Hi All, Been having an impossible time installing Win7x64 to my new Toshiba laptop. My plan was to format the HDD and use my Acronis Universal Restore to reload all programs and partitions (complete disk image) with any new required drivers added. Been trying to do this for almost a week! This whole cluster-f#!k seems to revolve around the disk structure, MBR, etc. Whenever I try a clean install on a one-partition disk, I get Windows on drive X: and my C: drive has everything but the Windows folder. So, when I restore my Acronis image, it moves things around to mimic my old HDD. Acronis universal restore actually wipes the drive clean then lays down the image. Problem is after doing this, Windows always fails to boot and no amount of MBR "fixing" will make it right. When I try and "repair" from the install disc, it cannot find a previous version of Windows. When I look at the structure of the HDD in my old laptop that I'm trying to replace, there is a small 1.46 meg hidden (Recovery Partition) partition first, then C: (Win7x64) with it's usual Program Files, Users, Documents and Settings, and Windows, then D:, E:, F:, & G: partitions, followed by any removable drives. So! Why the hell is the disk structure in my 6 year old laptop, BIOS date of 2010 (with no obvious boot proc other than MBR), so much different than a 2016 laptop with UEFI/CMP being run in CMP mode? And how the hell do I get Windows to install on C: drive like every other 'puter I've ever owned? I realize a lot of peeps could give a cr@p about where stuff lands, but I like to know the what/where/why of things. I'm beginning to think this is a lost cause. Somebody please help an old man out... Russ
Hi... I'm no expert but why you would have so many partitions on one drive I don't get since by the looks of your pic you already have 2 external drive, yes ? Have you try under Disk Management right click on the Win7x64 partition and select Make this partition active, if not, give it a try and see if it will load windows . Also, when you say you want to install 7 / 64 what is the original operating system that came with this laptop? If its 7/64, have you ever done a factory restore?
Your old mbr setup is legacy. UEFI with CSM (Compatability Support Module) would require the install to be GPT. You should be able to turn UEFI OFF for Legacy. Once you have turned UEFI OFF & restored your image you would then need to boot some tool to reset the HAL "Hardware Abstraction Layer" in windows offline (& possible load current ahci drivers) before you could boot into your OS. If you don't, it will blue-screen... The last time I did it I used "Shadow Protect IT" to reset the HAL...
Prolly goes back to the Win3 days when Windows was pretty much a glorified filing system. I'm used to installing programs in their own folders and not "program files" and don't like having to scroll thru explorer to get to something. The external drives...one is for backups on my current laptop and the other was getting a full disc image for the new laptop. The original system was Win10x64, gave it a night and it had to go... The problem is...Acronis lays down a complete image and sets the partition layout to whatever was backed up. So no matter what table I set my new HDD up with will be forced back to MBR by virtue of the image restore. I do get a bluescreen, which I thought was the AHCI driver, but the code also seems to be for no boot files (0x0000007B)? I need to get on Acronis' support forum I guess. They tout this as the fix-all, but I'm certainly having no luck. What irks me? This is the same exact Win7x64 that's on the older machine. Just a new puter with a different HDD, with the partitions set larger, and the option to add new hardware drivers, all should go well. One thing I do see, the little hidden, 1.5G unformatted "Recovery Partition" ahead of C: drive on my old HDD is somewhere in the middle on my new drive and I see no way to make it go where I want it. I did have a clean install of Win7 running 2x's. The first one I killed by installing new drivers, the 2nd was so fragile it wouldn't start on a reboot. The restore goes perfectly, but the reboot/start does not. Says to insert the DVD and try repair. Repair finds my Win7x64 install, but cannot fix it... Russ
The blue screen error 0x0000007B is because of the lack of correct ahci drivers. Google 0x0000007B & have a read...
What does that mean? How did installing drivers "kill" it? How did the other install "not start"? Any BSODs? Error messages? First you're going to have to decide whether you really want to use a full disk restore (along with that useless recovery partition) or a clean install. Then you'll have to decide whether you want to use UEFI or BIOS compatibility mode. Then you'd start troubleshooting specific issues. My approach would be to do a clean install in UEFI mode and see if it works. If it doesn't, repeat in BIOS compatibility mode and be done with it. I'd skip running the bootable installer and instead do the partition setup, image deployment, and driver injection manually.
