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--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

"William B. Lurie" wrote in message
...
Michael, just as a point of information, I have an old XP Home Edition
Restore CD which came with a PC whose hard drive died after 3 months
in service. E-machines replaced the CD, under warranty, and I used the
Ghost image on the Restore CD to rebuild the OS back on a virgin drive
as it was originally on a different piece of hardware....
Some time later, I used the same CD to recreate the OS on two
other hard drives. Maybe I'm naive, but a new, formatted drive is
a fit place to restore an OS from a Drive Image of PowerQuest's. True,
the Ghost history I'm relating was not PQ's Drive Image, but to me
the principle is the same; it is all apples, not apples and oranges.

Not applicable. First, it's a restore CD, not a retail version and second,
most of those are tied to the system. You can, within reason change
hardware, though changing motherboards on such a system might now work, at
least not with the restore CD, you likely would be able to clone images of
the restore CD to other hard drives on the same system, there's no hash, no
hardware abstraction layer issue.... Apples and Oranges.

But is there no way to allow my present, functional system to boot
cleanly and uniquely to its OS, to delete and obviate the option to
go to Recovery Console?
WBL

I have no idea about the RC or even if it figures in. Try a repair install
and see if it gets the drive bootable though you might have to activate
which should be no problem.
NOTE, while a repair install should leave your data files intact, if
something goes wrong during the repair install, you may be forced to start
over and do a clean install of XP. If you don't have your data backed up,
you would lose your data should that eventuality occur.

Assuming your system is set to boot from the CD-ROM drive and you have an
actual XP CD as opposed to a recovery CD, boot with the XP
CD in the drive and perform a repair install as outlined below. If the
system isn't set to boot from the CD or you are not sure, you need to enter
the system's BIOS. When you boot the system, the first screen usually has
instructions that if you wish to enter set press a specific key, when you
see that, do so. Then you will have to navigate to the boot sequence, if
the CD-ROM drive is not first line, set it first in the boot sequence. Save
your settings and exit with the XP CD in the drive. The system will reboot.

When the system boots, a few screens into the process you may see a message
instructing you
to hit any key in order to boot from the CD along with a countdown. When
you see this be sure to
hit a key on the keyboard, if you miss this instruction and the system fails
to boot from the CD, it's too
late, you'll need to reboot and try again.

Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a reference
asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.

Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a screen
with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
using the Recovery console. ***The selection you want at this screen is
"Setup Windows,"
NOT "Repair Windows Installation.

The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you to
press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement. Setup
will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
on, follow the screens.

If you only have a recovery CD, your options are quite limited. You can
either purchase a retail version of XP will allow you to perform the above
among other tools and options it has or you can run your system recovery
routine with the Recovery CD which will likely wipe your drive, deleting all
files but will restore your setup to factory fresh condition.



Michael Solomon (MS-MVP Windows Shell/User) wrote:

William, I said this is all I could conclude from this and I did raise
the possibility of this issue at the very outset.

That said, you're assertion is not quite correct.. Images are used all
the time to recover from system crashes and similar situations without
issue but that is to the same physical drive. However, when you image to
a new hard drive, one that the OS didn't see when it was first installed,
because it was not connected to the system at the time, you are changing
the parameters of the setup. If you understand XP's activation and
anti-piracy scheme, it makes perfect sense. Usually, they can get around
this by doing a repair install. I also told you at the outset, I wasn't
sure this could be done for precisely that reason.

It makes perfect sense if the new hard drive is not included in the
original hash created during System setup. If a user changes
motherboards and nothing, else, they usually have to do a repair install
as well.

I'm not certain if this is the issue here but it fits all the criteria
and it's all I can conclude from the information.

My suggestion is to take this to the hardware board as they may have
experience with this and may come up with something else as the reason.
But, they need to be aware of the fact, the cloned drive was not
connected to the system when XP was first installed. They may say, it
makes no difference it should work. On the other hand, they may see the
same thing I've seen and given the error messages come to the same
conclusion. This is all that I can tell you as I've never tried to do
what you are doing and I haven't seen this exact situation elsewhere.



--
William B. Lurie