How to use BM to boot Win 7 from USB partition?

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Ambertus
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2013 6:06 am

How to use BM to boot Win 7 from USB partition?

Post by Ambertus »

Forgive me; I've looked through the Bare Metal User Manual PDF, but I'm overwhelmed with all the information there.

I've used Acronis Disk Director 11 to copy my laptop's main Windows 7 SP1 boot partition to an external USB hard drive. When I create those backup partitions, Acronis DD 11 always shows the following message: "You are about to copy a system or boot volume. Keep in mind that the created copy will not be a system (or boot) volume."

In the past, when I want to restore my laptop's boot partition from a backup, I've simply used DD 11 to completely overwrite the laptop's internal hard drive's boot partition, which the Windows 7 boot manager easily repairs so that I can boot from the replacement normally.

However, this time I must NOT overwrite the internal hard drive, but must instead boot from a backed up DD 11 partition on an external USB drive. So I've installed BootIt Bare Metal v1.15 using the option to let the installer choose where it places its boot partition. Then I used the Partition Work feature to add an entry that points to the partition on the USB hard disk that I wish to boot (the existing entries all pointed elseswhere).

But now when I try to boot from that backed-up partition on the USB drive (by selecting the new boot entry I created as above), I get a Blue Screen (that immediately disappears) and then the Win 7 Boot Manager complains and tells me to boot from the installation DVD and choose the "Repair you computer". Unfortunately, no matter how many times I try that (and many, MANY other repair techniques suggested by others), I keep getting the exact same thing.

So I figure there's a high probability that I messed something up when I added that new boot entry, but I have no idea what to do next.

So I need to know how to properly use Bare Metal to overcome DD 11's status change that's referenced by the message "Keep in mind that the created copy will not be a system (or boot) volume", and add or edit whatever is required to get that backed-up partition on the external USB drive to boot properly into full WIndows 7.

How do I do that, exactly?
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: How to use BM to boot Win 7 from USB partition?

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

For others interested, this problem was solved by using the USBBoot script.
Ambertus
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2013 6:06 am

Re: How to use BM to boot Win 7 from USB partition?

Post by Ambertus »

Yes, indeed -- and thanks enormously, TeraByte Support(PP)!!
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