URGENT - Help Needed With TOTAL System Recovery

I'm in a truly desperate situation!

I am very diligent about doing a nightly full system backup. I backup to an
external USB drive using Retrospect HD. This software does a progressive
nightly backup of my ENTIRE hardrive, including the operating system.

Two days ago my hard drive crashed. I've installed a new hard drive and
installed the version of XP-Pro that shipped with my Dell desktop about 3
years ago. My plan was to install just the OS and then install my backup
software and use it to reinstall everything from my backup drive. I was
hoping that my backup would overwrite the version of XP with my most recent
backed up version, along with all my programs, data, and settings.

Here's the problem.

I've gone through the process 3 times of reinstalling XP, and then restoring
all of my backed up data. All my data appears to be present -- I can see all
of the files on the system after they are reinstalled, BUT the system will
not boot from the new hard drive after I power down. I get the following
error message:

"Windows could not start because of a hardware configuration problem. Could
not read from the selection boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.

Please check the Windows documentation about hardware dis configuration and
your hardware reference manuals for additional information."

At this point my system get's stuck in a loop and XP will not load. The only
place I can get to is the BIOS. I have confired that my new hard drive is set
to the Primary Master drive.

I'd really hate to have to reinstall all of my programs, settings, etc.
manually. I feel like I'm so close to getting this right , but I'm missing
something.

Was I incorrect to think that simply restoring all of my data would override
the basic installation of XP?

I've been messing with this for 2 days and I'm about to pull my hair out.
ANY suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help--

Signed,

Desperate

Hi Andrew, thanks for your reply.

The reason that I want to restore everything from my backup USB drive, is
so that EVERYTHING get's put back the way it was prior to the crash.

I don't think the file transfer wizard will do the trick, because Retrospect
backs up in a progressive or "snapshot" format.

As far as I'm aware Retrospect is designed to backup data, not the system.
For that you need an Imaging App, eg Ghost, True Image to name a couple.

You could try a repair installation of winxp

"Desperate" <Desperate@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1A5844E3-B078-464D-AC12-8CF0271A7B6F@microsoft.com...
> I'm in a truly desperate situation!
>
> I am very diligent about doing a nightly full system backup. I backup to
an
> external USB drive using Retrospect HD. This software does a progressive
> nightly backup of my ENTIRE hardrive, including the operating system.
>
> Two days ago my hard drive crashed. I've installed a new hard drive and
> installed the version of XP-Pro that shipped with my Dell desktop about 3
> years ago. My plan was to install just the OS and then install my backup
> software and use it to reinstall everything from my backup drive. I was
> hoping that my backup would overwrite the version of XP with my most
recent
> backed up version, along with all my programs, data, and settings.
>
> Here's the problem.
>
> I've gone through the process 3 times of reinstalling XP, and then
restoring
> all of my backed up data. All my data appears to be present -- I can see
all
> of the files on the system after they are reinstalled, BUT the system will
> not boot from the new hard drive after I power down. I get the following
> error message:
>
> "Windows could not start because of a hardware configuration problem.
Could
> not read from the selection boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
>
> Please check the Windows documentation about hardware dis configuration
and
> your hardware reference manuals for additional information."
>
> At this point my system get's stuck in a loop and XP will not load. The
only
> place I can get to is the BIOS. I have confired that my new hard drive is
set
> to the Primary Master drive.
>
> I'd really hate to have to reinstall all of my programs, settings, etc.
> manually. I feel like I'm so close to getting this right , but I'm missing
> something.
>
> Was I incorrect to think that simply restoring all of my data would
override
> the basic installation of XP?
>
> I've been messing with this for 2 days and I'm about to pull my hair out.
> ANY suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help--
>
> Signed,
>
> Desperate
>

Why worry about "backup" when you just installed xp.If backup is such a worry,
the best method it to run the file transfer wizard from the xp cd,set as
old pc,
select data/files/settings to save,save to new folder,once data is
finished,move
to cd...Also,running backup nightly is waste of time,if having another copy
of xp
is needed to run aoto,buy another internal hd,set as slave to C: (xp
OS),format
the hd in xp,after go to run,type:XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all
in the
DOS window,once its thru,youve ghosted C: to new hd,ready to boot up by
itself
if wanted.Also,D: being new hd,if asigned diffrent letter,then use that
letter.

"Desperate" wrote:

> I'm in a truly desperate situation!
>
> I am very diligent about doing a nightly full system backup. I backup to an
> external USB drive using Retrospect HD. This software does a progressive
> nightly backup of my ENTIRE hardrive, including the operating system.
>
> Two days ago my hard drive crashed. I've installed a new hard drive and
> installed the version of XP-Pro that shipped with my Dell desktop about 3
> years ago. My plan was to install just the OS and then install my backup
> software and use it to reinstall everything from my backup drive. I was
> hoping that my backup would overwrite the version of XP with my most recent
> backed up version, along with all my programs, data, and settings.
>
> Here's the problem.
>
> I've gone through the process 3 times of reinstalling XP, and then restoring
> all of my backed up data. All my data appears to be present -- I can see all
> of the files on the system after they are reinstalled, BUT the system will
> not boot from the new hard drive after I power down. I get the following
> error message:
>
> "Windows could not start because of a hardware configuration problem. Could
> not read from the selection boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
>
> Please check the Windows documentation about hardware dis configuration and
> your hardware reference manuals for additional information."
>
> At this point my system get's stuck in a loop and XP will not load. The only
> place I can get to is the BIOS. I have confired that my new hard drive is set
> to the Primary Master drive.
>
> I'd really hate to have to reinstall all of my programs, settings, etc.
> manually. I feel like I'm so close to getting this right , but I'm missing
> something.
>
> Was I incorrect to think that simply restoring all of my data would override
> the basic installation of XP?
>
> I've been messing with this for 2 days and I'm about to pull my hair out.
> ANY suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help--
>
> Signed,
>
> Desperate
>

Retrospec is NOT going to restore your system

"Desperate" <Desperate@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BFE77EAB-BDD1-4FF3-BD80-84BDB8402E69@microsoft.com...
> Hi Andrew, thanks for your reply.
>
> The reason that I want to restore everything from my backup USB drive, is
> so that EVERYTHING get's put back the way it was prior to the crash.
>
> I don't think the file transfer wizard will do the trick, because
Retrospect
> backs up in a progressive or "snapshot" format.
>
>
>