Restoring an Image - Please HELP

[SMOKKINU]

The system image restore failed. No disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found.


That is the error that I get when I try to restore the image I have saved....


A little background information.


I have four OCZ 60GB SSD's in RAID0, I had made it a habit to save images once in a while, incase the RAID Failed, or a SSD went bad I could restore the image to a time when the machine was working happily.

Well, one of my drives failed after a Firmware Update from OCZ (1.5FW) to be exact. One of my drives dropped out of the array, and as you may know, that renders it useless and all is lost. I happen to have a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black, and a 300GB Western Digital Velociraptor HDD as data storage drives.

The Images I created over the past few months, are stored currently on the 1TB Caviar Black...Ive restored an image before, no issues.

However, I re-setup the RAID with the 3 remaining SSD's so that gives me roughly 180GB Drive. Went to restore the image, and it fails immediately. I do some reading and try the 300GB Raptor drive, same thing. I then Make a partition on the 1TB Drive to match the partition size the image was created on (To simulate the disk size) and I cannot see the Partition in the list of drives to exclude/include.


So now, I am here, hoping somebody can help me restore this image ive created & need.


Any help/ideas?

 

[seekermeister]

I'm no expert in this field, so take what I say only as food for thought, rather than something to necessarily impliment. First, to make things more clear...did you use Windows Backup to create the image or a third party program? On the remaining 3 drives, did you format them to start from scratch or leave data on them? I have a hunch that the problem is due to the fact that the new array or the single Raptor are insufficient to reproduce the original 4 drive array. However, Acronix TI 2010 has a tool for converting a Windows image to an Acronis image. Whether that would solve the problem, I do not know, but I'm tossing it in as a possibility.

 

[SMOKKINU]

I'm no expert in this field, so take what I say only as food for thought, rather than something to necessarily impliment. First, to make things more clear...did you use Windows Backup to create the image or a third party program? On the remaining 3 drives, did you format them to start from scratch or leave data on them? I have a hunch that the problem is due to the fact that the new array or the single Raptor are insufficient to reproduce the original 4 drive array. However, Acronix TI 2010 has a tool for converting a Windows image to an Acronis image. Whether that would solve the problem, I do not know, but I'm tossing it in as a possibility.

it's a Windows Image Backup. Im trying Acronis right now...30 day trial, hopefully it works

 

[Wishmaster]

You may need to sanitary erase your drives before restoring the image, especially after the FW upgrade.

Not sure if you tried this.
Also, for future reference in case you do not know, you need to disable the RAID array altogether before flashing the FW. Unless you did and I misunderstood.


At this point you may want to sanitary erase the drives.
this can be done off another OS (dual boot) or off the 32bit install DVD

Try this:
Grab Sanitary erase and put in on a USB
Kill the Raid array & boot in IDE mode
Boot from the 32bit Win7 or Vista DVD
at set up Shift+F10 to open command prompt
type: diskpart then list volume
(just to get a list of the Drives and make note of the USB drive letter)
Exit Dispart

type <USB Drive Letter> :
sanitary_erase

Youll get a list of your drives now and a number for each and all labled.
something like: Disk 0; OCZ Vertex ............
Disk 1 OCZ Vertex .................
Type the number ... then confirm with "Y" (NO ENTER)
Repeat for each drive.

When Done restart and reassemble the RAID array and restore.

 

[SMOKKINU]

You may need to sanitary erase your drives before restoring the image, especially after the FW upgrade.

Not sure if you tried this.
Also, for future reference in case you do not know, you need to disable the RAID array altogether before flashing the FW. Unless you did and I misunderstood.


At this point you may want to sanitary erase the drives.
this can be done off another OS (dual boot) or off the 32bit install DVD

Try this:
Grab Sanitary erase and put in on a USB
Kill the Raid array & boot in IDE mode
Boot from the 32bit Win7 or Vista DVD
at set up Shift+F10 to open command prompt
type: diskpart then list volume
(just to get a list of the Drives and make note of the USB drive letter)
Exit Dispart

type <USB Drive Letter> :
sanitary_erase

Youll get a list of your drives now and a number for each and all labled.
something like: Disk 0; OCZ Vertex ............
Disk 1 OCZ Vertex .................
Type the number ... then confirm with "Y" (NO ENTER)
Repeat for each drive.

When Done restart and reassemble the RAID array and restore.

Im not necessarily trying to re-image to the SSD's...i just wanna re-image to any drive so I can get into my original setup.

Once i get the replacement drive I will SE and do a clean install.

I just wanna get into the image to backup files/folders.

