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how do i make a recovered filesystem bootable


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#1
mikeloeven

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i had to copy a harddrive to recover data. the data and file system is good but because i was unable to use a cloning utility the new harddrive will not boot. i tried fix boot and fixmbr and still no luck. I checked the intergraty of the file system and it should boot all the files are there. so how do i take a new harddrive with a copy of the failing drive and make it bootable again?

i can understand that windows might be corrupt and unbootable but it should at least get to a bsod this is saying there is no os installed

Edited by mikeloeven, 11 April 2011 - 08:26 AM.

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#2
Macboatmaster

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1. I hope you do not view this as an insulting question, but may I presume that the new harddrive is in the same system as the old drive..

2. Was the old drive still loading Windows albeit there were file errors or bad sectors

3. Depending on what copy or backup system you used, it would not of course have copied system files and no amount of recovery commands be it fixboot, fix =mbr etc is going to make that new drive bootable

4. I presume from the way you have worded your post that you could not clone because of errors, or are you meaning you could not find cloning software.

5. New drive - is Not SATA by any chance, and old one PATA

6. Is the new drive NOW the same letter as the old drive. ie: C DRIVE, because if the NEW drive is now allocated another drive letter it will NOT work. on a boot.
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#3
mikeloeven

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actually i figured out the problem myself. i had to remake the boot.ini file. apearantly the one that was coppied over was referencing a third partition and the new drive doesent have the recovery or diagnostic partitions anymore. so windows is now on the first partition rather than the third. i am kinda kicking myself for not figuring that out sooner.


actually when i coppied the drive i had the old and new ones in external enclosures on a second computer so i was able to copy the entire file system. the only files that the software couldn't recover were parts of nortan which would explain why goback crashed in the first place and rendered the machine unbootable. why yould you think i would have backed up the drive while it is activly running the os. not only would the extra strain from random disk access increase the risk of catastrophic failure but as you said the system files would mostly be locked.

Edited by mikeloeven, 12 April 2011 - 08:26 AM.

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#4
Macboatmaster

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why yould you think i would have backed up the drive while it is activly running the os



Never thought you did, know from your posts that you would not try that.
If you mean this

2. Was the old drive still loading Windows albeit there were file errors or bad sectors


I meant, was it working on the old drive, NOT did you back up while it was running.

Sorry for the confusion.
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#5
mikeloeven

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the bad sectors thankfully were all inside where goback stores it's disk snapshots so while goback and a fair ammount of nortan was trashed the actually os was in tact execpt for ie8 which i needed to reinstall.
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