System Backup/Restore with DriveImage XML problems on Windows 7

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I am trying to use the DriveImage XML backup and restore capabilities to move my Windows 7 system from a PATA drive to a SATA drive. After I restore a backup of the SystemReserved partition and the C: boot partition, the resultant restored Windows 7 system will not boot. When I then to a Repair System option, it indicates it found problems, but is unable to save the BootBCD boot options and aborts the repair action. From some research I have done, I suspect the problem is with the BCD store not matching the specific SATA hardware and the recovery tools are unable to correct that problem. Am I missing something here? Do I need to do a fresh, clean install of Windows/7, all of the applications, and then restore my data in order to swap the PATA drive with a SATA drive? Another piece of information, these are two different systems, so the chipset used by the systems may also be different, but the error does not have any indication of that being involved with the recovery. I have not tried to backup and restore the initial PATA system, but suspect there may be a problem there also if the “restored to” disk is not exactly like the backed disk.

When I use the builtin tools in Windows 7 to create an image, save it to a portable USB attached hard drive, and then use the System Repair/Recovery CD built with Windows 7 to restore that image, the backup image is found for the selection of the image, but when the restore is then attempted, an error is given stating no disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found.

Any suggestions are welcome..

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I’m not a fan of DriveImage. Try EaseUS, but, instead of creating an image, clone the old drive to the new drive.

http://www.easeus.com/download/backup.html

I’ve also had good results with DriveClone, especially when cloning to SSDs.

http://www.farstone.com/software/drive-clone.php

Always check for bundled unwanted extras when downloading and installing any new software and be sure to decline them. Use custom install when it’s available.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I use easeus on another of my systems. I found that the problem I was having was due to the SATA operation was set for AHCI and needed to be ATA mode. Once that was changed, my DriveImage was restored successfully. In reading up a bit on the AHCI option, it appears that different drivers are needed for that and obviously they are not included in the PATA backups I have. That also would preclude any other image backup/restore from working.

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