I just spent four hours on a failed recovery from Windows 7 Pro. I have tried and used every backup software you want to name. All the supposed 'new and improved' JUNK in Windows 7, didn't work to recover the boot drive.
And what happened, was just a hiccup to XP -- COWON software, which installs itself into your context menu, and USED to be compatible with XP, has after so many WINDOWS updates which CONFLICT, become incompatible. COWON is the fastest video converter I've ever found. And it will no longer run properly in XP Pro, with all the updates.
So I tried to install it into my just-purchased Windows 7 Professional Optiplex, a clean machine excepting for a few basic third-party programs like TuneUp Utilities and Macrium Reflect 5 Pro. I hadn't even installed Word yet. Fortunately I did clone the drive via Macrium, which has its own recovery tools, and backup.
But Macrium's recovery mode won't allow cloning from the clone drive BACK TO the root. But I had Clonezilla. This is my first use of it. Before using it, though, I let Windows 7 try to recover itself, with restore (didn't work), repair (didn't work), reinstall (didn't work), and even Macrium's own attempt to repair the MBR (didn't work). The thing just kept on booting and repairing and booting and finally I said 'the heck with this!' -- and pulled out my Clonezilla.
Granted, when the thing runs it's in Swahili -- but 10% of what it says is the part requiring YOUR response, and the instructions are clear. You have to know that in Linux, they like to put geeky names on things, like calling your root drive sda1 (WHHHAAAAAA?????) -- but after you get used to the vocabulary, it's pretty straight forward, like DOS.
(For a quick hands-on course in Linux basics, get GParted and just select each option without running anything, READ what they do. Or, download Ubuntu.)
So when Clonzilla's 'vocabulary' offered to CLONE the clone of the root drive (sda1, remember) that I'd made via Macrium, BACK TO the root drive -- and I said YOU BETCHA -- it then did clone, in 20 minutes (80GB, not all of it used, but all of it referenced, sector by sector, since the drive was partititioned).
WHEW. Else I couldn't be typing here now.
Acronis failed. Rebit failed. Easeus failed. Macrium failed. And are you surprised, all the alleged new-and-deproved 'support' of Windows 7 Pro failed. All because Windows 7 can't stand an old (2008-2009) video and audio converter/player program which wanted to insert itself into the context menu.
BUT CLONEZILLA SUCCEEDED. I had bought Debian Linux to dual boot with my machines, but hadn't yet installed it. Also got Zorin. Turns out that Clonezilla is also Debian-related. What do you think I'll do from now on?
DUAL BOOT IN LINUX PREVENTS YOUR MACHINE FROM CRASHES, or BETTER ENABLES RECOVERY. I learned that the hard way back last May, when my machine died and only GParted could back it up. Then came online here a few months later, and got Clonezilla.
Yeah, baby. Clone your drive using Macrium (which backs up Linux partitions too), and then CLONE THE CLONE back to your MBR drive with Clonezilla. So once I get straight on Linux, I'll make all my machines dual-boot. So Windows can't screw up my machines with such long delays, again.
Peace at last. For seven dollars! Oh: I notice they now have a full live backup and recovery system preinstalled on a USB, search on Clonezilla here in Amazon. There are two flavors, for I think $40 and $60, both sitting in my shopping cart until I can decide between them...
PS, update 11/21/12: it dawned on me after midnight last, that maybe part of the problem with the reboot repair but reboot and no Windows, was due to the fact I was using a bootable USB from my Macrium. In which case, even had the drive been repaired, I wouldn't know. Not sure that might have been the case, for there was no PE environment at first, but Windows kept offering to 'repair'; after going through that, I still got the PE Environment, and even when I elected to boot Windows normally, it would not boot. To be charitable, let's say it was repaired but something between Windows 'repair' facility and Macrium, kept putting the system in a loop (32-bit), because I needed to unplug the USB. So, we can say that Clonzilla comes to the rescue even despite a stupid user (here, moi).
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