1

I use Acronis to Image clone the system partition (OS) to a separate drive (not disk clone).

enter image description here
oops just the partition

The purpose of the separate drive with system partition cloned, is to be able to hop into that backup system at any time using UEFI boot menu methods.
After creating the clone from an image file, and using the boot menu to boot to the disk/partition, the partition is not set up for booting, as needed by the windows7 system.

How do I setup this cloned partition on a separated disk, so it will easily boot right into it, the same way it booted into the original System drive?

The main Partition is lettered "C:" and labeled "SYS7"
The clone partition on the separate disk is called "D:" and labeled SYS7Bak.
Both partitions are the First partition on the disk.

The partitions are just smaller parts of whole very large disks, the partitions are about 30G in size, the partitions called SYS7, hold only the OS and Programs, there is no large data quantities stored on the partitions. The partitions are imaged to a file on disk for file backup also.

The motherboard used a UEFI bios, and can boot direct to any drive right from the UEFI boot section, or by using the Boot Menu method (f8 f12 esc), which brings up the UEFI Boot Menu.

There are no other bootloaders, no other operating systems, no reserve partition, no recovery partition, nothing special beyond 2 system/OS partitions cloned, I wish to boot to both systems.

2
  • Stupid question: you can boot Win 7 in UEFI mode?
    – fixer1234
    Apr 8, 2015 at 18:08
  • I am not using "UEFI mode", only uefi boot menu, I use the CSM (legasy), . If it matters the uefi boot menu on both motherboards will boot in either legasy or UEFI mode within a single instance of the uefi boot menu, and secure boot it still on, so i assume that would allow other things. The intent here is only to always be able to boot a working simple win7 (64bit) partition , right from the "bios" even if one was fully software destroyed or when one set of hardware (like say ssd) would die completly.
    – Psycogeek
    Apr 8, 2015 at 22:50

1 Answer 1

0

At this useful question, Why does a cloned Windows 7 BCD contain incomplete data (and, therefore, prevent booting)? they are asking a similar but different thing, the useful answers were not what I was looking for at all. My answer would not fit in well at that location, there is no XP, and the action I am doing is very specific and simpler.

I clone using the (compressed) image file method. That clone file of the C: partition is then sent to the backup system partition D:. Because of the use of disk IDs (GUID) everytime I send the image file to the new location, it has to be fixed before it will boot.

After research and many repeated clonings of a very specific setup, I now have a batch file that in 3 seconds, I can "fix" up the boot on My cloned partition.

The changes to be made on my system were to be made to a partition with the letter D, if that is not the correct partition you will have to alter the instances of D: . In my testing the partition is on the front of the disk, there is no reserve, there is no partition before it.

After booting to the Backup clone system, the OS decided to letter the partition with C: this works out very well, for my uses.

enter image description here
Ths pic shows it booted to the backup and how the letter itself has changed when it is booted there.

If you do not know what this does or why, do not use it, it is very specific, to the exact layout I use.

CLONEbootFix.Bat

Echo OFF
CLS
Color 0C
Echo ************** CLONE BATCH ***************
timeout /T 1 > NUL
Echo.
Echo ************** BCD EDIT D ***************
Echo.
Echo.
Echo Do you want to make the D: Drive or Partition to be bootable to Windows 7
Echo By messing with the BCD?   You must type Yes If you wish to do it.
Echo.
SET /P Choice1=type "YES" "NO" ? - 
IF /I "%Choice1%"=="YES" GOTO DOIT

Echo.
Echo You did not indicate yes, so It will not proceed.
Echo.
Echo It will now exit.
Echo.
pause
Exit

:DOIT
Echo.
Echo * * * Setting OS device * * *
Echo.
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {default} osdevice boot
Echo.
Echo  * * * Setting Default Device Boot * * * 
Echo.
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {default} device boot
Echo.
Echo  * * * Setting Boot Manager * * * 
Echo.
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} device boot
Echo.
Echo  * * * Setting Memory Diagnostics Location * * * 
Echo.
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {memdiag} device boot
Echo.
pause
exit

Only the 4 BCDedit lines are nessisary, so you can trim it down if desired, there is no error checking, just trying to make sure it is not run by misteak.

I created this for my own purposes, I cannot guarentee that it will work for your purpose, or that everything will work correct. It just would have helped me out to find this done.

Remember to re-Label (rename) your drive/partition , because the letters might not mean anything.

After sending the Image to the Backup partition, I then boot into the original system as always. Once in the original system, I run the batch to "fix" this backup system partition so it will also boot. It is Fixed preferably before the original is damaged in some way. I can always access some GUI OS even if the original disk has a hardware failure, or gets a virus or dies, or will not boot, or If I mess up the software on the one.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .