Windows 7 W7 no longer boots after restored from Clonezilla image

[Winfried]

[SOLVED] W7 no longer boots after restored from Clonezilla image

Hello

After restoring an image made with Clonezilla that used to work, Windows 7 is unable to start. When prompted, I used the DVD, but it still fails with "Startup Repair could not detect a problem".

When rebooting, it says "Windows Error Recovery: Launch Startup Repair (recommended) and Start Windows Normally": Launch Startup Repair fails with "Windows Boot Manager: 0xc000000e The Boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible".

FWIW, to investigate, I deleted both partitions (#1 to hold the OS, #2 to hold images) and re-created them with enough space to hold (#1 was made a bit bigger because I didn't know how to specify infos in cfdisk accurately), and Clonezilla happily restored the image.

Does someone know what it could be, and what to try?

Thank you.

 

[Winfried]

More information:

Using the Command Prompt Recovery Console off of the Vista DVD, I ran the command:


CMD> bootrec /rebuildbcd


"Successfully scanned Windows installations.
Total identified Windows installations: 0
The operation completed successfully"


"bcdedit /enum" displays "identifier {bootmanager}" and "identifier {default}"


bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
"The operation completed successfully."


bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
"The operation completed successfully."


bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:
"The operation completed successfully."


bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=c:
"An error occured while attempting to reference the specified entry. The system cannot find the file specified."

Rebooted, still getting error 0xc000000e.

 

[Winfried]

More information: I could successfully restore XPSP3, although it went through a CHKDSK before rebooting successfully.

Next, I tried to restore W7, but still get the "Windows Error Recover" message.

So it looks like a Windows7-specific issue.

 

[zvit]

The use of Clonezilla is anything but simple. If you created the image improperly, you are in a pickle:
Link Removed - Invalid URL

I suggest you use Acronis Backup software for data backup and disaster recovery in Windows and Linux - Acronis or if you want to save a few dollars, use a great free one (my personal favorite) called Easeus ToDo Backup Link Removed

 

[Winfried]

Thanks for the tip. I reinstalled W7 from scratch, and noticed that it creates two partitions, where #1 is about 100MB and seems to hold the boot loader. The original image was of /dev/sda1 and restored OK, so I don't understand why I now have to save two partitions. Does someone know if it's possible to have Windows7 on a single partition?

Also, should I run the sysrep commands ("Sysprep /Generalized /OOBE /Shutdown", and "Sysprep /Generalized /AUDIT /Shutdown") before making an image?

Thank you.

 

[zvit]

You are welcome.
Like I said, Clonezilla is not simple. I read in their site that it won't work on drives with partitions, so if your drive has a 100\200MB partition for system\backup files, you can't use it. That's how I understood it. Use one of the programs I suggested to make your images. They are better than Norton Ghost.

 

[Winfried]

Thanks for the info. I'm used to using Clonezilla, which being ncurses-based, isn't as user-friendly as Windows equivalent like Easeus ToDo Backup, which I'll try too to see how it works.