Non System Disk Error After Recovery From USB Hdd Back-up

Hello,
Has any one encountered this error message after performing a "Full Disk Recovery" from a USB hdd backup: "Non-system disk, press any key" ? The computer successfully boots up to a valid backup upon pressing any key. Acronis shows the recovery to be a bootable primary disk. My temporary solution has been to have my computer boot to a Windows 2000 Emergency Disk" Any solutions to fixing my recovered disk so it will boot up on its' own and to understanding why this problem happened in the first place? I am using True Image 9, Windows 2000 and the back up was made from a external USB HD.

I ran the Windows 2000 repair option, booting to the Win2000 disk. I get a message that the hdd is corrupted and cannot be repaired. This sounds incorrect, as my system successfully boots and runs after I press "any key". Also, Western Dig diagnostics Utility tells me the disk is fine.
The only thread that I could find, concerning "Non system disk" error message, mentioned that, perhaps, I did not mark that I wanted my recovery to make my new partition "bootable. I verified that Acronis recognizes my hdd as bootable (yellow color). I went through the recovery process again and checked the box "MBR and Track 0" just to make sure. That action did not fix the problem.


Thank you for your response,

Dolfin

 

I'd try using the recovery consolde and these commands:

BOOTCFG

Use this command for boot configuration and recovery. This command has the following options:
bootcfg /add
bootcfg /rebuild
bootcfg /scan
bootcfg /list
bootcfg /disableredirect
bootcfg /redirect [portbaudrate] | [useBiosSettings]
Examples:
bootcfg /redirect com1 115200
bootcfg /redirect useBiosSettings
You can use the following options:
/add Adds a Windows installation to the boot menu list.
/rebuild Iterates through all Windows installations so that you can specify which installations to add.
/scan Scans all disks for Windows installations and displays the results so that you can specify which installations to add.
/default Sets the default boot entry.
/list Lists the entries already in the boot menu list.
/disableredirect Disables redirection in the boot loader.
/redirect Enables redirection in the boot loader, with the specified configuration.

FIXBOOT

fixboot drive name:
Use this command (where drive name is the drive letter where the boot sector will be written) to write the new Windows boot sector code on the boot partition. This command fixes problems where the Windows boot sector is corrupted. The Emergency Repair process also fixes the boot sector. This command overrides the default of writing to the system boot partition.

FIXMBR

fixmbr device name
Use this command (where device name is an optional device name that specifies the device that needs a new MBR) to repair the master boot record (MBR) of the system partition. This command is used in scenarios where a virus has damaged the MBR and Windows cannot start.

WARNING: This command has the potential to damage your partition tables if a virus is present or a hardware problem exists. This command may lead to inaccessible partitions. Microsoft suggests running antivirus software before using this command.

The name can be obtained from the output of the map command. If this is left blank, the boot device's MBR is fixed, for example:
fixmbr \device\harddisk2
If Fixmbr detects an invalid or non-standard partition table signature, it prompts you for permission before rewriting the MBR.

Info at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229716/

Use in this order works well for this sort of issue on XP. Should be the
same on 2000, but I haven't had too many of those to work on lately.

FIXMBR
FIXBOOT
BOOTCFG /REBUILD

Good luck,
CC

 

FIXBOOT gave me a black screen and hang up at boot process.

FIXMBR made the partition on my hdd inaccessible while making part of my hdd unpartitioned. I would then get a "This hdd is not formatted. Would you like to format it now?" message.
(Beware using FIXMBR if you are not an advanced user. Its' negative changes of making your hdd inaccessible, for me, were irreversible.)

My Windows 2000 Emergency Console does not offer bootcfg as a command (only XP and up)

Therefore, I had to redo my full recovery onto my FIXMBR corrupted disc and I am now back to where I started.

 

Well, these commands can be dangerous, sorry you had to redo your recovery. If I'm tyring this on a disk that's master copy that's not backed up, I usually clone it first, just in case.

I wish I had a 2000 system sitting around to test this on, but as I recall you can use the XP recovery disk which does have bootcfg on it. However, since you can boot your system up, I'd check out Boot.ini to make sure it's configured right.

Here is the MS article on use of bootcfg on 2000 -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291980

Here's the MS article on "How to edit boot.ini" -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311578

Maybe you could just post the contents of your boot.ini and we could look at it?

