Restoring Vista on a new HD from scratch given a valid image backup

[Steve Pisani]

Hi.

I have Windows Home Premium installed and running on my media center
pc, and I want to see how I would go about rebuilding this PC, let's
say, in the event that I completely loose my hard drive that has Vista
on it.

First, I plan to regularly make backups of the OS using DriveImageXML.

Now.... I bought a brand new HD.

Using another computer, I
(a) mount the new drive
(b) create an Active Primary partition the same size as my original C:
drive, and,
(c) using DriveImageXML and the image I took - I restore my backup to
my new drive.
(d) using the Windows Vista DVD I run \boot\bootrec /nt60 F: (where F
is the new hard drive)

I then take this HD in place of my old one, and change the Boot
sequence in my BIOS to make sure it boots first, and is comfigured as
Disk 0 - Master.

When I boot my computer - however - I'm told by a screen headed
"Windows Boot Manager" that windows was unable to boot and that "c:
\Windows\System32\winloader.exe" application was either not found or
corrupt.
And to run the "Startup Repair" from the Vista DVD.

I tried that, however, when I do boot from DVD and click Repair.., the
Window showing the list of operating installations found shows
"Windows Vista" Partition:0 and just hangs on the hourglass. Cannot
proceed at all..

How can I get this drive to boot ???

I'm at a loss.

thanks
sp

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Steve,

Using another computer, I
(a) mount the new drive
(b) create an Active Primary partition the same size as my original C:
drive, and,
(c) using DriveImageXML and the image I took - I restore my backup to
my new drive.

Why not stop at this point and place the new drive in the old system?

(d) using the Windows Vista DVD I run \boot\bootrec /nt60 F: (where F
is the new hard drive)

This may be the source of the problem if the installation thinks it's on F:,
it won't be able to find winload.exe (without the "er").

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[John Barnes]

Don't use another computer. Mount the new hard drive in the same exact
place as the old drive and restore your backup. Then reboot. Do make sure
that the same drive boots first (in this case your new drive if your old
drive was first in priority).

 

[Steve Pisani]

Don't use another computer.  Mount the new hard drive in the same exact
place as the old drive and restore your backup.  Then reboot.  Do makesure
that the same drive boots first (in this case your new drive if your old
drive was first in priority).
















- Show quoted text -

OK. Let me try those two suggestions and report back. I'm pretty
sure Rick's suggestion was the first one I tried.
Steve