Can't boot after restoring Drive Image backup to new drive

[DigitalMan]

Help, I've been fighting this for a week and need help. I submitted a problem report to Powerquest (now Symantec), but haven't received a response yet.

The 32gig HD in my A22p is dieing. I have a backup that I created with Powerquest (Symantec) Drive Image 7.0. The program makes a sector by sector complete backup of your hard drive. In the past I have been able to boot from their recovery CD and restore my backup image to a new hard drive with no problem. However, with my Thinkpad I just can't get Windows 2000 to boot up from the restored image on the new hard drive. I have tried both a new 40gig and a new 60gig drive and they both have the same problem. The error message from Windows 2000 is as follows:

"Windows 2000 could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows 2000(TM) documentation and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."

If I do a new installation of Windows 2000, it works fine with these new hard drives. There is just something about these images that is not matching the new configuration. I'm suspicious about some sort of hidden IBM special partition on the original drive after browsing posts here. Does anyone know if the A22p had one, and if so, how I might be able to copy it? The dieing drive is still somewhat accessible, so if I hurry I can still copy other partitions if necessary. When I look at the partitions on the old drive, it just lists one partition and then around 7gigs of unused space.

Thanks,
Guy

[Zeitgeist]

Sorry, only a small chance:

What happens if you delete all partitions of the HDD (DELETE not formate, etc)?

This helped me once when I had booting problems with my thinkpad.

[egibbs]

Restoring an image to a drive with different geometry can be tricky. Remember that Windows is an OS - it has to deal with hardware at a very low level - cylinders, sectors, etc. It expects things like ntoskrn to be in certain absolute places on the drive, and if the geometry is different it get hosed.

Your best bet is probably to make two partitions - a boot partition where you will install Windows from scratch, and a restore partition where you will recover the image. Then copy your data and anything else you need out of the restore partition into the boot partition and set it up the way you like. Give it a few weeks to be sure you have everything you need, then delete the restore partition and reclaim the space.

You could also try to find another 32 GB drive with the same geometry if the above solution is too much work.

Ed Gibbs