Issue: Restoring a backup causes the machine to not boot (stuck during post)

Affects: Known issue with Acronis backups but possibly other backup software as well

Solution/Process: If restoring a backup causes the disks to fail and not boot, the first thing to do is run a “chkdsk /r” and try to repair the disk. If for some reason the recovery console is not available or the administrator password is not known for the instance of windows that needs repairing, the next option is to install a new OS on another hard-drive. After the new OS is installed, the boot.ini file of the new OS can be configured to allow the old windows installation to show up as a boot option. This allows windows to use the new OS boot.ini file, but to boot into the old OS. You can modify the selections so that the old OS comes up by default, but the new OS is left as a secondary selection.

Here is an example of a boot.ini file configured with 2 choices:

[boot loader] timeout=10 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS=”Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server” /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS.1=”Windows.1 Server 2003 for Small Business Server” /fastdetect

• Note that the correct rdisk, partition, and name have to be input. You can determine this information by running a “map arc” command. This will show the aforementioned information for each disk/partition.

Once the boot.ini file is configured, you will have to leave the new hard-drive in the system in order to boot to the old OS.

Date of last update: 4-06-10

Author: Keller Medlin