If I knew I wouldn't be mentioning it. The 1st time I finally got a clean install, I was loading drivers by running the executable driver packages and finally hit one that req'd a reboot. That was fail #1. Second time, I chose to reboot after getting a clean install w/o any added drivers, and that was fail #2. Now when I try a clean install, I get the pic below, and that's after diskpart clean. Not even having luck anymore with clean installs... My problem is, I have no idea what's req'd for a Win7x64 install. This OS is so much different than what I'm used to. My 2009 laptop had Win7x64 (installed by me after reformatting), and it has the 1.5G recovery partition ahead of the visible partitions. All this was apparently done automajically, as I have no recollection of setting a hidden, letterless partition. My Acronis restore should overwrite my new HDD in the exact same fashion as what my 2009 HDD is after being backed up. Driver injection manually...trying this, Win setup states "no signed drivers found" no matter which folder I point it to. And yes, all these are extracted to their root (Win7x64) folders. Guess AMD & Toshiba forgot to sign them... Russ
So you tried to reboot, and then what? Did you get a screen saying "It is now safe to turn off your computer"? Did you get the Windows boot logo? A blank screen? A blue screen? A Windows boot loader error? A BIOS message saying "floppy disk error"? Did the machine go up in flames? Anything? I have explained what partitions are needed for booting in your other thread. A regular Windows install doesn't create a 1.5 GB recovery partition, and it doesn't need one to boot. The way I'd do a clean install is to do everything manually and skip the bootable installer entirely. Doesn't matter how it would partition the drive or loads drivers. But if you're not interested in clean installing and only trying to get the Acronis restore to work that process isn't going to help you.
If you Have Acronis Universal Restore Bootable DVD,Windows 7 x64 Bootable DVD Then You Can Try As Following first Restore Your Image to New Laptop. Then Boot with Windows 7 x64 DVD ,at Drive selection go to Command Prompt (Shift +f10),then delete all partitions on new laptops HDD ,except C Drive Where your windows and all things are installed. Reboot laptop with acronis bootable dvd and Again Capture that one and only one C Drive . Then Restore this Newly created image which contains only c Drive to same New Laptops HDD. You can add AHCI drivers,and also try to boot with AHCI disabled if Possible. Your D,E,F,G drive having data of Approximately 70 Gb which you can copy after setting new laptop by mounting that Old image which is still intact in your old location or ext HDD. You have two ext HDD which are empty so you don't have space problem . One thing remember when deleting partitions that correct disk is selected and no any ext HDD is connected. But if you installed Programs on E Drive which have labeled as program ,this may be failed for that programs. Be Cautious..while deleting partition on new laptop.
I upgraded to Acronis' 2016 version and it finally went. Now I'm having an impossible time finding working drivers. Another story there... I did run across something quite odd, after managing a couple clean installs of Win7, I could no longer do it. I use diskpart "clean", then boot off the ODD disc, then "install now", and still get the message in the pic in post#7. I have no idea why Windows cannot find a suitable space on a "clean" disk. I've tried it with and without partitioning, with and without formatting, and all combinations there-of. Curious for an answer. BTW, this install wrecked my activation. I used ABR to backup the keys off the old puter, guess it won't work on the new one. Is this a hardware or BIOS deal? Russ
I don't have an answer, maybe the setup log files do. Anyway, if you do want a clean install it's time to dump the installer and do everything the command-line based manual way. Well, duh.
Sorry! What I meant was, do I need to tinker with the BIOS on a new laptop or use other means to reactivate. This was originally OEM Win7x64 "Premium" that was upgraded online a few months ago to "Ultimate". Strange about that upgrade, I was anticipating a fee, but it never asked for anything. Just clicked the upgrade button and 10 minutes later, had Ultimate showing... Russ EDIT: Pretty sure I used a "has everything" ISO to install "Premium" on the other puter after using ABR to get the original keys. But I don't think ABR supports anything after XP? All too confusing...