RESOLVING "WINDOWS 7" PROBLEMS AFTER USING THE "ACRONIS PLUS PACK 2012" RESCUE MEDIA CD TO "RESTORE

TO DISSIMILAR HARDWARE" High-level Executive Summary: When you use the "Acronis True Image 2012" program with the "Acronis True Image 2012 Plus Pack" add-on to "restore to dissimilar media" (i.e. a different size and/or model of hard drive), it usually results in a corrupted copy of "Windows..". This problem can be corrected by following up with a "repair install" with a "Windows.." installation media DVD. The combination of a backup and restore with the "Acronis True Image 2012" program with the "Acronis True Image 2012 Plus Pack" add-on, and a repair install with "Windows.." installation media is a reliable procedure for moving "Windows.." installations between dissimilar hard drives. Devil's advocate viewpoint: The "Acronis True Image 2012 Home Plus Pack" add-on to "Acronis True Image Home 2012" . All you need is Windows 7's "Backup and Restore" and "Disk Management" in the "Control Panel" according to http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/replace-your-hard-drive-using-free-windows-7-tools

A TCS member brought in his legacy Gateway GT4016 computer at the June 6,

old. It has an AMD 2.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 processor . Approximately two weeks earlier, a friend of this TCS member used the "Restore to dissimilar hardware" feature of "Acronis True Image Home 2012" with the "Acronis True Image Home 2012 Plus Pack" add-on to move a bootable "Windows 7 Ultimate N 64-bit" partition from a 200 Gigabyte "Western Digital" IDE hard drive to a 500-Gigabyte "Western Digital" IDE hard drive.

2012 meeting of the "Windows 8/Hardware SIG". This computer is about 7 years

THE "ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE HOME 2012 PLUS PACK" IS AN ADD-ON TO "ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE HOME 2012" THAT ALLOWS YOU TO RESTORE HARD DRIVE PARTITIONS TO "DISSIMILAR HARDWARE" See the "Add-ons" tab at http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/index_gwo.html?utm_expid=4274314-6&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.acronis.com%2Fpr%2F2009%2F11%2F05-07-24.html%23plus-pack The "Acronis True Image Home 2012 Plus Pack" has to be installed into a "Windows.." computer AFTER you install "Acronis True Image Home 2012".

ACRONIS "RESTORE TO DISSIMILAR HARDWARE" PROCEDURE

The "Restore to Dissimilar Hardware" procedure is as follows: Step 1: Starting with the original 200 Gigabyte IDE hard drive (with "Windows 7.." installed) in the Gateway computer, run the "Windows.." version of "Acronis True Image 2012 with Plus Pack" and create a "backup image set" on an external hard drive. Step 2: Remove the original 200 Gigabyte IDE hard drive.

Step 3: Install the new, unformatted 500 Gigabyte IDE hard drive into the computer. Step 4: Use the "Acronis True Image Home 2012 Plus Pack" "Rescue Media" CD to boot up the computer. Step 5: Use the "Universal Restore" feature of the "Acronis True Image Home 2012 Plus Pack" "Rescue Media" CD to do a "restore to dissimilar hardware" to place a copy of the the "Windows 7.." partition onto the new 500 Gigabytes hard drive. Step 6: Remove the "Acronis True Image Home 2012 Plus Pack" "Rescue Media" CD. Step 7: Boot up the computer into "Windows 7..".

*

PROBLEMS DEVELOPED WITH "WINDOWS 7.." RUNNING IN THE NEW, LARGER 500 GIGABYTE HARD DRIVE After "Acronis True Image 2012" with the "Acronis True Image 2012 Plus Pack" was used to move to the larger hard drive, the computer would boot and run slowly. However, after a few days, the computer failed to boot into the "Windows.." Desktop (after completing a "Power On Self Test"). Francis suggested that we would probably have to run a "Repair Install" of "Windows 7.." to repair the computer. We did not have enough time for this time-consuming repair procedure so he completed this repair procedure at his house during a 4-day period following our June meeting.

