Hi, i'm trying to clone an HDD using Clonezilla but it failed to clone the OS partition and if i look at it with GParted live on USB this Windows 7 on C: partition is always busy and i cant get rid of that triangle. I'm guessing this is the problem? i have turned off Hibernation and also the page file, which was set to another partition but neither of those helped. Then i slightly shrank the C: partition using Computer Management from within Win7 and that didnt help either. Not sure what to do next. im trying to clone to install an SSD. there is a Samsung restore partition. is it possible thats hanging things up?
Snoop3, Are you doing this from a boot disk? Can you post a screenshot of Disk Management? What size is the SSD?
Brian, GParted when i tried to re-add the tiny partition that i split off in Win7 disk mgmnt, recommended to use Dskchk /f and reboot twice and that seems to have worked. the new SSD is 256 gb Transcend and the original HDD is 250 gb. i'm using clonezilla from a PartedMagic edition thats about a year old from a USB flash.
eh i cant really post a screenshot of it as that netbook isnt setup for internet yet (all i have is mobile broadband). i have about 7 empty partitions in addition to the Win7 and Samsung Recovery. i would fill in those partitions later from my old WinXP netbook. looks like that might be a mistake though as i see a webpage that says i would have to create the identical partitions first and then the clonezilla would place the image there correctly. looks like i may have to delete those and then just image the 2 partitions that have data. i thought it would just clone to a blank unpartitioned larger drive but maybe not
Sounds complex and we really need to see a screenshot to give sensible advice. Create the screenshot with the Snipping Tool in Win7, save it as a .png, copy the .png to a USB flash drive, copy the .png to your Internet computer and upload the .png here.
eh, i got a mess now. clonezilla failed with all those empty partitions so i decided to delete them in GParted but i got careless and forgot that there was an extra System partition for Win7. i shoulda left 3 partitions but i deleted the OS by mistake (i didnt name C: drive as Win7 so i missed it). So i used Samsung restore and it worked but i may have to install a bunch of updates again, which took me like 2 days last time unless i can find a clonzilla image of it with all updates, which i dont think i made. live and learn i guess
eh, i panicked and went right to Samsung restore and it actually created the partition prob over the top of the old one(?) i rather start over anyway. i thought this was gonna be easy but i see there are quite a few things i didnt count on.
When you are ready, post that screenshot. It is essential that we know what is on your HD. I'm often surprised by what the screenshot reveals and that leads us into different approaches.
i can list the partitions for you with all the diag and boot stuff? theres only 3 partitions left (Samsung Restore - 10 GB - labeled "diag" iirc, a small System partition - 100 MB or so iirc, and the OS partition for Win7 - 50 GB - labeled "boot") the rest is unallocated now. ill see if i can get a screenshot for you.
Excellent. Thanks, no surprises there. I'd get the latest Clonezilla and make a boot disk. http://clonezilla.org/downloads.php Then create an Entire Drive image of the HD. Swap drives in your Notebook. Restore the Entire Drive image to the empty SSD. Any questions?
yes, thanks. i have the latest Clonezilla on a USB. should i wipe everything off the SSD from the failed attempt? i think Clonezilla put some partitions on there but not much data. i have GParted, i could make everything as unallocated. thanks.
This is what I used..... Backup choose resolution English don't touch keymap Start Clonezilla work with disks or partitions using images use local device insert your USB HD choose backup partition (probably sdb1) Top directory Expert mode savedisk accept image name choose sda as the source partclone accept extra parameters -z1p compression accept 4096 skip checking Yes, check the saved image no encryption -p true (imaging starts) when finished, enter, poweroff Restore choose resolution English don't touch keymap Start Clonezilla work with disks or partitions using images use local device insert your USB HD choose backup partition that contains the image (probably sdb1) Top directory Expert mode restoredisk the image should appear choose sda as the target (you don't get a * ) OK on next screen use the partition table from the image -p true (restore starts) when finished, enter, poweroff
yes, thanks Brian. i had to go to sleep as it was getting late so i started this morning and looks like it worked. What do you think of Clonezilla - how would you rank compared to other options? i like the Samsung Restore but i think on restore it recognizes only one of its images per partition so i was creating several partitions on my old WinXP machine just for this.
Snoop3, I don't like it at all. It can't do hot imaging, can't create differential or incremental images, can't restore to a smaller drive, can't resize the restored partition. I doubt it can do automated restores initiated from windows. I never do cold imaging, except in testing. I can't see the point when you can create your images automatically in the background without having to restart the computer. My automated images are created on a schedule without a GUI appearing.
interesting. i didnt trust any of that hot imaging, incremental etc because i think i read several years ago that cold imaging was the safest and most reliable and that seemed to make sense. prob i have to reconsider. If you had a website like that Mrkvonic fellow except on imaging instead it might get good traffic.
Brian, if you're there i have a few more problems if you have time: i have another netbook that i'm trying to replace with SSD. the original hard drive is 320 GB and the SSD is 256 again. there are no other partitions on there except the OS - (Win7) so i shrunk it down to 60 GB and figured Clonezilla could do a partition restore to the new drive. However i got the error that says Windows needs to check this partition, so i try to schedule Chkdsk thru disk mngment two or three times but as far as can tell it doesnt run because i dont see that pre-boot screenwith chkdsk on there. Not sure what to do - i have several of these rescue disks on USB like Hirens etc but i dont see a chkdsk on there. Also i have several portable programs that are named like chkdsk gui but all they do is schedule it again and it doesnt run. Also, the first netbook that i was working on - it ran thru about 5 cycles of updating and rebooting all the way thru SP1 for Win7 and then the last thing installed was Windows Update Agent. since then it sends connections to MS or akamai for updates but doesnt do anything and i know there are a few more updates to be installed. i thought i had heard that the Windows Update Agent might depend on something like Windows Live or Windows Messenger? and i stripped out both of those from add/remove when i was getting rid of junk. is that likely the problem because it just sits there for an hour and does nothing except it says "checking for updates" in the control panel gui
Snoop3, From an Admin command prompt... chkdsk /f For the computer with the "checking for updates" issue. Try chkdsk /f and see if it helps.
Thanks edit: didnt work for the Acer that i want to image to new SSD. there is a chkdsk.exe in sys32 fwiw. also i notice my Docs and Settings folder is locked even though i'm using an admin acct. - is that normal for Win7? also, looks like the Windows Update is working - there were 190 updates remaining even after SP1 was installed, maybe that was the reason?