Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

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punchdrunk
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:11 pm

Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

Post by punchdrunk »

I have an 80Gb older generation SSD (Intel X2) that has been my primary drive (C:) for that last year or so. It was getting full so I decided to buy a 128Gb Samsung830 to replace this drive. I am trying to use Image for Dos to clone the old SSD to the new SSD, so that I can unplug the IntelX2 and run everything off the new Samsung.

So far I have tried twice, and while both times the copy works fine, I cannot boot off the new drive. All the System files are there, but it wont boot. So I am sure that I am either clicking or not clicking some option related to boot files or the boot manager, which I admittedly dont really understand. If you look in Disc Manager, the old Intel drive has 2 partitions, 1 labeled C: that is 75Gb, and another that says "System Reserved" that is 100MB. This small partition did not have a drive letter originally, but see below.

With the first attempt, I tried to copy just the large C: partition. I unfortubately do not remember which options i used. When I booted from the new copy it never got out of the BIOS and I got the message "Boot MGR is missing". I thought perhaps there were boot files on that small partition, so the second time I copied the whole drive (both partitions). The options I used were:
Scale to Fit
Validate Byte for Byte
Change Disk Signature
Write Standard MBR Code
Any that were on by default, not sure I unclicked anything

When I booted off the new drive it worked, but Windows labeled the new drive (H:). This made me worried that I wasnt actually booting from it, so I unplugged that old Intel drive and tried to boot from the new Samsung again. At that time I got to a Windows error screen saying that there is a problem with the install, and that I need to put my Windows CD and try to repair. I haven't tried the windows CD, and decided to ask. At this point I was nervous that I was crossing up the drives, and that Windows was using files on both drives. So I unplugged the new Samsung, reconnected the old Intel, and booted. Everything is back to normal, except that now windows is assigning that small 'System Reserved' partition on the Intel drive letter E: (it was always invisible before), and my Intel drive has gone from Disk 0 to Disk 2 in Disk Management. Things are functioning fine, though.

I will stop with that. All I want to do is clone the old drive to the new drive, preferably only in a single partition, so that I can disconnect the old drive, boot from the new and Windows look exactly the same while having more space on C:. I could obviously just do a fresh windows install, but cloning it over seems like a much easier solution. Any advice would be very much appreciated, and sorry for my ignorance.
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

Post by Brian K »

punchdrunk,

You have to copy both partitions and the 100 MB partition is the Active partition.

It sounds like you weren't removing the old SSD before the first boot from the new SSD. You must do that. Plug the new SSD into SATA port 0 after you have removed the old SSD.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

Post by TeraByte Support »

use "update boot partition" and copy the entire drive. However, if you're
going to leave both drives in, also enable the "change disk signature"
option or as soon as you boot the other one will be unbootable until you
either copy back, adjust disk signature back, or use BCD edit to fix up the
Device and OSDevice entry (sig change or bcdedit can be done using BootIt).

"punchdrunk" wrote in message news:2984@public.image...

I have an 80Gb older generation SSD (Intel X2) that has been my primary
drive (C:) for that last year or so. It was getting full so I decided to
buy a 128Gb Samsung830 to replace this drive. I am trying to use Image for
Dos to clone the old SSD to the new SSD, so that I can unplug the IntelX2
and run everything off the new Samsung.

So far I have tried twice, and while both times the copy works fine, I
cannot boot off the new drive. All the System files are there, but it wont
boot. So I am sure that I am either clicking or not clicking some option
related to boot files or the boot manager, which I admittedly dont really
understand. If you look in Disc Manager, the old Intel drive has 2
partitions, 1 labeled C: that is 75Gb, and another that says "System
Reserved" that is 100MB. This small partition did not have a drive letter
originally, but see below.

With the first attempt, I tried to copy just the large C: partition. I
unfortubately do not remember which options i used. When I booted from the
new copy it never got out of the BIOS and I got the message "Boot MGR is
missing". I thought perhaps there were boot files on that small partition,
so the second time I copied the whole drive (both partitions). The options I
used were:
Scale to Fit
Validate Byte for Byte
Change Disk Signature
Write Standard MBR Code
Any that were on by default, not sure I unclicked anything

When I booted off the new drive it worked, but Windows labeled the new drive
(H:). This made me worried that I wasnt actually booting from it, so I
unplugged that old Intel drive and tried to boot from the new Samsung again.
At that time I got to a Windows error screen saying that there is a problem
with the install, and that I need to put my Windows CD and try to repair. I
haven't tried the windows CD, and decided to ask. At this point I was
nervous that I was crossing up the drives, and that Windows was using files
on both drives. So I unplugged the new Samsung, reconnected the old Intel,
and booted. Everything is back to normal, except that now windows is
assigning that small 'System Reserved' partition on the Intel drive letter
E: (it was always invisible before), and my Intel drive has gone from Disk 0
to Disk 2 in Disk Management. Things are functioning fine, though.

I will stop with that. All I want to do is clone the old drive to the new
drive, preferably only in a single partition, so that I can disconnect the
old drive, boot from the new and Windows look exactly the same while having
more space on C:. I could obviously just do a fresh windows install, but
cloning it over seems like a much easier solution. Any advice would be very
much appreciated, and sorry for my ignorance.

punchdrunk
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:11 pm

Re: Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

Post by punchdrunk »

Thanks very much for the responses.

