Questions about Image for Windows

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by niki, Aug 29, 2012.

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  1. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    MudCrab, the BIOS does see my HP laptop's hard drive and the drive passes HP's diagnostics 'with flying colors'!

    Background: My laptop wouldn't boot a couple of days ago - 'advising me' to do a repair. So I did, but the startup repair (using the Win7 installation DVD) pronounced it wasn't able to fix the problem. When trying to bootup I do see a BSOD (for just an instant), quicky returning to the screen giving me a choice to do a repair. I got tired of this 'vicious cycle', so I decided to restore the last IFW backup of my C-partition (using IFD), but after doing so (and IFD claiming 'success') Windows still would not startup! Thinking the MBR may be corrupted, I asked Brian (above) how to restore the MBR using IFD - which I still don't know how to do.

    A Curious Symptom: When I now cold-boot my laptop with a WinPE disk, WinPE doesn't see my hard-drive (none of the drive's partitions are seen!), but if I bootup with DOS or Linux disks they do see all of my partitions! What is going on? o_O

    I'm totally confused so any help would really be appreciated.

    Cruise
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2012
  2. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    When you boot your "DOS" and "Linux" discs, are those the IFD and IFL media?

    Is the WinPE the standard WinPE or is it TBWinPE with IFW? If it's TBWinPE does IFW see the partitions?

    I'm wondering if you have an EMBR type disk and the partitions aren't loaded into the MBR. IFD/IFL/IFW will see them and show EMBR for the drive, but normal programs won't since they see an empty partition table.
     
  3. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Cruise,

    To continue with MudCrab's thoughts. Have a look at Partition Work in BIBM. Do you see your partitions? Click View MBR. Do you see all zeroes?
     
  4. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    @MudCrab: I presume its a standard WinPE (Active@ BootDisk) which doesn't see my drive/partitions! Acronis Disk Director Suite and EaseUS Partition Mgr. (both are a Linux boot-disk) see it all.

    @Brian: BIBM's Partition Work also sees my partitions. View MBR's top line is all zeros, but the 2nd line for Windows & Apps (my C-partition) has non-zero entries and it is marked 'Active'.

    Hope that info helps you guys to help me sort-out this mess!!! :doubt:

    Cruise
     
  5. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Cruise,

    It's weird but this is what I'd do. Restore your Win7 image again as you did recently but this time in Options, select Restore First Track and in the First Track Sectors field on the right side, replace AUTO with 0. That is a zero and it will restore your entire First Track so you will have the same MBR you had when the image was created. Good luck.

    Edit... If I recall correctly you had a Win7 partition and an Extended partition with several logical volumes on that HD. So View MBR is not showing your Extended partition.

    Edit... You also had a FAT32 Primary partition. Not showing in View MBR either.
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2012
  6. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    I've got to step out for an hour or so, but I'll give it a go as soon as I return.


    Besides my primary active C-partition, I have 4 other logical NTFS partitions and while Partition Work sees them all, View MBR does not see any of the logical partitions!


    You do remember correctly, that FAT32 partition is used for 'HP Tools' and shows-up as such in View MBR (immediately below my C-partition, 'Windows & Apps).

    Cruise
     
  7. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Do you see 2 or 3 lines of data in View MBR?
     
  8. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    3-lines. The 1st line is non-descriptive and all of the entries are zero. The 2nd line is for my primary active C-partition (Windows & Apps). The 3rd line is for that primary FAT32 partition (HP Tools) ....that's it.

    Got to run an errand, but I'll be back in about an hour.

    Cruise

    -----
    PS. For completeness, I should tell you that my laptop comes with a 32GB SSD which is supposedly used as a cache-drive. Furthermore, Win7 x64 (Home Prem.) came with that 200MB 'System' partition, which I 'converted' over to my C-partition (using Terabyte's instructions) and what was that small system partition is now unallocated space.

    Later....
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2012
  9. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    There should be 4 lines in View MBR.

    Are lines 1 and 4 all zeroes? Or do you only have 3 lines?

    Edit... In Work with Partitions, look at the light blue area just above the large white rectangle which shows your partitions, does it say MBR partitions or EMBR partitions?
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2012
  10. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    Brian, before reading your last post (quoted above) when I returned home I anxiously attempted restoring my IFW backup (using IFD) but this time following your directions to also restore the entire first track. Unfortunately, I'm still experiencing the very same non-bootable symptoms! :(

    Cruise
     
  11. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Cruise,

    Do you have another HD you can try? Something sounds wrong with that HD. Maybe bad sectors in the First Track.
     
  12. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    Brian,

    I don't have a spare HD, but as stated previously it passes all of HP's HD diagnostics! And if the HD was really bad how come both Dos and Linux boot-disks see my partitions?

