horrible experience from testing the image from Macrium Reflect

[shankle]

Mind, Macrium Reflect is NOT the cause of this problem.

I have 2 SSDs, one with Windows 7  and one with MASM32 on it.
I disconnected the 1st SSd with Windows 7 and cleared the 2nd one that
had Masm32 ot it. I then restored the image from an external HD with the image
I created from Macrium Reflect to the 2nd SSD. This ran fine and I was
able t o boot into Windows 7.
THEN the fun started. I disconnected the 2nd SSD and connected the 1st SSD
with the original Windows 7. It would not boot. So I started playing around with
the awful  ASUS BIOS. I then assumed that the MBR was messed up. So I
decided to try and flash the Bios(BIG Mistake). It just sat there with no progress
bar or anything informing of the progress. I then made my 2nd mistake. I shut
the computer down. The puter is still in the techs shop and I assume it will
involve getting another Bios Chip. Expensive procedure. Seems to me that
ASUS should improve a tad on the flash software. :(

[rrr314159]

So I started playing around with the awful  ASUS BIOS. I then assumed that the MBR was messed up. So I decided to try and flash the Bios(BIG Mistake) ... The puter is still in the techs shop.

No offense, shankle, but I have heard it said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing

[hutch--]

Jack,

Flashing a BIOS is a risky procedure unless you know exactly what you are doing. The first thing is to make sure you have the correct BIOS flash file for your exact board. Then very carefully read the instructions from the board manufacturer on how to install it. When you run it, never turn the power off, go for a walk or have a cigarette or 3 but don't turn it off. Depending on the board, some have a BIOS reset and you would have to read the manual to find out if this is available.

If so you should be able to reset it to the default then start again. Forget a new BIOS chip, it would be cheaper to buy another motherboard and a lot less hassle. Always have the manual for you motherboard, it will save you many hassles if you do have any problems. Look at it on the bright side Jack, learning something the hard way makes you remember it.  :P

[shankle]

Thanks guys for responding.
No offense taken - I pull major boners once in a while.
I have had this hard and fast rule to never Flash anything or update drivers.
It will never happen again!!!!!
Been without my puter for a week now and have no idea when I will get it back.

[mineiro]

If computer is near to you so you can try to rewrite bios firmware image back again. Inside motherboard cd-rom have a bios image (.bin,.rom) and the program need.
I do not have sure if all flash chips inside motherboard have an internal rom, so a little hope here.
But I think bios code is not getting life signals.

[rrr314159]

No offense taken - I pull major boners once in a while.

I probably have you beat in that department. In my youth I won the World Championship of Major Screw-Ups 3 years in a row! - and I'm still a strong contender

[GuruSR]

How old is the ASUS board, as most of them offer their CrashFree BIOS firmware (not in the flash area).  Meaning that the system *can* be resurrected from the dead of a bad flash, if your board does offer it, there are instructions on the ASUS website to instruct on how to accomplish this, usually it's a USB drive/DVD (my manual lists it as a "Support Disc") with the proper BIOS file on it and the CrashFree code will import the new BIOS and reflash it.  The manual for the motherboard also lists the steps when the BIOS flash fails. Perhaps the tech shop is not wanting to bother with it immediately?

Edit:  Forgot, BIOS chips are surface mounted on boards these days, if it's physically damaged, you need a replacement board.  Perhaps that tech shop is going to (and it's bad if they do) milk you for a new board.

GuruSR.

[hutch--]

Jack,

You don't have to turn away from everything, if you really need to be careful, set a restore point before you change drivers and if they don't work properly, just run the restore. Use your better half's computer to download the manual for the board and give it a good read. If the BIOS restore capacity is built into it, just get the board back and run the BIOS restore and it should be OK.

I seriously doubt that the BIOS chip is damaged, something went wrong while you were flashing it and when you turned it off prematurely it left the BIOS unworkable. If you can get the board's BIOS restore to work, THEN flash the BIOS with the latest version for the board again making sure you are using the correct BIOS update for the board.

[GuruSR]

BIOS chips, to break, you'd need to violently manhandle them, even the socketed ones were that way.

Also, if you do get the machine back or ever have to do another BIOS update, and this happens again, some video cards will fail to POST during a BIOS update (Alienware [Dell] machines are notorious for this).  If the machine indeed reset and stayed "dead", and you have a Video card in it, chances are, that card will not POST during the BIOS update.  Simply power the machine off after 2 minutes of waiting, unplug the power cord (important), open the system and wait 2 minutes (the power on the board will get used in 2 minutes), then unscrew/unmount and safely remove the Video card (google can be your friend here if there are some odd connections you don't know about).  If the machine has on-board video, plug it into the monitor before you turn it on.  With the card out, plug the power in and fire the machine back up and just leave it.

If the machine doesn't have an on-board video card, no worries, it will POST without one!  Typically the Alienware machines will POST with the video card out, will reset (you can tell it resets, all the fans boost and the drives all reset) and when there is no video card present you'll hear the little internal speaker beep, telling you it cannot find a video card.  At that point, your machine is actually booting and now complaining that it hasn't any display for you to see it.  Simply power it off then and put your video card back in properly, should be good then.

