I have a fully functional Windows Embedded XP SP3 system that I used Norton Ghost 12 to create disk images of. In the past, on my old laptop which ran Windows XP, I used Ghost 12 to create these images and also restore them to other HDDs that I put into the kiosks to replace failed drives. I used an external SATA to USB adapter, a Vantec unit, to perform this iperation with no problems, ever.
Recently I got a new laptop that only runs Windows 7 or 8. I had Windows 8 on it and reading that Ghost 12 does not work with it, I therefore installed Symantec System Recovery 2013, which appears to be exactly the same as Ghost, so I am hoping it's appropriate to ask this question here.
I used SSR 2013 to restore one of the old backup images to a fresh drive, using my trusty Vantec adapter, as I have done many times in the past. But every time I restore that backup to a fresh drive and try to boot the kiosk I get this blue screen of death (BSOD):
UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
STOP: 0x000000ED (0x8B6A37B8, 0xC0000016, 0x0, 0x0)
I have attempted about 20 to 30 different methods to repair this, to no avail. I tried restoring with and without the "restore original disk signature" option. I restored onto a RAW and a pre-formatted partition. I restored while booted from the SRD on the kiosk itself in case it was my Vantec unit. I made a fresh backup of a drive pulled from a working machine, then from a different drive from a different working machine, and restoring those to any drive always fails with the same error as well. I tried running every conceivable recommended fix such as: FIXBOOT, FIXMBR, CHKDSK, and all the various flags available in those, an still the same error. Sigh.
What is the fix for this?
I notice that I do not have the option to restore the MBR unless booted from SRD... Why?
Why is it that when I create a disk image of the boot partition of one of these working drives when it's attached via the USB adapter, why does SSR tell me I should also clone my laptop's internal drive, TWICE? It will show a window saying, "In the previous panel,myou selected a drive with applications that are configured to use one or more of the drives below. To help with a successful recovery you should add all related drives." Then it shows my boot disk C:\ twice in the list! Yet I am cloning a drive that has literally never been attached to my computer before... why on Earth does SSR think that this drive has applications any dependencies connected to my laptop's boot volume?!
Why isn't there just a simple option to copy all of the ones and zeroes from one drive, to another, and just have it work? It's the year 2013. Why has cloning a drive become such an insane chore, when in the past, you could just clone the **bleep** thing and it would *just work*? OR is there something incredibly obvious and stupid that I am not doing?