    Cruise
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2012
  13. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    MudCrab,

    Further ideas?
     
  14. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Cruise,

    Are you in a position to answer my questions in Post #34?
     
  15. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    Sorry Brian, I thought we were waiting on MudCrab.

    After booting up again with BIBM (since my last restore)...

    Partition Work now shows the following:
    Blue Area says "MBR Partitions"

    ----------- Partition 199 MB Free Space
    Win&App Partition 61440 MB HPFS/NTFS
    ----------- Partition 653653 MB Free Space (seems my logical partitions are now lost)?
    HP_Tools Partition108 MB FAT32
    ----------- Partition 1 MB Free Space

    There are 4 lines in View MBR...

    Lines 1 and 4 are all zeros.
    2nd line shows Win&Apps as Active and has non-zero entries.
    3rd line shows HP_Tools and has non-zero entries.

    I sure hope that you and/or MudCrab can sort this out for me pretty soon. Otherwise I see no other solution (other than doing a fresh install). o_O

    I'll check back tomorrow morning...

    Cruise
     
  16. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    What is the BSOD error code given when Windows 7 won't boot? You can disable the auto-reboot in the Windows Safe Mode menu if it's not stopping on the error.

    Is the cache drive used along with the standard drive, with both seen as a "single" drive? Is it possible to disable this feature?

    Since the booting issue occured before any restores were done it's possible the problem is not being caused by what was restored (for example, if restoring is replacing identical data already on the drive). Also, since Windows is getting far enough loaded to crash and show the Safe Mode menu, the MBR and boot sector code are also working correctly.

    Do you have current backups of the Logical partitions?
     
  17. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    MudCrab, I only see the BSOD for 1/2 sec., so I can't read a thing. And when I try to boot into Safe Mode it too fails!


    That's entirely possible, but I really don't know much more than it being used as a cache-drive. I believe there's an Intel 'SRT' driver that manages this, but I don't see anything relevant in the BIOS.


    Yes, that backup is just a few days behind, so if I'm forced to do a fresh install, it's mostly a matter of the time it's going to take to install and update Windows, repartition the drive, install and update my apps, then restore and recover my files. :doubt:


    The most frightening thing about this episode (whatever its cause) is that I always thought of my disk-image backups as being the one safety-net I could always count on, no matter what... o_O

    Cruise
     
  18. The Shadow

    The Shadow Registered Member

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    Until reading this I too believed an IFW backup would always recover my system from any software-related issue. Actually, a few months ago I experienced an incident similar to yours (symptom-wise) and my IFW backup worked like a champ to bail me out. To think that may not always work is frightening indeed. :gack:

    You are in good hands here, and in any case I wish you the best of luck.

    TS
     
  19. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    You need to disable the auto-reboot so you can read the BSOD. When you're on the Safe Mode (F:cool: menu (Start Safe Mode, Start Normally, etc.), select the Disable automatic restart on system failure option. It will now just sit on the BSOD screen when it errors.

    The fact that different operating systems are seeing the partitions differently is odd since they should all be looking in the same place for that data.

    Can you post a screenshot of what BIBM Partition Work shows for the drive? In know you posted some details above, but it may help to see all of it. Also, can you boot into IFD and IFL and get a screenshot for each of what they show for selecting partitions to back up? (A digital camera/phone picture is usually easiest.)

    In IFD are you using the BIOS mode or the BIOS (direct) mode?
     
  20. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    Okay MudCrab, I finally got to read the BSOD (which in itself was an ordeal)!

    STOP: 0x0000007B (0xFFFFF880009A97E8, 0xFFFFFFFFC0000034, 0X0000...etc, 0x0000...etc)

    I sure hope that's of use to you! Can't do the screenshots now as my son borrowed my digicam.

    Waiting.......

    Cruise
     
  21. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    0x7B usually indicates the storage driver is missing or incorrect. Did the controller mode in the BIOS change?
     
  22. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    Not by my doing (I don't even see that kind of option in the BIOS)!

    -------
    EDIT: While I sincerely appreciate your attempt to help find a remedy (that also goes for Brian), I'm ready to do a fresh install. I really need my laptop before returning to work and this problem is (apparently) too evasive!

    Thanks for trying,
    Cruise
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2012
  23. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    What is the SATA mode in the BIOS? RAID, AHCI, IDE, ATA, Combination?
     
  24. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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    Brian, as I mentioned in my prior post to MudCrab, I don't see any such option/selection in the HP's BIOS! :doubt:

    Cruise
     
  25. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Cruise,

    While we are gathering our thoughts could you boot into BIBM again, select the 653653 MB Free Space and click Undelete. See if that restores your extended partition and logical volumes.
     
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