Recovery from obsolete BIOS

[William B. Lurie]

Kind of an old and sensitive subject, but here goes.
I have hard drives with backup drive images made on
a machine which died and was replaced by a new machine.
I am able to restore Ghost 10 'recovery points' made
on the new machine, but the new machine refuses to boot
using old 'recovery points' made on the old machine.
It's not a matter of licensing or product codes.

I can just hope that I'll never *have* to run the OS
from the old machine, or I can hope that somebody will
guide me to a way to make an old drive image or
'recovery point' boot on a machine with different BIOS.

 

[philo]

Kind of an old and sensitive subject, but here goes.
I have hard drives with backup drive images made on
a machine which died and was replaced by a new machine.
I am able to restore Ghost 10 'recovery points' made
on the new machine, but the new machine refuses to boot
using old 'recovery points' made on the old machine.
It's not a matter of licensing or product codes.

I can just hope that I'll never *have* to run the OS
from the old machine, or I can hope that somebody will
guide me to a way to make an old drive image or
'recovery point' boot on a machine with different BIOS.

Unless the hardware is pretty similar to the original machine
you'll need to perform a repair install

 

[William B. Lurie]

Unless the hardware is pretty similar to the original machine
you'll need to perform a repair install

Hardware is quite similar....but "repair install", if I recall
correctly, requires something like an "installation CD". Both the now
discarded PC and the new one are OEM machines, neither one coming
with a CD. I believe that the Repair Install software should be
onboard.....in a separate partition on the HD in my new (year-old)
machine. But how to use it......?

 

[peter]

So you imaged the drive from machine X and want to restore to machine Y
You do realise that the hardware drivers that make the system function will
NOT be the same...different IDE controllers..or maybe SATA now....different
video....and what else..who knows.you did not deem it important enough to
tell us what you had and what you changed to.........
Once you have restored the image to machine Y....you will need to restart
with the XP CD and do a "repair" installation in order to correct this
driver issue......without it your stuck where you are now.

or did the Old Machine come with a preinstalled OEM version of
XP???......then I guess its time to buy a copy
peter

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Unless the hardware is pretty similar to the original machine
you'll need to perform a repair install

Unless the hardware is virtually *identical* to the old one, he'll
need to at least do a repair installation. If the hardware is
different enough, sometimes a repair installation isn't enough, and a
clean installation is required.

 

[peter]

something missing in the interpretation......
are you trying to restore a whole HD image with the OS and all?? or what??
If you already have XP on the machine why the image restore??...programs???
saved work???

Either way no XP CD to repair with........
the "Restore" options on a pre installed system might allow a non
destructive repair installation....you would need to read the manual that
came with the system to determine that or go to the webite of maker and
download new manual if you have misplaced the original
Most systems with a pre installed OS and a hidden recovery partition just
have the ability to restore to just purchase date.....formats and
reinstalls.

If you have a friend that has an OEM XP CD you could use that to do a repair
installation ...using your OEM number if asked.
there comes a point where one has to determine which is less harmful...less
stress...less time...getting the image to work or reinstalling programs from
their original CD's
peter

 

[William B. Lurie]

Unless the hardware is virtually *identical* to the old one, he'll
need to at least do a repair installation. If the hardware is
different enough, sometimes a repair installation isn't enough, and a
clean installation is required.

Sorry, I thought I made it clear, or figured everyone knew....
that both X and Y came from the retail store as working
entities with no CD, no instruction book for anything beyond
installation hookup. And a non-removable sticker on the case
with the magic 25-digit code. Machine X came with a Restore CD,
good for putting the machine back as it was when it left the
factory, and another with a set of drivers. Machine Y came with
a spare partition on the one HD, for maintenance use if needed.

Obviously the solution is to take a backup clone of System Y
and reinstall on it, from whatever source I need to go back to,
as well as I can, realizing that it would be a forever task to
reinstall everything.....including downloads that installed direct
without being saved as executable files.

The idea of making backup clones falls apart when one realizes
that they will only work on the machine they came from. If that
machine dies.......the backups die with it.

 

[peter]

That isn't quite true..........if you had bought a machine and XP seperately
you would be able to do what you wish.
The problem is that companies nowadays just do not give you a copy of XP on
a separate CD and most only allow you to restore to 1st purchased state.If
you had a copy of an OEM XP CD you would be able to accomplish what you
want.
Its like buying a new car.......and in your garage you have a perfectly new
set of tires from the old car.They will only fit the new car if you took
that into consideration when you bought the new car.
When you bought the new computer did you take your Imageing into the
equation?? did you ask the seller how to accomplish this with your new
machine?? How to transfer all of your programs etc from the old to the new??
You know XP CD,s are pretty cheap nowdays...
peter

 

[Xandros]

You probably just have to repair the master boot file. Boot with and XP CD,
go to the Recovery Console, type FIXBOOT and hit Enter and after that it
doesn't hurt to type BOOTCFG and hit Enter. Remove the XP Cd and type EXIT
to boot

See here http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6031733.html

look at # 5, 6, and 7

 

[Curt Christianson]

Hi William,

Sometimes, and I mean sometimes if you happen to know a fellow at a local
repair shop and describe your problem, they *may* be able to help at a price
that is reasonable to you.

--
HTH,

Curt

http://dundats.mvps.org/
http://www.aumha.org/

 

[DL]

If you have an OEM edition then it is 'often' the case that a complete
system Image is of no use, unless the target PC is from the same
manufacturer.
However a clone can still be used for recovering data to any new PC

 

[Bob Harris]

As others have replied, you need a real XP CD to perform a repair, and that
is almost 100% required when switching hardware.

Further, even if you get that to work, XP's activation will sense the new
hardware and give you something like 3 days to activate or stop working. If
the underlying verison of XP is OEM, it is not meant to be transferred and
re-activation will probably fail.

You have begun to realize that "price" for using OEM/pre-installed versions
of XP: They are good only on the hardware on which they were originally
installed!

All that said, you should still be able to recover personal files, including
any programs that you downloaded and saved as installers (like SETUP.EXE, or
*.MSI). GHOST has an option to mount an image as a file system, afterwhich
you can simply copy&paste files/folders from the image back onto the hard
drive of the new PC.

But, as a matter of organization/safety you should separate personal files
from the operating system and installed programs. Separate partitions are
one of the best ways to accomplish this. Personal files may be
irreplaceable, but a PC+OS can always be purchased for some price, and not a
very high one these days. Further, once separated, you can backup your
personal files by a simple copy&paste, or by the command line program XCOPY,
which comes with XP. An external USB disk, DVDs, etc are good places to
stroe a backup copy of personal files. Hard drive imaging, like GHOST, is
only required for the system partition. Most users have a much larger
volume of personal files than system files, but the persoal files do not
tend to change frequently; it is more common to add to them than to change
them. And, additions occur frequently, almost daily. In contrast,
operating system changes occur about once a month (via XP update). You
might also want to backup your favorites, which can be done via a simple
copy&paste.

 

[William B. Lurie]

Thanks, Bob, for the complete run-down. And to others
for pitching in.
Bill L.

 

[William B. Lurie]

To close the issue, with thanks to all.......my practical
solution is to do nothing with the old backups. I make a
new one every few weeks or so, and they all boot fine. If
it should come to pass that I need something off a backup
from a non-booting recovery point, I'll have time then to
take more drastic steps. I'm wearing a belt, and will
probably never need the suspenders.