Re: FIXMBR redux

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: William B. Lurie (billurie_at_nospam.org)
Date: 06/01/04 

Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 17:31:52 -0400

Sharon F wrote:
> On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 06:50:13 -0400, William B. Lurie wrote:
>
>
>>I think this leads back to my discussions with, and
>>advice from, Michael Solomon a while back.......
>>
>>Since 'solving' the problems of creating a drive image
>>of my master hard drive with Drive Image 7, and creating
>>a clone of that drive with its PowerQuest Recovery
>>Environment software, I've been living is a fool's
>>paradise. I discovered this when I went to create the
>>monthly Drive Image yesterday, and create the clone on
>>a newly purchased hard drive.
>>
>>I've been living with my Master drive booting to a
>>choice between normal start-up and Recovery Console,
>>a minor annoyance because after a ten-second countdown
>>it goes to normal boot, automatically. No problem there.
>>
>>I believe that the main part of the problem is now that
>>the new exact clone does not have Master Boot Record
>>correct, because the 'Normal Boot' path leads to the
>>choices of Safe Mode or Normal etcetera, and no choice
>>gets to anything other than a repeat of that set of
>>choices. If I select Recovery Console, I get a short
>>DOS-type message saying that file 'xxxxx.dll' is missing,
>>and to reload it somehow from somewhere. I suspect that
>>more than one '.dll' file will be in the list of what it
>>needs. I tried selecting Recovery Console, hoping that I
>>could somehow do a FIXMBR there, but I can't get to RC.
>>
>>Incidentally, in running Drive Image, I've repeated the
>>whole image-and-recreate process, with and without the
>>'keep the MBR' option, with no apparent difference in
>>results. I've tried to solve the problem without going to
>>you experts, but what I've considered all logical paths
>>haven't solved it.
>>
>> William B. Lurie
>
>
> Something about your saga keeps nagging at the back of my mind but I can't
> put my finger on it.
>
> When you create an exact image to second drive, the target purpose is to be
> able to yank a non-functioning drive and drop the imaged drive into place.
> (A restorable image is something different. It's usually compressed and can
> be restored to any drive that is large enough to hold the uncompressed
> image.)
>
> Have you tried booting with only the imaged drive placed as master on the
> main controller? At this point, those recovery console fix it thingies
> should be able to help with rebuilding the bootconfig and boot record. Or,
> if PM will restore it, give that a try.
>
> Or are you trying to maintain two bootable drives and trying to switch
> between two separate XP installations? If this is what you're doing and
> XP's boot manager is failing to handle this, you might want to try a third
> party boot manager.
>
> I no longer use Drive Image, stopped with Drive Image 6. The newer version
> may offer alternatives that I'm not aware of - meaning that the above may
> not apply.
>
> For a drive to boot, there are some requirements. There has to be an active
> partition, for one. On that partition the boot records and files have to be
> available to get past the initial boot strap and let it move on to the
> actual loading of the operating system.
>
> I don't know the answer to your problem, William. Just typing some thoughts
> "out loud" that may or may not help. It sounds like you're so close to
> getting this to work but a step is missing. Just can't put my finger on
> which step and since I don't use Drive Image can't give specific advice.
>

Thank you, Sharon. You speak the truth, of course, and I'll simplify
your thinking by making it clear that when I've spoken about what
I do with the 'cloned' hard drive, I mean that I physically shut
the system down, and pull out the Master, and insert the Clone
exactly in its place, electrically and physically. There should
be no conflict there. BTW, D-I 7 is, I believe, the only version
for XP. The D-I 2002/6 version is expressly not for XP.

Yes, the drive onto which I Recover the Image is Active and Primary.
It is brand new and not even partitioned.

As an aside, and not pertinent here, I have another completely
separate drive with WIN ME on it, and I am able, through a
simple manipulation of the BIOS, to boot to HDD-0 (these XP
alternates) or to HDD-1 (the ME), should I care to go that route.

I think the next step will be for you, or Michael, to instruct me how
to deactivate the RC altogether, after which I will first test my
Master Drive (and pray that it will still work), and then repeat
the D-I Image creation followed by trying to create the clone from it.
                W B L 

-- 
                    William B. Lurie

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