Dell Inspiron 1545, 4gb ram: just tried to use PING to backup my NTFS drives that have Windows 7 and Ubuntu 13.10 on other drives (dual boot system). Now the system will not boot...
error: no such partition.
text screen with: Enter rescue mode...
grub rescue>_

Okay, what can I do to restore my system where it will boot? This is my first attempt to backup my whole system.

Warning: I'm not good with CLI inputs.

Worried guy here.

Did you ask on the PING forum ?.

You gave almost no relevant info on what you actually did - a backup shouldn't ever mess with grub. Did you only do a backup ?.

Have not asked at Ping Forum...will do so today.

From PING, the menu choices were what partitions to backup, I chose two drives, pressed enter. (I could see which partitions were NTFS formated, so I chose the first two). Then a choice for where to place the backup: I chose usb drive, pressed enter. POOF! Short time later it was reported finished. CD/DVD tray ejected and a reboot was attempted with the error message, stated earlier. During the boot process, you will see Dell's screen where you can select: F2 Setup or F12 Select Boot Options. Then 5 Choices: Internal HDD CD/DVD/CD-RW DRIVE Onboard NIC BIOS Setup Diagnostics.

Later I used Part Magic to check the formatting of the hard drive, No Partitions with 298GB unallocated on a 320gb drive. So that is where I stopped. Did a google search for: grub rescue. What I found scares me when it comes to using the CLI. My understanding of Terminal use is extremely poor. I'm worried that a fresh install of my Win 7 will be required. Hopefully this will help to determine if this issue is worth pursuing.

You need to post more detail to get help. Your initial statement is confusing as it isn't clear whether you are trying to back up ntfs partitions from a different hard drive than which you have windows 7 installed and Ubuntu installed. Neither do you make it clear whether these two systems are on the same hard drive or different hard drive. You also seem to be using the terms 'drive' and 'partition' interchangeably. How many hard drives and how many partitions on each did you have? How many usb drives did you have when you ran this program? Booting the Ubuntu or other Live CD and posting the output of the command: sudo fdisk -l(Lower Case Letter L in the command) might give enough information for someone to make a suggestion. Make sure the setup is the same as when you ran PING, same drives connected.

Are you using Partition Magic (windows software) or Parted Magic to check the formatting?

As stated above, doing a backup correctly should not affect the bootloader. You might have overwritten the wrong partition with your backup but that's only a guess.

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More info: One computer, one drive, with Win7 initially came with the computer; decided to install Ubuntu 13.10 onto the same hard drive...making it a dual boot computer, with 5 partitions. I was attempting to backup only the Win7 partitions(2) with PING. All the previous comments refer to backing up Win7 to external usb connected hard drive formatted to NTFS (80GB drive showing as 60gb, not sure why only 60gb)using another linux os DISK UTILITY to view. Is this enough info to get me some help? Is there any possible positive solution to make Windows 7 bootable?

Just found this on the usb drive:
--------------------fdisk start Device [sda]

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 5 40131 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 6 1918 15360000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 1918 17353 123979902 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 17353 38914 173189121 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 38397 38914 4153344 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 17353 38397 169035776 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
--------------------fdisk end Device [sda]
--------------------ping start Device [sda]
P.Table-read Heads: [255]
P.Table-read Sectors/track: [63]
P.Table-read Cylinders: [38913]
BIOS-read Heads: [255]
BIOS-read Sectors/track: [63]
BIOS-read Cylinders: [38913]
--------------------ping start Partition [0]
Name: [null]
Type: [null]
FS_Type: [null]
Dirs: [null]
Label: [null]
Boot flag: [null]
Start: [6]
End: [1917]
Blocks: [null]
--------------------ping end Partition [0]
--------------------ping start Partition [1]
Name: [null]
Type: [null]
FS_Type: [null]
Dirs: [null]
Label: [null]
Boot flag: [null]
Start: [1919]
End: [17352]
Blocks: [null]
--------------------ping end Partition [1]
--------------------ping start Partition [2]
Name: [sda1]
Type: [de]
FS_Type: [vfat]
Dirs: [diags]
Label: []
Boot flag: [0]
Start: [1]
End: [5]
Blocks: [40131]
--------------------ping end Partition [2]
--------------------ping start Partition [3]
Name: [sda2]
Type: [7]
FS_Type: [ntfs]
Dirs: [preload,Boot,dell,Recovery,Sources]
Label: [RECOVERY]
Boot flag: [1]
Start: [6]
End: [1918]
Blocks: [15360000]
--------------------ping end Partition [3]
--------------------ping start Partition [4]
Name: [sda3]
Type: [7]
FS_Type: [ntfs]
Dirs: [$AVG,$Recycle.Bin,.Trash-1000,.Trash-1001,BOOT,Config.Msi,dell,Documents and Settings,Program Files,Program Files (x86),ProgramData,SearchProtect,System Recovery,Temp,Windows,Drivers,Intel,New folder,OPL,PerfLogs,Users]
Label: [OS]
Boot flag: [0]
Start: [1918]
End: [17353]
Blocks: [123979902]
--------------------ping end Partition [4]
--------------------ping start Partition [5]
Name: [sda4]
Type: [5]
FS_Type: []
Dirs: []
Label: []
Boot flag: [0]
Start: [17353]
End: [38914]
Blocks: [173189121]
--------------------ping end Partition [5]
--------------------ping start Partition [6]
Name: [sda5]
Type: [82]
FS_Type: []
Dirs: []
Label: []
Boot flag: [0]
Start: [38397]
End: [38914]
Blocks: [4153344]
--------------------ping end Partition [6]
--------------------ping start Partition [7]
Name: [sda6]
Type: [83]
FS_Type: [ext4]
Dirs: [opt,var,boot,mnt,tmp,lib,lib64,home,sys,lost+found,cdrom,etc,usr,sbin,proc,dev,root,bin,run,srv,medi a]
Label: []
Boot flag: [0]
Start: [17353]
End: [38397]
Blocks: [169035776]
--------------------ping end Partition [7]
--------------------ping end Device [sda]
--------------------fdisk start Device [sdc]

