Tools and other software FREE Acronis Drive Image tool (1 Viewer)

[VdR]

UPDATE

So far, no good. I ended up with a HDD that I can't boot from anymore.

I used Acronis to create an image of the D: partition that has (had?) a working installation of Windows and MP and then restored that image on the C: partition to replace the broken installation. As I said, then I couldn't boot at all anymore (error message: 'NTLDR is missing').

I think this has to do with the dual boot set-up I had. So a few questions for the cracks:

On this particular HDD, C: was a primary partition and D: an extended partition. I had dual boot setup with selection at startup. I didn't know it was possible to boot a system on an extended partition?

So I think with this operation I imaged the MBR of the extended partition and then restored it on the primary partition. Is that so? Is that what broke to booting?

Would it work if both partitions where primary?

Does the PC always boot from the MBR of the first partition? Should I not have restored the MBR?

I'm experimenting, any help would be appreciated.

Thx.

VdR

 

[krikkit]

under vista/win7 booting from install cd and select boot repair would make your restored image bootable again... would be no problem, und der win xp its more complicated but should also be possible to repair, try booting from xp install cd an select recovery console ... there the commands you need are fixmbr, fixboot ...but as always... make a backup before

...the pc does boot from the first active partition, active is the keyword, this partition needs to have some kind of bootloader of course...

 

[VdR]

UPDATE

I had trouble starting the recovery console. So I did a complete fresh install of XP (install from CD, install drivers, install SP3, install drivers, settings, install AVG, install Acronis, etc.) not MP yet on the C: partition. I did make an image of this install with Acronis, hoping that I will never have to do a complete XP install again ...

Then I did manage to edit the boot file to add the bootable system on the D: partition. So now I have dual boot repaired and I can boot the working MP installation again.

Meanwhile I still don't know if I can successfully image and restore systems in a dual boot setup. I'm not sure what to try next.

VdR

 

[kiwijunglist]

you should be able to.

if you have two booting drives (c+d) and they both are currently setup, then you image c drive and replace to c drive then it's very simple.
if you have two booting drives (c+d) and they both are currently setup, then you image d drive and replace to d drive then it's very simple.
if you image d drive and replace to c drive (or vice versa) then you need to make allowances for booting

I think (from memory) acrosnis also has options whether you image/overwrite the master boot record etc..
I have restored to dual boot systems using acrosnis before.

 

[VdR]

It is the third I was trying to do. Indeed there is an option to restore the MBR, which I did. But the HDD became unbootable.

I thought that there was a MBR for each partition (that's why I choose the restore it), but I now understand that there is only one for the HDD. Is that correct?

But it shouldn't have been a problem either way.

Surely you could image and restore a dual boot HDD, if you do the whole HDD. Question is how to use the image from one partition to restore another and that way move a working system from one partition to another.

I'm not sure what to try next. I have got the system working again, I'm cautious about doing another restore on the same HDD.

VdR

 

[kiwijunglist]

I think you should of selected not to restore the MBR, as you already had a working MBR setup for booting from two partitions.
If your doing the first two options, then i would worry less.
I used to have dual boot (C=XP/D=VISTA) and made multiple restores to C without problems.

 

[VdR]

Yes you are probably right, but there must be something else.

If I did restore the MBR nothing should have changed since the image came from the same HDD, and hence it should have restored the original MBR. After the restore, NTLDR (the boot loader) was missing. I believe that the problem was that I restored a non-system-partition image (that does not have the boot loader) to the system partition (that must have the boot loader). Strange that Acronis just blindly does that.

But that brings up an issue. There is only one system partition. If I want to be able to restore one partition image to another partition neither can be the system partition.

So I think I want to set up four partitions now. The first as the system partition to hold only the MBR and the boot files (no operating system) and three others to hold three operating systems and MP installations. Then I can image and restore between those three at will.

The three operating systems I want to use as; one with the active MP set up (default boot), one with an image of the first as the standby MP setup in case the first breaks and the third as an experimental MP setup.

VdR

 

[kiwijunglist]

Ask that question on a tech forum, I'm positive you shouldn't have to go to the trouble of creating an extra partition just for MBR or whatever. I don't know enough to help you.

 

[SpudR]

I guess this is why you failed to restore your system - you don't seem to know what the MBR actually IS!
It's not on a partition as such but sits BEFORE the data, in it's own little area (known as the main boot record - usually located in front of the first partition).
The MBR contains the details of the partitions AND some of the locations for the data to boot the system - that's why when you restored it to the wrong partition (from D to C) the boot failed. The system looked at the restored MBR, read the partition info and looked for the files on the D partition, which you had restored these to the C partition.

Just FYI - Maxtor (now Seagate) provide this: MaxBlast 5 | Seagate

 

[VdR]

Thank you guys for the reactions. The discussion is helping me to understand this better.

I have done a lot of reading up on the issue. I did meanwhile find out that the MBR is seperate from any of the partitions. But the failure was the missing NTLDR (boot loader). The MBR must have been fine, else the system would not have been able to inform me about the missing boot loader.

From what I found out, the boot loader and other boot related files such as boot.ini (which holds the information about where the boot partition is or boot partitions are) are part of the system partition. This diferentiates the system partition from the other partitions. And that's why I beleive that you cannot restore a non-system-partition image to the system partition.

The MS terminology of system partition and boot partion is somewhat counter intuitive;

The system partition holds the information about booting (and possibly but not mandatory a bootable OS). The information includes (boot.ini) a list of partitons which have a bootable OS installed (boot partitions).​

The boot partitions hold a bootable OS.​

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

VdR