For years, I have used `vshadow` + `robocopy` to backup data partitions to a remote iSCSI volume. This has been a very efficient method. 

This has allowed me to have a "perfect" copy. Open files are copied without any problem, as well as ACLs and everything. In case of a major disk fault, I just have to plug the remote disk in as a replacement for the faulty one. This is much faster than recovering from a backup. I only have the last backup on remote disk. Other backups are done with Backp Exec in a more traditional way, with rotation, etc.

My problem is: I have never managed to do a working backup of a live Windows system partition.  

I tested with Windows 2003.

I tested tons of possibilities. Once restored, all of them made it to the prompt to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to log in. When I enter the username and password, nothing happens. The desktop never appears; there is no error message, just a screen with a uniform color. The machine is up, the services are up (even TSE is okay, but I can't login), the machine responds to pings, etc. But, there is no way to log in.

Example of what I did: 

1. I use identical disks
2. I duplicate the source disk with dd, to the destination disk (this allow to have the bootloader, the same partition, etc, just to be 100% sure)
3. I start the source computer
4. I attach the remote destination disk with iSCSI (also done with a local disk: nothing better). Mapped to drive H:
5. I take a snapshot of the source disk, and map it to a drive letter:

```
 vshadow.exe -p c:\
 vshadow -el={edbed95e-7e8d-11d8-9d01-505054503030},g:

```
6. I copy the files:

```
 robocopy g:\ h:\ /mir /is /it /copyall /r:0 /x /v /fp /np /log:c:\robocopy.log /xd "g:\System Volume Information" g:\windows\Prefetch /xf g:\pagefile.sys g:\hyberfile.sys

```
7. I look at the generated log: no error, no warning
8. I stop Windows
9. I plug the destination disk in place of the previous local disk
10. I boot, but I can't login

I also tested without copying the registry. There was no improvement.

Is there a way to solve this problem ?