Need to make backup

[huiijuy]

So I just got my new SSD installed with Windows 7 Pro x64. I now want to make an image of the disk and save as an iso on my external hard drive. When I start it up, it attemps to load and I get this "No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!" \n "boot: "
I can boot this disc on my laptop and I can boot an Ubuntu 10.04 live disc no problems. Anyone seen this?

Muffiin

 

[Night Hawk]

Working with the Windows Backup & Restore as well as Acronis the system images created by both are not in ISO form. That's not how the backup feature works with either.

With Acronis however you can mount the disk image created as a second C drive listed in Computer or any explorer window and even opt to add more files to it. That allows incremental backup for individual items rather then replacing one image with a newer one.

Your description however seems to point to a drive detection problem as if the boot sector or necessary system files were missing from the drive following the first install. Generally any full system images even for smaller drives are spread over multiple dvds not compressed small enough for just one live disk.

Ubuntu on the other hand starts as a live version of that distro being much smaller in size to start with. The only portable method found for any version of Windows was during the beta to RC time frame for use of the Portable Virtual Box to see 7 on a usb flash drive. How To Install Windows 7 On USB Flash Drive

Note that allows for a temp install seeing the flash drive made bootable. Ubuntu x86 on the other hand only takes upto about 2 1/3gb of space when custom installed directly onto a flash drive making that the better option for portable there. For you the best first idea would be trying the startup repair tool when booting from the 7 dvd or may require an upgrade to repair or simply second clean install if the first was bad from the start.

 

[karlsnooks]

So I just got my new SSD installed with Windows 7 Pro x64. I now want to make an image of the disk and save as an iso on my external hard drive. When I start it up, it attemps to load and I get this "No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!" \n "boot: "
I can boot this disc on my laptop and I can boot an Ubuntu 10.04 live disc no problems. Anyone seen this?

Muffiin

Win 7 Backup & Restore creates a VHD file.
Win 7 Backup & Restore does not create a .ISO file.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

 

[huiijuy]

I guess I should have put what I was using in there. I am trying to use Clonezilla, not Windows Backup and Restore. I don't want to have 4 discs laying around, thats why I didn't use Win Backup and Restore. I should have been more specific.

I'll take a look at Acronis when I get backin a few days, if no one knows about my problem.

Thanks!

Edit: I can boot into Windows, I cannot boot into the Clonezilla disc

 

[Night Hawk]

Win 7 Backup & Restore creates a VHD file.
Win 7 Backup & Restore does not create a .ISO file.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

Huh? Have a look at the attached image of how a system image looks in the WindowsImageBackup folder. A vhd is something totally different there. The download and installer for the XP Mode will set up that VHD. Otherwise for manually creating a new one you would look at a guide for that. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/566-virtual-hard-disk-create-attach-vhd.html

Now Acronis True Image and likely other imaging softwares will be about to mount thier own form of image where it can look as if you have two C drives with a slight color change however when seen in an explorer window to tell them apart. That allows you to edit an image for incrementally adding more or even removing something.

 

[huiijuy]

So, Clonezilla? Know what my problem may be? Windows boots fine, Ubuntu boots fine. I dont know why Clonezilla won't, it is a Linux distro after all.

 

[Night Hawk]

It depends on what you are using for a main boot loader. If you are using EasyBCD for adding into the 7 loader you will need to add a new entry in to see NeoGrub pointed at the root for that one.

 

[karlsnooks]

Huh? Have a look at the attached image of how a system image looks in the WindowsImageBackup folder.

You are nearly looking in the correct place. Let's see if I've got a snapshot showing you where, although Brink' tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html
also points out the location.

You can also simply search for VHD files.

 

[Night Hawk]

Win 7 Backup & Restore creates a VHD file.
Win 7 Backup & Restore does not create a .ISO file.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

??? One VHD file? When you look at the screen you posted there you will note that the sub folder contains numerous files not one vhd file by itself. That's only a portion of the entire image. When looking at the image below note that two VHD files with the same name are seen not one for the images of the host drive here. That's a good one!

Essentially a full system image starts off with a new folder(WindowsImageBackup) and then moves ooto one main sub folder(user account named) wth a few more sub folders under that seeing one dated or "time stamped" where the recovery option will then use the time stamp to indicate which is the recommend image.

Sometimes restoring an image can also see boot problems as well as any you happen to be running into with the main installation when going to restore them. For seeing the second drive's image of the Vista install restored it blue screens in a quick flash and ends up in a full restart.

I'll have to unplug the host drive to perform a repair or try again to see the second restoration goes 100%. But that also indicates problems can appear in images at times where alternate backup methods should accompany them.

 

[karlsnooks]

Please read Shawn's excellent tutorial.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

 

[huiijuy]

I think Shawn's tutorial is what I want. But I want to know why I can't boot that disc. Makes me wonder what other, if any, discs won't boot.

 

[Night Hawk]

It still sounds like a part of Grub is involved there. Try editing or removing Grub entirely. /boot/grub/grub.conf or menu.lst file

 

[huiijuy]

Ubuntu isn't installed on the hard drive. Its only on the cd as stated in one of the beginning posts

 

[Night Hawk]

The error however is Linux related! Are you sure that you didn't use any custom install options at some point?

The other idea would be going over the bios setting as far as which hard drive is set as the default as well as which device is set as first if you have more then enabled. To see the SSD bootable it could have been seen as Disk #2 rather then Disk #0 with all plugged in when going to install 7 on it. The mbr and boot files ended up elsewhere!

From multibooting at times here across multiple drives I know that one well having the side cover off, powering up and off in order to unplug or replug in drives in order to see each made stand alone. One slip and the installation ends up being booted from another drive!

 

[huiijuy]

Ok ill look at that too. I do know that the ssd is in sata_0, 500 gb hdd in sata_1 (old windows install), cd drive in sata_2, and 2 1tb hdd in sata_4 and sata_5 (RAID1). I only formatted the old drive not secure erase, could it maybe see the old mbr? I don't know what the bios sees as disk_0, so it may be seeing the old install and not the new ssd install.

 

[Night Hawk]

That's likely! Check it out and see if that's the problem.

On the new build here the secondary pair of Sata III drives are seen as Disk #0 and Disk #1 in the DM tool! Yet the Windows installer still looks for the first of the Sata II drives. The Sata III drives are actually on Channel #4!

It makes it fun when going to select the drive to restore an image to when booted live from the 7 dvd! :roflmao: "oops!"

 

[huiijuy]

The SSD was the primary boot drive and I even unplugged the 500GB disk. Still nothing. So I changed the BIOS to IDE, not AHCI. It would boot to a point before stopping. I ended up just changing the BIOS back to AHCI, and using Windows Backup and Restore and putting it on a 60 GB partition on the 500GB disk.

 

[Night Hawk]

Bare Foot Kid wrote a guide for working with the AHCI mode in Vista and 7 you may want to refer to. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

Another guide concerning SSDs makes some observations on how to tweak and optimize in 7. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/70822-ssd-tweaks-optimizations-windows-7-a.html

I haven't had any time working with any of those quite yet. Due to the high initial prices still seen for small capacity drives the new build here has a mix of Sata III drives for storage/backup with a pair of Sata II OS drives. Here with the change of make of board I had to set it to Natice ide once the initial 7 installs ran into problem with it set for AHCI.

If you don't see results when following the first guide for that you might simply have to perform a clean install with it at ide. Windows loaded fine but ran sluggish and saw programs lock when set at AHCI here but with the standard Sata II + III models.