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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

78 answers

Sort by: Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2011-03-07T02:40:06+00:00

    During the recovery process, more specifically the "Recovery Wizard" window(s), in the 'Required Steps' list (Blue background with white text) you will see the step immediately after the 'What to recover' step is a step named "Settings of Partition 1-1" (left side of the recovery wizard window), on the right side (White background/Blue text "Specify recovery ... ) titled "Specify recovery settings of Partition 1-1 (Partition 1-1 is the System,Reserved partition) you will see the following options (Partition location, Partition Type and Partition size).

    The second option (Partition type) should read "Pirmary, Mark the partition as active", if it does then no action is required on your part, that is to say there is no need to select the 'Change default' option. Therefore the System,Reserved partition is already set to be marked as the 'Active' partition during the restore process. So all you need to do at this point in the 'Recovery Wizard' is click the 'Next' button and check that the 'Settings of Partition C' are correct.

    Note: At the begining of recovery process the recovery wizard required steps are: 'Archive Selection' (where the Image Backup is located), 'Recovery method' (set to Recover whole disks and partitions), and 'What to recover' (place check marks in the NTFS (C:) and NTFS (System Reserved)

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

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2011-03-07T09:02:25+00:00

    OK, I was running it from the Acronis on the C drive rather than from the CD version which was why I didn't see the wizard.  Have now run it from bootable CD.  System Reserved bit is marked as primary active (it's calling it partition C) and is being restored to the System Reserved part of my Internal HD drive (which I call E,it calls disk 3).  The next part (which it calls partition D) imarked as primary but not active  and is being recovered to the Unallocated part of my internal drive.  The third part, (the image of the data which was on my internal drive, and is now shoved further along in my internal drive) is not selected for restoration.  I check the summary and click proceed.  After a minute I get the Recover Operation Failed popup.  Tried this twice.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2011-03-07T13:57:10+00:00

    (I replied some hours ago but the post has vanished)  I was using Acronis on the C drive rather than the recovery CD.  When I used the recovery CD the wizard ran and I could see what you meant.  The system reserved bit was marked as active.  Same result (failed) when I tried the recovery.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2011-03-08T02:33:03+00:00

    The Answers site is not functioning properly so I had no idea you even posted a reply, had to manually lookup your original post to see what your latest results are.

    It looks like for whatever reason Acronis is not a solution, although I duplicated your configuration (which the exception the in lue of an SSD drive a used a standard hard drive). In my case the results where good, repeated it twice just to be sure.

    I can try tomorrow to see if the Windows 7 image backup you made and using Windows 7's Backup and restore will work. Concept is nearly the same except for one very important thing I need to verify.

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

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2011-03-08T11:15:28+00:00

    Yes, it's very odd.  All day yesterday I couldn't even see my own last post without logging on again, even though I can see my penultimate post no problem.

    Thanks I'll wait to hear from you.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments