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Where Did I Go Wrong?

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I decided to upgrade my Dell XPS M1710 laptop from XP to Windows 7. Some people have done so successfully, but others have failed. I decided to update my Acronis True Image Home software to Ver. 2011 with Plus Pack to handle Windows 7 and (hopefully) deal with any disasters. My backup is via 10MHz Ethernet to a Lacie 2Big (Raid) unit, which has served me well for years.

The Acronis 2011 backup to "My_partitions.tib" went well, and Acronis found no less than five partitions (on a laptop!). The terminology was not identical, but Windows 7 would later report the following five partitions (all on Disk 0), so I figured we had everything covered:

1 - 62 MB OEM (Reserved) (I think this is also called "Sector 63")
2 - 82.5 GB System (my C: Drive)
3 - 2 GB Media Direct (which I have never used)
4 - 4.1 GB Logical (an unnamed FAT partition of unknown purpose)
5 - 60.4 GB AcronisSZ (the Secure Zone, which I also have never used).

I guess I had slightly complicated the issue by deciding to re-partition the hard drive to a single partition. It did not immediately occur to me that, by wiping out the OEM partition, I may have trouble re-installing my OEM XP operating system. I had to do so before I could use the Windows 7 Update software.

When that failed, I just wanted to go back to where I started. I used my Acronis 2011 Rescue Disk, which worked beautifully, and connected me with my remote back-up unit. Then things got really hard for me. I could not figure out how I was supposed to put all those partitions and their contents back exactly as they were before I started changing things (a simple "undo" button would have been nice).

I am now in my second 10-hour restore attempt, and hoping for the best, however, I wish Acronis would stop telling me I have just two hours to go, when I actually have about nine hours to go.

My Dell 17-inch XPS paperweight is living in hope.

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Brian:

If your restore doesn't work out there is an alternative way to proceed with a clean install of Windows 7 without having XP installed on the PC. See this article: http://www.winsupersite.com/blogs/tabid/3256/entryid/75587/clean-instal…

After you get Windows 7 installed you can install TI 2011 and then mount your backup and extract any needed files from it.

You should be able to restore the whole disk including the MasterBoot Record (MBR) in one step

Thanks for those useful tips. I think I have worked out where I went wrong. I had not noticed that little box for saving the Disk Signature. When I did, I wasn't sure if it would be sufficient to download just the MBR (with that box ticked), so I decided to do the whole thing yet again. If it works this time, I will feel more confident about going for that Windows 7 installation. I would still hope to be able to dump some of those additional partitions (such as Media Direct, the Fat 16 OEM, and the Fat 32 4 GB one), and give myself some useful disk space. Also, as I don't use the Acronis 60.4 GB Secure Zone, I wonder if I can use Acronis to "give that back"?