Image copy drive won't boot properly

[jc]

I recently rebuilt the OS on my home computer (WIndows XP Home) from
scratch after a nasty malware experience.

I want to create a copy of the disk at this point, so if this happens
again, I can
simply swap in the disk and not have to start from zero - 5 minutes
as
opposed to an entire evening.

I used the DriveImage XML utility to
create a backup onto a USB drive, then mount the new drive as IDE0#0
and
boot from an Ultimate Boot Disk for Windows CD to restore.

Everything *seems* to work perfectly. The disk appears identical to
the
original, and it boots to Windows; however, it ends with the login
screen
*with no accounts shown in it and no way to log in*! It just says
"Welcome
to Windows XP" and stops. The same thing happens in Safe Mode, ie,
even the Administrator login disappears.

I also used a direct copy utility to image the drive while both
were mounted. The same thing happened (and doing that always
scares me anyway).

I have one possible theory. When I used this as an ordinary disk, it
was
assigned drive letter O:, and that info would be in the registry that
has
now been copied to it. Is it it possible that when it's booting and
encounters
its own serial number as drive O:, it gets confused? If so, I can go
in and
diddle the registry.

Of course, that's just one theory. ANY advice would be appreciated.

Regards,
jc

 

[dg1261]

I have one possible theory. When I used this as an ordinary disk,
it was assigned drive letter O:, and that info would be in the
registry that has now been copied to it. Is it it possible that
when it's booting and encounters its own serial number as drive
O:, it gets confused? If so, I can go in and diddle the registry.

Yeah, that's the gist of it. It's a common problem with cloning. See:
www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

The easiest way to fix it is with "Kawecki's Trick", explained in that
link.

If you can't do that for some reason, an alternative is to boot back into
your old-XP with the new one in the external case, then use a sector
editor (Roadkil's free SecEdit, from www.roadkil.net, is good) to edit
the external disk's MBR. Have SecEdit open the "Physical 1" drive (where
your old disk is 0 and the external is 1). The first sector will be the
MBR. The DiskID is four bytes in row 1B0, columns 08 to 0B. Change any
one of them to anything you want (it's just a pseudo-random number,
anyway) and save the change. Shut down and see if the new disk will then
boot.

If you're familiar with remotely mounting registry hives, you can also
use old-XP's regedit to mount new-XP's system hive and manually delete
the [HKLM/System/MountedDevices] key, but I think tweaking the DiskID is
a little easier.

 

[jc]

Yeah, that's the gist of it.  It's a common problem with cloning.  See:
   www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

Thanks. I was able to use the registry editor in the UBCD to
remove the drive mapping, and it works perfectly (in fact,
I'm running from the clone now).

Thanks,
jc

The easiest way to fix it is with "Kawecki's Trick", explained in that
link.

If you can't do that for some reason, an alternative is to boot back into
your old-XP with the new one in the external case, then use a sector
editor (Roadkil's free SecEdit, fromwww.roadkil.net, is good) to edit
the external disk's MBR.  Have SecEdit open the "Physical 1" drive (where
your old disk is 0 and the external is 1).  The first sector will be the
MBR.  The DiskID is four bytes in row 1B0, columns 08 to 0B.  Change any
one of them to anything you want (it's just a pseudo-random number,
anyway) and save the change.  Shut down and see if the new disk will then
boot.

If you're familiar with remotely mounting registry hives, you can also
use old-XP's regedit to mount new-XP's system hive and manually delete
the [HKLM/System/MountedDevices] key, but I think tweaking the DiskID is
a little easier.

 

[jc]

PS. Nice to know you can still get burned by a DOS legacy
after all these years (although I guess the drive
letter thing really dates back to IBM main frames).

I have one possible theory.  When I used this as an ordinary disk,
it was assigned drive letter O:, and that info would be in the
registry that has now been copied to it. Is it it possible that
when it's booting and encounters its own serial number as drive
O:, it gets confused?  If so, I can go in and diddle the registry.

Yeah, that's the gist of it.  It's a common problem with cloning.  See:
   www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

The easiest way to fix it is with "Kawecki's Trick", explained in that
link.

If you can't do that for some reason, an alternative is to boot back into
your old-XP with the new one in the external case, then use a sector
editor (Roadkil's free SecEdit, fromwww.roadkil.net, is good) to edit
the external disk's MBR.  Have SecEdit open the "Physical 1" drive (where
your old disk is 0 and the external is 1).  The first sector will be the
MBR.  The DiskID is four bytes in row 1B0, columns 08 to 0B.  Change any
one of them to anything you want (it's just a pseudo-random number,
anyway) and save the change.  Shut down and see if the new disk will then
boot.

If you're familiar with remotely mounting registry hives, you can also
use old-XP's regedit to mount new-XP's system hive and manually delete
the [HKLM/System/MountedDevices] key, but I think tweaking the DiskID is
a little easier.