Windows 7: Acronis Image 2011 restore to larger HDD.

Hi need some help on this please...

I got 2 partitions and the 1st partition is bigger then the 2nd. So when I try to restore my backup OS from the smaller partition to the bigger one it does not load properly! My Os is windows 7 32bit.

It loads and say preparing your desktop then the desktop is blue and no icons, nothing. Just blank! I restart and enter into safe mode and still nothing just a blue screen, where you can move the mouse and press alt-del to get task manger loader but that is it.

I am wondering that it might be that you can restore your image by Acronis on drives that are bigger or smaller. You need to partition it.

So is this the reason why windows will not load properly cause I am restoring to a bigger partition? I tried many times and failed. Ironically when I use the same size partition image it restores perfectly so not sure what is this?



Thanks!





i have run into a problem when restoring the image file by True image 2011 to a larger hard drive

Very strange, since windows has restored succesfully. It starts fine as it seems.
But this solvable I think.

• Does it say "preparing your desktop" everytime you logon? So logoff and logon again and try it
• Did you backup the small partition and tried to larger partition on same disk?
• You say "Ironically when I use the same size partition image it restores perfectly". Are you restoring to same disk as was the original source?

Acronis can restore to bigger drives because I did that a few years ago. To smaller drives is also possible as long as there's not to much data. Acronis True Image: Resizing Partitions during Restore to Larger/Smaller Hard Drive | Knowledge Base


But there's a workaround if you can only restore to same size partition (although it should work).

• first restore to same size
• Is this the only windows installed on this computer? Be sure it boots from that windows. Maybe bootmanager doesn't understand what to do. Try startup repair to fix it. it's starting fine now?
• enlarge partition in windows device manager

Does that work?

Imagerst,
Correct me if I am wrong but did you initially install your windows on the second partition of your hard drive?

If so then that could be your restore problem as it is setup for partition #2 as primary and that is a problem for windows.

Even though you installed windows on the 2nd partition, it put a boot record on your 1st partition, normally.

you might have to do a repair to your windows on the first partition. Using your system repair disk and the procedure in the tutorials here on windows 7 forums.

Give Repair Install
a shot, it could be your boot record needs to be re-written.


Rich

What was the source of the backup? Was it the small partition? And is that partition still available now?
Please post a full screen print of diskmanagment when starting from failing partition

Thanks everyone for trying to help! It has taking me a long time trying to restore and having no success. But I reinstall over 1st partition and success but still confused why I could not restore my image!

1. One Hard drive 2 partitions
2. 1st partition 40gigs
3. 2nd partition 20gigs
4. 2nd partition is set to active so mbr is store on this. So I can format the 1st pat and no mbr error.
5. 2nd partition has windows 32bit.
6. Made image of 2nd partition with TI 2011.
7. Did not make image sector by sector just a one off full partition image. Partition image not cloning.
8. Restore the 2nd partition to the 1st partition and that is where the problem start...
9. Keeps preparing desktop every restart then a blue screen with just a mouse cursor, no applications, nothing.
10. Safe mode is the same too.

11. I also have windows 7 64bit and made an image of that from the 1st partition. But formatted it and thought of using the 32bit version image. Both are genuine
12. Restoring went well with the 64bit image because it was on the same partition. So that is why Ironically it worked! But did not worked with the 32bit version on the smaller 2nd partition.

13. I reformatted it since i was getting no where and install it from my DVD too see if that worked and whola! everything went well. So it shows that you can't recover a image made on a a smaller partition to a bigger one. You need to use the Plus version of TI 2011 to make it work. Or partition your drive so the size is the same, I think I read this some where if correct. Never tried it....

Anyway so the issue you cannot repair it using the windows repair CD since it is not an MBR issue since something is wrong in windows it self because of the image.

Has anyone use TI to restore an image from a bigger or smaller partition or drive to a different size and it worked?

The issue has been solved since I reinstalled. But still like to know why you can't restore the image from a partition that is smaller then the first. Is it something to do with TI? I think they call it dissimilar hardware and so that is why you need the Plus version.

Hope this helps you all understand my problem clearer..

You are mixing a few things up - like active partition and MBR. Also the "preparing desktop" is suspicious. It should not do that after an image restore.

To start getting a handle on this, I suggest you post a picture of your Disk Management. If there is not working system, use the bootable CD of Partition Wizard (last entry on the webpage) and take a picture.

If you had posted a screenshot I had seen the problem immediately

Actually you did sort of clone. The small partition has driveletters in registry:
C: big partition
D (or other letter, look in startup from big partition): small partition

Remove both letters from registry when starting from small partition and reboot. Now windows assigns right C-drive (small partition)
Change or Delete System Drive Letter via Registry to Remove Conflict USB or FireWire Drive Letter « My Digital Life
They are located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

It's been a while since I used ATI Home to do a restore, but when I did this to a larger drive, and used the option to automatically increase the partition size, like you, the restored version would not boot.

So, I erased the new drive, did another restore to it -- this time, keeping the partitions the same size -- and this time, it booted OK. I then used Acronis Disk Director to resize the partitions on the new drive.