using EasyBDC to make cloned Vista HDD's bootable?

T

terry35

Member
I just cloned my Vista installation to another HDD. Using Acronis TrueImage 11. In order to get the cloned HDD to boot, the procedure is to install the Vista DVD, go to Repair, and in short order, the repair procedure makes the cloned HDD bootable.

My Vista DVD was bought prior to the SP1 release. Any cloned HDD without SP1 can be made bootable using the original Vista DVD.

However my newly cloned HDD, now contains SP1, which was updated via the internet by Microsoft through some 160 updates. This cloned HDD, will not Boot, using the original DVD repair procedure.

When the repair procedure finds a valid "Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate (recovered)" I get the following dialog when it attempts to repair.

"This version of system recovery options is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair try using a recovery disc. That is compatible with this version of windows"

I was reading that using bcdedit one can make a cloned HDD point to the correct location of the Vista bootloader. So my reasoning was, If I can export the BCD from my original HDD and import it to the cloned HDD, then maybe I can get the cloned HDD to boot.

2 questions:

Is EasyBCD capable of doing the editing for me, as opposed to doing it in the Dos window?
Does anyone at this forum know if this will solve my cloned HDD booting problem?

TIA!
 
Hi Terry, welcome to NST.
I've repaired a Vista with SP1 using my SP1less installation DVD. It works with no problem.
Are you using a Vista DVD, or one of our recovery download ISOs.
If it's the latter, it sounds like you're using the wrong one (64 bit when you need 32 or v.v.)
 
I was only using my own Vista dvd, without sp1. I had no Idea that there was a recovery ISO available here.
I only arrived at your site after reading up on the all other cloning failures, and possible solutions via bcdedit.

cheers!

Addendum:

While I was downloading your Recovery ISO, I had time to retry something I had not used in a few years.
I used a copy of Ghost 8 on a bootable cd. Made a fresh clone of my HDD. Used my Vista DVD to repair the
clone for booting. Volia!
I'm now uninstalling Acronis TrueImage 11 forever. Acronis was never able to clone both partitions.
partition d, was always blank. Have been waiting for days from their tech support for answers. .....NO reply.

I will give your recovery ISO a try shortly. ..... thanks!
 
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If you've got a Vista DVD, you don't need to bother with our download. It's just a small subset of the full installation DVD, provided for OEM users who were provided with a recovery partition and no other bootable media, to get them out of the catch22 where they had a broken boot and couldn't access their recovery partition. Your Vista DVD will do it all and more.

We've had loads of people with unsuccessful cloned systems, especially Vista, because of its use of disk ids to boot rather than BIOS. I haven't used Acronis, just Paragon. I'd tend to use a partition copy, one by one, rather than try to image an entire HDD anyway.
 
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If the problem was solved already, and you have a Vista DVD, why are you downloading our recovery ISO? :wink: Anyhow, glad you got it working now.

Let you know if you any more problems.

Cheers.

Jake
 
I too, have cloned a hard drive containing Vista only to receive a message saying that the boot file was missing. I used the repair function on the DVD to install the file and all was well. The only problem was the time that it took. What I’d like is a bootable CD that will install the file quickly. Can this be done using Easy BCD?
 
Hi Persiticus, welcome to NST

EasyBCD is a program ran in Windows. In this case since you had missing files, startup repairs the best way to fix it.
 
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