Boot problems

[Mark]

Searching these threads I haven't seen this one yet. Last week I
turned on my computer as usual and the screen that comes up when you
didn't shut down windows properly came up. No big deal or so I
thought. I chose to start windows normally, and the same screen came
up. I chose safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known good
configuration, etc. ALL come back up at the same screen. I backup
using Acronis software to an external USB drive. My last backup was 10
days prior to this problem. I tried a restore and the trouble was
still there so I ran a virus and integrity check on the backup but
nothing came up. So I figured the hard drive was toast and I purchased
another computer. After rolling back from Vista to XP on the new one,
I updated all the drivers etc and had a good working computer except
without all my programs and data. Then I restored the image from
external hard drive backup to the new drive, and guess what....the
problem occurs on the new hard drive as well. So whatever problem
occured on my old hard drive was transferred over to the backup on the
external hard drive and then onto the new hard drive. This is a
completely new and different computer, so it can't be hardware issues
like a bad drive cable etc. Besides needing help on how to fix this, I
wonder why a backup from 10 days PRIOR to the problem developing on
the old hard drive transfers the problem to the new hard drive? I
would understand it if the backup was made AFTER the problem
developed! Please help if you can!

 

[Nepatsfan]

Searching these threads I haven't seen this one yet. Last week I
turned on my computer as usual and the screen that comes up when you
didn't shut down windows properly came up. No big deal or so I
thought. I chose to start windows normally, and the same screen came
up. I chose safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known good
configuration, etc. ALL come back up at the same screen. I backup
using Acronis software to an external USB drive. My last backup was 10
days prior to this problem. I tried a restore and the trouble was
still there so I ran a virus and integrity check on the backup but
nothing came up. So I figured the hard drive was toast and I purchased
another computer. After rolling back from Vista to XP on the new one,
I updated all the drivers etc and had a good working computer except
without all my programs and data. Then I restored the image from
external hard drive backup to the new drive, and guess what....the
problem occurs on the new hard drive as well. So whatever problem
occured on my old hard drive was transferred over to the backup on the
external hard drive and then onto the new hard drive. This is a
completely new and different computer, so it can't be hardware issues
like a bad drive cable etc. Besides needing help on how to fix this, I
wonder why a backup from 10 days PRIOR to the problem developing on
the old hard drive transfers the problem to the new hard drive? I
would understand it if the backup was made AFTER the problem
developed! Please help if you can!

Let me see if I've got this right. You installed XP on a new computer you
purchased. Everything's working great.

You now take an image created on the old computer, restore it to the new
computer which effectively wipes out the working installation, and it doesn't
boot.

Of course it doesn't boot. It's looking for all the hardware settings from your
old computer. Unless the two systems are nearly identical, you can expect to
need to perform a repair installation. Take a look at this article for more info
or Google XP repair installation.

Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP
How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Mark]

Let me see if I've got this right. You installed XP on a new computer you
purchased. Everything's working great.

You now take an image created on the old computer, restore it to the new
computer which effectively wipes out the working installation, and it doesn't
boot.

Of course it doesn't boot. It's looking for all the hardware settings from your
old computer. Unless the two systems are nearly identical, you can expect to
need to perform a repair installation. Take a look at this article for more info
or Google XP repair installation.

Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP
How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Installhttp://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Good luck

Nepatsfan

Yes, I thought about that, but when I do the Acronis recovery, it
wipes out the existing partitions. Plenty of people clone a disc so
they can move data from an older system to a new one and it works.
Does that make any difference in this case?

 

[Nepatsfan]

Yes, I thought about that, but when I do the Acronis recovery, it
wipes out the existing partitions.

That's exactly what I'd expect an imaging program to do. It replaces all the
files on the hard drive with the files that existed on the computer where the
image was created. In other words, it restores the computing environment that
existed on your old computer. The image that is created by Acronis True Image is
meant to be restored to the same computer or an identical system.

Plenty of people clone a disc so
they can move data from an older system to a new one and it works.

If they do this without having to then run a repair installation of XP, they are
lucky. Keep in mind that after you run the ATI restore process, you're expecting
Windows to run on your new computer while using all the files that existed on
your old computer. That means the old Windows files, the hardware drivers from
your old computer, and the registry from your old computer. Unless the system's
are nearly identical, you can't move the hard drive from one computer to another
and expect XP to identify all the different hardware, install the correct
drivers, and boot with no problems.

The fact of the matter is that most people moving from an old XP system to a new
one have to reinstall all their old programs and transfer their old data.

Does that make any difference in this case?

Yes, it does. After you use ATI to restore the image from your old computer to
your new computer you'll need to run a repair installation on the new system.

If the repair installation doesn't help fix this problem then you're probably
going to have to bite the bullet and do a clean installation of XP on your new
computer. Once you've got Windows up and running you'll have to reinstall all
your programs and restore your data files which you hopefully have backed up.
I'm not familiar with ATI, but I believe it has a component which allows you to
recover data files from an image. This would be different than the restore
process.

Good luck

Nepatsfan