Copy OS Disk Why wont windows start ?

[carterjd]

Ive made a copy of my Operating System Windows XP C drive and then attempte dto boot from that drive, which it does. Windows starts, gets as far as the blue screen just before the profile/login is requested and stops.

Any ideas why this is happening ?

Help Much appreciated.

Thanks

[Markus_Koestler]

Can you provide more details ?

[carterjd]

Hi.  To clarify:

Ive copied the operating system hard drive (c) using the copy disk function and says it was successful.

To test it, Ive then replaced my old O/S hard drive with the new copy, rebooted from this which all goes OK, windows starts but shen stops and hangs just before you usually are asked to log in.

This is meant to be an exact duplicate of the drive, so not sure why this would happen.

All I want to do is have an exact copy of the O/S so that in the event of a major problem I can just get up and running in 10 minutes by putting in this copied drive, and I know at least that it works, rather than having to reply on compressed backups and image files which from experience have caused immense problems, as you never actually know if it will work until that day arrives !

Thanks

[Markus_Koestler]

Hm, maybe you can provide the STOP code of the blue screen ?

[carterjd]

Just to clarify, its not the "blue screen of death" with error codes, its the usual blue screen of windows XP that you see when it starts up. Its starts with the windows logo on a black screen, then moves to blue where you input your login.   It hangs at that point just before the login form field appears.

[Markus_Koestler]

Hm, interesting issue. I had one similar issue when I restored a server but the pagefile was missing after the restore. I had to boot to restore mode and disable the page file use, then start windows normally and  enable the pagefile again.

[carterjd]

Rather worrying if this program isnt actually capable of doing a straightforward clone disk copy I think !

Ive had nothing but trouble with backup Exec since purchase and now using another progam to do our file backups as has been generating errors when trying to restore, and it takes days to do a backup with any compression applied, where other program takes just a few hours (for 180GB), and cant afford to risk losing data.

All I am using Backup EXec for now is to copy the O/S so that in the event of a failure of the C Drive I can just swap it out and get up and running straight away

Could it be a disk copy error - I.e I should try another disk copy do you think ? Or maybe another bit of Software ?!

[Mahesh_Roja]

Are you able to boot in safe mode?

[carterjd]

No - Safe mode also wont start - hangs at exactly the same place.

[queekus]

I have what appears to be the same problem and am looking for a solution as well.  

I ran a full backup on my laptop (using BESR 2010 desktop edition on windows 7 enterprise) and storing the backup on an external USB drive.  I put in a new disk (identical to the old one) and did a restore using the Recovery Disk created on the same machine (so it should have all of my drivers).  Everything works great until I try to log in.  I have no mouse or keyboard.  Pressing the CAPS Lock key does not turn the light on my keyboard like it normally does.  Repeatedly pressing this key during the boot process shows that this stops working just a few seconds after the animated Windows 7 logo comes up on the screen.  It is as if the OS is hung.  But, it would be odd that the OS "hangs" but still keeps on booting to the point where the login screen comes up.

Anyone with any ideas?

[Symanticus]

hi there, make sure that you use the restore to different hardware option selected ?

or refer to this thread: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/cold-backup-using-besro-852-srd-error

hope this helps.

[Mahesh_Roja]

try to boot with command prompt only and run for checkdisk

with chkdsk /F then see

[carterjd]

Ive officially given up - Having purchased Backup Exec as a solution to auto backup our main files of 150GB+ (ideally to Ext hard drive) and as a clone disk solution to have a reserve of our operating system in the event of a disaster - not a lot to ask - it seems upon checking the backups, all is not as it seems.

Im pretty annoyed as a waste of time and money trying to get this to work, and horrified that this could have really landed us in the proverbial poo if we hadnt checked our backups - Heres my issues to share and warn others 

- Backup up to an external hard drive with any form of compression just takes days and days and isnt practical.

- Upon trying to restore the said backups, it fails and wont restore - VERY worrying

- Cloning a hard drive with operating system wouldnt fully boot windows past the login stage (see above posts) no matter what I try so basically is useless. BESR said the clone was successful !

- Technical support available from Symantec.... None that I can find. Their website is just a technical mishmash and trying to find any solutions or help is just mind boggling.
 

I strongly recommend checking ALL backups when using this software and hope you have better luck than us.

For the record, weve purchased Migo PC Backup 10 for our file backups which is simple and works just superbly, and backs up 150GB drive in a few hours. Not saying this will do as much as Backup Exec 'claims' to do, but perfect for scheduled data backups and at least we know it works! We also have subscribed to an off site storage system - Carbonite.com. Unlimited storage for £50 or so per year.  I cant recommend it enough for peace of mind.

Finally, yesterday we installed Acronis Data Migrate 7.0 to clone operating system hard drive, and all done in an hour and works first time. Its even a free 15 day trial !

This sound like Im on commission !!  Im not - just wanted to share my findings with you all.

Finally, thanks for everyone who responded to our posts.