Paragon 14 Free - No Boot Device Found After Image Restore

The HDD on my Dell Optiplex 3020 died after a power outage and I replaced it with a Samsung 870 EVO 500 GB SSD. I restored the image using a USB flash drive with the Paragon 14 utility program. The image restores successfully, but when I boot it says "No Boot Device Found."

I can browse the image on the SSD using the Paragon USB flash drive utility and my old files are there. But for some reason the bios doesn't recognize the SSD as a boot drive. Any idea how I can get this working? I don't do this very often, so I'm no expert, but it looks to me like I've done most everything right.

 

David,

MBR or UEFI system?
Do you have other drives in the computer?
How many partitions have been backed up in the backup image?

Can you see the SSD in the BIOS?

 

I tried loading the image both ways -- with the Legacy setting and with the UEFI setting. Either way I got the same result. No Boot Device Found.

Just a DVD/CD drive

One.

Yes.

 

Unless you're restoring a very old image (don' know your OS), it sounds like there's not enough partitions in your image to allow for successful BOOTing, especially with a new <blank> drive.

 

It's a Win 7 image that was created in Dec 2020 with an increment in Feb 2022. I tried loading both the original image alone and the image with the recent increment and got the same result. No Boot Device Found.

I'm beginning to think that the power outage that took out the original HDD may have also caused some other damage to the PC itself. What part could have been damaged that would cause the "No Boot Device Found" error message?

 

I don't understand what you're saying/recommending. How should I proceed differently? What's wrong with having only one partition?

 

A fresh MicroSloth Windows 7 build usually creates a minimum of 2-partitions, both of which are needed to BOOT the System. Only under certain conditions will a MS build create a single BOOTable partition when built.

Coupla questions... was the original System a factory OEM build, and did you ever use that image to restore your System (which should of worked just fine if the rest of that multi-partition disk was in tact... it will not work on a <blank> disk restore).

If that's your problem, there is a procedure, albeit a bit cryptic, that can take an original 2-partition System image (Required = System RESERVED partition + OS partition) and inject what's needed into what I assume is your single partition image backup (the OS partition only). I can't think of any other reason for your issue other than maybe the BOOT position of your new SSD in your BiOS BOOT list (sometimes, depending on machine, that disk out of position will also give that type of error... make it 1st in your BOOT list).

 

You haven't answered whether your computer is a MBR or a UEFI system.

Have you reinstalled an OS since you bought this computer or is this the original Dell install?

Dell installs have several partitions so if you haven't imaged all required partitions then you are in trouble.

 

Doesn't OP need to restore to dissimilar hardware?

 

@zapjb - for just a disk change using the same port style (SATA), dissimilar restore is usually never needed with any imaging software. Why...? Because other than size, the devices look exactly the same.

 

When I go into the boot options, I have a choice between Legacy and UEFI. Legacy lists the boot sequence, which I can alter. I presume that Legacy is the same as MBR, correct? Does that answer your question? Also, I restored the default settings at one point. None of these options worked.

No, it's the original Dell Win 7 installation.

Actually, the image has a big 455.2 GB partition and a small 10.2 GB partition for a total of 465.7 GB. The actual contents are about 85 GB.

 

After a long time between images I hosed my W7P64 install on a SATA SSD. I forgot to restore to dissimilar hardware. The restore failed. Retried with restore to dissimilar hardware & it worked.

 

Well, the 455.2gB partition may, indeed be the original OS partition but the 10.2gB partition is NOT a MicroSloth System Reserved partition... it looks more like the DELL Recovery Partition used for bringing the System back to its out-of-box configuration (can you see the partition LABELs in the presented image?).

Can you tell from the image if either of those partitions are ACTIVE, and whether the imaged disk (2-partitions) was an MBR disk? If they aren't active, since it's a Windows 7 System, you're probably missing that MS System Reserved partition (System was built Legacy-MBR rather than UEFI). If that's the case, the image can be made BOOTable once again with a little work.

 

Yes, MBR is Legacy. But I was interested in the status of the Win7 install when it was on the HD. Not the SSD. It's likely to be a MBR system. Dell computers usually have 3 or 4 partitions. The booting files can be in a SRP or a RE partition.

Can you do this? Boot Paragon or a Win7 disk and open a Command Prompt. Type...

Code:

diskpart

press Enter

Code:

list volume

press Enter

Can you take a photo of the Diskpart screen and post the photo.

 

The only capabilities I have right now are the very limited utilities on the Paragon USB restore flash drive. The drive label is "Basic MBR drive 0 (Samsung,etc)" The size is 465.7 GB so it looks like one big partition from this vantage point. I don't know how to tell if the drive is ACTIVE or how to get to a command prompt from here.

 

David, we need Diskpart results from a Command Prompt.

 

How would I do that? Is there a DOS utility I can download to a USB flash drive to give me the Command Prompt?

 

Any WinPE will have a Command Prompt.

eg Active Boot Disk

https://www.lsoft.net/bootdisk/index.html#download

Get the
Active@ Boot Disk FREEWARE EVALUATION

 

Nice work with Diskpart, David.
There is only one partition on the SSD. Can you restore the 10 GB partition image to Free Space on the SSD and set the 10 GB partition Active. There should be an option in Paragon to set the partition Active. That partition is likely to contain the Dell booting files. If you can't do that because of no Free Space, get back to us and TRF will let you know how to create booting files in the OS partition.

 

I was able to create a new partition, but it looks empty to me. Paragon allowed me to mark it as active. Here's what I have now.

 

Good. In Diskpart...

Code:

select volume 1
detail partition

Can you post another photo?

Have a look at that partition in Active Boot Disk. Use the Explore My Computer icon. Does it contain Files and Folders. If so, a photo please.

 

New Volume (C has no files or folders in Explore My Computer.

 

That's good. The partition is Active.

Check your BIOS and make sure Hard Drive is first in Boot Option Priorities (or whatever your list is called).

Does Win7 boot or do you still see the same error?