recovery of Win Xp partition to new disk without cloning
My HDD started making noises, so I was just about to buy TI 2013 and make a clone, but unfortunately, the disk died in the meantime (when I connect it and boot, it just makes clicking sounds),
Anyway, before this, I made some TI 7 and TI WS 9.1. images of each partition on the old HDD - unfortunately, I never made any complete backup of the whole HDD.
Details of old HDD 82GB IBM:
Partitions:
C: primary/ WinXP pro,
D: logical/ DATA,
E: - other data partition
C: had a secure zone on it - I have a backup with and without the secure zone and separate backups of D: and :E.
Details of new HDD 320 GB Seagate
(disk size and partition sizes do not correspond to old HDD):
C: primary
D: logical DATA NTFS
E: logical DATA NTFS
F: logical DATA FAT32
What I did first:
(a)Added new HDD (as slave) to same pc/cable as old HDD and made the backups to the new HDD NTFS DATA partitions.
(b)Removed the old HDD, made new one master and tried to do a recovery of old HDD C/Win XP pro partition
What I found:
- normal boot - BSOD
- safe mode boot works
- using XP recovery console fixmbr etc. didin't work
but C: at command prompt seems to point to F: logical/FAT32 partition
- recovering MBR from old HDD didn't work
- deleted F:/FAT32 partition / made no difference - still BSOD on normal boot/safe mode works.
I am able to make a new install of windows XP pro on the new HDD C:
partition and repeating recovery of this new install over the recovery backups mentioned above work, so I could start from
scratch and install all software, but I'd really like to know
- whether it is possible to fix the problem without having the cloning functionality etc. - I have a feeling it's to do with the partition table
but am not expert enough to move forward
Any pointers would be appreciated
One thing I neglected to mention / not sure if it has any impact:
- the old and new HDD are PATA drives
- the new HDD used to be an external USB backup HDD (ICYBOX)- can't
remember whether it was formatted in the ICYBOX enclosure with
C: partition primary/ready for use as HDD in a pc - as I want to use it now.
Unfortunately, I saw a leaking capacitor on the motherboard power
supply section and am aiming tofix this first / have disassembled
the pc - we'll see if the motherboard survives ;)
Here's the BSOD :
0x0000008E (0xC0000005 0x80563B2D 0xF5FDC814
About BIOS changes - I saw on the new HDD drive that the
BIOS HDD detection should be set to LBA instead of AUTO - so,
out of desperation , on the recovered partition, one time
I tried changing HDD detection from AUTO to LBA and then
back again since it didn't work.
Yes, safe mode works i.e. Windows starts and I can use it , look at all
partitions/directories/files, control panel etc. etc.
In normal mode, fixmbr and fixboot didn't work i.e. there was
some error/ the OS couldn't go through with the commands.
I didn't get any feedback on whether the cloning functionality
of TI 2013 is different to recovery of the single OS partition as I
have done with TI 7 / TI WS 9.1 / what did I do wrong
so that Windows doesn't know where to boot in normal mode,
and yet in safe mode it works ?
As indicated, I have backups with/without Acronis secure
zone (some have been done to the new HDD while it was in
external USB ICYBOX), so , after playing around with the existing
recovered partition (and further messing it up ;) ), which backup
should I recover/try to fix ?
I really want to find out what I did wrong / what I should have
done - to learn something from this, as right now, I am unsure
whether I can do any recovery in case another disk croaks
I've done capacitor replacements before. It should survive if you're careful about it.
Have you checked the memory? That BSOD is often caused by RAM issues. Try running MEMTEST on it overnight and see if anything shows up. Usually, if there are bad errors they will show up quickly. Also check that the RAM is seated properly (maybe it has a bad contact) and that the BIOS Memory settings are still correct.
Safe Mode does use memory differently than Normal Mode.
The basics of cloning are still the same. Mostly, just the GUI is different and the newer versions support newer hardware and versions of Windows.
Will get back as soon as I've tried this out
I'm back - the motherboard survived the "operation" and I upgraded
the memory to 2 GB, so that it lives for a while longer ;)
I am writing these comments from the pc in question. I put the 320GB HDD
back in and recovered an old Win XP installation (doesn't have secure zone setup)
which I had made in 2011 via TIW 9.1 bootable rescue CD- everything is working,
so I don't think there is anything wrong with the hardware.
I have a feeling it is to do with the naming/order of partitions / maybe
impact of secure zone and removal of it on the "problematic backup".
Any more ideas how to proceed - any tools/ways to check what is wrong
with the "problematic backup" ?
BUMP - Please help - unless I figure out what is wrong, I can't
trust TIW for my backups as I don´t know what is wrong.
I did a backup/recovery of the OS partition and not a clone as there
was data on the new disk. I did the same with the partition
that the OS I am writing with is on now and it works
- what could I have possibly done different/wrong with the other backup/how
can I further check and repair it in case it is to do with e.g.
partition names/numbering ?
