System image restore failed

Acronis works from the bootable CD (with my system time set to November 2011) but does not have the convert a Windows image backup to acronis image option. :-(

ARRGH!  Managed to transfer the copy to my laptop 16hrs.  Then tried to run Acronis True image to do the conversion.  It says trial period has expired.  (See previous post where I'd noticed the date was wrong and fixed it to get the woreless network set up)  Uninstalled, downloaded and reinstalled Acronis Ture Image.  Still says it has expired.  I've spent the last couple of hours talking to Acronis on their live help system.  Took most of that time to get them to understand the issue.  They admit that the expiry date of the trial should be 26th March (from their download records) but won't help me, because I downloaded a second copy.  I've tried running their cleanup utility, which is supposed to remove all traces of Acronis, then reinstalling - did not work.  I've tried resetting the date to November 2011 and rebooting (Windows installing 26 updates).  Going crazy here.  Just had one more idea:  will try from the bootable Acronis CD.

Hi, to update you:  I deleted two old backups and made the copy of the Windows Image folder.  That took 4 hours.  Then I tried the conversion.  After a couple of hours it failed - it looks like it needs the same amount of space again to make the converted file (It sees the 3 files mentioned previously, so I sleected the middle one.  Then it looks like it might be converting all three anyway) 141gb needed for the copy.  So to make room for another attempt (and as you say not to move files to E yet) I set up the homegroup network, and am moving the copy across to this laptop (where there is _just_ enough space free).  It says it will take 18 hours, 16 remaining (those estimates I know are often way off).  It took a couple of hours to make the failed Acronis attempt and get the homegroup network up - that was failing, I eventually discovered because the date on C: was 2nd Nov 2011.  I've no idea how that happened.  So I'll get back you in 16+ hours (I expect both machines will try to hibernate...)

0. The list of two choices of Windows to boot from is stored in that small 100MB System,Reserved partition. Step #12 is were you will delete this partition along with the Windows 7 partition on the SSD drive, so as long as you can boot to Windows don't worry about it. Also I would take a look at that OCZ "Erase" utility. It might be a good idea to after step #11 and before starting step #12 (this assumes that this utility is on a bootable CD).
1. and 2) ... Sorry but both need to be reinstalled.
2. "could see three backups in the folder which has my computer name". Windows Backup and Restore creates two types of backups for data the is located in your 'Documents' folder and libraries. This first backup of your 'Documents' folder is part of the "Image" file and the second is that folder that is named "YourComputerName" which contains a series of compressed .zip files. We are only interested in the Image Backup folder (WindowsImageBackup).

3a) "53,000Kb 91648,000Kb and 57018,000Kb respectively".

The 53,000KB .vhd file is the backup of the "System,Reserved" partition.

The 91648,000KB .vhd file more than likely is your Windows 7 partition as its 91.6GB in size. Finally the 57018,000KB file may be the result of an incremental or scheduled backup a contains any changes made. If you right click to the right of the 'Size' column in Windows Explorer and select 'Date Created' you should now see when this .vhd file was created and more than likely after (by hours or days after) the 91.6GB file was created.

3b) "MediaId" - there are normally two so everything is OK.

The space issue on the USB drive. I don't knowwhat that old backup software was but if these are large file I would delete (starting from the oldest creation date) at least some of these old backup to make room for the Acronis Image Backups.

If the E: drive is not too full you could also move some of the old files over from the USB drive to the E: drive, but not untill after you shrink the front of the drive (step 5).

OK, I get as far as step 3.  Best I think to stop here and ask you rather than start deleting data.  Numbers match your steps above:

0. As a result of our earlier attempts when I boot up I get Windows Boot manager asking me which version of Windows I want to run Windows 7... or Windows 7.  I choose the first one.

1 and 2) I install both to the SSD but wonder if you have remembered that you asked me to install both before, to make bootable CDs from them.  Both were erased I think when I had to reinstall windows twice, but I still have the bootable CDs.

3. I attempt to make the copy but find I need 141Gb of space, but there's only 80Gb remaining on my 465Gb(500Gb) external drive.  What's on there is mostly old backups from old backup software, and manual backups of things like photos.  I delete some stuff that's safe to delete, like an audio book recording, but don't manage to free up much.  Note that when I previously ran the Windows recovery, it could see three backups in the folder which has my computer name.  I also now notice that there's an "empty folder" which has my computer name capitalised and an icon of a harddisk+floppydisk+greenarrow.  When I click it I get "Windows Backup, Do you want to restore files from this backup?"  This is separate and outside of the Windows Image Backup folder.  This has got three folders in it called backup sets.  The Windows Image Backup folder has a folder inside with my computer name.  Inside that there is a folder called backup with lots of data files with very long names headed by three .vhd files.  I'm surprised to see that those three have very different lengths 53,000Kb 91648,000Kb and 57018,000Kb respectively.  Finally I note that alongside this folder I have a file called MediaId which seems to have no file extension (I have "hide extensions for known file types" switched off".  Its date modified is Aug 2010.  A file called MediaId.bin sits in the top level om my external drive also with a date modified of Aug 2010. Confused.