Error 0xc0000225 after restore from backup

Dan, welcome to these user forums.

Take a look at webpage: 0xc0000225: Fix for Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 which has information on resolving this issue using their own application but also how to resolve this using the Windows 10 Install disc / media.

You may also find that your Windows 10 will need to be reactivated given that you say that Dell replaced the CPU although, hopefully, they activated the new install of Windows 10 when they put it on, and in that case it should pick up activation based on the new hardware signature.

I've done most or all of that, but went back through. 

Fix 3
Fails with the above error that the syatem device cannot be found.

Fix 4
trying to activate the C: partition fails: "The selected disk is not a fixed MBR disk. The ACTIVE command can only be used on fixed MBR disks." (This is GPT)

Fix 5, part 10
There is no bootsect.exe file in the list of files (I did page through them). Is this only appilcable to MBR?

Dan, I think that you will need to be trying Fix #2 using your Windows 10 Installation media rather than the manual methods which look to be more aimed at Legacy / MBR systems than your UEFI / GPT system.

If you don't have a Windows 10 Install disc then you can download the appropriate media using the following webpage / utility: Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool then burn this to optical media or a USB stick.

Thanks for your continued help. I should have mentioned that I tried that already. None of the automatic repairs I know of will work.

I wish Microsoft would allow the Upgrade install of Windows without actually booting into Windows. I'd happily reinstall the OS that way, but cannot lose the files I have.

Dan, was your original Windows 10 installation also using UEFI / GPT or was it Legacy / MBR?

I assume GPT. Does acronis automatically set that when it restores? 

I wondered the same, so I manually set the disk to MBR using Add Disk, then restored again and it is back to GPT.

Dan, if your computer is set to UEFI when you do the restore then Acronis will convert the restore data to GPT, so if your backup was from a Legacy / MBR system, you would need to change the BIOS to use Legacy / CSM mode if you want it to restore as MBR.

What partitions do you see in the backup image, and if you mount / explore the smaller ones of those shown, do you see any evidence of either MBR or EFI in the files / folders shown?

One partition is labled "ESP" and is 400mb. It contains a folder called BOOT with EFI inside. Have I been running those commands on the wrong parition? 

Dan, if you are seeing an EFI boot folder then the backup should have come from a UEFI system, so have you restored this ESP partition when you restored the main OS C: partition?

Yes. I restored the entire disk. All partitions are shown on the disk after I restore, however it just won't boot. Right now I'm trying to reinstall Windows 10 from install media, then will try to restore only the main Windows parition and see if that will work. Any other ideas happily accepted. 

I tried as I mentioned and the machine won't boot to the OS. It keeps trying, then booting to Dell SupportAssist.

Let's backtrack a little. How can I verify for certain what the boot and partition options were before I sent it out. I suspect Dell may have changed settings when they replaced the CPU (and wonder if they replaced the board as well?). 

Right now it's set for

SATA : AHCI
Firmware TPM : Enabled
Boot List Option : UEFI
Secure Boot : Disabled
Load Legacy Option ROM : Enabled
 

I changed from UEFI to Legacy and rebooted. This time it did see the Windows partition and started Startup Repair. 
I realize now I should have checked all the BIOS options before I sent it out.

So, for the future, what should I do if I'm sending a machine out for repair? I need to check GPT / MBR, and I should check BOIS settings. Is there anything else I should do before backing up with Acronis? Before restoring?

back to square 1: Won't boot. 

I must be missing something simple.

Dan, sorry to hear that you are back to square 1 again with an unbootable system.

Did you make a backup of the computer as it was when you got it back from Dell after the repair?  If you did, then that would be the quickest way to get back to a working system from which to try to recover your further data.  If not, then how far have you got with trying a clean Windows 10 install from the MS media?

I have never needed to send a computer back to such as Dell fortunately as have always been able to do any repairs myself, but in the event that I had needed to do this, then I would be tempted to have either cloned the original OS drive or replaced it with a spare drive with a minimal OS install on it before letting anyone else near to it.

Having dealt with the aftermath of some PC repairs where the default action is wipe everything and do a vanilla install, I am very hesitant to go down that route.

In terms of gathering key information about your installed OS and BIOS settings, then producing a msinfo32 report can be helpful but needs to be done from the running OS.  Belarc Advisor is another very useful software / hardware audit tool.

I've used those tools in the past and agree I'd prefer to have kept the drive. However, since it was a warranty repair, I had no choice.

Since the machine won't boot with the restored backup, I can't run anything in Windows. I can install Windows from scratch, and did. However, restoring the data like that isn't possible that I know of, unless thre is an option from teh installed software vs. from the CD (which is how I created the backup). 

I'm not sure how to guess whether the original was GPT and UEFI or not (I'd assume so, but who knows.)

