Can't boot from recovered disk image on external drive.

Danny S · 31 Jul 2024

About a month ago, my computer started freezing up on a regular basis, so to prepare for the worst, I created a disk image on a newly purchased external 1TB Seagate SSD. I then recovered that image to another newly purchased external 1TB Seagate SSD. I've attempted to boot from the SSD by physically disconnecting the internal hard drive. But upon booting, when the "Starting Windows" screen appears, it stays on the screen for about 15-20 seconds, then the boot process starts over. Of course, this time I'm taken to a "Windows failed to start" screen. After trying several things over the span of several days, I had to put it aside and move on to other things. That was about a month ago, so now my memory of all that I've done is fuzzy. But, for this post, I made a recent attempt to boot from the recovered image. When I got to the "Windows failed to start" screen, I selected "Launch Startup Repair". I then selected the OS and then "Startup Repair". The results are as follows,

"Root cause found:
--------------------
Unspecified changes to system configuration might have caused the problem."

"Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 0.0.0.0
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 21198610
Problem Signature 05: ExternalMedia
Problem Signature 06: 7
Problem Signature 07: NoRootCause
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Local ID: 1033"

And, now, for a little back-story to the disk image. I used the "Create system image" tool that came with my OS. Several bad sectors were detected during the operation. And, at the end, a message popped up saying, "The backup failed. New bad clusters were found on the source volume. These clusters were not backed up. (0x8078007D)"

If I plug the SSD into another computer, I can open my personal files just fine. But when I plug it in to the computer from which the image was created, the drive doesn't even show up in the "My Computer" window. And as that statement should suggest, I can still start Windows on that computers, so whatever files are needed for Windows to start, they obviously can still be read by the computer just fine. So those files should not be corrupted and should have been included in the image.

Key questions that I need answered are 1) is the fact that I'm trying to boot from an external drive a problem, 2) when booting from an external drive, does the system still need an internal drive to be connected, 3) if the Windows system image creation software is the problem, then what software should I use, and 4) if I have to create another system image using a different program, is there one that's free and will let me exclude my personal files, since I already have a backup of those? I just need to backup the system environment, including programs I've installed and browser settings and bookmarks.

Thank you.

SIW2 · 31 Jul 2024

is the fact that I'm trying to boot from an external drive a problem

how is it connected. Win7 doesnt natively boot via usb

Danny S · 01 Aug 2024

It's connected by USB. It seemed like it was showing up in BIOS, when I was messing with the boot order.

SIW2 · 01 Aug 2024

If it already the correct usb drivers, you need to change a couple of registry entries.

PollBootPartitionTimeout

and

BootDriverFlags

copy and paste the below code into a .bat or .cmd file

change E:\windows to whatever is your usbletter:\windows

@echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion
pushd %~dp0
rem thanks to cdob
echo Setting USB boot drivers &echo.
set installpath=E:\windows
copy "%installpath%\system32\config\system" "%installpath%\system32\config\system_%random%.sav"
reg.exe load HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM "%installpath%\system32\config\system"

set ControlSetDefault=
call :setReg Default
call :setReg LastKnownGood

reg.exe unload HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM
popd

goto :eof

:setReg
set ControlSet=001
reg.exe query "HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM\Select" /v "%1" >nul 2>&1 && (
for /f "skip=2 tokens=3" %%a in ('reg.exe query "HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM\Select" /v "%1"') do set /a ControlSet=%%a
set ControlSet=000!ControlSet!
)
set ControlSetNNN=ControlSet%ControlSet:~-3%
if %ControlSetDefault%.==%ControlSetNNN%. goto :eof
echo. &echo ControlSet "%ControlSetNNN%" used.

set Services=HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM\%ControlSetNNN%\Services
set Control=HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM\%ControlSetNNN%\Control

reg.exe add %Control%\PnP /f /v PollBootPartitionTimeout /t REG_DWORD /d 30000

reg.exe add %Control% /f /v BootDriverFlags /t REG_DWORD /d 0x6

set ControlSetDefault=%ControlSetNNN%
goto :eof

that changes the values on the left to the values on the right in this pic

Can't boot from recovered disk image on external drive.-set7_usb.jpg

Danny S · 01 Aug 2024

I'm not sure how to determine if the drivers are correct. I'm able to open the drive on other computers. Should I copy and paste the code you provided somewhere? Command prompt perhaps?

