Full disk restores not working with BESR 2010 and Vista, 7 and 2008 and some lessons learned......

[ioniancat21]

I constantly had issues when I attempted to restore a full disk backup to a new hard drive when the OS was Vista, 7 or Server 2008. Basically what occurs is that I can restore the image, but when I reboot I'd get "BOOTMGR not Found" or "Windows Not found" often and it scares me to the point where I use another imaging product and have doubles of all machines running Vista or Windows 7.

Just to add, using XP or Windows 2003 in this same scenario doesn't give me as much issue, but then I made an important discovery!!!!!

I removed the working test drive on one machine along with the drive I used for testing that failed on the restore attempt and discovered something important. Using Paragon Partition Manager, which gives you a view of more advanced partition data revealed the problem. On Windows Vista, 7 and 2008 Server machines, the active partition is not the C:\ drive as it's been since Windows was created. It is instead that 100MB System Reserved partition!!!!! After restoring again leaving the C:\ drive option unchecked for "Set Drive Active" and left enabled that option on the System Reserved partition an voila!!!

Realistically, this is Microsoft's fault because I've never read any documentation concerning this major change, but maybe they figured it was beyond the scope of most users.

[AJT]

BESR should check if restoring Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2 and not allow setting the Windows partition active.

PS: Your correct Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2 the System Reserved drive should be marked active!!!

[ioniancat21]

I just wanted to update everyone again on this find. I have a couple of friends who work in the IT world and learning this little bit of information has saved them from wasting time as I was similarly. It's my belief that as a first step, Symantec should update their User and Admin manual to reflect this important information. Despite the fact that Microsoft dropped the ball here, I know of many BESR 8.x and 2010 users who are doing exactly what I did, creating double images with a different product blaming BESR and Symantec for the issue, rather than Microsoft. I'd even go a step further and say that Symantec should have a help bubble pop-up when using the restore feature in Windows or using the SRD. The help bubble would open when the images are Vista, 2008, or 7 based and state that these types of images are different and to make sure you have the utility partition marked active.

They could easily add this help bubble in a future update. I'd appreciate if others spoke out on this here and maybe someone in Symantec will hear us and make this a reality as to me, it seems like a simple change that could positively effect other BESR users who are not here now and still in the dark as I was for almost 2-3 years on this issue as it began for me back in the BESR 8.0 days.

[AJT · Accepted solution]

I've spoken with a SYMC BESR level 2 support person, he stated that he was going to bring this issue up with management and suggest a fix get into the next BESR SP.

Hope this helps :)

[ioniancat21]

Thanks to AJT for forwarding this up to support!!!!!

I thought this would be a simple thing to fix, yet the value of the fix is high. In many cases, fixing issues would require software developers and programmers and it's nice when someone merely has to update their manual and help, which I guess for a company like Symantec with so many offerings is a pleasure next to what could be. An example of this can be found in the Acronis forum, where users are getting no help on major issues.

I've been doing imaging and deployment for almost 20 years now and have used every product imaginable, Symantec definitely has a winner with BESR, as they have successfully integrated acquired technology into their products.

[ProductPro]

Greetings,

  Try this article:
http://support.veritas.com/docs/351336

Enjoy!
ProductPro

[Symanticus]

yes please, let us know when the next SP is available for download.