bga123
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Acronis restore of several validated backups complete but Windows remains damage
Windows 7 refused to boot so I restored from several image backups. These completed normally and the system tries to boot. It stalls at the Windows logo screen and says it couldn't start. It offers me the opportunity to run a system restore to which I say "Yes", but it while that process starts it terminates prematurely.
Could this be a hardware problem with the boot disk (which BTW is an SSD)?
Could this be a hardware problem with the boot disk (which BTW is an SSD)?
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Run the SSD's manufacturer's utility on it to diagnose it (connect it internally to another PC running Windows to do that). The tool, besides testing it, should also give you the option to upgrade it's firmware if it isn't uptodate.
Besides, as has been mentioned already, test your RAM using memtest86+.
If both are fine, delete all partitions on the SSD before trying to restore from your images again.
Besides, as has been mentioned already, test your RAM using memtest86+.
If both are fine, delete all partitions on the SSD before trying to restore from your images again.
ASKER
Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply.
I was able to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 on the SSD and ran a pre-boot scan to find and fix bad sectors and the report came back clean. Windows 7 installed clean and could be booted cleanly.
I do daily incrementals and weekly fulls and keep 3 weeks of backups. My system has been stable and all attempts to restore multiple images (all verified as valid immediately after backup) result in the system freezing shortly after the Windows Boot logo. Any attempt by System Recovery to run Startup Repair results in the system trying to run a System Restore. This in turn fails with an Application Error saying an instruction at 0xfb36584d referenced memory at 0x00000008. the memory could not be read. Click OK to terminate program.
When the same startup repair is run from CD it works fine but when system tries to reboot it results in the same symptoms.
Memory is very high quality 32-GB of Corsair
I was able to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 on the SSD and ran a pre-boot scan to find and fix bad sectors and the report came back clean. Windows 7 installed clean and could be booted cleanly.
I do daily incrementals and weekly fulls and keep 3 weeks of backups. My system has been stable and all attempts to restore multiple images (all verified as valid immediately after backup) result in the system freezing shortly after the Windows Boot logo. Any attempt by System Recovery to run Startup Repair results in the system trying to run a System Restore. This in turn fails with an Application Error saying an instruction at 0xfb36584d referenced memory at 0x00000008. the memory could not be read. Click OK to terminate program.
When the same startup repair is run from CD it works fine but when system tries to reboot it results in the same symptoms.
Memory is very high quality 32-GB of Corsair
The instruction errors are coming from memory. Even if it is a high quality memory stick - it can be faulty. Have you tried to test it with memtest? There is an option to test it when booting into Recovery Environment from Windows 7 DVD.
I wouldn't use the Windows memory tester, I haven't had too good experience with it, for example some RAM I tried testing with it passed even though that RAM was faulty. Testing it with memtest86+ on the other hand found the errors. As has been mentioned though, even "High Quality" RAM can be bad. Besides that, what makes RAM "High Quality"? the fact that it is labelled "Corsair"? My bad RAM was also Corsair. Sometimes it can also be that the RAM isn't really compatible with your PC, or one of the slots is bad, or the timing is wrong, etc.
ASKER
I used the memtest program that is part of gparted and everything was OK. I gave up then and re-installed Windows and associated mobo drivers. Weird thing though was that the system was taking forever to boot. I mean 10min+! So I installed Windows Performance Toolkit and used xbootmgr to trace the boot process and found that majority of the time was spent accessing drive 2 but very little CPU. I popped in to Disk Manager to see which drive 2 was and it showed me a 4GB drive. Huh? I don't have a 4GB drive!
Then it occurred to me - several months back I had a 1.5 TB drive about to go bad and generating errors detected by SMART. I purchased a new disk, migrated the data but didn't get around to removing the old drive, I simply disabled it in Windows Disk Manager. Whenever I rebooted my system would ask me to press "F1" to acknowledge that I had a sick drive registering errors. Well since my PC sits under a desk and is inconvenient to work on, I figured I would just pop in to the BIOS and turn off that pre-boot BIOS generated alert.
Now what happened is that the drive apparently failed completely and send corrupted data on to the SAS bus. As a result any attempts to restore my Acronis backup, while successful, prevented the system from booting. Not sure why I was able to install a new OS without a problem though. At any, rate I opened up the case, unplugged the SAS cable and disconnected the power form the failed drive and sure enough the system booted in about 12 seconds. Tried to restore my old backup again and bingo I'm back in business.
Then it occurred to me - several months back I had a 1.5 TB drive about to go bad and generating errors detected by SMART. I purchased a new disk, migrated the data but didn't get around to removing the old drive, I simply disabled it in Windows Disk Manager. Whenever I rebooted my system would ask me to press "F1" to acknowledge that I had a sick drive registering errors. Well since my PC sits under a desk and is inconvenient to work on, I figured I would just pop in to the BIOS and turn off that pre-boot BIOS generated alert.
Now what happened is that the drive apparently failed completely and send corrupted data on to the SAS bus. As a result any attempts to restore my Acronis backup, while successful, prevented the system from booting. Not sure why I was able to install a new OS without a problem though. At any, rate I opened up the case, unplugged the SAS cable and disconnected the power form the failed drive and sure enough the system booted in about 12 seconds. Tried to restore my old backup again and bingo I'm back in business.
ASKER
I wanted to select a solution to award credit. Chose the first one to mention suspect drive. Please read my final comment to provide context on what the real problem was.
@bga123 - Thanks for the update and I am glad a new drive solved your issue.
Another question - does this image come from this drive exactly? Or is it a new drive?