System image restore failed

Because this whole proceedure is somewhat risky I would like to duplicate it on one of my computers at home. Here is what I will do.

1. Install Windows 7 on a hard drive (with a partition size larger than the 74GB drive I will use to simulate your SSD drive).
2. Install a second hard drive (single partition) for data storage to simulate your E: drive.
3. Create a backup using Windows 7's Backup and Restore.
4. Convert the backup for use by Acronis True Image.
5. Shrink the front of the E: drive partition and create a new partition large enought to restore the image to.
6. Attempt to use the Acronis 'Recovery Disk' to restore the image to the new partition on the drive.
7. See If I can boot to what was once your E: drive, which will now have 2 partitions (Windows and your data partition).
8. Shrink the Windows partition on the E: drive to a size that is slightly less than the 74GB partition.
9. Create a new Image Backup using Acronis.
10. Restore the new image to the 74GB hard drive.

What I'd like you to do is call the SSD drive manufacture and verify 2 things.

a) What is the best way to restore an image to the SSD drive (which already has Windows 7 installed on it.

b) Verify the Acronis True Image 2011 (not 2010) will restore an image backup to the model number of the SSD drive that you have.

One final question: Do you have the time to wait for my test results?

J W Stuart: http://www.pagestart.com

There's lots here I don't understand:

1. Would my other data on my E drive be safe?
2. As far as I know my e-drive has not been divided into more than one partition.
3. I do have an external USB drive, F.  That's the one where the disk images from the original backups are.  These disk images show virtual disks with "capacity" of the old SSD disk, but only 60 or 70gb "used".  Are these what we'd be trying to shrink?

To use the E: drive as a bootable drive what you would need to do is "Shrink" the beginning/front of the first (if you have more than 1 partition) on the E: drive. You would need a third party tool like Partition Wizard to do this.

This would create "Unallocated" space at least as large as or slightly larger than the partition size of your current Image Backup can restore to.

Then you would restore Windows to this hard drive (carefully selecting the "unallocated" space a the destination and the SSD drive disconnected) then booting from the hard drive strip/delete any unecessary junk and temporary files.

Then you would shrink this partition (this time shrink the tail end of the partition) to a size that would clearly fit on the SSD drive (say 80GB).

Next create an Image Backup (using Acronis) and store it the E: partition of the same hard drive (Not the best method as an external USB drive would be a far better choice).

Next use partition Wizard (bootable CD) to delete the Windows partition on the hard drive. Power down, connect the SSD drive and restore the newly creted partitions using Acronis (Hidden System,Reserved and Windows partition) to the SSD drive.

Then boot from the SSD drive.

There is some cleanup work but if you just read all of this and still want to try let me know.

JS

http://www.pagestart.com

I read the link about flashing as far as "Firmware Update This feature only works when the drive is connected as a spare (not running Windows/OS from the drive itself)Updating your firmware with the Toolbox is not supported under Windows XP " in the pdf.  The "ABC guide" was mostly well beyond my understanding, full of acronymns and terms which are meaningless to me.  I got as far as this bit, which seems that it might be relevant:  21. Windows 7 Be aware that Win 7 likes to install onto 'raw' unformatted space. Default, it will create a 100MiB hidden System partition with Boot/Recovery files. If the drive is pre-formatted, Win 7 just ignores the above. It installs the Boot/Recovery files directly onto the C:\ partition in a hidden Folder. If you have other drives attached at the same time.. Win 7 can install the hidden partition there.. so beware!! Windows 7 is optimised for your OCZ SSD. Run Windows Experience Index (WEI) straight after Chipset/VGA Drivers. This is to disable De-Fragmentation and 'synch' Windows Accelerators. I have my E drive, which is a traditional drive, and where I keep my data.  It's currently disconnected (as per your advice several posts back.)  There's plenty of space on it though. Sorry if this has gone to large font after the paste, I can't see how to switch it back.

Flashing: http://www.ocztechnology.com/ssd_tools/OCZ_Vertex_2,_Vertex_LE,_Agility_2/

ABC Guide: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/content.php?306-SSD-ABC-Guide

Do you have access to another traditional hard drive that the backup can be restored to? Object would be to restore to this drive, do a disk cleanup, remove any unecessary data files, shink the partition down less tha 90GB, create a new Image Backup using Acronis and then restore the backup to the SSD drive.

Note: Please be patient as the new Microsoft Answers site only provides generic email notifications when you post a reply. Therefore it is imposible to tell anything about about a reply as I must open each reply to find any details.

Example:

New forum Email Subject line = There is a reply to a thread you are following

Old forum Email Subject Line = System image restore failed

As you can see the new forum leaves me guessing as to what email replys to open (and I get a lot), the older method which is what we all used up untill last week had meaningfull replays. Also the current forun is extreemly slow, so much so I wait and wait and then IE will time out. Hopefully this will be corrected shortly.

Thank you.

JS

http://www.pagestart.com