As for it still being at the tech shop, I'd call them to find out what they're doing with it, chances are they've ordered a new board for it (wrongly).  Find the model number on your board, go to the ASUS website and see if that model has the CrashFree on it, then call the tech shop and ask them exactly what they're doing, chances are they're either trying to warranty the board (if it is under it) or they're waiting on a replacement (unnecessarily).

GuruSR.

PS: POST is the state of devices and the motherboard just after power-on, if a device fails to POST the machine will not boot.  On-board devices also POST.

[shankle]

Thanks for the help.
Same MB and BIOS chip.
Started from scratch and installed Windows 7 pro 64-bit.
It is working fine.
Then I got ready to do a backup with Macrium Reflect.
Downloaded it and installed the software. Then I got a surprise.
The free version is only good for 30 days. I'm kind if cheap
and the software is in excess of $50. This is way to much to pay
for a program that is used once or twice a month.
So Clonzilla-live won't work on large to small drive and Macrium
Reflect is pulling their usual stunts. Question is now what to do....
Their advertising is misleading. They lie.......

[mineiro]

The free version is only good for 30 days.

Time is a human invention.
On computer you can also be on 1789. (French Revolution)

[GuruSR]

Thanks for the help.
Same MB and BIOS chip.
Started from scratch and installed Windows 7 pro 64-bit.
It is working fine.
Then I got ready to do a backup with Macrium Reflect.
Downloaded it and installed the software. Then I got a surprise.
The free version is only good for 30 days. I'm kind if cheap
and the software is in excess of $50. This is way to much to pay
for a program that is used once or twice a month.
So Clonzilla-live won't work on large to small drive and Macrium
Reflect is pulling their usual stunts. Question is now what to do....
Their advertising is misleading. They lie.......

First, good to hear you got the board back (or is it a new one)?  And glad you got the setup working.

Not sure why you're wanting to go from a large to small drive (HDD to SSD?), but in order to do this you'd need 2 PC's.  Not sure if I said this anywhere, but you can shrink the partition small enough to fit onto the smaller drive, do so using Computer Management -> Disk Management.  Easiest way to get to it is Right Click on any "Computer" (Start Menu, Explorer) and select Manage.

Now, to shrink a volume while it is in use, Windows cannot defrag the volume completely while the registry is open, nor can it move the swap file (this part is actually okay).  Open the Disk Defragmenter AS well as the Computer Management, leave both open, defrag the Windows partition, wait for it to finish, use the Shrink partition (right click on the partition in the Disk Management and select Shrink Partition).  You'll see Defrag check that disk again in the background (normal), then it'll report the space you can shrink it to, do so.  Now, if you can't fit this on your new drive, you need another PC to defrag this further or use a boot disc that has a defrag on it you trust, if not, plug the drive into another PC and defrag it again, shrink it again, until it gets down to the size where it will fit on the smaller drive (may take 2 to 3 times).  When it's small enough, you should be able to put it back into the original PC and do your transfer.  All the drive transfer programs will refuse to transfer to a smaller drive if the original image won't "fit" onto it (even though the space used is less than the newer drive), because of how it's laid out across the partition.  Defrag & Shrinking the partition is pretty much the only way to get it to fit on a smaller drive with any cloning.

One thing to note, if there are any partitions past the one you shrank, before you clone it, you must re-expand it to fill the space.  This way, the cloning software will automatically scale that partition to fill the space between that one and the next partition(s), as if you don't, it will scale it leaving an unused space, or could put the next partition right after it, requiring you to move them later.

GuruSR.

[shankle]

I now have the free version of Macium Reflect (I hope).
Problem caused by the wording on the Macrium Reflect
selection criteria. Since I am working at home one would
think checking the Home box would be correct. That is
wrong as it must be left at "FREE".

[hutch--]

You are not alone here Jack, I recently bought the current version of Acronis and the hardest thing to get through is the idiot interface. You need to be a moron to understand it. It actually works OK but that is after spending too much time testing it.

[GuruSR]

Well, I'm looking at Acronis 2017 since my Ghost 15 is disliking Windows 7-64bit, an issue that Symantec never bothered to fix through it's name change to "Norton Desktop Recovery" (like why mess with a known name, that IS suicide, and it was).  So I am going to get 2017 up and going.  Now I'm used to the UI that it has (and yes, it's a "refresh for Windows 8" flavor of blah, which I'm guilty of, I jumped on that band wagon for one program, probably thinking that UI wasn't so cool an idea now).

Now the thing I don't like is their breaking up of the discs (Restore, Universal Restore and Clone discs, wha?!  I have to waste 2 discs for something I have now on one).

Going to miss the notification Ghost gave me for my backups, now if I want to see, I have to run it's gui, say no to the account junk (you can just close it with that little X to not bother with their cloudiness) and then click on each backup to see if it worked...  But, I *will* give them a good kudos on the fact that the images *DO* work.  In your options, for the backup, make sure the "Validation" is set to after completion, and do that as a default for ALL backups.  If not, the backup could be corrupted by other situations (bug cross contaminated the libraries being used during backup and it corrupted the write out to the backup, seen that happen more than once with Ghost) and if the validation isn't done, you could think you have a perfect backup, when in fact, it's not.  At least with Ghost and Acronis, if they fail to validate, they invalidate the backup.  It is extra protection, though now the hard process of porting the backup schedule from Ghost to Acronis...  with that interface...  I know, it's horrid, but, once it's setup, you can hide the ugly and be happy it's over.

GuruSR.