SOLUTION CONFIRMED: MbrFix /drive 0 generatesignature
Great news!!!
I can confirm that halholme's suggestion does indeed fix the problem quickly with no apparent side effects.
You can download the latest version of MbrFix from
http://www.sysint.no/en/Download.aspx
Here's what I did:
1.
Reboot from a floppy or CD so we're not changing the MBR while Windows is running. (I'm not sure this is required, but it's what I did. I am very happy with the BartPE boot disk from
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - it creates a bootable CD with a pared down version of Windows on it. I ran MbrFix from a floppy after BartPE started up. I'm pretty sure any DOS boot disk would do.)
2. Just to
make sure drive 0 is the right partition to work on, run the command:
Code:
MbrFix /drive 0 listpartitions
Examine the results to make sure that the drive has the boot partition and is the size you expect.
3. Again, to be safe,
tuck away a copy of the current MBR with the command:
Code:
MbrFix /drive 0 savembr BackupMbr0.bin
4. The key step is to
generate a new signature for the drive with:
Code:
MbrFix /drive 0 generatesignature
5.
Reboot from your hard drive.
6. As halholme mentioned, Windows will detect this as a new drive and ask that you reboot.
Reboot as suggested.
At this point, your drive should be working properly. I tested mine with both the Windows Backup program and NovaBACKUP and they both worked fine after this fix.
Just to be clear, this solution does NOT involve removing the PartMgr filter from the Windows Registry discussed earlier in this thread.
As a side note, an IT wizard friend of mine recommended
Drive Snapshot as a great little utility to do complete disk backups and clones. It can take a consistent snapshot of your drive(s) at a particular instant in time even while you continue working on the machine. It's a little rough around the UI edges, but it performs very well and it seems many IT folks have used it for years. (As a matter of fact, it's pre-installed on the boot disk from the unrelated BartPE mentioned above.)
If anyone wants to verify a simpler set of steps, please chime in. (E.g. Can you do this directly from Windows instead of booting from another disk?)