And, by the way, not long after starting this thread, my hard drive started making a weird clicking noise. I think the read/write arm is not moving right or possibly even stuck. So I shutdown and tried starting it again, but it said there was a disk error. So now I can't start the computer. But I can still get into the boot menu by hitting the Esc key at the beginning. I'm not sure if the boot menu is considered a part of BIOS but it's not the screen I usually see when I'm in BIOS by clicking F1, F2, or F8 (I can't remember which one and none of them appear to be doing anything now).

- - - Updated - - -

Ok, I see your edit. I now have some idea of what to do with the code, but what's up with

"PollBootPartitionTimeout

and

BootDriverFlags"

SIW2 · 01 Aug 2024

copy and paste the code into notepad

save it as anynameyoulike.cmd or anynameyoulike.bat

it is a text file but with the extension either .cmd or .bat

change the letter in the line

set installpath=E:\windows

to your usb stick letter

then rt click the .cmd or .bat file and run as adminstrator

Code:

@echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion
pushd %~dp0
rem thanks to cdob
echo Setting USB boot drivers &echo.
set installpath=E:\windows

if not exist "%installpath%\system32\config\system" (echo Error: target not found &pause &popd &goto :eof)
copy "%installpath%\system32\config\system" "%installpath%\system32\config\system_%random%.sav"
reg.exe load HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM " %installpath%\system32\config\system"


set ControlSetDefault=
call :setReg Default
call :setReg LastKnownGood

reg.exe unload HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM
popd

goto :eof

:setReg
 set ControlSet=001
 reg.exe query "HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM\Select" /v "%1" >nul 2>&1 && (
  for /f "skip=2 tokens=3" %%a in ('reg.exe query "HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM\Select" /v "%1"') do set /a ControlSet=%%a
  set ControlSet=000!ControlSet!
 )
 set ControlSetNNN=ControlSet%ControlSet:~-3%
 if %ControlSetDefault%.==%ControlSetNNN%. goto :eof
 echo. &echo ControlSet "%ControlSetNNN%" used.

 set Services=HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM\%ControlSetNNN%\Services
 set Control=HKLM\loaded_SYSTEM\%ControlSetNNN%\Control

 reg.exe add %Control%\PnP /f /v PollBootPartitionTimeout /t REG_DWORD /d 30000
 
 reg.exe add %Control% /f /v BootDriverFlags /t REG_DWORD /d 0x6

 set ControlSetDefault=%ControlSetNNN%
goto :eof

PollBootPartitionTimeout registry key value is used to control how long the kernel waits for PnP to surface the boot disk before it stops with bugcheck

To allow the system to load from a USB device, the USB drivers are loaded during boot, rather than on demand.

that is why those two values are set.

Danny S · 01 Aug 2024

Well, it looks like I'm not going to be able to resolve my hard drive problem any time real soon. I guess I'll have to buy a new hard drive and install Windows 7 just to run the code on that computer. I expect it will take several days, perhaps a week. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, thank you very much for your help.

Danny S · 05 Aug 2024

Ok, now that I have a working hard drive, I ran your code, and I was able to boot from the recovered disk image. But not all my programs are working. The most important of which is my email client, Mozilla Thunderbird. When I launch the program, it acts like I'm launching it for the first time. I should probably start a new thread for this, but I thought I should get your opinion here first, since it is somewhat related to this thread.

michael diemer · 05 Aug 2024

You may need to do some setup, since the image you are on is old. first though, try updating, that might be helpful.

Danny S · 05 Aug 2024

Thank you Michael, but I think I've solved the problem, at least for my email client. But I'll keep your recommendation in mind for future problems. For some reason, the computer is not recognizing the "Program Files (x86)" folder. And when I launch the email client, a new "Program Files (x86)" folder is created, but it's contents only include a folder related to my email client. When I copied and pasted the main folder for my email client from the dud (x86) folder to the new folder, all my emails showed up. It looks normal now. I then applied the same tactic to solve the problem of my Chrome icon in the Start menu not looking right. But I'd rather understand why the original (x86) folder is not being recognized and then fix it.

I do have a clue. When I open properties for that folder and click the Sharing tab, the name of the folder is not what it should be. It's a name I had (once upon a time) assigned it in my earliest attempts to boot from the USB drive it's on. I forget now what exactly I was trying to do, but to protect the original system files, I tried copying them and then renaming them and then use the copies for the boot process. Since then, I have deleted the copies and restored the names of the original files, but apparently there is some residue of that history.

Any suggestions on the best way to resolve this.