'NTLDR is missing' error after saving/restoring image, but booting OK after cloning?

Hello,

I have been using TI 8 build 396 since a few weeks, and am having this problem:

I installed Windows XP on a client's 'old' computer with an Intel 440BX chipset and an old BIOS recognizing only hard disk drives with maximum 32GB capacity.

The client wants a Western Digital 80GB disk, so I used Western Digital Data Lifeguard to make the 80GB usable and installed Windows XP Professional including SP2. I used 2 partitions: boot partition 32GB FAT32 and the remaining partition also FAT32. So far so good, everything OK, the PC works like a charm.

Now I want to have an image of this hard disk in order to be able to restore the original situation if needed.

I used the TI boot CD and saved a full image of the full hard disk, including both partitions, on a network. I then removed the original disk, and installed a Seagate 80GB in the computer, and restored the image. When I try to boot this disk, I get an 'NTLDR is missing' error. No boot possible.

I then tried to clone the original WD disk using the TI CD again. Removing the original WD disk and booting from the new Seagate disk is now working without a problem.

Can it be that cloning the disk adapts the MBR to the new disk, but saving/restoring an image does not?

How can I get the saved/restored image to work with another hard disk, just like it does with the cloning procedure?

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi,

What happens if you image the whole drive again using TI in Windows mode then restore to the new drive from within boot rescue mode?

Regards

 

That's a good suggestion Menorcaman, but I didn't try this because I would prefer to avoid having ATI 8 on each client's computer, and I do prefer the non-windows CD version...

I am trying now to use the ATI CD and save the image on the network and restore it on the same disk, just to be sure at least the restored image boots correctly on the same hard disk.

 

Restoring the image to the same hard disk is OK, the PC boots fine.

But restoring the image to another disk with a different specifications is causing the 'NTLDR is missing' error.

This clearly seems to prove that what I have read here on the forum, coming from Acronis support is not always true: saving an image of a full disk, including all partitions, does not guarantee that the restored image will make a new (different) disk boot correctly. This is only true if you clone the disk directly whithout saving/restoring an image first.

I would appreciate Acronis support to solve this problem please, as it is very likely that a new disk will be different than the previous crashed one. Having a reliable bootable recovery solution is the main purpose of buying a software like ATI right?

 

Hello pvdm,

Thank you for choosing Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

We are really sorry for the inconveniences.

Could oyu please clarify whether you create and then restored the image of a single partition or the whole disk? If you imaged the whole disk and still couldn't boot please remove the old disk from the ocmputer, set the new one and plug it in the same way the old disk was plugged. After that please get into BIOS and make sure the disk is available and is set in the same way your previous disk was.

If the problem still persists please try to fix MBR using Windows Installation CD or in the way described at https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=55317

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman