Windows XP fails to boot after Drive Image 7 restore

[Milleniumaire]

I have just restored one of the disks on my system using Drive Image
7. The disk contained 4 partitions (originally labelled C:, E:, F:
and G. I also have two other disks which were untouched by Drive
Image and were labelled H: and I:.

Partition C: was my Windows XP Professional system partition. I
restored partitions C:, E: and F: (G: would not fit on the disk
despite being the same reported size! Why is this?) and no errors were
reported.

When I try to start Windows I get the following error:

missing or corrupt <windows root>\system32\hal.ddl

Anyone know why this has happened and how I can repair it?

I thought that Drive Image restored an EXACT image of the backed up
drive. If this is so then why is this restored file causing a
problem? It didn't cause a problem when the system was running at the
time the backup was taken.

One thing I have noticed, which may or may not be contributing to the
problem, if I boot the machine with the Drive Image CD and run PQRE,
the drives labels have all changed i.e. Windows XP system is now drive
E: when it was originally drive C:. The two "untouched" drives are
now C: and D: when they were H: and I: before the restore.

Anyone know why the drives have been re-labelled by Drive Image? I
would have expected Drive Image to put them back EXACTLY as they were
backed up i.e. C: to C:, E: to E: etc. Is it possible that the boot
process is looking for Windows XP files on the C: drive but (thanks to
Drive Image) they are now on the E: drive and so can't be found?

Any help explaining the problems and recovering my system would be
appreciated.

Regards.
Paul.

 

[Cerridwen]

I have just restored one of the disks on my system using Drive Image
7. The disk contained 4 partitions (originally labelled C:, E:, F:
and G. I also have two other disks which were untouched by Drive
Image and were labelled H: and I:.

Partition C: was my Windows XP Professional system partition. I
restored partitions C:, E: and F: (G: would not fit on the disk
despite being the same reported size! Why is this?) and no errors were
reported.

When I try to start Windows I get the following error:

missing or corrupt <windows root>\system32\hal.ddl

Anyone know why this has happened and how I can repair it?

I thought that Drive Image restored an EXACT image of the backed up
drive. If this is so then why is this restored file causing a
problem? It didn't cause a problem when the system was running at the
time the backup was taken.

One thing I have noticed, which may or may not be contributing to the
problem, if I boot the machine with the Drive Image CD and run PQRE,
the drives labels have all changed i.e. Windows XP system is now drive
E: when it was originally drive C:. The two "untouched" drives are
now C: and D: when they were H: and I: before the restore.

Anyone know why the drives have been re-labelled by Drive Image? I
would have expected Drive Image to put them back EXACTLY as they were
backed up i.e. C: to C:, E: to E: etc. Is it possible that the boot
process is looking for Windows XP files on the C: drive but (thanks to
Drive Image) they are now on the E: drive and so can't be found?

Any help explaining the problems and recovering my system would be
appreciated.

Regards.
Paul.

Tell me - do you have any form of external storage device attached to this
system?

 

[Test Man]

We had this problem at work using Norton Ghost 2003 but this was after we
installed Linux. Unfortunately, using Partition Magic 7 to wipe the Linux
partitions before restoring the Windows XP image didn't seem to work. The
only way it worked was by using the Windows XP boot CD to run setup and then
tell it to wipe and repartition the drives. Then we rebooted and used
Norton Ghost to restore the image again and it worked!

We think it's cos somehow the info in the Master Boot Record was corrupted
or something and Windows didn't like it so using the Windows setup to wipe
this info and put it's own info in it worked. Try it for yourself.

 

[Guest]

why don't you try repairing Windows using the WIndows XP OS CD, but before you do so why don't you try restoring the MBR which probably is corrupt and u can do so by getting into the recovery console and using the FIXMBR comman

u may refer to this for further details [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654&Product=winxp]

 

[Milleniumaire]

I have a DVD Rom and a DVD writer (capable of writing +/- and DVD-RAM).

It is also connected to a network and so can access the drives of other PC's.

 

[Brain Coats]

Sometimes using a win98se boot disk by typing
fdisk /mbr

Will work.
Even if the drive is a ntfs partition
I had the same problem when I do some partitioning.
The xp was in ntfs formart.

Brain Coats

why don't you try repairing Windows using the WIndows XP OS CD, but before you do so why don't you try restoring the MBR which probably is corrupt and u can do so by getting into the recovery console and using the FIXMBR command


u may refer to this for further details [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654&Product=winxp]

 

[Milleniumaire]

I know I can use fixmbr in the Windows XP Recovery Console but it
warns me about possibly loosing data and this puts me off running it.
My drive is actually 2 disks stripped in as a raid array.

Do you know what fixmbr actually does and if it will affect my raid
array?

I have already tried using fixboot to recreate boot.ini but this has
made no difference!

Paul.

Sometimes using a win98se boot disk by typing
fdisk /mbr

Will work.
Even if the drive is a ntfs partition
I had the same problem when I do some partitioning.
The xp was in ntfs formart.

Brain Coats

why don't you try repairing Windows using the WIndows XP OS CD, but before you do so why don't you try restoring the MBR which probably is corrupt and u can do so by getting into the recovery console and using the FIXMBR command


u may refer to this for further details [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654&Product=winxp]