Also, did you happen to replace your disk - and if so what is each ones capacity? Was that why you had to recover in the first place?

CC

 

CCasey, you are still out there helping. Much obliged. Here is my Boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

I am very glad there are people, such as yourself, who are willing to help. Computers and other areas of knowledge are so complex now. These forums have the ability to make great, good changes in our world.

 

Ok thanks, a few questions:

- Did you replace the disk and if so, what are the capacities of the old and new disks?

- Is the file system Fat32 or NTFS?

- Is the OS really on the 1st partiion? and how many partitions do you have?

CC

 

I did not replace my disk. Also, my usb back up and my master hdd are both the same size and make.

My Computer Management shows Disk (0) to be made up of 298.05 GB NTFS as my primary partition and 39MB FAT32 (my Acronis partition) shows as a logical drive.

The OS is on my 298.05 GB NTFS primary partition.

 

So you have 2 partitions. Your Boot.ini indicates that your boot partition is the first partition - "partition(1)". Can you confirm that it is indeed the first partition on your drive?

Also, what is this Acronis partition - it's too small to be an Acronis Secure Zone? Then again I am not familiar with the older versions of Acronis.

CC

 

How can I confirm that my boot partition is my first partition on my drive?

I looked at my partitions by going into my Control Panel/Admin. Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management. That showed my that my primary drive was the first partition, immediately followed by the Acronis Partition.

I do not use my Acronis partition as a secure zone but as a way of accessing my hdd with my Acronis Boot cd. My USB external hdd is my "secure zone' so to speak.

Perhaps, I am using the Acronis partition incorrectly.

 

Then that's right, Disk Management shows them in order, Boot.ini should point to partition (1), which means the first one (not zero relative for this parameter).

I'm not getting what the Acronis partition is for, when you create the boot media, you just boot from it and it doesn't require anything on disk? Well, maybe this is a pre-TI10 thing?

At any rate, doesn't seem that this is part of the problem. I suspect the MBR is not right then.

Do you have access to any tools for MBR fixing?

In the meantime, I'll research it a bit more....

CC

 

ccasey:

Sorry to break in here; you're doing so well troubleshooting the problem. The message "Non-system disk, press any key" is not in the MBR, so fixing the MBR will not accomplish anything. The message is in the boot sector of the Acronis recovery partition, which is partition 2 on Dolfin the Mammal's disk. The small Acronis partition contains a bootable Linux OS with the recovery version of True Image; the same thing that's on the boot CD.

So this means that the PC is booting to partition 2 instead of partition 1. To fix, you only need to make partition 1 active instead of partition 2. With Windows XP you would go to the Windows Disk Management console, right-click on the Windows 2000 partition and choose "Mark partition as Active". If Windows 2000 has the same capability, then that's a way to fix it.

Otherwise, another way to fix this is to restore the partition again. Watch the settings in the restore wizard carefully and make sure that you are restoring the Windows 2000 partition as "Active".

I think this will solve the problem. When you get your system recovered and booting correctly, run TI and use it to remove the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (ASRM), then re-activate it if you want the capability. Some of your prior recovery efforts probably botched up the ASRM.

 

Mark,

Hey, thanks for setting that straight, always appreciate the education.
I'm not sure how you end up with a Logical Partition being an Active Partition, but what you say sounds plausible. A botched ASRM...

Another way to change it would be with Disk Director if one has it.

Hope that fixes it for Dolphin.

Thanks again Mark.

CC

 

Sorry I am so late in replying, but I no longer got any email that this thread was being added to.

Thank you for your input K0lo. I looked at trying to make my Win2000 active by right clicking on that partition.

Unfortunately, that option is present, but grayed out/can not be chosen. Is there any way to make this choice active?

What would happen if I deleted the Acronis 39mg FAT32 partition. Would that default the Win2000 and only remaining partition as active?

Otherwise, I followed your advise and see that when I recover only the C drive rather than the whole disk, as I was doing, that there is a flag to make that partition active. I hesitate to do this immediately, as it is such a relief just having got the system stable again. I will need to do a full backup and then a full recovery. I will record, on this thread, the results. Also, I will look for Disk Director to see if that also can fix my problem.

Thank you both CCasey and K0lo for your help.

 

Apparently not from Disk Management while Windows is running. However, there are many other tools that can change the active flag on a partition.

