Complete PC Restore problem

Hi,

Hope someone can help. I'm trying to use Vista's Complete PC Backup utility
to upgrade my hard drive: I've backed up onto a USB hard disk, replaced the
hard disk in my pc and booted from the windows installation cd and selected
"Repair your computer" at the menu. From looking at tutorials on the
internet, I then expected to be able to use Complete PC Restore to restore
windows onto the new hard disk. However, in the "System Recovery Options"
dialog where I'm prompted to select an operating system to repair, no
operating systems are listed. Clicking the 'Load Drivers' button allows me to
browse both the newly installed disk and the usb disk with the backup on, so
I assume that no drivers need to be loaded. Any ideas on how I might be able
to make Vista see the backup would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

Mike

Hi Mike--

Your objective is basically to back up isn't it. That's not what Startup
Repair (Part of Win RE) that you're reaching in "System Recovery Options"
from the DVD is designed to do. Crudely put, Startup Repair where you're
selecting an OS to repair is kind of an Uber SFC and it finds the damaged
files and replaces them with files that work. If I understand and read you
correctly, you have it looking for an OS in a place where there simply is no
OS for it to find.

"I'm prompted to select an operating system to repair, no operating systems
are listed." Right because where it's looking there is no OS."

You can't mix the backup utility in Vista and the Startup Repair to retrieve
the backup if that's what you're trying to do.

Forgive me if I've misunderstood, but there is no place for the Recovery
options and restoring with the backup. They are two different things.
Those Recovery options, mainly Startup Repair, although you have access to
the Command Prompt and System Restore from there and SR might work from one
location and not another with the same restore points available. Startup
Repair was very poorly named because it implies that it is used only to fix
No Boot Vistas as the Win RE team persists in incorrectly writing when in
fact I've used it many times to fix something that is a single broken
component in Vista when there is not a boot problem, and there are many
that can break way too often, like a control panel.

This may help you use the Vista Backup:

A Guide to Windows Vista Backup Technologies
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tec...p/default.aspx

Vista Backup
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...ls/backup.mspx

I recommend Acronis.

If you use software like Acronis, you can back up a disk image to media, and
if you have enough space (quite common now with the size of HDs and external
HDs readily available) you can choose where to put the backup of the HD
image. You can also make a fast restoring disaster recovery partition
called Acronis Secure Zone and the Acronis CD is bootable. You can specify
the location of the backup; and also can do incremental and differential
backups with a frequency of your choosing.

Acronis Free Trial:
http://www.acronis.com/download/

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...oad/trueimage/

Good luck,

CH




"Mike Simpson" <Mike > wrote in message
news:C5F6AAA6-345F-45D0-B467-...
> Hi,
>
> Hope someone can help. I'm trying to use Vista's Complete PC Backup
> utility
> to upgrade my hard drive: I've backed up onto a USB hard disk, replaced
> the
> hard disk in my pc and booted from the windows installation cd and
> selected
> "Repair your computer" at the menu. From looking at tutorials on the
> internet, I then expected to be able to use Complete PC Restore to restore
> windows onto the new hard disk. However, in the "System Recovery Options"
> dialog where I'm prompted to select an operating system to repair, no
> operating systems are listed. Clicking the 'Load Drivers' button allows me
> to
> browse both the newly installed disk and the usb disk with the backup on,
> so
> I assume that no drivers need to be loaded. Any ideas on how I might be
> able
> to make Vista see the backup would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks a lot,
>
> Mike
>

All you are trying to do is take the easy way to install an OS on a new hard
drive.

Does not work that way!

Install vista again, lol.


"Mike Simpson" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Hope someone can help. I'm trying to use Vista's Complete PC Backup utility
> to upgrade my hard drive: I've backed up onto a USB hard disk, replaced the
> hard disk in my pc and booted from the windows installation cd and selected
> "Repair your computer" at the menu. From looking at tutorials on the
> internet, I then expected to be able to use Complete PC Restore to restore
> windows onto the new hard disk. However, in the "System Recovery Options"
> dialog where I'm prompted to select an operating system to repair, no
> operating systems are listed. Clicking the 'Load Drivers' button allows me to
> browse both the newly installed disk and the usb disk with the backup on, so
> I assume that no drivers need to be loaded. Any ideas on how I might be able
> to make Vista see the backup would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks a lot,
>
> Mike
>

Chad,

Thanks very much for the detailed reply. However, I'm a little confused
about a couple of things you're saying and would be very grateful if you
could clear these up for me:

> Your objective is basically to back up isn't it. That's not what Startup
> Repair (Part of Win RE) that you're reaching in "System Recovery Options"
> from the DVD is designed to do.

Sorry, I might not have been clear enough in the original post - I'm trying
to restore from a Complete PC Backup. The advice for this in Vista's Backup
and Restore Centre is, "To restore your computer, you need to run Windows
Complete PC Restore from the System Recovery Options menu [on the DVD]".

> If you use software like Acronis, you can back up a disk image to media, and
> if you have enough space (quite common now with the size of HDs and external
> HDs readily available) you can choose where to put the backup of the HD
> image.

I was under the impression that that's exactly what Complete PC Backup was -
a hard disk imaging utility. Am I getting this wrong?

Thanks again for your help.

