Trying to restore a Home 11 backup of Win7 using Home 2010

If the system is booting correctly now, you should be fine just restoring the Windows partition. It's recommended to boot to the TI CD to do the restore.

Why did you need to do a Recovery Restore after the TI restore failed? The TI restore is always going to wipe out what's on the drive.

Are you getting an error message? Providing details on the failure would probably help with troubleshooting.

If the backup image is an Entire Disk Image backup (the Disk # checkbox was checked), you may have better results doing an Entire Disk Image restore. This would restore the MBR & Track 0 automatically. Note that this will also delete any partitions on the drive that are not in the backup image. Ask if you're not sure about it.

Afraid I didn't tell the full story and accurately in this thread. I was using another piece of software while trying to restore my backup I had made with it and there is where the trouble began---that software is now off my PC. I have been using ATI Home 11 when it hit the market and had grown used to it but got this pre-installed Windows 7 Compaq several months ago. I then learned version 11 did not support my new OS so I just bought the ATI Home 2010. (I should have never used the "other" software and don't know why I did !!! It was that software that caused (maybe I contributed) my hard drive to be wiped and it was HP Support that helped me through the System Recovery--both times whatever happened. Now I am gun shy to try to restore anything.
Gotta do it though or else suffer through installing all the apps I had on the XP Pro machine. The new PC has a 500GB HDD and without any partitions that I made but it does have drives C and D(factory backup). I tried to make a boot disk for the ATI 2010 but when I went through the motions of creating one I got the message that it was done but I was never asked to put a blank CD in the drive. The only ISO that I have ever done is a burn to a CD. What is the size of the ISO CD when it is burned or where is it saved to? I am not too keen on making an ISO so will need some help.
BTW, I would have come here sooner but I did not receive an email about your post. Oh yeah, my 500GB hard drive only had about 60 gigs used when I tried to do the backup but yet when I looked at the restore, it appeared that all of the unused hard drive "wanted" to be restored also or the entire HDD. Is that the correct way? (you can tell I am not at ease trying to describe this).
My old mind isn't as sharp as it once was--old is litteral.

Can you post the name of the "other" backup software? It may help to know which one it is.

Is the March backup you want to restore one created from the Windows 7 Compaq or was it created on another computer? It's not really clear to me from how you describe it. It sounds like it was an XP image. If so, restoring it to the Compaq computer probably won't work (unless you're using UR from the Plus Pack and have XP drivers for the Compaq).

Can you post a screenshot of what TI shows when you select the image you want to restore?

If you want TI to burn the TI CD, you should be able to select the CD/DVD drive as the destination device. Is that what you did? It sounds like maybe you created an ISO.

Have you used TI 2010 to create a backup of the current drive? This is what I would do so I wouldn't have to go through the factory recovery procedure again.

I already had my reply prepared and suddenly, it disappeared.
Hope this works for the pic, first time using this software. Can't remember what I typed before but will try to re-capture some of it.
Paragon Drive Copy 9.5(?) was the name of the software I used, I think, but it is now gone when my HDD was wiped and System Restore was done but much help from HP Support. No fun. I have tried to determine when I used this free SW and I believe it was on June 12. 2010 so the March 2010 Backup should cause no problems to Restore. It was then that I was using ATI Home 11 and am now using ATI Home 2010. I have made two backups with the 2010 SW and have validated and checked them. OK and saw some of the files.
I have no idea what caused my hard drive to be wiped but it was!!! And it was a big task rebuilding it from day one from the factory--No disks from HP.
I got this Compaq in Oct or Nov last year and have been using it since.
According to what I have read, it is best to create and burn an ISO disk for opening Acronis rather than using windows. How do I easily do that?
Please ask all the questions you want and I'll try to answer them.
And thank you for your interest in my problem and offer of help.

Take another look, please at my snagit png while keeping in mind that my C: drive is a 500GB drive but yet just 193.70GB show and the unnamed partition is 261.06GB. The total of these is 454GB. As little as I know about such things, these do not look right to me. The DRV1-VOL1 (F:). This is my external drive I use for backups it is a 250GB hard drive. The 232.88GB sounds about right, I think. Is it possible this has caused my hard drive contents to be lost in my 2 recovery attempts? I have not yet tried a third recovery for fear of losing my 500GB hard drive contents again. If that happens, I will have to do a Recovery Restore for Windows 7 again.
At no time have I ever had an ATI backup approaching 50-60gigs.

Have you used TI to create a TI CD?

After you have the TI CD, boot the computer to it and make sure you can successfully validate your TI image you want to restore.

I'm still not sure if you're trying to restore an XP image to a Windows 7 computer. Can you answer this?

The screenshot doesn't show any format for the 261GB partition. Do you know if there are (or were) files on it? Do you know what format it should be? Is this partition not even supposed to exist?

MudCrab, please understand that not yelling at you with my answers in caps. It is the only sure way I have using this format in answering your questions.
Have you used TI to create a TI CD?----YES.

After you have the TI CD, boot the computer to it and make sure you can successfully validate your TI image you want to restore.----BOOT DISK WORKED JUST FINE AND VALIDATION WAS DONE.

