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Failed to initialise $MFT file

kadoka66kadoka66
edited March 2015 in AOMEI Products Support

Dear Support


I was having problems with my previous install of Windows 8.1 and had to initiate a repair from inside Windows PE.

I opted for system reset back to factory state.

Prior to this, about 2 or 3 days before the problems started happening I had made a backup of the system disc.


I am now trying to restore this backup via USB and get all the way to the end of the process to be met with the below error.

"Failed to initalise $MFT file due to error in file system, please ammend it by using CHKDSK.exe in CMD to retry."


I ran CHKDSK afterwards and a whole loads of errors were fixed but none of the data from the backup has gone onto the disc.

Furthermore, I am left without a valid copy of Windows so the system won't boot up now.

I guess I can initiate another reset and try over but first I would like to understand this error a little better.


What exactly is the problem?

Is my entire hard drive corrupt?

Did this happen because I was trying to restore windows 8.1 over windows 8 (the system reset takes me back to Windows 8)

I had been wondering if it was a hardware problem because I was failing the short DST hard drive checks but after the system reset I now pass those, including all extensive hard drive tests.


Any advice, guidance you can offer would be very much appreciated.


If it is not possible to restore the disk image, can I still extract the data from it, say personal data etc and restore that separately.


I am using AOMEI backupper professional version 2.0.1

Computer is a laptop, HP Pavilion.


Regards


Chris


Comments

  • kadoka66kadoka66

    I have answered the question of selective restore myself (using explore image option).


    If you can just explain what the error means and if there is a way to restore the entire image safely, that would be helpful.


    Thanks in advance.

  • bodgybodgy

    When you ran chkdsk did you use the switch /f ? If not try that, that repairs everything.

  • kadoka66kadoka66
    edited March 2015

    Hi Bodgy, yes I used the following command - chkdsk /f /r c:

    It went through about a thousand or so index entrys and deleted or fixed them.

    I tried again to restore the disk image but I get the same error.

    "Error 208: Failed to initiate $MFT....."

    The system is setup as UEFI by the way.

    The source and destination data formats are an exact match, NFTS -> NFTS, FAT32 -> FAT32 etc etc.

    However, I did noticed that the directory on the source reads as C:windows/ whereas the destination is C:/NFTS ... could this have anything to do with the error.


    Please someone help me, I am tearing my hair out :(

  • kadoka66kadoka66

    Hi Bodgy, yes I used the following command - chkdsk /f /r c:

    It went through about a thousand or so index entrys and deleted or fixed them.

    I tried again to restore the disk image but I get the same error.

    "Error 208: Failed to initiate $MFT....."

    The system is setup as UEFI by the way.

    The source and destination data formats are an exact match, NTFS -> NTFS, FAT32 -> FAT32 etc etc.

    However,
    I did noticed that the directory on the source reads as C:windows/
    whereas the destination is C:/NTFS ... could this have anything to do
    with the error.


    Please someone help me, I am tearing my hair out


  • kadoka66kadoka66

    For the benefit of anyone else who stumbles across this problem,

    I managed to fix (sort of) this problem by myself. Slightly disappointed by the lack of responses, support on this board.


    In the end, reinstalling windows from the disc and then restoring only the windows partition of the C drive worked.

    Trying to restore the disc was a disaster and makes me wonder whether it is even possible on some UEFI machines.


    I seems that the MFT error was a false one. I checked my disc over with testdisk and found no such problem. Furthermore I can get through checkdisc without a single error. Defragmenting also comes up clean. As does a hard drive test.


    Regards


    Chris

  • mysery126mysery126

    Before you backed up your system disk, had you ever convert your disk between GPT and MBR? since you only said a disk backup, I also wonder how you restore only the windows partition of the C drive.

  • mjablon1mjablon1

    For me, this was also not related to any chkdsk error, but as a result, system was not bootable (error 0xc0000225, device do not exists). I've fixed it using command prompt of aomei WinPE recovery env and BCDBoot command.


    diskpart

    list disk

    select disk X (the one with boot files)

    list partition

    select partition Y (the very small one labelled SYSTEM)

    assign letter=Z

    exit

    BCDBoot c:\windows /s z: /f UEFI


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