System image restore failed

Anonymous
2011-02-22T18:58:50+00:00

Hi, I have a system with a C:drive (a SSD drive that Windows runs on) a E drive (ordinary hard drive) an external drive used for backups and a CD/DVD drive.  The C drive died.  My computer supplier (it's less than a year old) told me to extract the drive, I sent it to them, and after a long wait received a replacement.  That's now installed and running.  I have Windows on it anc can access the files on my other drive.  But I cannot get the system image from my external backup to copy back across.  I keep getting "The system image restore failed.  Error details: The disk that is set as active in Bios is too small to recover the original system disk.  Replace the disk with a larger one and retry the restore operation (Ox80042407).  But the replacement disk is the same as my original which died.  It also wants to reformat my E drive, which is rather worrying, as there was no problem with that.  This is after having followed its previous instruction to boot from the Windows Install disk.  Desperate for help.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Recovery and backup

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-03-11T10:57:30+00:00

    Ah, no, I had not unchecked those three boxes.  There are files in there, nothing obvious to suggest any are corrupt.  I've also now sorted the windows validation thing and Easy BCD fixed the boot manager.  Thanks.  I'm going to start manually reinstalling everything this evening.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-03-10T19:23:06+00:00

    Are you certain you set Windows Explorer to show hidden files and folders and remove the check marks from the 3 boxes just below this option after attaching the System, Reserved partition?

    If this partition is truely empty that could be the cause of the failures and there is a way to fix it.

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

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-03-10T18:44:27+00:00
    1. Thats correct, just slide it back with Partition Wizard.
    2. Install EasyBCD, this should show if you have two installations on a single partition or two partitions with each having its own install of Windows. You can also use it to remove the defective entry (change one of the two boot menu entries so you can clearly tell the good from the bad)

    EasyBCD:

    http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

    1. Remove the drive letter from the System, Reserved partition (it normally is not assigned a drive letter). Then change the drive letter of the USB drive if it doesn't already use the correct letter when you first attach it.

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

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-03-10T18:20:08+00:00

    Actually I seemed to have resolved issues 1 and 3 now (via partition manager and disk management respectively). Would like your thoughts on issue 2.

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  5. Anonymous
    2011-03-10T17:32:11+00:00

    Hi they look to be in order, though the system reserved one is empty.  In any case I now need to give up on this I think.  My hard disk failed 6th Feb, and it's now taken over a week trying and failing to do the system image recovery.  I need to start rebuilding my programs and settings manually, and will have to accept what I may loose (like my mailbase).

    Thank you so very much for all the efforts you've made on my behalf.  Will you stay with me to help with the clearing up?  The following issues have occurred as a result of the things we've tried:

    1. There's a load of unallocated space at the start of the E drive (I think I just slide that back with partition manager)
    2. At boot up there I have to choose from 2 versions of Windows 7.  The first goes to a copy which claims it is "not genuine" (it is).  The second goes to "Windows failed to start... insert your installation disk... repair my computer"  I can probably find out on-line how to fix the "not genuine" issue, but I don't know how to remove the failing version cleanly.
    3. My F drive (the external one) is now labelled G.  Disk management is picking up the remaining System reserved partition as F.  (I've unmounted the 3 vhd virtual ones).  I'd like to have it back to F

    And then I'll start the restoration of programs and files.

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