I'm still not sure if you're trying to restore an XP image to a Windows 7 computer. Can you answer this?----THE BACKUP WAS MADE USING WINDOWS 7(ATI II) AND I JUST VALIDATED IT AGAIN TO BE SURE IT WOULD VALIDATE. IT DID.

The screenshot doesn't show any format for the 261GB partition. Do you know if there are (or were) files on it? Do you know what format it should be? Is this partition not even----I KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT THIS MYSTERY PARTITION. IT APPEARED AFTER THE PARAGON BACKUP SOFTWARE WAS RUN ON JUNE 5 2010 WHEN MY HARD DRIVE WAS WIPED.

BTW, I am not at all comfortable with ATI 2010. Perhaps I used ATI Home version 11 too long. Is there a tutorial on using 2010 and if so, where can I find it?

I want to make sure I understand the current situation.

The computer is currently booting okay into Windows 7. All files, data, programs, etc. on the drive are correct for the current installation (nothing has been lost). The "unknown" 261GB partition does not contain any useful data (i.e. removing it wouldn't cause any problems). I realize that you don't know what's on that partition. What I'm asking is if there's anything missing or lost that should be on the drive and isn't.

You have an image from March that was created using TI 11. That image was taken of the Windows 7 drive/partition on this same computer. You have successfully created a TI 2010 CD, booted to it, and validated the image. You now want to restore that image to the current drive using TI 2010.

Is all the above correct? If something's not right, let me know and don't do any of the below.

---

The 261GB partition should be removed. You can do this using Windows Disk Management. Once removed, you can expand the Windows 7 partition to use the space (also using Disk Management). This can be done while in Windows and doesn't require a reboot. The drive should now be correct as far as the layout is concerned.

Boot to the TI 2010 CD and restore just the Windows 7 partition from the image. Select to restore it over the existing Windows 7 partition. TI will resize it during the restore to be the same size. Note: If you want to play it safe, use TI to create a backup image of the Entire Disk just before you restore the image. This will give you a current backup of the drive in this state.

I believe you have the correct picture of my present condition. While I, we, have been working on my problem, I have been installing those apps that were missing from my hard drive; almost to the point that I now have little need of restoring the March 12. 2010 imaged backup. There are a few lesser needed apps not yet installed but I believe I can take care of those in time. My C drive is a 500GB HD and properties show 403 gigs free of 428 gigs and the D drive is 2.03 gigs free of 10.9 gigs. My HD is formatted NTFS. I am not pressed for space on the HD but the figures seem correct, I guess.
Having lost my HD contents two times and having to have HP Support to guide me through restoring the hard drive was no fun and I don't want to be faced with that again.
Should you concur with my analysis, then, when needed, I will delete the 3-12-10 backup for the space occupied on the HD. I am considering the making of a full image backup on my external 250GB HD once per month and do the incrementals weekly. Only some family history, pics and a very very few other "things" are on my computer and I would hate to lose those and, of course, my Windows 7 OS since I don't have an installation CD. I am at a loss of knowing the importance of doing those things you listed in your previous post but maybe I have over emphasized my presenting this matter. I do look forward for your reply and I hope I have not mislead you in any way.
Your efforts to help me are most appreciated.

It sounds like the C: partition is now correct (or close to it). However, the sizes you state don't agree with the last screenshot you posted. Can you post a current screenshot of what Disk Management shows? It would be helpful if you resized the screen to include all the "size" columns.

Glad to do it MudCrab:

EDIT: wrong image. Sorry. I am learning from your help---slowly.

How did the 26GB "unknown" partition end up at the end of the drive? In your previous screenshot, the Factory_Image partition was at the end of the drive.

If you don't need the 26GB, you may just want to leave it how it is. Otherwise, you could deleted the 26GB "unknown" partition, move the Factory_Image partition back to the end, and then expand the Windows partition to use the space.

I haven't the faintest idea!! Is it possible to open that partition and see what is in it?
"Could" it be the backup of 3-12-10 that I have tried to restore? Can that partition be opened and viewed? If possible, that is what I would love to see. I really haven't any great need for those gigs but sooner or later I will have to deal with it and may as well do it now but I don't know how that is done.

There wouldn't be anything in the "unknown" partition. It has moved all over the drive and it has no formatting. Changing location is odd. Partitions don't just move by themselves.

I think I would just delete the "unknown" partition and be done with it. Delete the Factory_Image partition and then restore it (I assume you have it in a backup -- if not, create one before you delete it) at the end of the drive. Then use Disk Management to expand the Windows partition to use the unallocated space.

I think I will just leave everything as is for now and perhaps deal with what you said to do after I have learned how to do that. I do not want to do anything wrong that may hinder me later.
More than you know, I greatly appreciate your fine help in this matter.

I believe I have found out what the mystery 26 GB partition is that is mentioned in post #12--it is the Secure Zone and I have seen the contents and it appears to be a backup of my hard drive. I have no idea how that came to be because I do not recall ever purposely creating a Secure Zone in any Acronis versions.