I was leaving both drives in, and was not swapping cables or locations. I guess I can see why that would create issues. That is why I was activating Change Disk Signature. I am not yet sure what I am going to do with the old SSD, either keep it for additional space or use it somewhere else. So I would like the option of leaving it in the machine. Hopefully I haven't already messed things up. Although everything is working fine, how Windows sees the drive has certainly changed.

Just to be clear, I plan to use the following options
Change Disk Signature
Update Boot Partition
Validate Byte for Byte
Do I also need to use any others? For instance Write Standard MBR Code? After the copy I will swap cables so that the new drive is connected to the old cable, and the old drive is disconnected.

Lastly, what is on that small 100MB partition?

I really appreciate all the help.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

Post by TeraByte Support »

That' looks like the correct options (could also enable the global option
"assume same target system"), restoring entire drive will take care of
restoring first track, so you don't need to force standard mbr code.

The 100M partition is where MS put the boot up files for windows. To get
rid of it, see http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409


"punchdrunk" wrote in message news:2996@public.image...

Thanks very much for the responses.

I was leaving both drives in, and was not swapping cables or locations. I
guess I can see why that would create issues. That is why I was activating
Change Disk Signature. I am not yet sure what I am going to do with the old
SSD, either keep it for additional space or use it somewhere else. So I
would like the option of leaving it in the machine. Hopefully I haven't
already messed things up. Although everything is working fine, how Windows
sees the drive has certainly changed.

Just to be clear, I plan to use the following options
Change Disk Signature
Update Boot Partition
Validate Byte for Byte
Do I also need to use any others? For instance Write Standard MBR Code?
After the copy I will swap cables so that the new drive is connected to the
old cable, and the old drive is disconnected.

Lastly, what is on that small 100MB partition?

I really appreciate all the help.

punchdrunk
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:11 pm

Re: Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

Post by punchdrunk »

SUCCESS!!

Running off the new drive with the old one unplugged, and I cannot tell that I have swapped (besides the extra space). Not sure if it was the settings, removing the old one, or swapping the location on the motherboard, or all 3. But I now khow to do it and have written it down for future reference.

Thanks for the advice
DrTeeth
Posts: 1289
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:58 pm

Re: Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

Post by DrTeeth »

On Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:06:11 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
"TeraByte Support" disturbed my
reverie and wrote:

>That' looks like the correct options (could also enable the global option
>"assume same target system"), restoring entire drive will take care of
>restoring first track, so you don't need to force standard mbr code.

PMFJI, but I will be installing a couple of new hard drives this
weekend. How fast is IfW compared with CopyWipe for the operation? I
have been stunned by the speed of the latter in the past.
--

Cheers

DrT
______________________________
We may not be able to prevent the stormy times in
our lives; but we can always choose to dance
in the puddles (Jewish proverb).
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

Post by TeraByte Support »

you'd want to use IFW/IFD/IFL - not copywipe, that is older and not designed
to copy from a mounted windows partition no does it support Vista/W7/etc..
for scaling.

"DrTeeth" wrote in message news:3020@public.image...

On Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:06:11 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
"TeraByte Support"

disturbed my
reverie and wrote:

>That' looks like the correct options (could also enable the global option
>"assume same target system"), restoring entire drive will take care of
>restoring first track, so you don't need to force standard mbr code.

PMFJI, but I will be installing a couple of new hard drives this
weekend. How fast is IfW compared with CopyWipe for the operation? I
have been stunned by the speed of the latter in the past.
--

Cheers

DrT
______________________________
We may not be able to prevent the stormy times in
our lives; but we can always choose to dance
in the puddles (Jewish proverb).

DrTeeth
Posts: 1289
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:58 pm

Re: Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

Post by DrTeeth »

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 00:09:04 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
"TeraByte Support" disturbed my
reverie and wrote:

>you'd want to use IFW/IFD/IFL - not copywipe, that is older and not designed
>to copy from a mounted windows partition no does it support Vista/W7/etc..
>for scaling.

I have a bootable CD tested and ready to go. I do not want to do any
scaling at this stage, I will do any resizing in BIBM at a later date.
Just curious as to which would be quicker.

Update:- Sadly, my main PC will not boot with the CopyWipe CD (it works on the other PCs I've tested it on) so having to use IfW.
--

Cheers

DrT
______________________________
We may not be able to prevent the stormy times in
our lives; but we can always choose to dance
in the puddles (Jewish proverb).
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Trouble Copying Main Drive/Boot Drive

Post by TeraByte Support »

probably image for linux or image for windows but maybe image for dos.
copywipe shouldn't be faster than any of them.

"DrTeeth" wrote in message news:3026@public.image...

On Sat, 18 Aug 2012 00:09:04 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
"TeraByte Support" disturbed my
reverie and wrote:

>you'd want to use IFW/IFD/IFL - not copywipe, that is older and not
>designed
>to copy from a mounted windows partition no does it support Vista/W7/etc..
>for scaling.

I have a bootable CD tested and ready to go. I do not want to do any
scaling at this stage, I will do any resizing in BIBM at a later date.
Just curious as to which would be quicker.

Update:- Sadly, my main PC will not boot with the CopyWipe CD (it works on
the other PCs I've tested it on) so having to use IfW.
--

Cheers

DrT
______________________________
We may not be able to prevent the stormy times in
our lives; but we can always choose to dance
in the puddles (Jewish proverb).

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