- what is the difference between cloning and backup/recovery ?
BUMP - Please help - unless I figure out what is wrong, I can't
trust TIW for my backups as I don´t know what is wrong.
I did a backup/recovery of the OS partition and not a clone as there
was data on the new disk. I did the same with the partition
that the OS I am writing with is on now and it works
- what could I have possibly done different/wrong with the other backup/how
can I further check and repair it in case it is to do with e.g.
partition names/numbering ?
- what is the difference between cloning and backup/recovery ?
Vjekoslav,
If you make a disk based full backup of your working hard drive to another drive, internally connected (different physical disk) or externally connected (USB, Firewire,eSATA, etc) using Acronis, you should be able to do a restore using the bootable Rescue Media without problems. I would suggest that you make at least one backup while booted to the Rescue Media, in addition to making a backup while in Windows.
James
Hi James,
As described, the HDD is dead - I only have the backup of the OS partition.
BTW, I don't understand the need for the "additional" Rescue Media backup -
the Windows backup should work (especially if you want backup automated) ???.
So, what tools should I use to check what is wrong with the installed
recovered partition (I am still guessing the partition numbering
is different on the old HDD / lack of rescue zone) - there must be a way
to check this or ?
Sorry, I thought you were having problems creating a new backup. It seems you are still trying to restore your old backup to your new drive / repaired system. Since it seems this backup does not restore your system correctly, you may be better off trying to restore only data files from the backup to your working installation of Windows.
No probs.
I can recover the data partitions without problems.
The problem is only with the OS partition - as indicated, I must find out
why the OS backup does not work otherwise I don't have confidence
in using the Acronis tool - what should I do next/ with what tools
(for a start assume my hunch is right i.e. backup with/without
secure zone done on external USB HDD, new HDD has different
number and size of partitions , so different partition numbering
for booting causes failure - MBR or) ?
You are using some really old versions of the Acronis products, I really can't give advice on how to proceed using them. Is is possible that there are issues in the products themselves that are causing this issue on your system. Since they are no longer updated, the issue may never be resolved it one exists. Now that you have a good working copy, you should be able to back it up and restore it as it is now. The only way to make sure that you don't have issues when restoring is to perform a full disk based backup, and then when doing a restore include all the partitions, the MBR, and the disk signature in the restore.
James, your info is helpful , but I would really appreciate
an answer to my question - and now I have a few more:
(a)What tool(s) can you use to check a recovered OS partition
which is not booting - for messed up partition table/MBR etc. ?
(b)Am I to understand that the only way to guarantee
an OS partition is backed-up and recovered properly to another
disk is to do whole disk backup i.e. all partitions (an answer to
this will help to answer the first question and may identify
why the recovered OS partition is not working) ?
In response to your question (a) above, Please do an internet search using this "how to fix Partition MBR FAT problems" without the quotes in your favorite internet search engine. You will find many helpful hints as well as links to third party tools to help with these type of problems.
In response to (b) above, When backing up a an OS partition by itself, you may not be saving all the infomation necessary to do a successful restore. For example, in Windows 7, many systems have two partitions that need to be backed up (the hidden System Reserved, and OS partitions). If only the OS partition was backed up, the restore to a new disk drive would not be bootable. In addition, the order in which partitions are layed out on a disk drive can be critical to the system being able to boot, as the MBR / boot records would be looking for the partition in a certain location, and would not find it there. That is the reason I said you should use a full disk backup and restore, when moving to a new hard disk. A full disk based backup contains all the partitions, the disk layout (partition order), the MBR, and the disk signature. If any of these are not restored correctly, boot or operational problems may result after the restore.
James
OK, thanks
Do I read you correctly then - in order to ensure a successful
backup of an OS partition (even to the same disk), you need
to do a disk backup & then overwrite the data partitions
with respective newest data partition back-ups ?
If you are restoring to the same disk (overwriting the OS partition), and your additional data partitions are in place, you could restore just the OS partition to the same location as it was originally located, and it should be fine (provided the backup of the OS partition is good and matches your current hardware (Unless using Acronis Universal Restore)). If you restore the OS partition only, to a blank disk, and you don't have all of the correct partitions, the MBR/Boot track, and the partitions in the right order, in your backup for proper boot, your system may not boot correctly.
Could you just confirm that the OS partition needs
to be restored from a disk clone backup (you didn't
exactly say it) - important to me to know precisely as until now I've
been doing separate partition backups including the OS
and this has worked when applied to the same disk
- I have WinXp pro, so this may be the reason for success since it
(as far as I know) doesn't have more than one partition
for the OS
You are fine doing partition backups. If you restore to a new drive, you would also need the MBR/track 0 information to be restored as well. The MBR/track 0 information would not have to be restored if you were restoring XP to it's original location, unless the MBR/track 0 information is damaged or corrupt. The MBR/track 0 information should be stored within your partition backup of your system drive, and should be an option shown during the restore.