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
    2011-02-24T18:30:07+00:00

    141GB 15 files, 3 folders.  Note that when I ran windows backup and when I ran Acronis, I was given a choice of three backups, but it's not possible to see which is which from the file list in side these folders. I don't know what's stored in the "D" partition, I never knew that I had one till now.  D is usually my CD/DVD drive.  Given the sizes of the data, I'd have thougth that the D partition must be Windows and a fer other things I kept on my C SSD drive (some games, and my e-mail program, so they could run fast).  The C: partition is too small for much isn't it?

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-02-24T17:41:38+00:00

    The Windows 7 Backup and Restore image folder (WindowsImageBackup), right click and select 'Open', then get the total space of the folders and files listed and post back?

    "splits into Partition called C: D:" - whats stored in the D: partition?

    JS

    http://www.pagestart.com

    Never be afraid to ask. This forum has some of the best people in the world available to help.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-02-24T15:15:06+00:00

    Looking at it carefully, it seems to be showing 119GB as the size of the _image_ of C:, which is a 120GB drive.  The actual size of the data is four fifths (from memory) of that 119GB.  It's showing the new C as having 109GB capacity.  It has a column for "used space" on the image, which it splits into Partition called C: D: and "MBR and Track zero"  the used space for these is 65MB 98GB and blank respectively.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-02-24T14:48:00+00:00

    It would seem that your SSD drive always appears to be too small to restore an Image. The Windows.old folder can be quite large and in addtion Windows Backup and Restore's image may include your hibernation file is not necessary.

    If it were my computer I'd temporarly connect a traditional hard drive and restore the Image to that drive. Then do some house keeping (Disk Cleanup, temporarily disabling Hibernation, purging or at least moving the Windows.old folder "it may contain some usefull data that you want to keep").

    Then create a slimmer image backup and restore it to the ssd drive.

    Please be patient on reponces, the server has stopped sending me alerts and Microsoft has some scheduled changes set for this weekend, they must be starting early.

    JS

    http://www.pagestart.com

    Never be afraid to ask. This forum has some of the best people in the world available to help.

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  5. Anonymous
    2011-02-24T14:12:15+00:00

    OK.  I managed to get rid of the blinking cursor by reinstalling windows.  I downloaded Acronis True Image.  Having made another copy, I used it to convert a windows backup image into an acronis one (it took several hours).  I then tried to backup from that.  It asked for a reeboot and then went to an errot screen: "Windows Boot Manager:  Windows failed to start.  A recent hardware or software change might be the cause, insert Windows installation disk, click Repair your computer."  I inserted the new Acronis recovery disk, which lets me run Acronis from the DVD drive.  Its recovery options see 3 Windows backups, but not the one which I converted into an Acronis file.  Trying to use it from the Windows backups won't work - it seems to be telling me that my backup of C: is 119GB including a partition that it's calling D and it was not that full, but my capacity on the new disk is 107.1GB.  Should I try to reformat C to get rid of Windows and "Windows Old"?  If so, please tell me how.

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