Windows 7 won't boot after recovery of valid backup (True Image 2014 Premium)

Jon H. Williams wrote:

I do think setting the boot flag incorrectly during a recovery is a pretty big problem, as many people will not know how to look at that and fix it.

It may not have been incorrect. It may have been how it was on the PC you backed up.

The problem is that many users backup only C:, their OS drive. They incorrectly assume that's all they need. In fact, often there are hidden partitions that are required for a functioning system. If you backup and restore only CD:, the result is a non-booting system - at least until you repair it.

For future, create full disk mode Backups, selecting the checkbox for the entire disk (not just individual partitions). That ensures that you have everything you need, and you won't need to understand how the disk is laid out with possible hidden partitions. A full disk mode Backup captures everything, and is the simplest, safest backup method.

Grover's How to Create/Manage Backup Tasks & Backups within Windows (includes How to Create a "Disk Image" or "Disk Mode" Image or "Disk mode" image & more) http://forum.acronis.com/forum/38691

I'll let someone else advise on how to repair your disk.

Jon H. Williams wrote:

Issue 1: Windows 7 has no boot device after recovery of a valid validated single file backup using Acronis bootable media cd
Using Acronis True Image 2014 Premium Build 6673, Activated
Issue 2: Although recovery failures are supposed to be eligible for chat and email support, this is not true--there is no way to get chat support
Attempts to boot from the original Windows 7 Ultimate installation CD fail with error the type of Windows is different
Attempts to boot from the Windows 7 recovery CD fail with error the type of Windows is different
Emailed support and provided feedback (no response--it has been over 2 hours)
Purchased PartedMagic for $9.99
Burned the partedmagic iso to cd
Booted PartedMagic
opened the non-booting Windows 7 drive with gparted
the last partition on the disk (the data partition) was (incorrectly) flagged as boot
the EFI boot partition was labelled msftdata
Solution: changed the flags on the two partitions so EFI is flagged boot (and so the data partition is labelled as a msftdata)
Restart
F2
go to boot devices
check the hard drive is correctly listed and the boot sequence is correct

in this case, as I was working from a fully functional Windows drive that had only 9GB of space remaining and was using the Acronis Premium edition to move windows to a new 1TB drive, I was able to find the issue and recover by switching back and forth, and because I have some knowledge of Linux...

I do think setting the boot flag incorrectly during a recovery is a pretty big problem, as many people will not know how to look at that and fix it.

hope this helps someone else...
otherwise I have been pleased with Acronis Premium product--customer for about 3 years, and have been able to use it 2x now to recover from issues

Jon H. Williams wrote:

Solution: changed the flags on the two partitions so EFI is flagged boot (and so the data partition is labelled as a msftdata)

Changing this flag is actually wrong, and will only allow you to boot into the operating system once.

On reboot, Windows will start throwing errors that an *****.efi file is missing or corrupt

Any uggestions on repairing the GPT partition? I am guessing the GUID changed when I changed the disk and now I have to do something manual to convince Windows it is legal to continue to operate. Still think this is something Acronis should support...was hoping someone 'official' would have commented by now.

By the way, the documentation here indicates what I did will work, that is, creating an whole disk backup, and validating it twice, then restoring into the new GPT disk. The example is quite easy to understand.

After operation completion, the partition style will remain GPT, the operating system will be bootable on UEFI.

I reviewed in detail this website http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/ in particular the section on Repairing GPT Disks.
Using the PartedMagic CD (make sure you get the most recent copy, as editing GPT Disks is very risky if you use the wrong tools or the wrong commands) I ran gdisk on /dev/sda
it indicated the hidden partion and gpt partition were present and valid
i verified the gpt information
I backed up the existing gpt information in case of failure
I wrote the gpt information to disk
Exited gdisk
I rebooted to Windows, which now starts without errors.

WARNING you really must be cautious if using the tools I mentioned. You could make a real mess of things, so use at your own risk.
By the way, I did finally get an email response with instructions on getting support from Acronis. I don't feel the response was timely, and I had already found a solution. I am amazed no one from Acronis has added anything to the conversation.

By the way, it may seem obvious to everyone else, but when you go to the Acronis link to "Get Support" because your purchased product did not work the way you expected, you might have a "recovery issue"
I did not notice the link for people with a "recovery issue" so was frustrated by what I perceived as a delay in getting the promised support...

I too had a similar problem. Using Acronis 2014 I made a complete FULL backup of my working system which is Linux, openSUSE 13.2 and consists of 3-partitions: swap, / & home.

On restore I booted to find the message "non system disk" or something to that effect. I booted from my 13.2 DVD and using rescue mode ran "parted /dev/sda" and then the "p" command to print (list) the partitions. What I found was surprising. On restore of the backup, acronis changed the boot flag from partition 2 which is "/" to partition 1 which is "swap"!!!

Quite ridiculous but to fix, while in parted I changed the boot flag by removing it from partition 1 (swap) and setting it to / where it use to exist:

set 1 boot off
set 2 boot on

On subsequent reboots it worked fine.
Dave