INITIAL ATTEMPTS TO REPAIR THE "WINDOWS 7.." COMPUTER Since the "Repair Install" procedure is rather long and involved, Francis decided to attempt some simpler repairs first: He attempted various Microsoft-recommended repairs, as listed at http://aztcs.org/meeting_notes/meeting_notes.shtml: For instructions on using the "System Recovery Options" of "Windows Vista" or "Windows 7", see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/What-happened-to-the-Recovery-Console and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392 and http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Startup-Repair-frequently-asked-questions You can run the bootrec /fixmbr command from the "command prompt" to fix/replace the Master Boot

Record(MBR) in "Windows Vista" or "Windows 7". This command can restore the "Windows Boot Manager" after the Linux partitions are removed and the "Grub" or "Grub 2" boot manager of Linux is no longer functional. Additional command line repairs for the "Windows Boot Manager" are: bootrec /scanOS bootrec /fixboot bootrec /rebuildbcd and chkdsk See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392 and http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/92149-re-install-windows-7-boot-manager.html for details. Unfortunately, none of these procedures succeeded.

DATA RECOVERY WITH "PARTED MAGIC" LINUX LIVECD

In order to recover all data files/folders from the 500 Gigabyte hard drive, Francis used a "Parted Magic" Linux LiveCD to boot up the computer to copy all data files/folders to an external USB hard drive that was provided by the owner of the computer. Our detailed procedure for using Linux to recover data files/folders (when "Windows.." will not boot) is described at http://aztcs.org/meeting_notes/winhardsig/harddrives/repairing/050-HDdatarecovery.pdf

"RESTORE TO DISSIMILAR HARDWARE" WITH THE "ACRONIS 2012 PLUS PACK" RESCUE MEDIA CD Francis used an "image file set" and the bootable "Acronis True Image 2012 Plus Pack" "Rescue Media" CD to perform a (second) "restore to dissimilar hardware".

STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE FOR USING THE "ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE HOME 2012 PLUS PACK" "RESCUE MEDIA" CD TO MOVE A "WINDOWS.." PARTITION FROM ONE HARD DRIVE TO A DISSIMILAR ONE NOTE: ACRONIS' "RESTORE TO DISSIMILAR HARDWARE" PROCEDURE HAS TWO "IMPOSSIBLE" SCREENS: Insert the "Rescue Media" CD of the "Acronis True Image Home 2012 Plus Pack" add-on. Power up/boot up the computer.

A selection menu will be displayed:

*

Use the mouse or keyboard to select "Acronis True Image Home":

*

The Acronis "Standalone Mode" software that you run from a "Rescue Media" CD is actually their proprietary distro of "GNU/Linux".

*

Click on "Recover":

*

Click on "Browse for backup":

*

Use the "Browse for Location" dialog box to locate the backup "image set" that was created by the "Acronis True Image 2012" with "Acronis True Image 2012 Plus Pack" at a previous point in time:

*

*

*

Click on any *.tib file in the backup "image set" to highlight it:

* Click on the "OK" button.

HERE IS THE FIRST "IMPOSSIBLE SCREEN": This screen is a "sticking point" for many users of "Acronis True Image Home..":

*

At this point you have to use the RIGHT mouse button to click on the "backup image" file set that you wish to use for doing the restore to a hard drive or hard drive partition:

* Then click on "Recover" in the pop-up context menu.

A "Choose recovery method" box will be displayed:

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Place a checkmark to the left of "Use Acronis Universal Restore":

*

HERE IS THE SECOND "IMPOSSIBLE SCREEN": At this point, the Acronis "Recovery Wizard" applet assumes that you have placed the hardware drivers for the larger hard drive somewhere on an external USB hard drive. We were unable to locate drivers for the new Western Digital WD5000AAKB hard drive, despite multiple searches on Google. Apparently no one is providing tech support for this old IDE hard drive (except for the "Windows 8/Hardware SIG of the Tucson Computer Society!)

*

If you actually have drivers for the new hard drive, use the "Search for Drivers" box to locate it. When you locate it, click on the location of the drivers for the new hard drive:

*

For Acronis Tech Support's take on what you do with this dialog box, see http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29267:

*

Hi all and sorry for my english

I have a problem tryng to restore a image of a XP Professinal in

computer A (Dell) to computer B (Dell Optilex 990,XP

Professional).This is the first time I use Universal Restore.

