Problem restoring Windows Image to new SSHD - Bootmgr missing


  1. Posts : 5
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #1

    Problem restoring Windows Image to new SSHD - Bootmgr missing


    Strap in folks, and thanks in advance for bearing with me, here lies a tale:

    Came back from Christmas vacation to find one of my WD 500GB HDD was showing "fail." Intel Rapid Storage allowed me to reset the drive, and I made Windows Image files of the system (at the time, two 500GB drives set up in RAID0 array), and copied all the files wholesale onto a WD My Cloud NAS.

    Error One: Having the image saved to the My Cloud, big trouble.
    Error Two: Thinking Windows Backup and Restore was the answer - I know better now...

    I bought a Seagate 1TB SSHD to replace the bad 500GB drive, on advise of a friend.

    Error Three: I know now you can't run a RAID array with different size disks. Oh well.

    Changed the drive set up in BIOS to AHCI, and now have two drives, the new 1TB installed, and one of the old WD 500GB. The WD 500GB is formatted NTFS and largely empty, but stable (passes ChkDsk etc.).

    The New Seagate drive is fine. Also passes ChkDsk, etc.

    PROBLEM: I could not get Windows Restore (from the original Win7 install disk from Dell) to "see" my Windows Image file. No matter how I connected the NAS, it would not "see" the image file (tried direct Ethernet, installed requisite drivers, etc.).

    Attempt to solve 1: Transfer the image files (VHD file - someone asked if they were .img files and no, they were stored as .vhd) to a WD Passport 1TB external USB 3.0 drive. Again, Windows Restore run from the "repair" part of the Win7 install disk cannot "see" the file. Even when I install the 3.0 drivers, or move the drive to a 2.0 USB slot, no dice. And yes, the image files are on the root of the USB drive, read that somewhere too.

    Attempt to solve 2: Acronis True Image 2016. I read where Acronis could read a Windows Image and reinstall it. After much trial and error and some sharply worded "chats" with Acronis tech support, I find out they do NOT support .vhd, at least not NOW. BUT, the 2016 app was able to reinstall the image, it just came up as a RAW format every time, and not NTFS. I followed Acronis's instructions to the letter, and it kept coming up RAW, but all the data was visible on the drive (if I looked at it through another disk-management software, like EaseUS, I could "see" that the files were there, I just could not mount the disk!).

    Attempt to solve 3: Acronis sends me a trial version of True Image 2014 (which apparently CAN convert Windows image files to their native format). I convert the .vhd Windows Image to a .tib Acronis image. I save the new image to the USB drive and attach to the old computer. I try the same processes they outline "Grover's tutorial" - everything seems to go swimmingly, except I have the same problem - when it's all done and says "Successfully restored," I cannot boot. I get the "Bootmgr missing" message, and when I run DiskPart, the drive shows as RAW again.

    So...what am I missing? Acronis does not seem too responsive with their tech support, at least to this issue, saying it's not their software, it must be something wrong with my system. I validated the image file once it was converted to .tib format. At one point I had installed the contents of the image and I could "see" all my files there, but the disk would not boot.

    I did what I thought I was supposed to do, and now nothing works, and I've been working on this for a month now. I am truly at wits end.

    I need to recover these files. Yes I have "back-ups" of all the stuff...documents, photos, music, whatever, but it's the operating system and the environment I want back. Three years' worth of updates, upgrades, patches, downloaded files that need to be installed and cannot just be copied over due to registry issues.

    Yes, I could reinstall Windows 7 and start from scratch, but that will take another month and I won't be back to where I was on January 1st, and that's where I thought I would be by making the Windows Image.

    I'll buy whatever software I need, reconfigure whatever it takes, already bought the new hard drive and the new external USB, so what's a few more bucks, if I can get my computer back?

    Any help would be appreciated, tremendously.
      My Computer


  2. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #2
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 5
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    I saw that...


    I looked at that and two things jumped out at me, one was it was a few years old so I wasn't sure it still applied; and two, can I do that from a Windows XP machine, which is all I have left at this point?

    My plan would be to mount the .vhd from the My Cloud (which I can "see" on the XP machine, thankfully), then use Macrium to create a new image on the Passport USB 3.0 device. I would then boot from the Macrium recovery disk and try to restore from the USB drive.

    Never having used Macrium, should I assume it will format the SSHD before laying on the image, or could I clean it to unallocated/NTFS using another application beforehand? I have the Seagate DiskTools and EaseUS Partition Master.

    Thanks WHS for the quick reply.
    Phlip
      My Computer


  4. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #4

    To restore the image you should have a formatted disk.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 5
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Okay, I can ensure the disk is formatted, that is no problem.

    I am still running into a problem with the tutorial, however. On my Windows XP machine, in MMC, Disk Management, under Actions, there is no option to "Attach VHD." I cannot find that wording anywhere in the MMC.

    I know I saw it under Windows 7, and at one time even mounted the VHD to check what was inside it.

    There's another issue that's been bothering me: I have two VHD files under the same WindowsImage folder:

    Problem restoring Windows Image to new SSHD - Bootmgr missing-windowsimage-scrn-shot.jpg

    Thoughts? I've been using the second, larger VHD to restore from, as it has both the recovery partition and the OS/data partition (there are only two).

    Thanks.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 5
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Okay now what...


    Okay WHS, I am about to put myself entirely out as a fool. Hopefully you'll be able to help me with this mess.

    I was running the Startup Repair option from the Win7 install disk when I wrote this post, in hopes one of the other posts on this forum, about running startup repair three times, would help. It indicated it had made some repairs and to restart, but when I did, I immediately got the "Bootmgr Missing" error.

    Tried a number of fixes here and elsewhere including bootrec /rebuildmbr, etc. to no avail.

    At least now, however, when I brought up DiskPart, the partition with my Acronis image now shows as NTFS. So I set it as active.

    Reboot, still no go.

    So I put in the Macrium rescue disk. There is a repair startup option, so I figured, since the issue is not that the image isn't there, but I can't boot to it, why not try that? It showed a repair was completed and directed me to reboot.

    Next I get the dreaded "winload.exe" error.

    Next attempted to use the Win7 install disk Startup Repair again, it shows no errors, in fact the log file shows that the OS boots in the test environment. But when I go to reboot, the winload.exe error comes up again and it won't boot.

    I've set the partition with the correct image/windows install as "Active" using DiskPart. It shows as an NTFS Windows installation. But the computer will not boot.

    I am again at the end of my rope. About ready to call it quits and just start from scratch with a fresh Windows 7 install and go through all the agony of reinstalling all the patches, updates, upgrades, etc.

    Since I can't mount the VHD in XP anyway, I'm stuck.

    Phlip
      My Computer


  7. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #7

    In XP it is a bit more difficult to mount a VHD - you need helpers.

    Attach a VHD File in Windows XP
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 5
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Unfortunately that process did not work. I installed the Virtual Server as explained in the post, but the option to open a command prompt when using shift-right-click did not appear. I tried opening a command prompt manually then running the script, but the vhdmount command kept returning an error message, "VHDmount does not support mounting a VHD through UNC paths or network drives."

    And since my nearly 1TB .vhd image file is on a network drive...I'm stuck again.

    I tried downloading Gizmo and that failed to mount as well.

    Allow me to go back to another question - since I appear to have the image on the drive in question, and the drive is now NTFS which was part of the issue before, the only thing hanging me up now it making it boot again.

    Is there anything I can do to address the BOOT issue (previous post)?

    Thanks.
      My Computer


 

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