Vista restore not booting
Tool: True Image 9.1 w/Universal Restore boot CD
OS: Vista Home Premium
I had a motherboard failure and replaced it (different mfr and CPU) and upgraded the HD. Prior to the MB failure I had a partition backup. Restoring the partition worked but the system would not boot. Got this error:
"Windows Boot Manager
Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings and click "Next."
3. Click "repair your computer."#
Status: 0xc000000e
I then booted from the install DVD and tried to repair; much thrashing about with the eventual conclusion that it can't repair.
I'm assuming that something in the BCD data is probably not good. Can anyone suggest what might have gone wrong and what to look for? I'm a newbie when it comes to the Vista boot manager.
Thanks,
Dean
Mark,
I've run startup repair numerous times; it always declares that the boot data is corrupt.
I've attached a dump of the BCD data. Notice that the Windows Boot Loader identifier is {default}, not {current} as it is on a live machine. Does this matter? I've run "bootrec /rebuildbcd" with no apparent change.
If you have any advice I'd sure appreciate it.
Thanks,
Dean
Dean:
What looks unusual to me is that there are two entries for "displayorder" under "Windows Boot Manager", and one of them has the same GUID as the "resumeobject". Normally, "resumeobject" has the same GUID as the {default} entry and displays as {default} ( or {current} if you are currently booted to this OS entry).
1. This seems to imply that you should see a list of two choices in the boot menu when booting. Do you? Do you even see a boot menu or does the system just immediately display the error message?
2. Can you try booting but start tapping on the "F8" key to display a list of boot choices? Timing is very critical here; you have to hit F8 right after the BIOS splash screen finishes and before the "Loading Windows" splash screen appears, or in your case, right before the error message appears. If successful, try each of the items in the boot menu list to see if any of them works.
3. Is there only one partition on the disk (other than any data partitions you may have created)?
4. Did the source disk that you created the image from have any recovery partitions on it?
5. How did you access the BCD on the non-booting disk? I presume by booting from the Vista DVD and going to a manual command prompt. Correct?
6. If 5 is true, if you type "dir c:" while at the command prompt, does the command display the contents of your main Vista partition? If not, which drive letter corresponds to the Vista partition?
7. Could you post the output of "bcdedit /v" from the command prompt? The /v switch will display the GUIDs of all of the entries instead of their "friendly names", which may help sort out which of the two "displayorder"entries is correct.
Mark,
I solved this by doing a fresh restore, then booting into Vista repair and running CHKDSK and BOOTREC /rebuildbcd BEFORE booting the partition. After this step the partition booted perfectly.
Go figure.
Thanks for your help and suggestions.
Dean
Dean:
Good! Now that you have Vista booting correctly, be sure to make another image so that it will contain the repaired BCD. The new image should restore correctly in the future without issue.