The problem is as follows ,What drivers I need ? if you see in

DELL's web page there are just 4 drivers for mi PC (DELL

Service Tag Nº CS4B85J) and I understand I need the ATA one

and maybe the Network one of couse unziped and located in a

accesible folder of a pen drive USB.

Doing it like that in the recovering process an error apears " can't

find PCI device driver xxxxxxxx" I can give you more details if

needed ,and of course if I chosse ingnore the PC doesn't restart.

Any idea ? Do the unziped content of the 2 drivers must be in a

unique folder ?

Before to use DELL's web page drivers I've tried with a Genius

Driver list backed up from the computer B and the result is the

same ,there are always some drivers unable to fin in the pen

drive .

Thank you in advance !

Luis

*

Hello Luismarcelo!

Welcome to our Forum, it's nice to have you with us. And thank

you for using Acronis products!

Generally you need drivers for the mass storage devices

(motherboard or chipset drivers). You can obtain it by contacting

Dell support. If you have a specific hard drive controller such as

SAS, RAID or SCSI, you also need to download drivers for

them. These drivers are critical for booting the operating

system. You can download the drivers on the Vendor's web-site.

Please note, if you downloaded the drivers in *.exe, *.cab, *.zip

format, you should extract them first. The driver files should have

the *.inf, *.sys or *.oem extensions. All the other drivers

should be added later manually in Windows, as adding them to

Universal Restore might confuse the process.

I would advise you to follow these detailed instructions with the

screenshots, you might find them useful.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions, we will

be glad to help.

Thank you!

Click on the "OK" button.

*

Click on the "Next" button of the "Drivers manager" box:

*

A "Select the items to recover" box will be displayed:

*

Place checkmarks to the left of all items that you wish to recover to the new hard drive:

* Then click on the "Next" button.

Select the drive that you wish to recover to:

*

Note that you select the target location by highlighting it:

*

Click on the "OK" button of the "Confirmation" box:

*

Click on the "Proceed" button:

*

An "Operation Progress" box will be displayed:

*

*

When a "Recover operation succeeded" box is displayed, eject the "Acronis True Image 2012" rescue media CD. Then, power down the computer. Finally, you MIGHT be able to boot up the computer into "Windows.."

ACRONIS' "RESTORE TO DISSIMILAR HARDWARE" RESULTED IN A CRIPPLED COPY OF "WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE" After performing the "Restore to Dissimilar Hardware" procedure, Francis noticed that "Windows 7.." was running extremely slowly. Also, all "Windows Updates" failed to complete. Francis attempted to performed the speedup procedure at http://aztcs.org/meeting_notes/winhardsig/speedupWindows/win7speedup.pdf However, this extensive procedure failed to speed up the computer.

"REPAIR INSTALL" PROCEDURE TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEMS CAUSED BY THE ACRONIS "RESTORE TO DISSIMILAR HARDWARE" Francis used a "Windows 7 Ultimate" installation media DVD to perform a "Repair Install". After this final maintenance procedure, the "Windows 7.." computer was finally fully operational. A "Repair Install" installs "Windows.." on top of "Windows.." without affected data files/folders or third-party application programs that are already installed into a "Windows.." computer. For step-by-step instructions on performing a "Repair Install" for a "Windows 7.." computer, see http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/win7s-no-reformat-nondestructive-reinstall/ and http://captaindbg.com/repairinstall/ and http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

AN "ACTIVATION KEY"/"PRODUCT KEY" WAS NOT REQUIRED DURING THIS "REPAIR INSTALL" An "Activation Key"/"Product Key" was not needed during the "Repair Install". Apparently, the "Windows Activation Technologies" God was not disturbed enough by the mere change of one item of hardware--the hard drive (from a 200 Gigabyte "Western Digital" IDE hard drive) to a 500 Gigabyte "Western Digital" IDE hard drive.

