Restore disk image fails in Windows 8.1
I'm not sure if this is just 8.1 or any recently updated Windows system, but it seems Microsoft is getting ever more aggressive in blocking full system copies. They don't seem to care that a few of us are needing legitimate copies for backup purposes. Apple would never do this to its customers, and it certainly isn't a problem in Linux.
I have two identical, fully-licensed Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablets. One is going out for warranty repair. I need to transfer its disk contents to the other, then back again later. Microsoft says I have to re-install everything - progams, drivers, configuration files, everything. That would take days, and I would still be missing a lot of configurations and special files like the driver that I got after hours on the phone with HP tech support.
I made a full disk backup to an external USB drive using AOMEI 2.8. No problem. I restored the image to the other computer. AOMEI says " ... completed successfully".
Restarting the target computer shows a blue screen with the message:
Your PC needs to be repaired
A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed.
Error code: 0xc0000225
You'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media. ... contact your PC manufacturer.
Press the Windows key for UEFI Firmware Settings
There is no response to the Windows key, or any other input from the keyboard or mouse. The computer shuts off after a minute.
Restarting from a USB boot stick brings up AOMEI. The partitions on the target
computer look normal, including a little empty partition that doesn't show in Microsoft's Disk Management tool.
Exiting AOMEI brings back the blue screen. There doesn't seem to be any way around this.
The good folks at winhelp.us helped me recover. See the details in the discussion under my name at winhelp.us/restore-disk-image-with-aomei-backupper.html#starthere
It turns out there was a problem with the BCD (Boot Configuration Data). Apparently there is some difference between the two systems that is not overwritten in a full disk copy.
My questions are:
1) Why can't AOMEI copy *everything* from one system to another?
2) Will fixing the BCD after a disk copy be sufficient in the future, or is this just one of a series of problems that will pop up as Microsoft tries to engineer ever-changing hurdles to prevent copying? I have 8 computers to manage at a veterinary clinic, and when one goes down, I need to grab another off the shelf, restore an image, and get it back to the doctor that same day.
Comments
Hi,
It is a known problem which occurs in a few cases when making a disk restoration. And yes, fixing the BCD will solve the problem. I will suggest that you make a system backup and use Partition Backup to back up other data partitions later. System restore has a higher success rate than disk restore based on testing.
In addition, please note that restoring to a different computer, you must use the Universal Restore option.