 

[whs]

I never use any Windows backup/restore functions in any Windows OS because there are always problems. I use Norton Ghost and Macrium. But with that said, let me make these comments:

1. You probably have to image back to the original configuration (4 SSD Raid0). Unlike cloning, imaging is a very straight forward process which does not allow for deviations from the source.
2. If you can attach your 1TB Caviar to another system (e.g. in an enclosure), you might be able to copy your data files. With Macrium and Ghost I would be able to do that - not 100% sure with a windows image because windows has this habit of renaming all the files with an internal code.
3. Another possibility you could try is use a Linux off a CD or USB stick - e.g. this one. But all will depend whether you can identify your files. Did you ever look at the images before and were able to identify your files?

 

[WindowsStar]

I never use any Windows backup/restore functions in any Windows OS because there are always problems. I use Norton Ghost and Macrium. But with that said, let me make these comments:

1. You probably have to image back to the original configuration (4 SSD Raid0). Unlike cloning, imaging is a very straight forward process which does not allow for deviations from the source.
2. If you can attach your 1TB Caviar to another system (e.g. in an enclosure), you might be able to copy your data files. With Macrium and Ghost I would be able to do that - not 100% sure with a windows image because windows has this habit of renaming all the files with an internal code.
3. Another possibility you could try is use a Linux off a CD or USB stick - e.g. this one. But all will depend whether you can identify your files. Did you ever look at the images before and were able to identify your files?

I use Ghost and Macrium too.

If you use software RAID you will have to put the image back on the 4 SSDs. If you used Hardware RAID then you can put the image back on any combination.

 

[whs]

If you use software RAID you will have to put the image back on the 4 SSDs. If you used Hardware RAID then you can put the image back on any combination.

That is a good point because H/W Raid makes the whole Raid transparent to the program. Remains the capacity problem though. The 3 disk configuration is smaller than the source.

 

[whs]

Out of curiosity, I just made a backup of my system partition and my data partition using Win7 imaging. But as I suspected, one cannot mount the backup images. They are VHD files and there is no Way to get at them thru Win7. I have not tried the Linux route yet becuse I do not want to take my system down - but I have small hopes.
For the future, you may want to consider one of the other imaging programs (Ghost, Macrium, Acronis, Paragon, etc.). Nothing can be as bad as this.

 

[SMOKKINU]

Out of curiosity, I just made a backup of my system partition and my data partition using Win7 imaging. But as I suspected, one cannot mount the backup images. They are VHD files and there is no Way to get at them thru Win7. I have not tried the Linux route yet becuse I do not want to take my system down - but I have small hopes.
For the future, you may want to consider one of the other imaging programs (Ghost, Macrium, Acronis, Paragon, etc.). Nothing can be as bad as this.

I converted the image files to acronis image files, and then put the image to tthe 300GB Raptor drive, but I cant boot from it and cant see it in Windows 7, what ami doing wrong?

 

[WindowsStar]

Out of curiosity, I just made a backup of my system partition and my data partition using Win7 imaging. But as I suspected, one cannot mount the backup images. They are VHD files and there is no Way to get at them thru Win7. I have not tried the Linux route yet becuse I do not want to take my system down - but I have small hopes.
For the future, you may want to consider one of the other imaging programs (Ghost, Macrium, Acronis, Paragon, etc.). Nothing can be as bad as this.

Thanks for the info. I have not used Windows Imaging at all so this is great information. Let us know about the Linux route when you test it.

 

[whs]

cant see it in Windows 7

That part I do not understand. From which Win7 are you looking at it and what do you see?

 

[SMOKKINU]

cant see it in Windows 7

That part I do not understand. From which Win7 are you looking at it and what do you see?

Ok when I applied the image to the raptor drive, the drive disappeared. When I set bios to boot from that drive (So that I boot from my image that was suppose to be on it) it would not boot, just said to insert media or boot from a CD blah blah....


When I booted up on the HDD I installed Windows 7 onto today (The one im typing to you on now) I cannot see the Raptor drive, unless I go to Disk Management and Allocate it.... doing that however wants to format the drive.

 

[whs]

Hmm, looks like you lost both the MBR and the drive letter in the process. When it asks for the CD, you might try a repair with the Win7 installation disk. Just to be on the safe side, I would disconnect the HDD with your new Win7 during that operation.
Gregrocker and SIW2 are experts in that repair field - I am not. Maybe you should call for their help via PM.

 

[SMOKKINU]

great

 

[SMOKKINU]

Well i managed to get into the image, tried acronis again, and wouldnt work, then performed a system repair with the install disk and now it works.


Hopefully when i get my replacement drive i'll be able to apply the image no problems, but i'll probly just do a clean install I'll see what happens.

 

[seekermeister]

Whatever happens later, I'm glad you got it to work now.

 

[whs]

Great. I am glad the system repair did the trick.