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IFW HDD --> SDD cloning problems. E.g. 'Cannot write to firs

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 11:15 am
by RickD
Dear experts,

Apologies for the long, turgid message that follows. Some years ago
I tried several disk cloning products and found IFW was the only one
that could manage to clone cross-partition, inter-disk folder
symlinks/redirects on WS 2008. I've been happily using IFW for
disk cloning ever since without any problems.

But now in a different context I *am* encountering some perplexing
issues. New, fatal, alerts are appearing in IFW:

A) "Cannot write to first track". This when attempting to copy the
first, sys, partition.

B) "Unable to add entry". This occurs at the end of the last (D:)
partition-to-partition copy. Both progress bars are green right
to the end, then this alert appears and the green progress bars turn
yellow, followed by a triumphant "FAILED! FAILED! ..." message.


ENVIRONMENT:

Image For Windows version 3.13 x64 (purchased within the last three weeks)
Lenovo ThinkStation with Windows 7 Professional x64

XX) Source disk: Old Seagate 3.5" 1TB HDD.
YY) Destination disk: New Samsung 850 Pro 2.5" 1TB SSD.

The immediate question is how to solve 'A' and 'B' above?

-------------
Here is further background, which may or may not be relevant.

The source disk, 'XX' above, is beginning to fail with bad sectors.

1) I cloned the entire 'XX' disk (using 'Copy') to the new SSD, 'YY' above.
This clone seemed to be successful: the IFW byte-to-byte verification
report said there were zero errors. But the copied-to SSD would not
boot. [Next after booting from a Windows 7 Professional x64 install
DVD, it said 'This is not the right install disk' (or similar) and
stopped. (Other amateur attempts to make disk 'YY' bootable failed.)]

2) So I attempted to repeat step '1', this time using another new
Samsung 850 Pro 2.5" 1TB SSD as the target disk (ZZ). The idea
was to have two OS and data copies, before proceeding down the
possibly damaging road of how the heck to make the disk bootable.

This failed immediately with the alert 'A' above. Why not possible
to write to first track of a new SSD?

3) Next step was to repeat '2' above, but partition by partion. There
are three partitions in total, SYS, C: and D:. Cloning SYS failed
with altert 'A' above. C: succeeded. D: failed with alert 'B'
above. I can't find any reference to "Unable to add entry" in the
IFW docs. Not by searching for 'entry' at anyrate.

FWIW steps 2 and 3 above were attempted so as to have a second disk
clone available in case attempts to fix the boot problem wrt disk
'YY', using EasyBcd, or other mind-numbing techniques, et al, went
awry and destroyed its potential bootability. (For various reasons,
doing a re-install, wiping the OS, is something I'm desperate to
avoid.) BTW the Samsung 850 Pro SSDs were both completely out of the
box new. BTW(2) my skill level is abt 3/10, e.g. I don't know the diff
between GPT and MBR... ;)

If anyone has any advice or help wrt the foregoing, I'll be truly
grateful.

Thanks for reading this far.

/Rick

Re: IFW HDD --> SDD cloning problems. E.g. 'Cannot write to firs

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 4:23 pm
by TeraByte Support
Both are related to unable to write to the first track, so you either have
something blocking it (say a AV type program) or there is a problem with
both drives. Use a boot disk to stop an AV program from interfering or
check its settings to allow writing to the mbr/first track. If still a
problem with a booted disk, try yet another disk, or check if there is any
system feature protection that may somehow prevent changing the mbr/first
track.


"RickD" wrote in message news:14431@public.image...

Dear experts,

Apologies for the long, turgid message that follows. Some years ago
I tried several disk cloning products and found IFW was the only one
that could manage to clone cross-partition, inter-disk folder
symlinks/redirects on WS 2008. I've been happily using IFW for
disk cloning ever since without any problems.

But now in a different context I *am* encountering some perplexing
issues. New, fatal, alerts are appearing in IFW:

A) "Cannot write to first track". This when attempting to copy the
first, sys, partition.

B) "Unable to add entry". This occurs at the end of the last (D:)
partition-to-partition copy. Both progress bars are green right
to the end, then this alert appears and the green progress bars turn
yellow, followed by a triumphant "FAILED! FAILED! ..." message.


Re: IFW HDD --> SDD cloning problems. E.g. 'Cannot write to

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 7:25 pm
by RickD
Thanks v. much for yr quick reply.

What's an 'AV type program'? If you can suggest any examples, it would be
great. That way I could look to see if there is anything installed that might
fit the bill and, if yes, uninstall it. (FWIW this machine is used only for
s/w development purposes, nothing weird. And to be honest I've never imagined
that a user application could inhibit IFW writing to the first track.)

You say: 'or there is a problem with both drives'. Well yes, there's
definitely a problem with the 'XX' HDD (see original post) as I mentioned.
The 'ZZ' SSD (see original post, Samsung 850 Pro) was installed straight
out of its shipping box. If I'm understanding you properly, these are
write errors and do not relate to the faulty 'XX' HDD, but to the destination
SSD drive. You are saying the new out of the box 'ZZ' SSD might be faulty, as
one possibility. So I could buy another Samsung 850 Pro 1TB drive and try
that? Fair enough. If the copy goes OK in that case it would look like it's
the target disk at fault, not an 'AV type program'. This conclusion would be
supported by the fact that that step (1) in my orignal post went OK.
Or maybe step (1) in my orignal post went OK because the 'AV type program'
was somehow inactive at time of the disk clone.

If you have time and patience to comment on the foregoing, it would be
great.

Thanks again for your time so far.

/Rick

Re: IFW HDD --> SDD cloning problems. E.g. 'Cannot write to

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 7:57 pm
by TeraByte Support
av = antivirus.

if you leave both drives in the system, you should use the option to change
the disk id and signatures (or use simple operations mode to make the copy)
otherwise as you attach/detach or reboot it's possible for windows to make
the copy unbootable.




"RickD" wrote in message news:14433@public.image...

Thanks v. much for yr quick reply.

What's an 'AV type program'? If you can suggest any examples, it would be
great.


Re: IFW HDD --> SDD cloning problems. E.g. 'Cannot write to

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 9:49 am
by RickD
Ah. OK. Thanks. I'm 99% certain this machine has no anti-virus installed.
(Hence, to be honest, I'd been idly wondering whether 'AV' might
mean 'audio/visual', since Skype *is* installed on it. You may laugh.)

So I'll head off to buy another virgin 1TB SSD (Crucial MX 300) and
start over this coming w/e, if it arrives in time. If everything
works, I'll report back. If not, I'll probably have been carted off by
men in white coats.

/Rick

AFAICS having a non-bootable disk seems akin to having heart disease or
similar. Tons of authoritive, wholly contradictory info out there.
Woolly prose abounds. (Not from TBU.) OTOH it's my own fault for not
concentrating poperly so far ... Thanks v. much for your info, tho'. It's really appreciated.