Reboots when Windows starts loading after restore

Hi all.

I have restored a Windows 2003 installation to a new hardware setup. (Totally new computer and now on a RAID Array)

I used the BartPE to load up True Image because of problems with the normal boot-disk fra Acronis. The restore process completed succesfully, but when trying to boot the newly restored disk it comes to the screen showing the "Windows Server 2003" logo and name.... and then suddenly restarts.

I haven't used the "Universal Restore" because it is not in the BartPE edition with the plugin from Acronis.

Any ideas what to do next?

 

Ibleif,

I'm a little confused . Could you provide some more details about what you did? How many HDs? Image or clone? How many partitions? When was the image created? How was the image restored?

You know. Tell us all.

 

Hi Brian - thank you for replying.

I will list some more information here.

I have a server running on a computer with a single SATA/IDE drive and have made an image of the systemdisk from that computer. (Some days ago) The drive contains only one partition. This image is what I am trying to restore onto a new computer purchased. This computer has 2 SATA drives in a RAID 1 configuration. (Mirror).

The new motherboard is Asus with a VIA chipset, and the normal Universal Restore bootdisc fails with a VIAXXXX.c file (or something) - so i buidled a BartPE bootdisk with the plugin from Acronis and restored the image onto the RAID array from a external USB disk. This all went well, but I couldn't use the Universal Restore because it is not included in the Acronis plugin for Barts PEBuilder. Everything goes fine like a normal restore, but when the system boots it finds the windows 2003 system (so something must have gone good), but it will never boot it up. Just restarts in the middle of the boot. When showing this screen: http://www.windows-nation.de/w2003bootscreen6.jpg

I need new ideas what to do/try.

 

Ibleif,

Thanks for the info and especially that jpg. My opinion is the image just doesn't suit the new hardware. It's a pity you couldn't use Universal Restore. I've read of people recovering from a similar situation with WinXP by doing a Repair Install. Doesn't look good. Sorry I can't really help.

 

If I remember correctly, Mustang used to have a plugin for Universal Restore. He no longer maintains the web site but someone may know where you can get the plugin.

 

That would be worth a try at least. Can try search the forum, but if anyone has a link to the plugin (and guide) I would be happy.

 

Iblief:

One of the forum regulars, MudCrab, is hosting some of Mustang's plugins. Here's a link to the thread discussing this and here's a link to MudCrab's site.

 

It's a simple case of drive letter change during restore. You need to go into the registry of your windows system and change your system drive letter back to what it was on the partition you imaged.
Repair installations,Fixmbr, etc won't fix this problem. With the right utilitys this is a 5 minute fix in most cases.
Use the demo of "paragon justboot corrector" (very good at analyzing non-booting hard drives), bootup your computer and check what your system drive letter is. It should be C: drive in most default installations.
If it's anything else you will get the symptoms you described.
You don't need no plug-ins (unless you want to start back at step one), just change your drive letters and that will get your computer up and running with the new hard drive.
If the drive letters is not your problem (you will not loose too much time since it only takes 5 minutes to check) , you can go to the next step the rest of the personnel here recommend.

demo here
http://www.justboot.us/boot_corrector.htm

directions to change drive letters using freeware
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=174958

 

It sounds like the hardware is so different that booting fail.

With Windows XP Pro, I've solved this problem by doing an "upgrade in place" reinstallation of XP Pro over the current, non-booting installation. That forces Windows to recheck the hardware and recreate the HAL. After that, the system boots and all the appications and data are available, but you have to reinstall the Windows updates. Perhaps this can be done with Server 2003 as well.

The SYSPREP tool is also availabe for XP. That is run on the system before imaging and forces a recheck of hardware on the first boot. I don't know if that exists for Server versions of Windows.

 

Hi jonyjoe81 - thank you for replying.

Can it be the drive letter when it finds the windows installation fine? It comes as far as showing the Windows Server 2003 bootscreen.

 

hi jmk94903.

Thank you for your input.

I will try to repair before making a new restore attempt.

I´ll get back with the results.

 

When the computer hangs at the bootscreen or login screen, it usually a sign that the system registry can not find the requiered startup files. If the system is looking for the startup files in c:, but the c: drive has been renamed d: or e: you will get an incomplete boot.
This is a simple and fast to check.

 

Hello Ibleif,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Corporate Disk Backup Software.

Please make sure you use the latest build of both Acronis True Image and the respective version of Acronis Universal Restore. To get access to updates you should first register your software. Don't forget to recreate Acronis Bootable Rescue Media after updating.

If updating doesn't solve the problem, please try booting with "acpi=off noapic" parameter as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

If the issue persists, please collect some information to let us investigate it thoroughly:

Please create Acronis Report and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Then submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files and information to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with a solution.

Please also notice that you could try the workaround described in this previous thread to transfer your operating system from a single hard drive to a RAID array without using Acronis Universal Restore (it's may not work if hardware differences are too large, though).

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov