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Error loading operating system

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Im using Ture image Ver 11. I have created an image of my drive in my laptop. Then I restore it to another drive (larger drive) and when I try to boot my laptop I get Error loading operation system. I moved the drive to my desktop and it starts to boot ok on it. The windows XP logo comes up. Its very strange that it will not boot on my laptop but the original drive in the laptop will (the one I took the image from) I can use a boot disk and start the restored image. I just dont understand y ithe restored image will boot in my desktop but not my laptop
Anyone have any ideas

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Rick:

It may be a disk geometry issue. What brand is your laptop? Compaq or Lenovo by chance? They are two brands that use nonstandard BIOS disk geometry.

You can work around this by installing the larger disk in the laptop in place of the original disk and then restore the image to the larger (now internal) disk.

Thanks for the reply its a Lenovo. I always take out the HD from the laptop and put it in my desktop as a second drive then I boot from the True Image CD and Backup and Restore that way then i replace the HD into the laptop. I just did what you suggested I used an external HD with the Laptop and left the drive in the laptop did a backup then swapped out the HD for another and did a restore and it worked. So now I would like to understand whats going on. Is there any way that I can do the backup and restore on my desktop or should you always do a backup and restore on the computer you are backing up

Rick:

You're in the same boat as me with Lenovo laptops. No, with the Lenovo 240-head geometry the target disk must be installed in a system that uses the same BIOS geometry. Most PCs use the standard 255-head geometry, so it's unlikely that you'll find a desktop that would work for you (unless you have a Compaq desktop).

With TI you don't have to remove the disk to back up as I'm sure you're aware. When creating a backup you could save the backup across your home network to the desktop PC or you could save it on an external USB disk. When restoring you will need to have the target disk installed in the laptop. But you could still restore across the network or from an external USB disk. The key is to always have the destination disk in its final resting place if you have a machine with nonstandard geometry.

Thanks for the info
On a slightly different note I’m having a little trouble with restoring two different partitions with WinXP do I restore them both as active or one as primary and does it matter which one
Thanks again

Rick:

Only one partition can be active at a time. Do both of the partitions contain Windows XP operating systems? If so, do you select the desired OS from a boot menu? If so, which partition is the boot.ini file on? That's the one that should be restored as Active.

OK so i restored one version of XP to the HD as active. Tried it and it boots. Now I have used Disk Director to create a second partition from free space on the 1st partition and Im assuming that when I create this second partition I make it Primary. Then I will install a second copy of XP to it. Then I am assuming when I boot I will be asked what copy I want to boot tp

Rick:

Yes, that sounds correct. When you install XP to the second partition the installer should detect that there is an active partition and it should then set up XP's boot menu to allow you to select the desired OS.