Hi. I used Casper XP at the beginning of '05 to make a copy of two
drives onto a large backup drive. I did not use the latter for any
other use. I set up the cloning process to update periodically
thereafter. Like an idiot, I did not check to see if I could boot from
this backup drive in case of failure of the drive with the OS on it
(Win XP Home).

Now the chickens have come home to roost, and my Win XP intallation
has become corrupted to the point where I have not been able to repair
it using the one or two procedures normally recommended with the
original Win XP CD. When I was able to view the contents of the backup
drive, I saw about 20 Image*.tib files apparently created/updated at
various times. I did not see any other type of files, such as a
boot.ini one. I must have used the wrong drive copy option originally
when copying the older drives. What are my options here? My wife will
k__l me since she is the main user of this PC.

Thanks for reading.

Contact Casper XP Support
http://www.fssdev.com/support/contact.aspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"legolas at imailbox dat gom" wrote:

| Hi. I used Casper XP at the beginning of '05 to make a copy of two
| drives onto a large backup drive. I did not use the latter for any
| other use. I set up the cloning process to update periodically
| thereafter. Like an idiot, I did not check to see if I could boot from
| this backup drive in case of failure of the drive with the OS on it
| (Win XP Home).
|
| Now the chickens have come home to roost, and my Win XP intallation
| has become corrupted to the point where I have not been able to repair
| it using the one or two procedures normally recommended with the
| original Win XP CD. When I was able to view the contents of the backup
| drive, I saw about 20 Image*.tib files apparently created/updated at
| various times. I did not see any other type of files, such as a
| boot.ini one. I must have used the wrong drive copy option originally
| when copying the older drives. What are my options here? My wife will
| k__l me since she is the main user of this PC.
|
| Thanks for reading.

After copying my Windows system drive to a new drive, I cannot boot from the copy. Why not?

The most common reason for this problem is the absence of a bootable master boot record or active partition on the target disk. When
using the Copy a specific drive method to copy one drive to another, Casper XP does not replace the master boot record or change the
active partition status on the target disk. In order to ensure the target disk contains a valid master boot record and the
appropriate partition is marked active, it is necessary to use the Copy an entire hard disk method. Alternatively, Casper XP
Explorer may be used to apply a genuine Windows master boot record and change the active partition status on the target disk. For
additional information related to resolving boot problems, see the help topic entitled Resolving Boot Problems under the
Troubleshooting section in the Casper XP help file. For help with replacing a master boot record or changing the active partition on
a hard disk, see the help topics Repair or replace a master boot record and Mark a partition active under the Disk Management
section of Working with Casper XP Explorer in the Casper XP help file.

Ref: http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/faq.aspx#q6

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"legolas at imailbox dat gom" wrote:

| Hi. I used Casper XP at the beginning of '05 to make a copy of two
| drives onto a large backup drive. I did not use the latter for any
| other use. I set up the cloning process to update periodically
| thereafter. Like an idiot, I did not check to see if I could boot from
| this backup drive in case of failure of the drive with the OS on it
| (Win XP Home).
|
| Now the chickens have come home to roost, and my Win XP intallation
| has become corrupted to the point where I have not been able to repair
| it using the one or two procedures normally recommended with the
| original Win XP CD. When I was able to view the contents of the backup
| drive, I saw about 20 Image*.tib files apparently created/updated at
| various times. I did not see any other type of files, such as a
| boot.ini one. I must have used the wrong drive copy option originally
| when copying the older drives. What are my options here? My wife will
| k__l me since she is the main user of this PC.
|
| Thanks for reading.

Thanks for the responses Carey. I have sent an email to the Casper XP
people. It does not seem obvious to me how I can use Casper XP
Explorer since the Casper Program is presently "lost" in the bowls of
the unbootable disk. I may have to buy it the Casper program again, or
use another means of adding an MBR, install an OS on another HD, and
use it to work on the nonbooting, backup HD.

Did you try a "Repair Install"?

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"legolas at imailbox dat gom" wrote:

| Thanks for the responses Carey. I have sent an email to the Casper XP
| people. It does not seem obvious to me how I can use Casper XP
| Explorer since the Casper Program is presently "lost" in the bowls of
| the unbootable disk. I may have to buy it the Casper program again, or
| use another means of adding an MBR, install an OS on another HD, and
| use it to work on the nonbooting, backup HD.

Thanks Carey. Yes, I did, in fact. I followed the recommendations of
proceeding as if doing an install, rather than an immediate repair (I
did not press "R"). After pressing F8 to accept the license agreement,
the machine hangs (for hours) with the message "Searching for previous
versions of microsoft windows", in the bottom toolbar (blue screen).

Similarly, going directly to a repair by pressing "R" when "booting"
from the Win XP CD, simply caused the machine to hang after it did find
the Windows OS. However, when I entered the digit "1" to select the OS,
the machine frooze.

Strange.