What is NTLDR?

Yes. I actually created the image on my external USB hard drive back in Dec. If the computer were here (in Houston) I would restore from the external drive. But I am not mailing my drive (with my backup images to all of my computers) over to Atlanta for my daughter to lose or damage. I burned DVDs and fedex'd them to use. I verified the DVDs before I sent them to her and they are good.

I still have her image here on my external drive to look at, play with. But not her actual PC.

Jim

 

Hi, Grover. Thanks for your help. I pulled the boot.ini off of the image:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

In WinXP Recovery Console I used MAP command to determine that the image was restored to Partition1. As you can see above, the boot.ini is looking at Partition2. Probably why I got the NTLDR error message.

​

Wow, what a GREAT thing to know! Very powerful, especially when the image files are on external USB hard drive. Easy to add an 8th file.

It will be hard for my daughter to do this (I think) because the 7 image files are on DVD and the laptop does not have a DVD burner, only reader. If she can put .tib #8 on another drive, like a USB flash drive, it might work. I'll have to experiment here on another laptop before having her try it.

That's what I thought, and that's what I wanted to do actually. I wanted an image that was capable of putting EVERYTHING back on a blank drive in the event of a crash (which is what happened here). I did not just want one of the two partitions. I did not make an effort to only backup the main active partition, but that seems to be what happened. I am going to go back and run some backups on a computer that I know has a hidden partition, to see what gets included in the image.

I have 3 laptops and 2 desktops here that I have been creating complete backup images from twice a year for the past 4 years. This HD crash is the first time I have had a problem with a restore. In the past I have done 1 restore from image to a blank drive after a laptop hard drive crash, and 1 restore back onto a fairly new laptop that my daughter somehow screwed up 4 weeks after getting it (it kept crashing -- I teased her and told her to stop visiting pron sites).

So I have had some success in the past, never had this degree of problem.

Understand. Interesting idea. I will experiment with that to prove the concept on a non-critical machine. I'm not sure when I'll have time. I get the crippled laptop back from Atlanta in mid-May when school is out. That is when I will really attack this problem again. She is limping along on a fresh WinXP install for now.

Thanks so much for all your help.

 

A possibility might be to restore a revised backup to a new disk and switch disks in the laptop. If it worked, then you could have a viable backup procedure should she get in trouble in the future.

Should the laptop have a cd burner, you might email a copy of the revised #8 file and have her burn (or at a library) to cd .
Then do another restore--identical to the previous bad one except start the restore from the #8 file. I assume the change needed in the boot.ini file would be to change partition 2 to partition1. Perhaps someone else could confirm or correct what change would be needed.

The risk you run is that you would loose the current limited use and have to reload.

 

Yes, Grover, this is a good solution. I would burn the CD with file #8 and send it to her.

Your assessment of the risk is 100% correct. My attempt to reload the image would wipe our her current limp mode install and potentially leave her dead in the water again. We don't want that.

When I get the laptop back next month I can make an image of her current limited use system so that I can put it back if your idea does not work. Plus class will be out at that time and having a working laptop will be less critical for her.

So then I can work entirely from my external USB hard drive. Much easier and faster. But same idea. I will create an incremental file #8 on the hard drive.

I'll contact you guys again around mid-May and let you know how it went.

Jim

 

tjcanno,
Acronis support posted (#10) a message to you on
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1225039&postcount=10

Have you considered restoring the Dell Latitude with the Dell Recovery CD?
If you do not have the Dell Recovery CD, it might be worthwhile contacting Dell and getting one.

This would be to put the disk back to its original factory state. Then, look at the disk using XP Disk Management and it will show the partition layout as received from Dell. If it shows extra partitions for diagnostic or recovery, this could explain why your disk restore failed did not work.

With system at factory specifications, do a partition only restore using the Acronis CD and your latest backup and restore only the C partition without Track 0 & MBR. Simply restore the backup C overtop the factory spec C.

 

Yes, Grover, I saw that reply. Too bad they took so long (almost 2 weeks).

I like your idea and I will contact Dell about getting a Recovery CD. You are correct, there was an extra partition in there that I failed to back up so things got out of sync. If the Dell recovery CD will put it back to factory configuration, I can take it from there.

It really annoys me that Dell basically sends you a blank drive and says "you're on your own, good night!".

Thanks again for your help.

Jim

 

Good luck and post the final outcome and methods used once you have the laptop in your possession again.

 

Hello tjcanno,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

Instead of creating an incremental backup we may recommend you to create the customised boot.ini file separately, and back it up alone. Then you will be able to restore it using Acronis Bootable Rescue Media to the correct location.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov