Acronis Vista Restore Didn't Work

I took an image of my Vista C: drive prior to replacing Vista on my
XPS 410 with a fresh install of XP. I backed up all partitions on the
C: drive.

Since then I added two hard drives. My plan is to have XP on one
drive, Vista on another, and a 3rd for data. I will disable either
the XP or Vista drive in the bios when wanting to switch between the
OS's

I ran into problems when I tried to restore the Vista image to one of
the two new hard drives. Everything seemed to restore OK but when I
tried to boot from it I wasn't able to. I tried everything, different
combinations, restoring only C:. Upon booting a dialog came up asking
if I wanted to repair the installation, restore to a prior system
restore point, and use the Dell recovery partition.

It even went into the Dell recovery partition and restored and said it
was successful, but it wouldn't boot correctly, so it really wasn't
successful.

This was an all-nighter effort. Not really worth it if all I wanted
to do was install Vista. A fresh install is much easier. This was,
however, instended to be a test of my "disaster recovery" procedure. I
wanted to be sure I could do it in a non-emergency situation so that
if things get corrputed in the future I know I can rely on backups.
So, right now I don't have faith in my ability to take backup images
that I can restore to.

I will check the Acronis site to see if there are Vista updates. I
assumed not since I bought it not too long ago, but that is the first
thing I should have checked.

On the positive side, doing a fresh install of Vista was the easiest
install I have ever done. I don't know if the Vista Business CD from
Dell has drivers on that CD. If not, Windows did a great job of
identifying things.

"Journey" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I took an image of my Vista C: drive prior to replacing Vista on
>my
> XPS 410 with a fresh install of XP. I backed up all partitions
> on the
> C: drive.
>
> Since then I added two hard drives. My plan is to have XP on
> one
> drive, Vista on another, and a 3rd for data. I will disable
> either
> the XP or Vista drive in the bios when wanting to switch between
> the
> OS's
>
> I ran into problems when I tried to restore the Vista image to
> one of
> the two new hard drives. Everything seemed to restore OK but
> when I
> tried to boot from it I wasn't able to. I tried everything,
> different
> combinations, restoring only C:. Upon booting a dialog came up
> asking
> if I wanted to repair the installation, restore to a prior
> system
> restore point, and use the Dell recovery partition.
>
> It even went into the Dell recovery partition and restored and
> said it
> was successful, but it wouldn't boot correctly, so it really
> wasn't
> successful.
>
> This was an all-nighter effort. Not really worth it if all I
> wanted
> to do was install Vista. A fresh install is much easier. This
> was,
> however, instended to be a test of my "disaster recovery"
> procedure. I
> wanted to be sure I could do it in a non-emergency situation so
> that
> if things get corrputed in the future I know I can rely on
> backups.
> So, right now I don't have faith in my ability to take backup
> images
> that I can restore to.
>
> I will check the Acronis site to see if there are Vista updates.
> I
> assumed not since I bought it not too long ago, but that is the
> first
> thing I should have checked.
>
> On the positive side, doing a fresh install of Vista was the
> easiest
> install I have ever done. I don't know if the Vista Business CD
> from
> Dell has drivers on that CD. If not, Windows did a great job of
> identifying things.

Vista uses a new MBR which messes up XP. Get Vistabootpro and fix
it.
http://www.vistabootpro.org/

On Sat, 7 Apr 2007 16:39:26 -0400, "pen" <> wrote:

>> On the positive side, doing a fresh install of Vista was the
>> easiest
>> install I have ever done. I don't know if the Vista Business CD
>> from
>> Dell has drivers on that CD. If not, Windows did a great job of
>> identifying things.
>
>Vista uses a new MBR which messes up XP. Get Vistabootpro and fix
>it.
>http://www.vistabootpro.org/

When you day it messes up XP, what do you mean. If XP and Vista are
on separate hard disks, and I disable the one not used in the bios
when starting up does Vista mess up XP in that scenario?

I looked at vistabootpro, and they start out jumping into the topic
without saying what it is. That irriates the he** out of me. Just
tell me wtf it is my time is important. Is it a dual boot manager for
having Vista and XP on the same physical hard drive? I would like to
see the manual online before downloading or installing.

If my solution above is fine, I will stick with that for a while. If
there is a problem wtih it, anyone, plese let me know. Thanks.

On Sat, 7 Apr 2007 16:39:26 -0400, "pen" <> wrote:

>
>Vista uses a new MBR which messes up XP. Get Vistabootpro and fix
>it.
>http://www.vistabootpro.org/

P.S. -- would this tool have aided in my restoring my Vista image? I
thought an image was an exact image of the disk and that if in the
boot sequence it would be OK if restored.

"Journey" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I took an image of my Vista C: drive prior to replacing Vista on my
> XPS 410 with a fresh install of XP. I backed up all partitions on the
> C: drive.
>
> Since then I added two hard drives. My plan is to have XP on one
> drive, Vista on another, and a 3rd for data. I will disable either
> the XP or Vista drive in the bios when wanting to switch between the
> OS's
>
> I ran into problems when I tried to restore the Vista image to one of
> the two new hard drives. Everything seemed to restore OK but when I
> tried to boot from it I wasn't able to. I tried everything, different
> combinations, restoring only C:. Upon booting a dialog came up asking
> if I wanted to repair the installation, restore to a prior system
> restore point, and use the Dell recovery partition.
>
> It even went into the Dell recovery partition and restored and said it
> was successful, but it wouldn't boot correctly, so it really wasn't
> successful.
>
> This was an all-nighter effort. Not really worth it if all I wanted
> to do was install Vista. A fresh install is much easier. This was,
> however, instended to be a test of my "disaster recovery" procedure. I
> wanted to be sure I could do it in a non-emergency situation so that
> if things get corrputed in the future I know I can rely on backups.
> So, right now I don't have faith in my ability to take backup images
> that I can restore to.
>
> I will check the Acronis site to see if there are Vista updates. I
> assumed not since I bought it not too long ago, but that is the first
> thing I should have checked.
>
> On the positive side, doing a fresh install of Vista was the easiest
> install I have ever done. I don't know if the Vista Business CD from
> Dell has drivers on that CD. If not, Windows did a great job of
> identifying things.


When you restored your C: drive (Active partition) did you also restore the
MBR?

-phil

"Journey" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sat, 7 Apr 2007 16:39:26 -0400, "pen" <>
> wrote:
>
>>> On the positive side, doing a fresh install of Vista was the
>>> easiest
>>> install I have ever done. I don't know if the Vista Business
>>> CD
>>> from
>>> Dell has drivers on that CD. If not, Windows did a great job
>>> of
>>> identifying things.
>>
>>Vista uses a new MBR which messes up XP. Get Vistabootpro and
>>fix
>>it.
>>http://www.vistabootpro.org/
>
> When you day it messes up XP, what do you mean. If XP and Vista
> are
> on separate hard disks, and I disable the one not used in the
> bios
> when starting up does Vista mess up XP in that scenario?
>
> I looked at vistabootpro, and they start out jumping into the
> topic
> without saying what it is. That irriates the he** out of me.
> Just
> tell me wtf it is my time is important. Is it a dual boot
> manager for
> having Vista and XP on the same physical hard drive? I would
> like to
> see the manual online before downloading or installing.
>
> If my solution above is fine, I will stick with that for a
> while. If
> there is a problem wtih it, anyone, plese let me know. Thanks.


I assumed from your bleat that you were trying to run XP on a
drive that
had had vista on it. If not then ignore what I said.

As far as to Vistabootpro's page I sent you to is a full
explanation of what it is
how you missed that is unclear to me as you had to scroll past it
to get to the download.

On Sat, 07 Apr 2007 16:01:05 -0500, Journey <> wrote:

>On Sat, 7 Apr 2007 16:39:26 -0400, "pen" <> wrote:
>
>>
>>Vista uses a new MBR which messes up XP. Get Vistabootpro and fix
>>it.
>>http://www.vistabootpro.org/
>
>P.S. -- would this tool have aided in my restoring my Vista image? I
>thought an image was an exact image of the disk and that if in the
>boot sequence it would be OK if restored.


Journey, no offense but you are confirming why I want to stay away
from Vista as long as possible. Don't misunderstand, I'm NOT
blaming you but rather learning from you that it's not worth my effort
unbugging MS's messed up new OS. Oh yeah, get some sleep <grin>.

Actually I didn't plan on going to Vista till at least SP1 anyway but
I'm not sure if I should wait even longer now. I haven't heard any
WOW from anyone.

"Journey" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sat, 7 Apr 2007 16:39:26 -0400, "pen" <>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>Vista uses a new MBR which messes up XP. Get Vistabootpro and
>>fix
>>it.
>>http://www.vistabootpro.org/
>
> P.S. -- would this tool have aided in my restoring my Vista
> image? I
> thought an image was an exact image of the disk and that if in
> the
> boot sequence it would be OK if restored.

My point was that XP and Vista mess up each others boot scenario,
therefore restoring either to a drive which had the other
installed will probably mess up the boot. Vista messes with the
MBR.

"RnR" wrote in message news:...
> On Sat, 07 Apr 2007 16:01:05 -0500, Journey <> wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 7 Apr 2007 16:39:26 -0400, "pen" <> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Vista uses a new MBR which messes up XP. Get Vistabootpro and fix
>>>it.
>>>http://www.vistabootpro.org/
>>
>>P.S. -- would this tool have aided in my restoring my Vista image? I
>>thought an image was an exact image of the disk and that if in the
>>boot sequence it would be OK if restored.
>
>
> Journey, no offense but you are confirming why I want to stay away
> from Vista as long as possible. Don't misunderstand, I'm NOT
> blaming you but rather learning from you that it's not worth my effort
> unbugging MS's messed up new OS. Oh yeah, get some sleep <grin>.
>
> Actually I didn't plan on going to Vista till at least SP1 anyway but
> I'm not sure if I should wait even longer now. I haven't heard any
> WOW from anyone.


Journey's problem has absolutely nothing to do with Vista, and is likely due
to an incomplete restoration of the active partition and MBR.

The major problem that comes with a new OS is the inevitability that many
people will make the jump without any clue as to what they are doing. People
just blindly expect the new OS to work flawlessly with all their legacy
hardware and software. When reality comes flooding in, they blame the OS,
and not their own impulsive decision-making process. It's also rather
humorous how many people look to SP1 as this panacea, as if SP1 is going to
somehow make proper nVidia, HP, or Creative drivers magically appear. Folks,
if your hardware doesn't have proper Vista drivers, or your software
applications aren't Vista ready, you will have problems. Otherwise, Vista
will run better than any previous vanilla release of a MS OS. (The migration
from XP to Vista has been a lot smoother than 2000 to XP.)

-phil

On Sat, 7 Apr 2007 17:08:48 -0400, "Phil" <>
wrote:

>When you restored your C: drive (Active partition) did you also restore the
>MBR?
>
>-phil

Yes