Mike

>
>
>
> "Mike Simpson" <Mike > wrote in message
> news:C5F6AAA6-345F-45D0-B467-...
> > Hi,
> >
> > Hope someone can help. I'm trying to use Vista's Complete PC Backup
> > utility
> > to upgrade my hard drive: I've backed up onto a USB hard disk, replaced
> > the
> > hard disk in my pc and booted from the windows installation cd and
> > selected
> > "Repair your computer" at the menu. From looking at tutorials on the
> > internet, I then expected to be able to use Complete PC Restore to restore
> > windows onto the new hard disk. However, in the "System Recovery Options"
> > dialog where I'm prompted to select an operating system to repair, no
> > operating systems are listed. Clicking the 'Load Drivers' button allows me
> > to
> > browse both the newly installed disk and the usb disk with the backup on,
> > so
> > I assume that no drivers need to be loaded. Any ideas on how I might be
> > able
> > to make Vista see the backup would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks a lot,
> >
> > Mike
> >
>
>

Mick,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do. Are you
saying that I need to do a clean install of Vista and then overwrite it with
the image from the Complete PC Backup (to restore files, applications etc.)?

Thanks again,

Mike

"Mick Murphy" wrote:

> All you are trying to do is take the easy way to install an OS on a new hard
> drive.
>
> Does not work that way!
>
> Install vista again, lol.
>
>
> "Mike Simpson" wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Hope someone can help. I'm trying to use Vista's Complete PC Backup utility
> > to upgrade my hard drive: I've backed up onto a USB hard disk, replaced the
> > hard disk in my pc and booted from the windows installation cd and selected
> > "Repair your computer" at the menu. From looking at tutorials on the
> > internet, I then expected to be able to use Complete PC Restore to restore
> > windows onto the new hard disk. However, in the "System Recovery Options"
> > dialog where I'm prompted to select an operating system to repair, no
> > operating systems are listed. Clicking the 'Load Drivers' button allows me to
> > browse both the newly installed disk and the usb disk with the backup on, so
> > I assume that no drivers need to be loaded. Any ideas on how I might be able
> > to make Vista see the backup would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks a lot,
> >
> > Mike
> >

Mike Simpson wrote:
> Chad,
>
> Thanks very much for the detailed reply. However, I'm a little confused
> about a couple of things you're saying and would be very grateful if you
> could clear these up for me:
>
>> Your objective is basically to back up isn't it. That's not what Startup
>> Repair (Part of Win RE) that you're reaching in "System Recovery Options"
>> from the DVD is designed to do.
>
> Sorry, I might not have been clear enough in the original post - I'm trying
> to restore from a Complete PC Backup. The advice for this in Vista's Backup
> and Restore Centre is, "To restore your computer, you need to run Windows
> Complete PC Restore from the System Recovery Options menu [on the DVD]".
>
>> If you use software like Acronis, you can back up a disk image to media, and
>> if you have enough space (quite common now with the size of HDs and external
>> HDs readily available) you can choose where to put the backup of the HD
>> image.
>
> I was under the impression that that's exactly what Complete PC Backup was -
> a hard disk imaging utility. Am I getting this wrong?
>
> Thanks again for your help.
>
> Mike
>
>>
>>
>> "Mike Simpson" <Mike > wrote in message
>> news:C5F6AAA6-345F-45D0-B467-...
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Hope someone can help. I'm trying to use Vista's Complete PC Backup
>>> utility
>>> to upgrade my hard drive: I've backed up onto a USB hard disk, replaced
>>> the
>>> hard disk in my pc and booted from the windows installation cd and
>>> selected
>>> "Repair your computer" at the menu. From looking at tutorials on the
>>> internet, I then expected to be able to use Complete PC Restore to restore
>>> windows onto the new hard disk. However, in the "System Recovery Options"
>>> dialog where I'm prompted to select an operating system to repair, no
>>> operating systems are listed. Clicking the 'Load Drivers' button allows me
>>> to
>>> browse both the newly installed disk and the usb disk with the backup on,
>>> so
>>> I assume that no drivers need to be loaded. Any ideas on how I might be
>>> able
>>> to make Vista see the backup would be greatly appreciated.
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot,
>>>
>>> Mike
>>>
>>


Acronis makes a "Clone" of the disk, you can install that image on a
bigger drive or maybe a smaller one or back on the same one. It copies
everything literally so even product activation doesn't see a difference
(Assuming of course you don't change anything else at the same time). I
don't know if the MS backup does that but I don't think so. However you
should be able to format the drive again and reinstall Vista and then
restore the backup. I have little faith in MS backup software but you
may have few other choices.

Im having the same issue
if let me make the complete PC restore file to my USB drive
but now it claims there are no valid backups
I tried moving it to the my D: drive which is a internal drive but I still
get the same "there no valid backups"
so with the drive I replaced gone, and this my only backup
I need to get this thing to let me restore my system

"Mike Simpson" wrote:

> Mick,
>
> Thanks for the reply. Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do. Are you
> saying that I need to do a clean install of Vista and then overwrite it with
> the image from the Complete PC Backup (to restore files, applications etc.)?
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Mike
>
> "Mick Murphy" wrote:
>
> > All you are trying to do is take the easy way to install an OS on a new hard
> > drive.
> >
> > Does not work that way!
> >
> > Install vista again, lol.
> >
> >
> > "Mike Simpson" wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > Hope someone can help. I'm trying to use Vista's Complete PC Backup utility
> > > to upgrade my hard drive: I've backed up onto a USB hard disk, replaced the
> > > hard disk in my pc and booted from the windows installation cd and selected
> > > "Repair your computer" at the menu. From looking at tutorials on the
> > > internet, I then expected to be able to use Complete PC Restore to restore
> > > windows onto the new hard disk. However, in the "System Recovery Options"
> > > dialog where I'm prompted to select an operating system to repair, no
> > > operating systems are listed. Clicking the 'Load Drivers' button allows me to
> > > browse both the newly installed disk and the usb disk with the backup on, so
> > > I assume that no drivers need to be loaded. Any ideas on how I might be able
> > > to make Vista see the backup would be greatly appreciated.
> > >
> > > Thanks a lot,
> > >
> > > Mike
> > >