I'm going to go through anotehr restore and just start trying all combinations of secure boot, UEFI/Legacy, etc. and see if I can get the thing to boot. Since it boots to the windows repair, it seems that the issue isn't about this though. 

Any other ideas?

Dan, just one key point with the restore actions that you are planning on trying.

If your original OS was Legacy / MBR then you need to ensure that your BIOS is set to Legacy / CSM and that your drive is not formatted to GPT as this is only supported by UEFI.

For your backup image of the original Dell drive, if this is from a UEFI system then you should find a partition like the one shown in the screen image attached.

See webpage Can you tell me what partitions these are?  which is from the Lenovo forums (as is the screen image) but shows how the partitions may be shown.

That helps some, but I'm still having trouble. 

I'm working on different combos hoping to get it going. I've attached a screenshot of the partitions available for restore. That there's an MBR partition is interesting. There's also the ESP folder, which contains files with EFI in the name. I'm very confused.

I've tried GPT and a full restore, set to UEFI. I get that 0xc0000225 error on boot. I've tried both with secure boot on and off.

I just tried MBR with Legacy. That gives me an error no boot device found. 

Is it possible the issue is that it wsa GPT/UEFI, but that secure boot is getting in the way due to the change in hardware? Would the ability to restore to different hardware help? If so, I'lll upgrade to a newer version if I can still restore this backup.

I appreciate all your help very much. If I purchase a new version would I also be able to get phone support? I realize you are doing this in your spare time.

Dan, for any recovery problem you should still be able to get help from Acronis though this will be via live chat or email unless you are willing to pay for their per incident service.

See post: 18623: How to get Technical Support: Tips, Tricks and Useful Information  which states:

5.    Recovery issue
- Related to recovery issues with the full version of the product
- Free of charge
- 24x7
- Not limited (Assistance with the recovery issue can be requested any time, even if you’re out of 30 days free support and don’t have PPI)
- Provided with e-mail and chat
Response time:
-  3 business days via e-mail
 - immediate via chat

If you upgrade to ATIH 2016 or 2017 then you would be entitled to upto 2 years of support (from date of purchase) but this again is only for Live Chat and Email, not by phone normally though Acronis have called users when they needed to do so to help resolve issues.

I thought so, but cannot find a chat option anywhere. I signed in and the only options for support are "Quick Solution" or "Community". Plus a bunch of the links bring up 404s. 

So, any idea how I can get this resolved? I know you're a volunteer; I'm hoping I can actually get a chat with Acronis support if you dn't have any other solutions to try. 

Thank you for all your help.

Dan, try sending a PM to Ekaterina, who is the forum moderator and may be able to offer you a way to get to chat.

While I wait for them, if you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

I've tried to manually rebuild the BCD, but keep getting the error that it doesn't find any windows installs. According to most how-tos I should have a Boot folder on the root of the sytsem drive (usually c:); though some say with EFI it may be on a small partition. I've mounted the backup on another machine and see four partitions. One does have a Boot folder that has an EFI folder and inside that is a single file. It's named something like efix64 or similar, I don't recall exactly what.

I tried copying the boot folder from the Win10 disk to the system partition and reconfiguring BCD. That also fails. 

I can't seem to make any progress. DO you have any ideas where I could look next?

THank you again.

BTW, I'm still not 100% sure it is GPT - any way for me to be certain from Acronis?

Dan, I can only direct you to some webpages that may be able to help your understanding and identify what you are seeing in your backup image.

See webpage: Recommended UEFI-Based Disk-Partition Configurations - for how this should typically look if is UEFI.

See webpage: Recommended BIOS-Based Disk-Partition Configurations - for how this should look if is MBR / Legacy.

See webpage: Frequently asked questions about the GUID Partitioning Table disk architecture - for details about GPT if used.

See webpage: Understanding Disk Partitions - where some of the above is brought together and compared.

See webpage: UEFI boot: how does that actually work, then? - for a lighter discussion on the differences between BIOS and UEFI.

Thanks for all that. I think I have enough understanding of this, but think there is something just not working correctly with the restore. I've been in contact with Ekaterina and she said she'd reach out to support to help me, but it's been days now. Do you know if 2016 or 2017 can restore a 2014 backup? If so, I"ll purchase the upgrade and have direct support with the new version. I just need to get this machine going.

Thank you again.

Dan, see KB 1689: Backup archive compatibility across different product versions for the official statement from Acronis on the subject of archive compability.

On a practical note, I have just opened a 2014 .TIB file with ATIH 2017 with no problem, and other users have reported doing the same, so I tend to take the KB statement as showing what Acronis have actually tested, not what may also work.

What Microsoft says about this: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/windows-10-installation-error

Read about this error here : https://www.hows.tech/2019/06/error-0xc0000225-windows.html

Did you try MBR with legacy option. In my view this will help.