Windows 7 restore help please
Hi, everyone,
I'm helping someone to restore a backup of a Windows 7 32 bit machine using True Image 2009. He installed a new hard drive after the original died, and when he restored the full backup, it wasn't bootable. The files are on the drive, but none of the information to make Windows bootable. From what I can see, he took a full file backup, not an actual drive image, because the backup (.tib) file shows up under "Files" in the recovery wizard, and "Images" does not show up at all.
Is it possible that he actually selected "image" when he made the backup, but this version of Acronis TI does not recognize the Windows 7 file structure, or did he just make the wrong kind of backup by mistake?
Is there a way to make the drive bootable after the files have been restored to it, or will we have to reinstall Windows 7 and then restore the files to the various folders?
Thanks!
Gooberhead
Yeah, I figured he messed it up. I'll just give him the news and will probably just reinstall and extract the files.
Thanks!
One more quick question: what files/folders would I find in an image that I wouldn't find in a file backup? I'd like to show him one way or the other whether the program made the error or he did.
Thanks again
It depends on the backup. An image backup will get everything (all hidden and system files, for example). The data backup may not have those. With Windows 7, if there is an SRP (the booting partition), a data backup wouldn't get anything from it as it's not normally available to Windows. With an image backup of the drive, you have the option to restore the drive backup like it was (including the Disk Signature). You can't do that with a data backup. This can cause some types of activated software to deactivate.
There can also be permission issues with restored files. This can cause major problems, especially when they're system files.
In my opinion, it's just not worth the hassle. Even if it seems like it works, there might be problems later and you'll wonder if it's because of this.
If the backup is an image backup, it will let you restore the partition(s). If it's a data backup (files & folders), you'll only be able to restore files & folders. The actual contents would probably look very similar (assuming all files/folders were included). If the image is showing up in the File backups section instead of the Disk backups section, it's not an image backup.
Thanks, I appreciate the advice. I installed Windows and then recovered the contents of the actual Windows partition (not that Windows 7 boot partition), and it booted up fine. The contents showed up in the root of the C drive, but in a folder labeled D Drive - I guess Acronis gives the label "C" to that hidden boot partition.
My only real problem now is how to correctly restore the User Profiles. The first time I tried I created a user account with the same name as one of the user folders I found in the backup, then tried copying the contents from the backup to the user folder. There were files I could not overwrite and found out that I needed to be in a different account to do so. I then logged into the Admin account and copied the remaining files, but when I finished that user account was no longer usable - every attempt to log into it failed, and I ended up back in the Admin account.
Is there a way to recover the original user accounts without "breaking" them?
Thanks again!
You should be able to right-click on the files (or folders), select the Security tab, and take over permissions for the files/folders.
Hello,
MudCrab, thank you very much for your help.
Gooberhead, let me add a few instructions on how to take ownership for the restored folders/files and grant necessary permissions.
How to Take Ownership in Windows 7
1. Locate the file or folder on which you want to take ownership in Windows Explorer
2. Right click on file or folder and select “Properties” from Context Menu
3. Click on Security tab
4. Click on “Advanced”
5. Now click on Owner tab in Advance Security Settings for User windows
6. Click on Edit Button and select user from given Change Owner to list if user or group is not in given list then click on other users or groups. Enter name of user/group and click ok.
7. Now select User/group and click apply and ok. (Check “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects” if you have files and folder within selected folder)
8. Click ok when Windows Security Prompt is displayed
9. Now Owner name must have changed.
10. Now click Ok to exist from Properties windows
Once you have taken the ownership of file or folder next part comes is Granting Permissions to that file/folder or object.
How to Grant Permissions in Windows 7
1. Locate the file or folder on which you want to take ownership in Windows Explorer
2. Right click on file or folder and select “Properties” from Context Menu
3. Click on Edit button in Properties windows Click ok to confirm UAC elevation request.
4. Select user/group from permission windows or click add to add other user or group.
5. Now under Permission section check the rights which you want to grant i.e check “Full Control”under the “Allow” column to assign full access rights control permissions to Administrators group.
6. Click Ok for changes to take effect and click ok final ok to exit from Properties window.
Now you can access files of folder in Windows 7 with full permissions and take full control.
Please reply to this thread if you have any additional questions.
Thank you.
Thanks to both of you!