Hi,

I have used NTBackup to clone a hard drive, as a mean to check if my backups are complete. At first the backups were not complete, and when trying to boot missing files like ntoskrnl.exe were reported at boot. I tried to backup only ntoskrnl.exe individually but it wasn't included, and my backup had zero files. But then, I found some articles and used vssadmin list to list shadow copys while DriveImage XML was working in the background and I used dosdev.exe to map the shadow to the drive letter K:. Then I backed up everything on K:, and restored it to a new disk.

My original partition was the first, and I restored the backup to a second partition of a clean disk. The boot was OK, but got stuck at the welcome screen which looks about like the "windows is shutting down" screen just without that text.

I couldn't solve it, and tried different things: fixboot c:, fixboot d:, fixmbr, deleting the MountedDevices on the HKLM/SYSTEM registry. But nothing was working.

I finally wanted to see what will happen if it will be on the first partition, I took an other new HD, and restored there to the first and only partition,  I did all the fix* and deletion of MountedDevices,
and it has successfully booted fine, and operated as a clone.

I like this idea because I will be able to do incremental backups of the whole system.

My problem is that I am not sure what is stopping windows from booting when it is on the second partition, and if this problem may prevent me eventually from successfully recover from a disaster. I suspect however, that this is a general problem with cloning windows, and not a specific problem of ntbackup,

Does anyone know how to solve this issue with cloning a 'native first partition' to a 'second partition'?


Also, my next steps will be to see if I can create the shadow without DriveImage XML, so I could schedule a task to do ntbackup regularly. I think vshadow.exe is the way to go, I wonder if it works on xp, and w2k3.

By the way, does anyone knows if there is a technical reason for which microsoft excluded these file (like ntoskrnl.exe) from the backup of ntbackup?

Reference:

How to map a drive letter to a shadow copy:

"Now, while NTBackup is still running you can assign drive letters to these shadow copies using DOSDEV.EXE. Let's take for example the first shadow copy:

E:\>dosdev v: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy4
Current definition: v: = \??\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy4"
(http://blogs.msdn.com/adioltean/archive/2006/09/18/761515.aspx)

the jhonyl,

I'll avoid discussing NTBackup as I've never used it.

Is this correct? You imaged an OS which was on the first partition. You restored the image to the second partition and the OS doesn't boot past the Welcome Screen.

PS.. I have used DriveImage XML and I understand why it is free.

Brian wrote on Jun 27^th, 2008 at 1:44am:

Is this correct? You imaged an OS which was on the first partition. You restored the image to the second partition and the OS doesn't boot past the Welcome Screen.

That is correct, plus "the second partition" is of a new disk, and not the original disk which have only one partition with the original OS on it.

PS. I agree on the DriveImage XML. When I was trying to restore with it, it didn't work on matrix raid1 disk.

I forgot to ask, which OS?

The OS was on a single partition HD. Where did you create the image? Where was the HD that eventually accepted the restored image when the image was created? In the computer?

The OS: XP PRO.

The computer is the same computer all the time.

I have saved the image (*.bkf file) of the first disk on a third disk. From the third disk I restored the image to the second partition of the second disk. I have then unpluged the origial disk, and the third disk in order to boot from the second disk.

the jhonyl,

Thanks. Extremely good description.

I'm afraid you broke Rule #1

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

These rules apply to image/restore as well. The way to get around your problem is to remove the drive letter from the second partition on the second HD (using Disk Management) before creating the image of the OS on the first HD. Alternatively you can delete the partition instead of removing its drive letter and eventually restore your image to unallocated space. I prefer this method.

The link explains why you must deal with that second partition before creating the image.

After you have restored the image you will probably need to edit the boot.ini to reference partition(2).

The restored OS will boot. I hope there isn't an OS in the first partition otherwise it needs to be hidden before booting from the second partition.

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your reply. I will try it.

I just wanted to ask, is there a way to fix it without re-imaging & re-restoring? I have access to the second partition, and I can tweak its registry.

I hope to find a solution without reimage & restore, since recently a normal dual boot machine with XP on a second partition have also started to act the same way. I hope that if I could fix it in this test image, maybe I could fix the real system too.

the jhonyl,

You could try Method #3. It certainly works with single HDs but your situation is atypical.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm#method3

If you don't have a floppy drive, xfdisk will zero the DiskID.

http://www.acronis.com/files/support/mbrautowrite_en.iso


Let us know what happens.