System image restore failed

I only have the 3 vhd files listed previously (three distinctly different sizes).

At stage 6)R  I noticed the partition was marked primary but not active, unlike the system reserved partition which is primary and active.  Is that correct? Answer: Yes that is correct, only the System, Reserved should be marked 'Active'.

The partition size said free space before 0, free space after 28.66Gb. Answer: Don't change it, that can be fixed after Windows is installed.

At stage 6)S the 2nd volume label was blank, which I presume is correct. Answer: The volumn label will be blank if you never assigned that partition a name.

I clicked proceed 6)T and after a minute or so got the "Recover operation failed" popup. :-(   

This also happened when trying to convert from .VHD to .TIB in our earlier attempt. Do you have any other Windows 7 Backup and Restore image backups to work with, I beginning to think the backup is corrupt?

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

Hi,  I followed the instructions exactly.  At stage 4) there was indeed a little "system reserved" partition from our previous efforts (little unallocated space, little system reserved partiton, the rest of the unallocated space, the data partition).  I deleted it so that I just had 150gb unallocated and then the data.

At stage 6)R  I noticed the partition was marked primary but not active, unlike the system reserved partition which is primary and active.  Is that correct?  The partition size said free space before 0, free space after 28.66Gb.  I tried changing it to 0, but that just made it say that there was 28.66Gb _before_ and 0 after.  I put it back to the before setting, and proceeded.

At stage 6)S the 2nd volume label was blank, which I presume is correct.

I clicked proceed 6)T and after a minute or so got the "Recover operation failed" popup.

Stage 3 if I understand it correctly means to copy back to my external F drive, the file which I copied to my laptop via the wireless network - 18 hrs.  I feel very dumb now, because it surely would have been much quicker had I connected the external drive to the laptop.  I'll try that... That's now copying across via usb cable.  50 mins estimate.

Here is the latest set of instructions:

Windows 7 - SDD Recovery Procedure – Revised 03/08/11

Baseline:

1. Your existing install of Windows 7 on the SSD, I will reference this as your “SSD drive”
2. Your external USB drive and the Windows 7 Backup and Restore Image backup, I will refer to this as the “Master Image”.
3. Your internal (E:) hard drive, I will refer to this as the  “Internal Drive”

Software:

MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition:

http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

Acronis True Image 2011 Home (Free Trial): http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/index.html

My Defrag: http://www.mydefrag.com/

Brief Overview – Revised March 8, 2011:

You will no longer use Acronis to convert the .VHD files to Acronis .tib format, but you will still use the Acronis Rescue/Recovery disk.

You still will be required to disconnect the data cable from the “SDD drive”. Then restore Windows to your “Internal” drive and then shrink the front of the “Internal” drive.

You will accomplished this by using the Acronis Rescue/Recovery media you previously created to restore the Windows 7 “Backup and Restore image” (WindowsImageBackup) to the unallocated space on the “Internal drive”, Boot to the restored image now located on the “Internal Drive”. Shrink the Windows 7 partition on the “Internal Drive”. Install Acronis and create new Acronis Image Backup to the USB drive. Disconnect the data cable from the “Internal Drive”. Connect the data cable to the “SSD drive”. Restore the newly created Acronis Image to the “SSD drive”. Boot from the SSD drive and verify your apps and data are intact and function properly.

Here are the steps on what you actually will need to do – Revised March 8 2011:

1. Revised March 8.

Installing Acronis True Image on the “SSD drive” is no longer necessary if you still have the Rescue/Recovery disk you create earlier.

2. Installing Partition Wizard on the “SDD drive” is still required.
3. Revised March 8.

The folder you created on the USB drive and used to make/store an extra copy the “Master Image” folders and file. You need to “copy” (do not use “Cut and Paste) these folders and file back the root of the USB drive. This will overwrite the folders and file you used when converting from .vhd to Acronis .tib format. I want to insure that you start out with a known good Windows 7 backup as Acronis may have corrupted the .VHD files during the conversion process.  

Note: These are the WindowsImageBackup folder, a folder that has the same name as your ‘Computer Name’ and a file named MediaId.bin).

4. Revised March 8.

Step #4 in NO LONGER USED, Skip this step and go to step #5.

 (Use Acronis to convert the “Master Image” located in the root of the USB drive (do not use the extra copy in the folder you created) for use by the Acronis True Image recovery media. The conversion will create a file with a .tib extension.)

5. Revised March 8.

Using ‘Partition Wizard’, shrink the front of the (E:) “Internal Drive” drive partition to create 150GB of “Unallocated” space. This is more than large enough to restore the image to.

If you have already done this then verify the space is still shown as “Unallocated” as the earlier attempt even though it failed may have created the two partitions and if so must be deleted. The only remaining partition should be the one that contains what was once on your E: drive.

6. Revised March 8.

You will now use the Acronis 'Recovery Disk' to restore the Windows 7 Backup and Restore image (no conversion required) to the "Unallocated" (150GB) space on the “Internal Drive”.

Note: Please read each sub-step carefully as there are some important changes from what you did before.

A) Boot using the Acronis Rescue/Recovery disc.

B) Use the keyboard up arrow key to select the top option “Acronis True Image Home (Full version).

C) Connect the external USB drive.

D) After the main menu loads (this may take a few seconds), use the mouse and click on ‘Recover My Disks’.

E) From the ‘Select a backup from which to recover’ screen, click the ‘Browse’ button located in the lower right.

F) Select the USB drive listed in the left pane of the Windows Explorer display.

G) In the right hand pane, double click on the folder named ‘Windows Image Backup’.

H) Located at the bottom of the Explorer windows you should see 2 pull downs. The first named ‘File Name:’ and the second named ‘Files of type:’

Change the ‘Files of type’ entry From: ‘Backup Archives (*.tib) To:  ‘Windows Backup Archives (*.vhd).

I) Double click on the sub folder that has the same name as your ‘Computer Name’.

J) Double click on the folder named ‘Backup YYYY-MM-DD ….”

K) You should now se at least two .vhd files. One of the two will be the smallest in size (about 54KB), click on this small .vhd file to highlight it.

L) Click on the ‘OK’ button located in the lower right corner.

M) The next window will display the attributes and the full path of the file you select in step k.

N) Click ‘Next’.

O) The next window is labeled ‘Choose recovery method’. The ‘Recover whole disk and partitions’ option should already be selected. Click ‘Next’.

P) ‘What to recover’ window. Place/select the following: NTFS (System Reserved) and NTFS (your volume label name) – this is your Windows partition. DO NOT select the MBR and trace 0 option. Click ‘Next’.

Q) Specify recover settings of Partition C:

Partition Location: Change from ‘Not selected’ (use the ‘New location’ option) and select the “Unallocated” space on your “Internal drive”. Click ‘Accept’.

Partition type: Select ‘Change Default’ to mark the partition as both a ‘Primary’ and “Mark the partition as ‘Active’. Click ‘Accept’.

Partition size: Should be about 100MB so no changes are required (Note: there may be some small amount of ‘Free space before’, this can be ignored. Click the ‘Next’ button.

R) Specify recovery settings of Partition D: (This is your Windows partition, drive letter is unimportant)

Partition Location: change from ‘Not selected’ (use the ‘New location’ option) and select the “Unallocated” space on your “Internal drive”. Click ‘Accept’.

Partition type: Should already be listed as ‘Primary’ so no change is required.

Partition size: Should already be size correctly as the ‘Free space before’ and ‘Free space after’ should both be equal to 0 bytes.

Click the ‘Next’ button.

S) Summary screen: Should show 2 partitions, the first being the System Reserved and the second volume label the same as is was labeled for your Windows partition when you created the Windows 7 Image Backup.

T) Click the ‘Proceed’ button. The recovery process should start.

U) Click ‘OK’ when the recovery operation completes.

V) Remove the ‘Recovery’ Disk and Reboot to Windows.

These steps remain unchanged from my earlier post --------------

7. See if you can boot to what was once your E: drive, which will now have 3 partitions (System,Reserved, Windows and your original data partition). Note: The small 100MB System,Reserved partition must be marked as the 'Active' partition during the image restore. If it is not use Partition Wizard (Bootable CD) to mark it as the active partition.
8. Run ‘Disk Cleanup’. Install My Defrag and defragment the drive using the option to consolidate everything up at the front of the drive. This will not only make step 9 easier to perform but also minimize the footprint of the image backup you are going to create in step 10. Should also have less impact for TRIM on the SSD drive.
9. Shrink the Windows partition on the “Internal Drive” drive (Using ‘Disk Management’) to a size that is slightly less than the 80GB. This assumes that your previous installation which you used for the creation of the “Master Image” did not consume more than 80GB. In any case try to get it (Shrink it) down to less 100GB.
10. Install Acronis and create a new Image Backup using Acronis to the USB drive.

Note: Only include the System,Reserved and Windows (C:) partition in the backup. Do not include the data partition of what was once your E: drive.

11. Disconnect the data cable from the “Internal Drive” and connect the data cable to the “SSD Drive”.
12. Boot from the Acronis 'Recovery/Rescue' CD and restore the newly created “Acronis” image from the USB drive to the “SSD Drive”. This is where the leap of faith kicks in. With Windows already on the “SSD Drive” you need to (Using Acronis) first delete the existing “System,Reserved” and the “Windows” partitions from the “SDD” drive so the entire 120GB is listed as “Unallocated”. Then you start the image recovery process and let Acronis resize the image to fully utilize all 120GigaBytes on the “SSD drive”.
13. Remove the Acronis CD and reboot to Windows.
14. Next you should use Windows 7’s  'Disk Management' to verify that there is no unallocated space. If there is, then 'Extend' the SSD drive C: partition to include any unallocated space that may be remaining at the end of the SSD drive.
15. Your done.