Help! Cloned drive gets stuck in reboot loop

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I use True Image 9 and regularly clone my C: drive to D: drive (they are identical hard drives). The idea being that if I have a catastrophic failure of one drive, I still have a bootable system. The drives are Master and Slave on the IDE controller.

System is Windows XP pro SP3

Today my C: drive caught a virus which wrecked everything. So I removed the C: drive and replaced it with the cloned drive, assuming that I would get a clean bootable system.

But no - the cloned drive started up with a pale-blue "Acronis" screen saying "Acronis AUTOPART completed" (or similar) then Windows starts to boot.

I get the Windows XP "Loading Settings"... then "Saving Settings" then "Loading Settings" and so on in a loop. I let it loop for several minutes. Then tried booting in Safe Mode (no luck there either).

This is a disaster for me - I've been relying on TI9 to save me from just this kind of problem and it's let me down.

Any idea what could have caused this? Or how to fix it? Or better, how to prevent it?

(I'm now doing an XP Repair Installation on the cloned (now C:) drive in the hope that I can get my system back).

Tue, 11/10/2009 - 20:27
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truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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With ANY backup software you have to give it the acid test before you actually need it. Too late for that now .. I hope the repair works. Didn't you have an antivirus program running?
When you get everything sorted out, be sure to test the cloned drive. And I think most systems nowadays will boot from the Slave position if there isn't a drive in the Master position so you only have to pull the power plug on the Master.
Alternatively you can put both drives in a tray/rack device, called by some vendors mobile racks. This will enable you to remove the drives without opening the case.

Tue, 11/10/2009 - 23:26