid

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Had a little trouble following your description. You are talking about two different drives, right? You have a 'spare' one that had a backup OS on it (not the same as an Acronis backup), and which now has problems and can't be recognized as a restore destination for Acronis. And you also have a separate drive which was running your active OS, but now it isn't working either. You want to restore an existing Acronis backup of a bootable partition, and you want to restore it to the 'spare' drive and have it be bootable. Is that right?

If you don't care about losing anything that is currently on the 'spare' drive, you could try the following using the Acronis bootable CD: Use the disc eraser function and wipe the entire drive clean (very different from just formatting it). To save time, just use the 'quick' method that writes all zeros, not DoD or one of the other methods that overwrites multiple times. It should then be in the same condition as a new drive. The Acronis bootable CD should then recognize the drive and allow you to do a restore to it. If it still doesn't work, you may have to use the New Disk feature (after the wipe) before you can do the restore.

Again, that method destroys everything that is currently on the 'spare' hard drive, so ignore my suggestion if that isn't acceptable to you.

Thanks for the good info! The drive I'm trying to make bootable is only 40 GB and only has the OS, so I would be fine with wiping it.

I would have thought the format would wipe it and allow it to receive a drive image restore.

I'm wondering if I'm still going to have boot issue, even if I'm able to restore the image, if it was relying on another partition with boot info. The hard drive has an OS on it now, but I get boot error messages.

Reid

I'm not an expert with boot issues, so someone else could probably help you better than me. However, the two issues that come to my mind are:

1. Is 40MB big enough to restore your backup? If the reason that you haven't been able to restore to it is that is is greyed out and you can't select it as a destination (vs. not being able to see it at all), then it is because Acronis "thinks" the drive is too small (even if it may not be, which is a separate issue).

2. Is the backup of a bootable partition? Was it the primary/active partition? Did you also backup the MBR, or just the partition?

I ran into the same thing. Turns out ATI 2010 erroneously marks the drive as owned by Linux! This release is sure full of bugs. I got around the problem by running FDISK. No kidding, I had to use Fdisk which I haven't had need for since the old DOS Win 3.1 days. I found a copy of it with Partition Magic. I don't see it in my Vista or Win 7 partitions, so if you don't have a copy of Partition Magic, I couldn't tell you where to find it. Maybe it's on the install CD for XP? After getting my hard drives back, I beat a path back go Ghost which I've been using for the last 8 years with no problem.
Good luck!

Dogma wrote:

I'm not an expert with boot issues, so someone else could probably help you better than me. However, the two issues that come to my mind are:

1. Is 40MB big enough to restore your backup? If the reason that you haven't been able to restore to it is that is is greyed out and you can't select it as a destination (vs. not being able to see it at all), then it is because Acronis "thinks" the drive is too small (even if it may not be, which is a separate issue).

40 is big enough, I had been using as my primary drive.

2. Is the backup of a bootable partition? Was it the primary/active partition? Did you also backup the MBR, or just the partition?

yes it is bootable, active partition. I just backed up the partition. I there an option to back up the MBR? I can restore the MBR from the image or older images.

Yes, you should have the choice of backing up the MBR & Track 0 (there is a checkbox for this). If selected, the backup will include all partitions on the disk, even if they are hidden. Does the MBR & Track 0 show in the Recovery wizard?

But it your are getting an ntoskrnl.exe missing message, it seems you are past the MBR and into the PBR...Windows is trying to boot.

Prior to doing any backups, did you use chkdsk to make sure there were no disk errors/bad sectors? When I saw a ntoskrnl.exe missing message, the disk was completely toasted!

Gary Darsey wrote:

Yes, you should have the choice of backing up the MBR & Track 0 (there is a checkbox for this). If selected, the backup will include all partitions on the disk, even if they are hidden. Does the MBR & Track 0 show in the Recovery wizard?

I don't want to back up all partitions in one image file some partitions are over 500 GB. The MBR and Track O shoe in the recovery wizard

Gary Darsey wrote:

But it your are getting an ntoskrnl.exe missing message, it seems you are past the MBR and into the PBR...Windows is trying to boot.

Prior to doing any backups, did you use chkdsk to make sure there were no disk errors/bad sectors? When I saw a ntoskrnl.exe missing message, the disk was completely toasted!

I've read that the ntoskrnl.exe is because it's looking for the boot info where it doesn't exist anymore

No, didn't do a checkdsk as the drive seems to be fine. Everything was fine before I deleted the partition on another drive is an OS

Well, I could be wrong, but it seems like it would work to do the wipe (DriveCleanser), use Add New Disk to create a single partition and set it as primary/active, then restore the backed up partition (without MBR) to the newly created partition. I'm not saying that with authority, I'm just saying that's what I would try if it were mine. Worst case is you've wasted some time, but maybe learned something.

And Gary is right, it never hurts to run chkdsk. A 40GB drive probably isn't exactly new. :) Although Acronis is helpful OK at catching bad sectors too.

I wiped the disk and was able to restore the image, but still getting ntkrol.exe error messages on that drive. When I try to run TI from the boot disk, I get Error reading Sector 0. It's some boot issue...

I can't boot to my RC version of Windows on the other drive, so I'm re-installing it. Then I'll try running TI and also restore MBR and Track 0.

I've tried other things to repair the boot manager, but to no avail. -- ie bootsec.exe

Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

Reid

You may want to try EasyBCD 2.0.

You can rewrite the boot record for windows 7.

thomasjk wrote:

You may want to try EasyBCD 2.0.

You can rewrite the boot record for windows 7.

and I can't with 1.7.2?

I just tried to a re-install of the RC, got an error and it told be to run chkdsk, so I ran chkdsk /f and that fixed, er, well something. I was able to boot into my working OS (all my installed programs) and now I'm in the process of restoring the current image to my back up drive. It's installing without a reboot, so hopefully, I haven't trashed my boot manager again.

Can you give me info on the boot manager? Can I make sure it's on each drive so they boot independently--that the whole point of back up systems--so one drive isn't booting off the other?

Could you tell me the steps in Easy BCD 2.0 to re-write the boot record--if I need to--so I don't loose several days again/

Thanks!

Reid

OMG, PTL, I think it's all fixed.

The boot mgr was so mess up that Windows was able to re-build the boot manager. I boot and there are entrees to both my OSs. I was able to boot to my back up OS. I didn't have a chance before I left the house to re-boot to my main OS, but I have good reason to believe it's fixed. What a PIA.

Reid

EasyBCD 2.0 is compatible with Windows 7. Its a beta so you will have to register to download it. See the attached screen shot. Click on BCD Install/Repair and then check Re-create/Repair boot files. Click Perform Action.

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It may work with 1.7.2 but 2.0 is guaranteed to be compatible with Win 7.