"Reboot and select proper boot device"?

Question

I didn't find the answer in Clonezilla's site/mailing list archives. Maybe someone has already seen this issue and knows how to recover from it:

On a test host, using www.partedmagic.com, I created two partitions: One to hold an OS I wish to use for testing (/sda1), and a second partition to hold images (/sda2)

After trying out Windows7, I used CloneZilla to restore an XPSP3 image, but I get the following error message when rebooting:

"Reboot and select proper boot device"

Could it be that Clonezilla didn't save/restore the MBR? Gparted didn't let me set a partition as "active", so it could also be this, but I have no idea.

Thank you for any help.

Solution

It might be an MBR problem. The easiest method is to use an XP boot CD to boot from to the recovery console and run these commands (press Enter after each one):

fixboot
fixmbr
exit

Alternatively, a free product that specializes in boot problems is Paragon's Rescue Kit 9.0 Express:

Boot Corrector option resolves various problems you may encounter during the system boot process. These problems may be caused by program errors, user mistakes, or become the results of boot virus activity. Boot Corrector allows you to cure the majority of boot problems for Windows Operating System and gives you access to your data!

Comments

[OverTheRainbow]

Thanks for the tip, but the PartedMagic CD doesn't seem to have the "diskpart" application. FWIW, using GParted, I could set the /sda1 flag as Boot: I no longer get this message... but get a blank screen instead. Also, GParted says: "First sector : 63". Could it be that CloneZilla doesn't save the MBR?

[Admin]

diskpart can be used from a windows recovery console. thecomputerparamedic.com/files/rc.iso

[OverTheRainbow]

Thanks guys, I could recover XP and have it boot again. Does someone know of an alternative to CloneZilla that takes take of saving/restoring the MBR along with the OS partition?

[harrymc]

I use Acronis True Image Home (commercial product).

[OverTheRainbow]

Thanks for the tip. It doesn't look like Acronis handles non-Windows partitions: www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/requirement‌​s.html

[harrymc]

It's not conclusive: It can only be installed on Windows, but the section "Supported storage media" just says "Hard disk drives". Try the trial version to see. It's a good product and worth the hassle. If it doesn't work, I may find some other recommendations.