I can't get this thing to work!!!

I have loaded (and purchased) TI 8.0 bld 763.

My need is to convert a laptop 6 GB HDD (with Win XP Pro, SP1, NTFS) to a new, larger 60 GB HDD. Because of drive limitations of a laptop, it was necessary for me to remove the old HDD and attach it to the PC with Acronis (Windows 2000 Pro, NTFS), using a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter.

Attached on the primary IDE as slave, I was able to successfully make an image of the drive (including the single partition).

Next, I removed the old laptop HDD and attached a new HDD in the same manner as above. Using the Acronis Clone Disk, it copied the image to the new HDD, even using the verification process. When placed back into the laptop, however, I got nothing more than a black screen with a blinking cursor. The BIOS reports the new HDD properly, but the system will not go past the POST.

So I decided to use the Restore Image option instead, in order to retrieve the data and to insure the new HDD would boot. Well.... it still won't boot!!

How in the world do I get this thing to work This should not be an issue involving sysprep, so I have done nothing with that.

It will really be a big pain in the you-know-what if this requires an installation repair process in order to make this work.

I also bought a license for True Image Server, but have not yet loaded or used it. If this is an indication of how the Server version will work, I am going to be exceptionally upset! The reason I got it was to help me protect my web server against future potential failure, especially their claims of fast bare hardware recovery.

 

80 views so far and not a single reply with some information or assistance??

Does anyone have an idea why this procedure has not worked for me?

 

I've an idea, but not being an expert, I can only suggest you try the following as it sounds like you are missing your Master Boot Record or it is corrupt. Boot the computer with the Windows XP CD (you may have to go to your BIOS and change boot order) and go to the Recovery Console by hitting "R" when prompted. When there, type in at the prompt "FIXBOOT" >Enter Key then "FIXMBR" >Enter Key (without the quotes or course) and then after the two commands execute, type "Exit" >Enter Key to leave the recovery console (Take out your WinXP CD from the tray before re-boot). *If* this was your problem the computer should now find NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM in the active system partition and boot to WinXP (hopefully).

Allen L.

 

Allen -

Thanks for your helpful suggestion.

Actually I did follow your recommendation and I also did the 2nd repair from the installation process. Neither worked, even though they appeared to run properly.

I noticed that I incorrectly stated that this is at SP1; I forgot that I had applied SP2. if that makes any difference.

I had hoped that there would be some TI 8.0 solution to this problem, and thta it would not require the intervention of an OS repair. Something has happened, and I cannot figure out where TI failed.

 

Hi, Diska

have you tried FIXBOOT.

If that does not work you should try a repair install because your Hardware Abstraction Layer doesn't match your new hardware.

Ideally you should perform a clean install.

However, if you wish to try, a Repair install, which retains your installed applications and most of your user settings, should do the trick. A backup in advance of the following is a good idea, just in case something goes awry.

You will need to do a repair install. Follow these steps:

. Set your BIOS to have the CD drive as the first boot device.

. With your Windows XP CD in the drive, start the computer from the CD-ROM,

. When the computer starts from the CD, the system checks your hardware and then prompts you to select one of the following options:

To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER.
To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.


Press ENTER.


. Press F8 to accept the Licensing Agreement.

. A box lists your current Windows XP installation, and then the system prompts you to select one of the following options:

To repair the selected Windows XP installation, press R.
To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing, press ESC.


Press R to start the automatic repair process.


. Have your Product Key at hand as you'll need to reenter it during the repair.

. After repairing Windows XP, set your BIOS back to have the hard drive as the first boot device.

. You'll have to re-activate Windows.

. You will need to re-download all updates, starting with SP1 or SP2 - these are all wiped clean by the Repair.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

You may want to get the Acronis Disk Editor to have a look at your partition table. To me it looks like your restored partition is not marked being bootable.
I think the disk editor was part of the "Disk Director Suite" (http://www.acronis.com/download/diskdirector/).

In the editor press Alt+P, enter "0" for Absolute sector, cylinder, head and a "1" for sector, click "OK", then press F6 to get to to partition table view. In this overview you should see a partition with type "NTFS,HPFS" and a checkbox "boot" on the right of this information. Make sure that this checkbox is marked for this partition.

Not the solution that one would expect from a backup/restore tool but hopefully at least a workaround.

 

Thanks, folks for your attention and assistance. Interesting that no one from Acronis has chimed in..... hmmm.

As you could tell from my earlier post, I had already done the '2nd' repair from the install process, and it did not work.

I will try out Tom's suggestion and use the Disk Editor to make sure the image I made indicates a bootable partition.

If this doesn't work, I may just try to return the TI Server I bought at the same time!

 

If I read your procedure correctly, it just will not usually work that way with any imaging program. You have to install the new hard drive in the laptop and then image it from the image of the old one. Bios problems usually preclude your approach. (The laptop Bios "sees" the drive differently than the PC Bios) Sometimes a Bios upgrade for the laptop will resolve the issue. As Always YMMV.

 

1. Tom, I tried the approach you mentioned, and was met with the same result as before. The image on the new HDD indeed is marked at bootable, so I am back to square 1.

2. been - I have myself been leaning toward the notion that it is the BIOS itself which is in the way. I have the most up-to-date BIOS flash offered (although it is not all that new). What exactly is it you mean when you say: "You have to install the new hard drive in the laptop and then image it..?" Do you mean that it must be loaded with the OS first and then apply the image over that, or do you mean something else? The BIOS does seem to see the model name and new size, but it won't go past that. What specifically do you recommend?

And guys ...... thanks again for all your input.

 

you can remove the old drive and image it by attaching to your deasktop. Just image the active partition if possible. Install (means simple physical install and recognition by bios, nothing else needed) in your laptop. Then you must find a way to boot your laptop from either TI floppies or CD. Then you must navigate to your image either on a CD or network location and restore the image to the new drive. Let it expand to take up the entire new drive.

 

been - - that approach did the trick. It was slick. The only problem is that the mouse was non-functional when TI loaded from the floppies, but I got through it just fine.

The system booted up and later said it had to reboot due to newly detected equipment (I suspect the new HDD). Then everything went great after that.

Thanks for all the the help, everyone. I am happy now!

 

I am happy too! Thanks for reporting back.

 

I just wanted to report that I performed the same fix last night and it worked.

My issue: I needed to clone a failing laptop hard drive to a new one. I hooked up both hard drives to another PC and ran the clone. When I installed the new hard drive into the laptop, the system POSTed, then stopped with a blinking cursor.

After reading this thread, I hooked up the old hard to another PC and made a full-disk image.

With the new hard drive still installed in the laptop, I booted the laptop with the a CD, browsed the network and found the image, and restored it to the new hard drive.

The system booted fine thereafter.

I've seen a lot of speculation as to the reason for this problem, and I'm wondering if the problem is related to hard drive geometry as defined by the BIOS in the machine used for cloning. I don't know the real differences between restoring from an image versus cloning other than the extra step, but having the hard drive geometry defined by different BIOSes in different PCs is a pretty big change. And that's what changed here, most certainly.

m

 

Exactly correct!!

 

I had the same problem - and this same method fixed it.

Thanks!!

Definitely should be somewhere in the TI documentation....