Changing the System Partition?

[SIW2]

There is a problem with Acronis Disk Director - avoid it.

If you installed it already,

Try Greg's suggestion of rewriting mbr.

Here is one example:

I can confirm that there is a problem. I installed director, I had already Acronis True image. I thought little of it until I decided to make an updated image. I used the pure image autoboot disk, and it said it would take 6 hours (after sitting doing nothing for about 5 minutes. From my previous 30 to 40 minutes, this was ridiculous. Even after uninstaling Director, and reinstalling True Image, I found heavy delays in some areas of my computer...

I was having so many problems after that, I reformatted the whole computer, repartitioned and reinstalled my OS's.

I regret forking out cash for Acronis now!!


To cut a long story short, I looked around and found this: (It's free)

Paragon Free Drive Backup Express - disk backup software

I found it superb. For example, it can back up Vista, a mammoth installation, in 40 minutes. You can also make an autoboot disk - a very good fallback feature.

 

[SquonkSC]

There is a problem with Acronis Disk Director - avoid

There isn't really a problem with disk director other than that the program isn't Win7 compatible.

I have no idea why Acronis is waiting so long to release a Win7 compatible version.
They are MS certified partners, and should have had it done already.
I wonder if they will stop development on it, all together.

In the mean time, one can always make a DD start-up disk, and boot from it.
That works without any problems.

Greetings.

 

[SIW2]

There isn't really a problem with disk director other than that the program isn't Windows 7 compatible.

That is a massive problem - given this is Windows 7 forum - not just a minor glitch - it causes severe difficulties.

I am surpirised by some people's loyalty to Acronis - given their apparently atrocious support.

 

[SquonkSC]

There isn't really a problem with disk director other than that the program isn't Windows 7 compatible.

That is a massive problem - given this is Windows 7 forum - not just that it doesn't does not work - it causes severe difficulties.

Well, depends on how you look at it.

Disk Director 10 was developed long before W7 saw the light.
Acronis doesn't claim it works under W7.
There's nothing wrong with the program it self.

Just like many drivers and some programs that go deep into the system,
chances are they won't work (well) on W7.

You can hardly blame Acronis for the fact MS broke compatibility with their program.

We can however raise an eyebrow on why they haven't released anything new for so long.

My guess is that they have stopped developing it and that it will, just like partition magic, silently disappear.

 

[gregrocker]

Given the above, I suggest you delete the Acronis partition, mark the Win7 partition active, then boot into the installer and run Startup Repair 3 times.

If you cannot boot the installer, use your boot disk to get to a command line and try "bootrec.exe /fixboot" and "bootrec.exe /fixmbr" or if those don't work "Bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force"

 

[rogerfour]

Hello Greg - back with smiles.
Okay here is what I did, which was a mixture of your instructions and whatever ammunition I had to work with. I still had to use UBCD as the partition wiz that I burned today was a failure - it came up in DRDOS in German so I had to abandon that idea. The USB stick was a failure because my USB is only 2 gig and it needs 3 gig to set up windows 7 boot. I saw somewhere else that Acronis technical dept. had provided a link to download and write a FLOPPY to bypass the Acronis loading.... message - It downloaded beautifully but the stupid thing was that the file was BIGGER 1.476 than the Floppy 1.44 capacity..... huh??

I used Easeus and deleted the win 7 copy partition and then re-copied the win 7 fully into that same partition (figuring that if Acronis was looking for it then it would find it) - wrong !!. Easeus would not allow me to make anything active unfortunately, so I played around with renaming the drives etc... did not make any difference.
I then tried the win 7 repair disc which found the original win 7 install but could not repair despite running many times.

I then thought I would repair XP hoping that it might make some change to the bootup sequence..... nothing happened it went back to Acronis loading...... etc
I tried the CMD to fix boot from UBCD but it would not recognize the command or accept it from there.
So I went back to win 7 repair disc and this time it recognized both win 7 and the copied partition which it said win 7 ultimate (recovered) - I was getting somewhere now !!

I then ran and re-ran the repair sequence for about 5 times until I saw it execute and finish almost immediately - so I figured it couldnt find anything else to repair.
I then dropped down to CMD on the win 7 repair disk and ran your fixboot and fixmbr for good measure. Both of them reported a successful operation - I was getting excited here...!!
I then re-booted into the hard drive and there it was - reporting 3 systems
win 7
win xp
win 7 recovered copy
I booted into the recovered copy but it hung..... uh oh !!!
I then booted into win 7 which was the original install and up it came !!!
So another nightmare is over..... here's hoping that I won't break it again.
First thing to do - UNINSTALL Acronis - I will live with EASEUS it has saved me twice now.
Second - backup my Win 7 installation
Third - burn the DVD of the Win 7 install
Fourth - Store the win 7 repair disc verrry carefully.

Do I go back to the repair disc and do the imaging thingy for backup? is that the absolute best way? Will that give me a bootable win 7 recovery procedure? or....?

I will delete the recovered win 7 partition at a later date - I am too timid to touch it right now. haha.
Thanks again Greg and the others for their input and comments.
I will be monitoring the forums from now on.