DEVIL'S ADVOCATE VIEWPOINT:

The "Acronis True Image 2012 Home Plus Pack" add-on to "Acronis True Image Home 2012" . All you need is Windows 7's "Backup and Restore" and "Disk Management" in the "Control Panel" according to http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/replace-your-hard-drive-using-free-windows-7-tools: Saturday, November 06, 2010

Replace Your Hard Drive Using Free Windows 7 Tools

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Many readers are likely familiar with the fact that Windows 7 comes with a fairly comprehensive backup solution that

includes, among other things, the ability to create a so-called system image of your entire PC. This system image is,

more precisely, an exact duplicate of the hard drive(s) in your PC, in VHD (virtual hard disk) format, and it provides

you with the ability to fully restore your PC to a previous, known-good state.

Pedantic sidebar: By default, the system image capability in Windows 7 only backs up "the drives required for

Windows to run." The exact nature of these "drives" varies from system to system, and understanding how it works is

even more confusing because of the way Windows 7 automatically partitions a hard drive. On a single disk system

(most PCs and virtually all laptops), this will be the first (and only) fixed disk (i.e. "hard drive"), which is segregated

into a hidden reserved partition and what we think of as the C: "drive" (which is in fact a partition, not a drive, but

whatever). In the olden days, the C: drive would typically include the functionality of both the "startup disk" (the

disk/partition that contains the files required for booting the PC) and the "system disk" (the disk/partition that contains

the WINDOWS directory). And in Windows 7, that's pretty much how it works, though it's still possible for the startup

and system disks to be different disks or partitions.

What this means to Windows Backup is that the system image capability will typically backup the C: drive only. But if

you have partitioned the disk differently, or are dual-booting among two or more OSes, it's possible that it could

include two or more partitions (or drives). If your configuration is more complicated than that, you can also use

Windows Backup to manually create system images for the other disks and partitions in your PC.

The system image capability in Windows Backup is good at what it does. But it has other uses beyond the obvious.

And one of those uses is an increasingly common scenario: You've got a PC with whatever hard drive in it, and it's

running out of space. If you have a desktop PC, you might be able to simply add a new hard drive. But if you have a

laptop, you almost certainly can't. In either case, however, there are advantages to not adding a hard drive but instead

replacing the existing hard drive with one that offers more capacity and, perhaps, better performance.

The trick, of course, is doing so without losing anything: Your data, your installed applications, your settings, and so

on.

I used Windows Backup for just this purpose recently. I've been using the same ThinkPad SL410 laptop for about a

year now, and while it has the best keyboard I've ever used, the stock 320 GB hard drive isn't particularly voluminous

and I was wondering whether I could get better performance out of a more modern hard drive. So I purchased a Seagate

Momentus XT "hybrid" hard drive, which combines a small amount (4 GB) of solid-state storage with 32 MB of cache

and a 7200 RPM hard disk to create a package that offers much of the performance of a true SSD drive for a fraction of

the cost. Indeed, the 500 GB version I purchased cost just $109 on Amazon when I purchased it (though I notice its

$129 today for some reason).

Here's how to make the swap.

For purposes of this exercise, I'm going to assume you're doing this with a single disk system like the laptop I used.

You will need a USB hard disk or other supported backup media (which includes recordable DVD discs and, with

Windows 7 Professional and higher, a network share) and a blank, writeable CD (or DVD).

First, manually create a system image of your PC's hard drive. You do this via the Backup and Restore control panel,

which is the front-end UI for Windows Backup in Windows 7. There are about a hundred ways to reach this window,

but the simplest, perhaps, is to open the Start Menu, type backup in Start Menu Search and tap Enter. You should see

something like the following shot.

Click the linked titled "Create a system image" in the task pane to start the wizard. It will search for an acceptable

backup device, and, if found, present it in the "Where do you want to save the backup?" phase of the wizard.

Otherwise, you can manually point the wizard at an acceptable backup point.

Click Next and the wizard will show you where it's backing up to and what it's backing up. On a single disk system like

the typical laptop, this will again be hidden, reserved partition (System Reserved) and the C: drive (System).

Click Start Backup to create the system image. This will take some number of hours, depending on the used disk space,

your PC's overall performance, and the performance characteristics of the backup media. I backed up to a USB hard

drive and it took several hours.

When the system image is done, the wizard will prompt you to make a System Repair disc. I recommend doing so,

though you can launch this process separately from the main Backup and Restore interface later if you'd like.