Probably not. With some of your prior recovery efforts, it sounds to me like Windows is booting from this partition, so deleting it may not be the right thing to do yet. First, check the following:

1. Can you see and explore the FAT32 partition from Windows 2000?
2. If so, check for the presence of the following three hidden, system files in the root of the drive:

Code:

\boot.ini
\ntldr
\NTDETECT.com

If these 3 files are present and the FAT32 partition is active, then it has become your booting partition. If so, please post the contents of its boot.ini file
3. Check your main Windows 2000 partition for the presence of the above 3 files. Are they there? And are the contents of boot.ini still the same as shown in your post #5?

 

K0lo: My Acronis partition let me explore for files only after I had mapped it as a drive. Unfortunately, even after I checked "make hidden files viewable" in the "View" of folder options, there were no files present in the Acronis partition, now called Drive H:. Drive H: is showing to have 512 bytes used though.

As far as my C: drive boot.ini file, that is the same as posted in post 5.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Dolfin

 

So how is your computer now able to boot? Before (in posts #1-3) it was booting to the Acronis partition and giving the error message "NonSystem Disk, press any key". How did you get it to boot into Windows? I'm confused.

It sounds like you now have the problem fixed and are able to boot directly into Windows. Is this correct?

 

K0lo, problem not fixed, just worked around. I am presently using a Win2000 Emergency disk floppy. Windows is booting from that. I can get by this way, but I figure that I better figure out a true solution.

 

Understood. Then I think it's as easy as just setting the active flag on the Windows 2000 partition, but let's confirm first. Can you download the file PTEDIT32 from Symantec? Unzip the file and put it on your Windows 2000 desktop. Double-click to open and you should see something like the following:



After choosing your disk in the "Hard Disk" drop-down list at the top of the PTEDIT window you will see a graphic illustration of your disk's partition table. If you can post a screen shot of this, please do. If not, look for an entry in the "Boot" column of "80" and let us know which partition it belongs to. In my illustration, for example, the boot partition is the third entry (partition 3).

 

Dolfin,

In my experience the "grayed out" Mark Partition Active, means it IS the current Active Partition - of which there can only be one.

If you do have Acronis Disk Director, then you'll be able to easily see which partitions are/or are not active.

Also, I am confused now on your current boot process. I thought you were saying before that just pressing any key let Windows boot up normally. Now I think you are saying you are using the Emergency Disk.

Can you boot without any floppy in your drive?

CC

 

I think I just passed from beginner to intermediate, with your and CCasey's help.

Attached please find my partition table screen shot.

Sorry, I don't see my attachment. I'll try again. Meanwhile, my screen shot indicates

1. 07 80
2. 05 00

 

OK, Let us see if the attachment will upload.

 

OK, Try This to see attachment

 

Dolfin,

That's a pretty useful tool. Looks like to me that your 2000 partition is the active partition, not the Acronis one - unless I'm reading this wrong. If that's the case then the Acronis partition probably isn't the issue.

In my previous post, I asked for clarification of your boot process - can you boot without the floppy if you "press any key", or do you have to use the Emergency Disk? I'm confused on this point.

CC

 

CCasey, I am glad you are still watching over this thread.

I can boot to windows, if I "press any key" when the boot process hangs there and when the Emergency Disk is not inserted.

I found that, with the Emergency Disk inserted, Windows booted without stopping at the "press any key" hang up point in the boot process.

I am not even sure that message appears when the Emergency Disk is in and the computer boots to that floppy.

 

Coming full circle then, it looks like:

1. The Windows 2000 partition is the active partition.
2. Your PC, without inserting the emergency boot disk, attempts to boot to the Acronis partition and fails.
3. Your PC, when booting from the emergency boot disk, boots directly to the Windows 2000 partition.

Therefore, it IS the MBR. You probably once had the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager activated, which replaces the standard boot code in the MBR with code that allows booting into the Acronis recovery manager. But there does not appear to be any files in the Acronis partition, so there is nothing to boot to.

Can you boot the machine from an Acronis recovery CD? If so, use it to de-activate the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (ASRM). When you de-activate the ASRM, the Acronis boot code in the MBR will be replaced with the standard MBR boot code.

The Windows repair console tool fixmbr should also fix this, but from reading your previous post I don't understand why it failed to repair the MBR code.

Do you agree, ccasey99?