 

[SIW2]

That's an achievement. Took a lot of work - but you got there.

Definitely worth making a backup image regularly.

Use whichever backup app. you prefer.

I don't think any free versions make a bootable backup capsule - but having an image stored somewhere safe will be very useful.

You might look at Macrium Reflect free - I use it sometimes and it is very good for a freebie :

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

 

[gregrocker]

Please post a Screen shot of your Disk Management map in its entirety. Use Start menu> Snipping tool then attach file using paper clip in post edit box

You need to delete the recovered Win7 partition which would not start up - probably the one which you deleted and then copied back in.

But let's take a look first to make sure you get the right one, and it doesn't lead to further problems. SIW2 is the ultimate expert on this and he is here now.

Once you get the dual boot back, suggest you use Win7 Backup Imaging to safely save an image of your OS drives to a data drive or external. THen instead of reinstalling, just use your Install/Repair disk Repair console to "Recover using an Image" to reimage HDD or a replacement.

 

[rogerfour]

First time I'm doing this....
Here is the shot

 

[gregrocker]

This should work as long as BIOS is set to boot first to Disk2.

If Win7 startup repair derailed the XP dual boot, then you can download EasyBCD and add XP by name, drive letter and type. Restart and see if you get the dual boot menu.

If not, go Control Panel>Folder Options> show protected system files and makes sure Boot.ini, NTLDR, and Ntdetect.com are copied in the root drive of both XP and Win7.

If restart then fails to show boot menu, run a Win7 repair install from the Win7 desktop which will reconfigure the boot correctly. A repair install in Win7 is an Upgrade over itself. All programs, files and settings stay in place; only reactivation is required.

Suggest you then use your L: drive to store your Win7 Backup image of XP/7. Use Disk Management to delete L: and reformat primary so the Create an Image utility will find it to store your backup image.

At some point you might want to reinstall WIn7 to a primary formatted drive in the faster first partition of another HDD (or second partition of Disk2), but logical is fine for now.

 

[rogerfour]

I already did a create an image utility and the system recommended "E" so I did it anyway at least I now have an uptodate image for the current state.
I ran ebcd and rebooted and all is well.
I didn't know ntdlr, ntdetect and boot.ini were in windows 7 ? I don't see them there but all is okay in the XP folder root.

 

[gregrocker]

Does it give a correct dual boot menu at bootup, and boot into both OS?

Test load your Backup Image by booting from Repair disk, choosing Recover using an Image and see if it auto-detects the backup image on E: and loads it for reimaging. Continue to make sure it offers to reimage both XP and Win7, but don't do final step unless you want to reimage.

Enjoy Windows 7! You've earned it.

 

[rogerfour]

I just rebooted and the dual boot came up okay with win 7 first then XP underneath I didnt try to bring up xp though but I guess it will work - I will try it later to see if XP is still okay.

 

[rogerfour]

hold on I will reboot into XP

 

[gregrocker]

If it fails, run EasyBCD and Add XP by name, drive letter and type. Reboot, choose XP.

If that fails, go Control Panel>Folder Options> show protected system files and make sure Boot.ini, NTLDR, and Ntdetect.com are copied in the root drive of both XP and Windows 7. Reboot, Choose XP.

If that fails, boot into Windows 7 and run a Repair install from the Windows 7 desktop (Upgrade over itself). This will reconfigure the boot correctly.

 

[rogerfour]

Hi Greg,
All okay - what happened is that I had started to do an XP repair earlier on this evening when acronis came up so I had to abandon the repair but when I started up again it had to go through the repair stuff and re-installs etc.... it was complaining about some drivers but thats not a big deal.
So all is well I really don't intend to go back to XP as I moved everything over anyway - never say never as there may be an emergency some time in the future, so I will fix the drivers another time, but the system is okay and it boots into both OS
I think I will get an early? night tonight.
Thanks much once more.

 

[gregrocker]

That repair install of XP must now be completed. Make sure you are doing it correctly: Boot into XP installer, DO NOT choose "R" for repair, proceed as if installing until it detects installation, then choose Repair of that selected installation.

This will bollix the dual boot. Recover this way:

Run EasyBCD and Add XP by name, drive letter and type. Reboot, choose XP.

If that fails, go Control Panel>Folder Options> show protected system files and make sure Boot.ini, NTLDR, and Ntdetect.com are copied in the root drive of both XP and Windows 7. Reboot, Choose XP.

If that fails, boot into Windows 7 and run a Repair install from the Windows 7 desktop (Upgrade over itself). This will reconfigure the boot correctly.

Good luck. If you have faith in us, best to run the gambles by us first as we can see these unnecessary disasters coming.

Greg

 

[rogerfour]

all okay - ran ebcd and also installed some drivers I am on the XP OS now
win 7 also boots okay
Looking good here......

 

[gregrocker]

Great news! After you get both set up the way you want, create a new Win7 Backup image to replace the one you already saved. It is your ticket to 15 minute recovery of both OS from boot.

Keep us posted, Enjoy Windows 7!

 

[rogerfour]

Okay will do that right now. see u ltr.