A system repair disk is a bootable Windows 7 CD (or DVD) that provides two capabilities: It can present the various

Windows 7 recovery options or use a system image backup to restore your PC to a previous state. You'll be using the

latter functionality.

Once the system repair disc is done, eject the disk and shutdown the PC.

Now, unplug everything (cables, power supply, laptop battery, whatever) from the PC and remove the current hard

drive. How you do this will of course vary from PC to PC, but on the ThinkPad it involved removing a panel on the

bottom of the machine, sliding out the hard drive in its protective cage, removing the cage from the old hard drive, and

then attaching it to the new hard drive. Then, insert the new hard drive, put everything back together, and reboot the

computer, re-inserting the system repair disc so that the PC boots from that. (If the hard drive you've installed is truly

new, the PC won't boot otherwise, anyway.)

When the system repair disc boots up, you'll be presented with a screen in which you choose between the recovery

tools--which can be used to solve problems with your current Windows OS--or to "restore your computer using a

system image you created earlier. Obviously, you want the latter option.

The Re-image your computer wizard will attempt to find a suitable system image file located on a device attached to

the PC. If it can find one, it will present that as an option automatically. Otherwise, you may need to manually select

the correct system image.

After that, you're given the opportunity to exclude certain disks, which applies to the target PC and not the imaged

disks you're restoring. This can be useful in certain conditions, but for the single disk restore we're doing here it's not

worth worrying about.

Then, you can click Finish to start the restore process.

Oddly, the restore process takes considerably less time than the backup. In my case, I believe it completed in under an

hour. When the process is complete, the PC will reboot into the exact same Windows install--complete with all your

custom settings, data files, applications, and whatnot--as before.

There is one final task, assuming the new disk is larger than the old: Windows Backup will restore the contents of the

old C: drive to a new C: drive that is the same size as the old one. So you'll need to use Windows 7's disk partitioning

tools to expand this partition to use all the extra space. Curiously, this tool is pretty well hidden, but you can find it by

typing partition in Start Menu Search. You will see a control panel calledCreate and format hard disk partitions appear

in the search results. Click that and the Disk Management tool appears.

Looking at Disk 0, you'll see some empty space after the C: partition. To use this space, right-click the C: partition (and

not the empty space) and choose Extend Volume. Then, in the window that appears, tap Enter as needed to add all that

empty space to the C: partition. When you're done, the C: partition will have been resized to be larger.

A few notes

One of the nice things about this process is that it's non-destructive. If something goes wrong, you can always get your

old system back by putting the old hard drive back in the PC. In fact, you might consider saving that disk as-is as an in-

time backup of sorts.

One of the other nice things about this process is that replacing a hard drive is not typically enough to trigger Windows

Product Activation. So you won't need to worry about re-activating and, potentially failing an electronic activation

attempt that would force you to call Microsoft, hat in hand, and ask for their eternal forgiveness. (OK, it's not that bad.)

Finally, this process also obviates the need to fully account for all of the provisioned applications and services on your

PC. I'm talking about things like iTunes Store, Audible, and Zune Pass, which have only a certain number of associated

PCs; this process will not waste a PC "slot" with these services. But it's also true of activation-protected software, like

Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat. You won't have any issues with these or similar software titles.

OTHER COMPUTER EXPERTS AGREE THAT WINDOWS 7'S "BACKUP AND RESTORE" AND "DISK MANAGEMENT" IS ALL YOU NEED

See

http://www.pagestart.com/win7bckuprstrnhd072610.html and http://apcmag.com/how-to-transfer-your-os-to-your-new-ssd-drive.htm and http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/12/ssd-migration-made-easy-in-windows-7/ and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249694 and http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/little-known-error-for-windows-7-backup-and-restore and http://www.ssdfreaks.com/content/664/how-to-clone-hdd-to-ssd-with-windows-7s-own-software and http://www.overclock.net/t/887271/guide-move-your-old-windows-onto-your-new-ssd

USING WINDOWS VISTA'S "BACKUP AND RESTORE" AND "DISK MANAGEMENT" TO MOVE TO A DISSIMLAR HARD DRIVE See http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html