Restored image won't boot?

Hi.

I am running TI8, latest build, and Windows XP 32-bit, SP2. SATA drives (both source and destination discs), standard (not RAID) configuration. I have run Checkdisk and Defrag (Windows XP versions) on the source disc.

I am in the process of upgrading my PC. I have tried to transfer an image of my old drive to the new one. The process seems to go OK, the image is verified by TI, but the restored image (restored to a new drive) won't boot. Windows tries to load - very slowly - but after about 5 minutes it reaches a point where the Windows logo appears on a blue screen and a message pops up stating that there is no page file, or the page file is too small, and it should be set corrictly from within Windows. Clicking OK makes this message disappear momentarily, but it appears again, dozens of times if I keep clicking OK.

I have attempted to boot to Safe Mode but the PC still hangs at the same screen (blue screen with the Windows logo). There is no message regarding the page file but the screen flickers every few seconds - and that's it. It never advances beyond that point (I have left it overnight and there is no change).

Things I have tried, with the same result;
I have created three separate complete images.
I have tried restoring both from within Windows and using the TI boot ditc.
I have tried restoring to two different hard drives.

Repeated re-boots don't help, and repeating the restore process always produces the same result.

Curiously, cloning the original disc works perfectly every time. I am therefore able to complete the PC upgrade, but naturally I to be able to restore images in case I need to do so in anger in the future.

I don't really know what to try next. I do disconnect the disc that contains the backd-up TI image before rebooting. Could that cause a problem? I haven't tried leaving the disc connected just in case the data on that disc gets corrupted.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be going wrong?

Thanks.

 

Hello imprator,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Please see this article explaining the roots of the issue you encointered. In essence, it is not recommended to let previous Windows installation see the new hard drive before restoring the system image to it, because it would not know the correct location of it's system files. The same applies to cloning a system drive.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov