Corrupt files found during full image backup

Topic

New Reply

Full image backups have been incomplete due to WIN7 finding corrupt files in the Users folders, specifically (mine) and Public.

So, are the Backups good otherwise? Are the files available in the Backups anyway? And how do I correct the file problem?

I have used an Administrative Command Prompt to schedule CHKDSK on computer start. However, when the timer counts down to allow cancellation of the program, the CHKDSK is self-cancelled by the computer before the timer reaches zero, resulting in no disk checking. How do I accomplish disk checking, and will this eliminate the corrupt files problem?

Reply | Quote

Replies

I have used an Administrative Command Prompt to schedule CHKDSK on computer start. However, when the timer counts down to allow cancellation of the program, the CHKDSK is self-cancelled by the computer before the timer reaches zero, resulting in no disk checking. How do I accomplish disk checking

hammondmike,
Hello… First some question’s
1. Did you specify which drive to run “chkdsk” C: etc.?
2. Did you specify any “Switches” ex: f/ v/ r etc?
3. Also you can try a free imaging program that’s much better than the “windows flavor” Called Macrium Reflect Macrium Free:cheers: Regards Fred

Reply | Quote

First, I am no novice to computing. Second, my answers follow:

1. Proper drive is specified.
2. Switch /r is specified.
3. Why should I use an outside program when Windows has an excellent built-in program??? (Have you NOT been following Fred Langa’s column???)

Besides, I have Acronis TI Home 2011, if needed. But that is not the problem that I am addressing.

This “Corrupt Files” warning from Windows Backup is the problem. So, again, I require answers to the questions in my original post.

Reply | Quote

Why should I use an outside program when Windows has an excellent built-in program??? (Have you NOT been following Fred Langa’s column???)
Besides, I have Acronis TI Home 2011, if needed. But that is not the problem that I am addressing.
I require answers to the questions in my original post.

hammondmike,
Hello… I meant no disrespect ..as i have no idea as to what level any poster is at… answering your questions

1. Compared to Macrium Reflect ..Windows is both “Clumsy” and “Clunky” I have done much testing of both.. just search Security & Backups forum for my answers to that question. Macrium

2. Acronis 2011 Has many problems of it own … just take a read through their forum..Forum I’m sticking with 2010 V-7046 Just works …and yes i do use the free Macrium program as well… “Kicks the pants off the Windows Flavor”

3. If something is preventing “chkdsk” from running you might try running a security scan from “Malwarebytes” Malwarebytes also a free program ..just to make sure that you don’t have some kind of “Bug” :cheers: Regards Fred

Reply | Quote

JPF–No Problem!!!

I use MBAM Pro every day, especially after coming off the Internet. No problems have been detected.

I noticed the problems from TI 2011, and that is why I tried WIN7 Backup (and it is “trying” isn’t it!!!). Occasionally I receive “Corrupt Backup” notices from TI 2011, especially when trying to “Validate” the Backups. You got me thinking, and I might go back to TI 2010 to see if the problems are solved.

I ,also, might try Macrium, since my backup drive is twice the size of my internal drive. There is room enuff for two copies of everything on it.

But, my main concern is whether or not those “Corrupt Files” WIN7 found are really corrupt. If so, backing them up would be a waste of time. I sure would like to find a method of forcing my computer to run that CHKDSK program.

Reply | Quote

hammondmike,
Hello… If you do “go back” to Acronis 2010 stick at v7046 seems the best… Now to the other problem… What happens if you run a “Elevated Command Prompt” sfc/scannow ?:cheers:

Reply | Quote

BINGO!!!!!

Sfc was able to fix some files, but generated one humungous CBS.log file. So, how do I boil down all that information and locate the problem files? And how do I fix them?

Reply | Quote

BINGO!!!!!

Sfc was able to fix some files, but generated one humungous CBS.log file. So, how do I boil down all that information and locate the problem files? And how do I fix them?

hammondmike ,
Well as far as i know the CBS log should state what has transpired …EX: what has been repaired ..or not , which would give another clue… Did you try “chkdsk” again?:cheers: Regards Fred

Reply | Quote

You might try to run chkdsk from the Hiren’s BootCD. That would eliminate Windows 7 environment totally.

Reply | Quote

Hi hammondmike,
Anytime I get a problem pc, I run a full scan in ‘Safe Mode’ with:- http://www.superantispyware.com/portablescanner.html downloaded using a ‘Clean’ pc.

Reply | Quote

See Make the cbs.log usable .

Reply | Quote

Thanks for all the advice, but…

rmonroe36: I did not see any program on Hiren’s Boot CD that runs CHKDSK? To which program are you referring? I ran SeaTools for Windows, and no trouble was found. Also, be very careful when using Hiren’s Boot CD. It has many old programs (some going back to WIN 98) which probably will not work on WIN 7.

Roderunner: The problem does not result from malware. I have Avast!, MBAM PRO, RUBotted running at all times, with many clean-up utilities available as well as access to on-line scan tools which I use regularly.

jwitaka: I was able to read the cbs.log file, but was unable to filter out all but the problem files. The upshot is that only three files were involved, none of which were critical to the system. Two looked like they were incorporated into WIN 7 from XP PRO, and I was able to delete them. The last one was in the Windows SxS folder and was undeleteable.

I think I found the problem. There is no separate System Partition on my HDD!!! I have located a MS TechNet “How To” file that describes a method to establish the Partition. Only problem is that no unused space exists on the HDD, so I will need to shrink one of the two partitions for the needed space. Which raises a question: Is it possible to shrink a partition within WIN 7, or will I need to use an outside Partition Manager tool???

Reply | Quote

I think I found the problem. There is no separate System Partition on my HDD!!!

I’m getting the sense that there’s some confusion in this discussion as to what you’re saying is missing. Do you mean a System Recovery Partition? I’m guessing that’s it, as a “system partition” sounds like you’re talking about the logical partition containing the operating system, which you obviously have.

If so, while the default actions of a Windows 7 x64 install create a System Recovery Partition, it’s not mandatory to have one–I chose not to, as I am not willing to take up the extra drive space just for the dubious convenience of being able to recover from a drive crash with the copy of Window’s System Recovery utility that’s in the hidden partition (not to mention that it adds the complication to the boot-up process of having another boot option). I’m satisfied with having a system repair disk to run System Recovery from (you did make one, didn’t you?) and having my system image files stored on a separate physical hard drive (though that latter fact doesn’t depend on whether or not a System Recovery Partition exists–I’m just pointing out that it’s a good idea, as drive images don’t help if they’re on the drive that’s crashed). As best I can tell, this default install behavior is MS’s way of dealing with the fact that so many users just don’t take the time to create a recovery disk (which had doubtlessly caused a multitude of tech support headaches).

Anyway, the absence of a System Recovery Partition shouldn’t affect the normal operation of your system in any way. It sounds to me like something else is going on (though “WIN7 had installed it in the XP PRO partition” doesn’t make any sense–you can’t install a partition inside another partition).

Reply | Quote

According to the TechNet article “How to create a separate system partition for dual booting Windows XP or Windows 2000 with Windows 7”: “This article describes how to create a separate System partition and configure the boot environment to start either any edition of the Windows®°XP operating system or the Microsoft Windows®°2000 Server operating system and Windows® 7….Using a disk configuration with a separate System partition for boot files supports a multiple boot configuration and allows a system image backup of Windows 7 without Windows°XP.” My XP configuration contains a “Boot” Folder which is supposed to exist in the WIN7 configuration. I am having a hard time following the article’s instructions on reconfiguring, as the drive letters they use and the ones on my computer do not match. All I can do is guess at the proper designations until I can obtain the XP, System, and WIN7 partitions as they should be. The System partition is Primary and Active. According to the article, I must “Logon to an Administrator account in Windows 7 and use the following steps to create a new System partition containing only the files required to boot Windows 7 and Windows°XP.” And that is the real problem–the computer crashes in WIN7 before I can complete the procedure. Any suggestions on how to stop WIN7 from crashing long enuff to complete the procedure???

Reply | Quote

the real problem–the computer crashes in WIN7 before I can complete the procedure. Any suggestions on how to stop WIN7 from crashing long enuff to complete the procedure???

hammondmike,
Hello… I have a “Multi Boot” OS and use a 3rd party Free software called EasyBCD Free EasyBCD Free might give it a look over as they also have a forum. I use it to boot Vista and “7” Also lets you name the “Default”, set the order etc. And gives you the choice at boot time … :cheers: Regards Fred

Reply | Quote

According to the TechNet article “How to create a separate system partition for dual booting Windows XP or Windows 2000 with Windows 7”: “This article describes how to create a separate System partition and configure the boot environment to start either any edition of the Windows®°XP operating system or the Microsoft Windows®°2000 Server operating system and Windows® 7….And that is the real problem–the computer crashes in WIN7 before I can complete the procedure. Any suggestions on how to stop WIN7 from crashing long enuff to complete the procedure???

Got it–I hadn’t seen the significance of the dual boot issue.

I installed Win 7 on an old XP system in dual boot about 18 months ago. It was an Athlon 64 (old, slow single-core) with 2GB. The HDD was big enough to partition, but the GPU didn’t pass the Win 7 upgrade test at the MS site, so I had to buy a better GPU. As it turned out, Win 7 would install and run, but was so dog-slow (even after I turned off as many extras as I could) that I decided to pull out the Win 7 install and just restore the XP-only config (which involved a lot of command-line magic to remove the boot partition and restore the old MBR, as I recall).

Given that I was able to do that on such an old system, I’m wondering if what you’re encountering is an inadequate hardware issue. Did you run the XP system through the Win 7 upgrade qualifier before starting this? If not (and if you can still boot into XP), you might give that a try.

It’s also possible that the system’s configuration “qualifies,” but is so marginal that even the Win 7 install is over-stressing it. I don’t recall whether you’ve shared your hardware specifics with us, or not, but perhaps giving us eyes on your hardware config might give someone a pointer to the problem.

It’s also possible that a look at your hardware config may allow us to give you a wave-off before wasting any more time on this, if it’s just too marginal of a situation to ever work well.

Reply | Quote

I’m getting the sense that there’s some confusion in this discussion as to what you’re saying is missing. Do you mean a System Recovery Partition? I’m guessing that’s it, as a “system partition” sounds like you’re talking about the logical partition containing the operating system, which you obviously have.

If so, while the default actions of a Windows 7 x64 install create a System Recovery Partition, it’s not mandatory to have one–I chose not to, as I am not willing to take up the extra drive space just for the dubious convenience of being able to recover from a drive crash with the copy of Window’s System Recovery utility that’s in the hidden partition (not to mention that it adds the complication to the boot-up process of having another boot option). I’m satisfied with having a system repair disk to run System Recovery from (you did make one, didn’t you?) and having my system image files stored on a separate physical hard drive (though that latter fact doesn’t depend on whether or not a System Recovery Partition exists–I’m just pointing out that it’s a good idea, as drive images don’t help if they’re on the drive that’s crashed). As best I can tell, this default install behavior is MS’s way of dealing with the fact that so many users just don’t take the time to create a recovery disk (which had doubtlessly caused a multitude of tech support headaches).

Anyway, the absence of a System Recovery Partition shouldn’t affect the normal operation of your system in any way. It sounds to me like something else is going on (though “WIN7 had installed it in the XP PRO partition” doesn’t make any sense–you can’t install a partition inside another partition).

No. The Windows 7 64-bit System Partition is not a recovery partition. It is a small partition which holds some settings and other backup data, and helps Windows 7 remain stable. To my knowledge, it is not created in 32-bit versions, although I could be wrong about this.

-- rc primak

Reply | Quote

1. If I recall correctly what Windows calls the ‘system partition’ is in fact the partition that the MBR boots, and what Windows calls the ‘boot partition’ is in fact the partition which contains the operating system that winds up being booted (which may well be in a different partition than the ‘system partition’ because the boot code in the ‘system partition’ – e.g., bootmgr or ntldr – lets you choose among multiple possible boot candidates, each of which may be in a different partition). I.e., the windows terminology is exactly the reverse of what one might reasonably expect it to be.

2. Whether a Windows install makes the installed system the ‘c: drive’ depends upon the version of Windows and the presence or absence of an existing OS on the disk. E.g., installing Win2K (or I think XP) on a disk containing an existing Win9x system will leave the Win9x system’s ‘system partition’ (the partition where the MBR boots Win9x) as drive C: as seen by Win2K and will call the drive containing the Win2K system drive D:, but a Win7 (and perhaps VIsta) install on a disk containing a pre-existing system will update the existing partition booted by the MBR with the Win7 bootmgr code but cause the Win7 system to consider the drive containing the rest of the Win7 system to be drive C:.

3. If you install Win7 on an empty disk it will create a small (100 or 200 MB) ‘system partition’ to hold bootmgr, etc. (and may not even assign this partition a drive letter in Win7 – I’ve never installed Win7 this way so I don’t know) and a separate partition (which it will call drive C: in Win7) to hold the rest of Win7 and everything else you care about. It can be prevented from creating that small ‘system partition’ (which it doesn’t do if there was already another system on the disk: instead, it updates that system’s ‘system partition’ with the bootmgr, etc. code) by creating an NTFS partition on the disk (may have to leave no unused space on the disk, or at least no unused space before it on the disk) and explicitly installing Win7 there, which it will also use as its ‘system partition’ to hold bootmgr, etc.

Reply | Quote

No. The Windows 7 64-bit System Partition is not a recovery partition. It is a small partition which holds some settings and other backup data, and helps Windows 7 remain stable. To my knowledge, it is not created in 32-bit versions, although I could be wrong about this.

Per Microsoft Technet:[INDENT]
“You can use system partitions to:

[*] Manage and load other partitions. If there are multiple operating systems, for example, Windows 7 and Windows Vista®, the computer displays a list of operating systems. The user can then select which operating system to use.
.
[*] Use security tools, such as Windows® BitLocker™ Drive Encryption.
.
[*] Use recovery tools, such as Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE).”

[/INDENT]
Per Microsoft, the System Partition provides for those three different functions, none of which have anything to do with Windows 7’s stability (which I point out so that none of you are worried about this point). If you so wish (and don’t need one of the above three capabilities), you can avoid creating a separate System Partition upon installation; it can also be safely removed after installation.

The above information is true for both x86 and x64 installs. As is the case with Bob, my installation experience is strictly with x64, so I can’t comment on whether an x86 installation automatically gets the separate System Partition or not. In any case, that would happen on an x64 installation only if the target HDD is unallocated (or if you choose to delete all existing partitions during the installation).

While it’s also correct that the official name is “System Partition,” you may also see the term “system recovery partition” being used on online forums (including on MS Technet) for the System Partition. While that alternative term is obviously informal, it’s an understandable usage, given that system recovery is the one of the three functions of the System Partition that the majority of non-enterprise users would encounter.

Reply | Quote

Per Microsoft Technet:[INDENT]
“You can use system partitions to:

[*] Manage and load other partitions. If there are multiple operating systems, for example, Windows 7 and Windows Vista®, the computer displays a list of operating systems. The user can then select which operating system to use.
.
[*] Use security tools, such as Windows® BitLocker™ Drive Encryption.
.
[*] Use recovery tools, such as Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE).”

[/INDENT]
Per Microsoft, the System Partition provides for those three different functions, none of which have anything to do with Windows 7’s stability (which I point out so that none of you are worried about this point). If you so wish (and don’t need one of the above three capabilities), you can avoid creating a separate System Partition upon installation; it can also be safely removed after installation.

The above information is true for both x86 and x64 installs. As is the case with Bob, my installation experience is strictly with x64, so I can’t comment on whether an x86 installation automatically gets the separate System Partition or not. In any case, that would happen on an x64 installation only if the target HDD is unallocated (or if you choose to delete all existing partitions during the installation).

While it’s also correct that the official name is “System Partition,” you may also see the term “system recovery partition” being used on online forums (including on MS Technet) for the System Partition. While that alternative term is obviously informal, it’s an understandable usage, given that system recovery is the one of the three functions of the System Partition that the majority of non-enterprise users would encounter.

OK, so that clears up just what the System Partition is, and what it does. While I would still back it up alongside the Windows Partition, I can see that this is only a precaution, and not absolutely necessary. Acronis True Image Home makes a big deal out of this issue, but it may not be that important after all.

It always helps to go to the original source (Microsoft in this case) and get their official description and information about these things.

curiousclive raises the point that what is seen by Acronis as System may be the System Reserved partition. That could be a whole different kettle of fish.

Still, the ability to recover more easily from some types of system mishaps would seem to me to be a good thing to have, even though there is a full-scale manufacturer’s Recovery Partition on the same hard drive. Just one more layer of protection. I’m a “belt and suspenders” sort of person, if you know what I mean.

-- rc primak

Reply | Quote

I appreciate every ones input. But it looks like I need to clarify a few things.

My system is less than a year old. It has the latest and greatest features. I built it, so it does not have a “System Recovery” partition.

A “System Partition”=”System Reserve Partition”. We are running into a problem of understanding terminology here.

I was able to create the System Partition, but ran into a problem. I can follow the TechNet article up to a point. WIN7 will not or cannot import the final “boot” files from XP to the System partition. I still have the Boot folder in the XP partition, and it will not copy to WIN7 or the System partition. I have changed the drive letters to what WIN7 reads (as noted in the article), but nothing happens. Unless one of you out there know how I can fix this problem, I will have to ’tilt windmills’ with MS in one of their forums.

At the moment, I need XP as I have an HP ScanJet scanner for which they will not write a WIN7 driver. The scanner works with no problems, but from what I can gather, HP wants to sell new scanners which have WIN7 drivers. Great, but their present scanners only have USB 2, and my MOBO has USB 3 ports. If I must upgrade scanners, I will wait until HP upgrades to USB 3. My external HDD is in a USB 3 case and operates perfectly. And the kicker to all this is that my HP printer has upgraded drivers for WIN7, but they won’t create drivers for my scanner because it is a couple of years older than the printer. What a great way for manufacturers to create customer loyalty!!!

Reply | Quote

If it works, it works. Forget the manufacturer for the moment, and remember that all hardware is plug-and-play to your up-to-date Windows 7. If you go into Device Manager, you will find that Microsoft will check to see if you have the latest driver if you ask it to. That is admittedly the latest in Microsoft’s driver list, and it may be a generic driver rather than a dedicated all-bells-and-whistles latest-version manufacturer’s driver, but if the manufacturer isn’t dishing them out then stick to what you have. In many cases there are indeed more exotic drivers available, but even those are available through third-party driver update software such as Driver Detective, which you can run as a trial and discover what you need and then search for it by name (from a screen shot of what the ‘free scan’ displays, for example). Remember that while Windows may lowball it by offering generic drivers, the third-party gang make their money selling driver scanners that try to come up with the most hits and you might end up with a pile of useless junk that really is very little improvement over what you already have. By all means do the rounds of driver utilities if you have the time, but the number of valuable finds may be small and easily downloaded through a web search once you know what you are looking for.

As for XP, if you have the latest and greatest Win 7 don’t forget that you can run a virtual XP machine under Windows 7, with no need for dual boot.

Reply | Quote

I have WIN7 Home Premium 64 bit. I thought that only the upper levels of WIN7 could run Virtual XP. So you are telling me that I could run my scanner in Virtual XP without any problems???

Also, if you will re-read my post, you will notice that I said nothing about seeking drivers from sources other than HP.

Reply | Quote

I have WIN7 Home Premium 64 bit. I thought that only the upper levels of WIN7 could run Virtual XP. So you are telling me that I could run my scanner in Virtual XP without any problems???

Also, if you will re-read my post, you will notice that I said nothing about seeking drivers from sources other than HP.

I think you need 7 Professional for being able to run XP Mode. There are other VMs though, like VirtualBox or VmWare Player that you could try.

Reply | Quote

I have WIN7 Home Premium 64 bit. I thought that only the upper levels of WIN7 could run Virtual XP. So you are telling me that I could run my scanner in Virtual XP without any problems???

Also, if you will re-read my post, you will notice that I said nothing about seeking drivers from sources other than HP.

I have Win 7 Ultimate, and the version hierarchy didn’t occur to me. I am very impressed by the workarounds offered by others.

You said ‘The scanner works with no problems’. I mistakenly took this to mean that it works with no problems on your present computer. That is why I said ‘If it works, it works’ and I couldn’t figure out why you were even looking for another driver. That, in turn, is the reason I pointed out that the driver might have come from Windows and I discussed driver sources.

You said ‘HP wants to sell new scanners which have WIN7 drivers’.

Your scanner is still serves its intended purpose and it meets the XP design specifications, which date from 2001. You are the one who switched, and you should have known it was not supported.

It is more economical to design and build superior and less expensive modern units, because the economics of production have changed, the volume of sales has increased, and later designs are normally superior.

This is not intended to recommend a particular product or a particular manufacturer, but I have an HP OfficeJet wireless energy-saver colour duplex printer, scanner, copier, fax, and paper feeder unit that has better specifications across the board short of dedicated photo quality devices than any single-purpose device I have ever had, and it cost me a couple of hundred bucks. I think it is the quickest and most economical way to get a full house of standard peripherals with a single purchase. The efficiencies of that design are one thing that keeps the cost down. The long-term cost of ink remains to be seen, but I have a LaserJet 1020 for everyday printing. I would recommend an all-in-one to any new computer user.

USB 3 or not, I don’t think you should overlook Ethernet or Wireless to connect to peripherals.

Reply | Quote

First, I am not a new computer user. I rebuilt my computer with new components.

Second, the replacement scanners offered by HP have USB 2 ports, which are ancient. My new MOBO has more USB 3 ports than USB 2 ports.

Third, my scanner is next to my computer, so connecting by other than USB cable is down right silly. My scanner will not be used by or with any other computer or device.

Fourth, failure on HP’s part to write a driver for WIN7 is nothing more than a greedy plot to force computer users to purchase unnecessary equipment. I do not use my scanner very often, but when I do it works without any problems.

Reply | Quote

First, I am not a new computer user. I rebuilt my computer with new components.

Second, the replacement scanners offered by HP have USB 2 ports, which are ancient. My new MOBO has more USB 3 ports than USB 2 ports.

Third, my scanner is next to my computer, so connecting by other than USB cable is down right silly. My scanner will not be used by or with any other computer or device.

Fourth, failure on HP’s part to write a driver for WIN7 is nothing more than a greedy plot to force computer users to purchase unnecessary equipment. I do not use my scanner very often, but when I do it works without any problems.

Since HP has not supplied Windows 7 drivers for your model scanner you are out of luck using it directly in Windows 7. You can NOT run Windows XP mode with your SKU. You can run Windows Virtual PC and install XP in it. You just won’t get the integration you do with XP mode. There are other VMs you can use too – Oracle VirtualBox, .VMware Player.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

You can use Win 7 Disk Manager to shrink a partition. I however found an easier UI with 3rd party Partition Wizard. (free) It’s very easy to shrink your C partition, then set the new unallocated space by formating and set to simple Logical Drive. I did this on my 320 GB HD. I shrunk the C Drive to about 75 GB and set the unallocated space to D Drive Logical Drive. I then moved all my data to the D Drive. This included all the Windows data folders that are allowed to easily be movedd. now all my data is safe on the D drive even if I hose my C Drive and have to restore from an Image.

Reply | Quote

Since I have a dual-boot drive, MS has an excellent suggestion (believe it or not) of naming the System Partition: S. Not only is the partition separate, but also aptly designated: System=S. Now if I only could name the other partitions after their operating systems instead of C: and D: ….

Reply | Quote

You can rename partitions as you discovered with the S Drive. However I read somewhere that whenever Windows opens it always asigns the first drive (boot drive) as C. Not actually sure if this is correct or not.

– Start -> right-click “My Computer” and select “Manage”
– click on “Disk Management” in the right pane.
– find the partition in the lower-right portion of the right pane, right-click on it, and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths…”

Reply | Quote

Ted,

You are correct. With a dual-boot system, the booted OS always becomes the C: drive, which can be confusing. I always give a name to the Drive Partitions so that when Windows changes the drive letter, the drive name never changes and I know what operating system I am using. This is especially handy with my backup drive which is dual-partitioned. Windows assigns drive letters to the backup drive partitions, and without names I can become confused as to which backup drive I want to use. I have done this several times when Acronis TI presents drive choices in such small font-type and I do not look close enough or have on my reading glasses, especially late at night.

Reply | Quote

You might look into the possibility that the dirty bit is set. A web search on that will yield a lot of hits regarding that and drive errors in general. HERE is a link to one of a number of threads in the sevenforums.com site.

Two excellent sources of free and paid drive utilities are Easus[/COLOR] and MiniTool.

Both Seagate and Western Digital have their own free drive health utilities.

Spinrite is the classic, but expensive for most of us.

Reply | Quote

Many of us have this problem with our eyesight, and late at night, or early morning, or middle of the day. It seems these moments increase exponentially as we get older. Who knew! It seems to get harder and harder to fire up my brain cell!

I have also been in the habit of naming partitions (drives) so they are easily reconizable no matter the drive letter. I would expect that Fred is the master at this. He has more drives than I can count.

Reply | Quote

Hammondmike, you do not state in your original question whether your Windows 7 is 32-bit or 64-bit. When Win7 64-bit is first installed, it is supposed to create a C:Windows partition and a small System partition which does not receive a drive letter. Windows Backup may not back up the System partition when it backs up the C:Windows partition. And this is one reason I prefer Acronis True Image — it by default backs up both the C:Windows and System partitions together in the same backup, and it warns you if you try to back up the C:Windows partition without the System partition. Important settings and other stuff are contained within the System partition, so both partitions need to be backed up and restored together on 64-bit Windows systems.

But I suspect that your issue lies deeper within Windows 7 itself. If you are running Windows XP Pro legacy programs, Win SxS and SysWOW are among the areas of Windows 7 which tend to get corrupted. This can cause failed backups, failed validations, and failed restorations. I don’t have any advice about making the XP Compatibility Mode work any better, but these are some of the things which can go wrong if XP legacy software is being used inside of Windows 7. And it is a worse problem for 64-bit Win7 than for 32-bit Win7. What I do know is that Win SxS and SysWOW cannot be deleted or altered without doing serious damages to Windows 7.

There may even be some 32-bit programs which say they are for Windows 7, but behave as if they are running in Compatibility Mode. So it may not just be legacy software which is causing these issues.

In Acronis TIH recent versions, isn’t there a graphic window which shows the selected and available drives, with check-boxes to help you choose?

-- rc primak

Reply | Quote

Bob,

I use 64-bit. It is amazing as to the number of 64-bit programs now available. I have upgraded as many of my programs to their 64-bit versions as possible.

With regard to the System Partition, I found that WIN7 had installed it in the XP PRO partition, which explains all the boot-up problems with 7. MS has a TechNet article about creating a separate S: partition, which I followed. I suspect that MS never intended for WIN7 to be used in a dual-boot setup. When I installed WIN7 after XP, I had formatted the partition without leaving any unused space for the S: partition. It would have been nice if MS had instructed that no partition be created before WIN7 was installed, so that WIN7 could create the necessary partitions for itself and System in the empty space left on the drive.

I backed up the new 7 and S: partitions together, as TI 2011 suggested. I have the latest update (6868) which has difficulty locating my backups on my external drive. After several attempts to access the drive, I have to manually select the backups in order to make them current on the displayed list. Have you ever experienced this problem?

I still have the occasional boot hiccup with 7, but now I have a working Image to reinstall when needed. Acronis TI is easier to use than Windows Backup because I need to install USB 3 drivers to access my external drive. If the Windows Backup is corrupt or inaccessible, I cannot load the drivers to access the drive and reinstall the backup, therefore I am forced to do a new install of 7, add the drivers, and then I am able to reinstall the backup. This problem does not exist with Acronis. Once my computer is stable, I will try Macrium for possible use as a weekly backup, with TI used as a daily backup.

Reply | Quote

I wonder if Hammondmike is actually talking about the ‘System Reserved’ partition which is normally 100mb and does not have a drive letter assigned (but is possible to assign one). This contains the boot information win 7 needs. I use win7’s imaging with no problems at all ( I find it easier than Macrium Reflect to use as all I want it to do is create an image so have no need for all the fancy options Macrium Reflect offers). But that is my opinion and others may prefer the alternatives.
Win 7’s Image backup does automatically back up the system reserved and the primary OS partition without any need of input from user. And has never failed for me yet.

Reply | Quote

How To Geekshows a method to create a virtual mode for XP similar to XP Mode with Win 7 Home Premium

Reply | Quote