BOOTMGR not found

[Gene E. Bloch]

So the repair thing, probably has to support both options. The
dual partition "SYSTEM RESERVED" like my laptop uses. And the single
partition installation some retail DVD users (buy DVD and install themselves)
might opt for. Depending on which partitions are found, the repair utility
has to deal with what it finds.

My understanding, mostly from posts in this NG, is that an upgrade from
a single partition model, such as Vista, stays with that model.

I certainly have seen that here, where the two computers that were
upgraded to W7 lack the System Reserved partition, whereas the two clean
or factory installs of W7 have it.

Of course, I'm no expert, so I have no idea if there are other scenarios
that lead to a single-partition model.

This is in support of what you said above, I think ;-)

 

[Stan Brown]

If you're seeing a list of partitions, I think it means you're in
Partition mode. Try switching to Disk mode to see the differences.

You've hit the nail on the head. I see "switch to disk mode", just
as you said, and when I click on it it then shows the description of
my hard drive as a single entry.

I could be wrong, but it makes sense to me that if you have multiple
partitions on your first drive, the drive that contains your C:
partition, and you only back up the C: partition, you might not be
getting the boot files that you need.

Yes, I think that must be what I did back when I got this computer a
year ago.

As I mentioned earlier, I find the Acronis 2010/2011 terminology and
user interface very confusing with disk backups, partition backups,
file backups, and Lord knows what else. And the way it's set up on
the main page with "Disk and partition", it is not at all clear that
these are two different things -- rather it looks like "disk or
partition" is one thing and "files" is the second thing and "email"
is the third thing.

The Acronis TrueImage I bought in 2006 for my XP system was a lot
more user friendly IMHO -- I remember I had a hard-drive crash and
Acronis got me going again with no fuss. This time around it was (in
my opinion) too easy to make an incomplete backup by missing the
unlisted System partition. I did make an Acronis bootable repair
disk, under the impression that it plus my backups would be all I
needed, but I found out the hard way that I was wrong.

I suppose I could wipe the drive completely, install Windows on a
clean drive so that the 100 MB System partition gets created, then
restore my Windows and data partitions, but I'm not sure I want to go
through all that at this point. Maybe if I were keen to use
Bitlocker, which requires that System partition. ...

 

[Stan Brown]

As I mentioned earlier, I find the Acronis 2010/2011 terminology and
user interface very confusing with disk backups, partition backups,
file backups, and Lord knows what else.

So does Acronis, evidently. I noticed that in the list of backups on
the main Acronis page, my partition backups are described as "disc
backup".

 

[Char Jackson]

You've hit the nail on the head. I see "switch to disk mode", just
as you said, and when I click on it it then shows the description of
my hard drive as a single entry.

Yup! I don't know why Acronis hides the disk mode behind the partition
mode like that. Their previous versions were more clear, so it's not
like they don't know how to do a proper GUI.

As I mentioned earlier, I find the Acronis 2010/2011 terminology and
user interface very confusing with disk backups, partition backups,
file backups, and Lord knows what else. And the way it's set up on
the main page with "Disk and partition", it is not at all clear that
these are two different things -- rather it looks like "disk or
partition" is one thing and "files" is the second thing and "email"
is the third thing.

The Acronis TrueImage I bought in 2006 for my XP system was a lot
more user friendly IMHO <snip>

I agree. I've been switching back and forth across 2010, 2011, and
2012 lately, but for now I have 2011 on all but one system and 2012 on
the odd ball. IMHO, 2010 is laid out better than 2011 or 2012, and
pre-2010 versions were laid out even better, but I'm trying to give
the new versions a chance to grow on me.

I suppose I could wipe the drive completely, install Windows on a
clean drive so that the 100 MB System partition gets created, then
restore my Windows and data partitions, but I'm not sure I want to go
through all that at this point. Maybe if I were keen to use
Bitlocker, which requires that System partition. ...

Sounds like too much trouble.