Disk /dev/sdc: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 7296 58605088+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
--------------------fdisk end Device [sdc]
--------------------ping start Device [sdc]
P.Table-read Heads: [255]
P.Table-read Sectors/track: [63]
P.Table-read Cylinders: [7296]
BIOS-read Heads: [255]
BIOS-read Sectors/track: [63]
BIOS-read Cylinders: [7296]
--------------------ping start Partition [0]
Name: [sdc1]
Type: [7]
FS_Type: [ntfs]
Dirs: []
Label: [JustDoit]
Boot flag: [1]
Start: [1]
End: [7296]
Blocks: [58605088]
--------------------ping end Partition [0]
--------------------ping end Device [sdc]
========================================
Other files:bios (512bytes), sda (32,768bytes), sda1_0.spl.zp(28.1mb)

Backing up Windows should be done using tools specifically designed for Windows. Other than that, you are risking to restore an unbootable backup of Windows.

Be that as it may, merely backing up shouldn't destroy a working system.

@kayakman you still haven't answered the questions about what liveUSB/liveCD you are using. We need exact information. Best is for you to run a Linux liveCD/USB and go here and follow the instructions. You should be able to double-click on the downloaded file to extract it.
Post the RESULTS.txt here, it will show us what the boot-loader situation is.

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Boot Info Script 0.61 [1 April 2012]
============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================
=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
in partition 94 for .
=> No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.
sdb1: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Windows 7: FAT32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:
============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================
Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System
Drive: sdb _____________________________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 3965 MB, 3965190144 bytes
49 heads, 48 sectors/track, 3292 cylinders, total 7744512 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdb1 8,192 7,744,511 7,736,320 b W95 FAT32

"blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sdb1 BAD8-F8DF vfat
/dev/sr0 iso9660 Ubuntu 13.10 amd64
================================ Mount points: =================================
Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sdb1 /media/ubuntu/BAD8-F8DF vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=999,gid=999,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks2)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)
=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================
No volume groups found

On a conceptual level, your reasoning is correct. However, there are situations, particularly backing up Windows, that require specifically Windows tools. Additionally, don't use fsarchiver to backup a Windows partition.

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I'm using Ubuntu 13.10 live dvd. I was hopeful to use EasyBackup but it did not allow for a portion of the harddrive backup; it was more of a disk duplicator function, if I remember correctly. This EBU program is a linux-based program from what I see on the screen. This program is mounted/installed like a second os; the boot loader always ask which os do I want loaded, with a 10 second pause before loading Windows 7. My overall hopes were to create an ISO of my Windows 7 os and all the other programs/data (complete backup). It seems my truly best method to backup the whole drive: just duplicate to another hard drive. My opinion...suggestions welcomed.

That boot info output indicates the partition table has been trashed - I don't know what tool PING uses to give that partition list. Testdisk is able to find deleted partitions by searching the disk for "footprints" - maybe it does something similar.
I tried to download PING to test it out, but I object to having to register for that, so I didn't.

As for full backups, as mentioned, that gets very dodgy for M$oft - especially the boot/system partition. ntfs-3g handles NTFS backups, but not cloning of boot partitions if there is any possibility of a change in the partition arrangement. Generally I don't fuck with Windoze - I backup what I consider valuable, and in need re-install the whole system from scratch.
However I have used mondorescue to image an entire machine - Win7 and a couple of Linux systems - which I plan to restore in toto should the need arise. Same partition, same layout, same everything. Then re-apply my later backups to get back to current.
Wouldn't suit everyone.

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Thank you for the helpful comments. Two last questions (maybe useless): I'm guessing there is no way to set the partitions through CLI? 2) Best bet would be restore Win7 on one drive and put Linux on another physical hard drive?

As I said, testdisk is very good at recovering deleted partitions - see here. Best to use a liveCD.
It also has an associated product photorec for recovering data from a dodgy disk - a lot of extra work.

Separate drives is certainly a good solution, but doesn't entirely protect from screw-ups unless the "other" disk is disabled/removed (I simply pull the power out of the drive). Then you know it can't be touched.
Boot selection is from BIOS or use the Linux system to dual-boot Win7 - can be easily setup post-install in need.

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Okay, so I was not able to make it work. Used Scientific Linux 6 Live CD, usb with testdisk and could not make it execute at the CLI. So I'm dumbfounded when trying to use a terminal screen. Lack of knowledge on the How-to is the problem now. I do not know the syntax to get where I need to be. Being extremely tired does not help either. I went to the documentation site you suggested, extract the file to my usb thumb drive, brought up the "step-by-step" site and booted the laptop with the above CD, inserted thumb drive, opened a terminal window as root, typed the command as listed: sudo usb20fd/testdisk-6.14/testdisk_static (command not found). So, this is where I'm hung up now.