Solved Drive Image Problem

[jongo46]

I have a C: drive 160 Gig that holds Windows 7 and an E: drive 450 Gig for storage.

I want to image the C: drive to bigger hard drive but backup and restore will only let me image both drives. I noticed the wrong drive is the active partition and if i unplug E: the system will not boot saying software or hardware changes prevent it from booting.

Can i make C: the active partition?

I have backed up the E: drive and made an image of everything so all is safe on an external drive.

Any help appreciated.

 

[Pauly]

Sounds like you installed to C with the E drive attached and im guessing in the sata0 port which will auto put the boot info on E drive
Easiest fix may be to disconnect E drive then run startup repair to fix the missing boot info
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html
note - you may need to run this upto three times with reboots inbetween runs

 

[jongo46]

Thanks for the speedy reply

Thank you very much for the quick answer.

I have tried system repair disc but only ran it once. I will run it a few times and post reply when done.

John

 

[jongo46]

Hi,

I ran the repair 6 times, all with the same error:
Startup repair cannot repair automatically. Amongst other errors was problem signiture 07 - Corrupt Config Data

Trying without E; drive connected without repair disc gives black screen with:
The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

Hope this helps you.

John

 

[whs]

1. Copy your bootmgr to C: - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

2. Don't use this bum Windows 7 imaging. It plays all kinds of acts on you. Use free Macrium for imaging: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

 

[jongo46]

Hi,
Once again, thank you both for your time and help.


I ran BCD and it says it has changed the boot to C: However, if I unplug the E: drive I have the same problem at boot.

I ran the system repair again with the same errors.

I have attached Disc Management picture, I am frightened to change E: to not boot because I might not be able to boot at all if i do.

Many Thanks

John

 

[LittleJay]

I see from your disk management that disk 1 still shows as "active". You could try making it inactive and see if that helps.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197157-partition-mark-inactive.html

Note: If you try this I would advise you to first disconnect drive 0 from your system, so drive 1 is the only disk hooked up and then run diskpart from your system repair disk.

 

[bigmck]

I don't think the System File has transferred yet. Could you post the whole Disk Management with the columns extended so we can read all of the print. It should look like this.

 

[whs]

Disconnecting disk1 for the operations that LittleJay has outlined is a good idea. If it still does not boot, use the bootable CD of Partition Wizard (last entry on the page) to fix the MBR - it's on the left side of the PW window once you booted with the CD.

When you downloaded the bootable CD .iso of PW, you have to burn it to CD. Use ImgBurn.

 

[jongo46]

Hi,

I made the drive inactive and could not start windows at all, I have learned a little bit of Dos from your post LittleJay, so given this new skill I managed to put the drive back to active.

I have now downloaded Partition Wizard and I am burning it as I type. I will try to run this with the E: drive unplugged to repair the MBR on C:.

As per usual LittleJay had I read all of your post I would have unplugged the other drive first so that was my own fault.

I have attached the Disc Management full screen and instead of jumping feet first I will await your reply WHS, and then proceed.

Again Thanks for the Help.

John

 

[LittleJay]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/104341-bootmgr-missing-fix.html

Have you tried using the manual method outlined in step 4 of this tutorial? I know you are worried about making changes and not being able to boot afterwards, so before attempting anything else, you should make a system image of both drives, if you haven't done so already. That way you can restore things to the way they were if something should go amiss. I use Macrium Reflect also, as whs suggested. Also please remember to disconnect the other drive from your system when making any changes, and when you disconnect the drive, shut down your system to do so. You may be aware of all that, but I just want to be sure.

 

[jongo46]

Hi,

Thanks to all for the help but I had to re-format in the end as nothing appeared to work.

I have learned by your comments to install to a new drive making sure no other drives are attached.

Once again Thanks for your support.

John

 

[jongo46]

Added Drive

I would like to thank everyone for their efforts.
Unfortunatley everything i attempted didn't work, i have added a second drive and detached the drive whilst re- instaling windows 7 (as you said, that was my original mistake).

All working and thanks for the support.

John

 

[Syti13]

I'm restoring a system image via Win 7 DVD. I have the new (empty) HDD installed but when I go to the "select a system image backup" it shows my External HDD as Drive C: then I click>next>next which takes me to "Your computer will be restored from the following image" it shows "drives to restore" as \\?\Volume {26579eda-de02-11e0-aed3-806e6f6e6963}, C:. I'd like to know is this supposed to happen and if not, then what should I do.

 

[bigmck]

I'm restoring a system image via Win 7 DVD. I have the new (empty) HDD installed but when I go to the "select a system image backup" it shows my External HDD as Drive C: then I click>next>next which takes me to "Your computer will be restored from the following image" it shows "drives to restore" as \\?\Volume {26579eda-de02-11e0-aed3-806e6f6e6963}, C:. I'd like to know is this supposed to happen and if not, then what should I do.

Please start a new thread with your problem. You will get better help this way. Thanks,