Need help with cloning a hard drive IDE to SATA, URGENT

[max17]

Hi, I have tried to clone a 200GB Maxtor IDE drive to a 320GB Western Digital SATA drive using acronis true image 10 Trial version, but the cloned drive does not boot. Im using a ASUS P5W DH Deluxe motherboard, with the newest bios.

I get an error" Could not read from the selected boot disc. Check boot path and disk hardware."

It took me a while to narrow down the problems, i think it has somethign to do with drivers for the sata(I might be wrong thou) I installed the JMicron Raid JMB36X controller (since its a SCSI and RAID controller)on the old drive and cloned it, but I get the same error. I also have all enabled in the BIOS, its set to sata treated as IDE, and the JMIcron is enabled.

Would someone please help me with my problem?, Im pressed for time to make the new system work with the new sata drive.

Thank You for all comments.

[foghorne]

Originally Posted by max17

Hi, I have tried to clone a 200GB Maxtor IDE drive to a 320GB Western Digital SATA drive using acronis true image 10 Trial version, but the cloned drive does not boot. Im using a ASUS P5W DH Deluxe motherboard, with the newest bios.

I get an error" Could not read from the selected boot disc. Check boot path and disk hardware."

It took me a while to narrow down the problems, i think it has somethign to do with drivers for the sata(I might be wrong thou) I installed the JMicron Raid JMB36X controller (since its a SCSI and RAID controller)on the old drive and cloned it, but I get the same error. I also have all enabled in the BIOS, its set to sata treated as IDE, and the JMIcron is enabled.

Would someone please help me with my problem?, Im pressed for time to make the new system work with the new sata drive.

Thank You for all comments.

Did you remove the original disk before you rebooted for the first time after the clone was carried out ?

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

F.

[max17]

Yes I have done so.

[max17]

Thank You for the link, got confused there a bit, so basically do i need to delete all other non used partition letters? and only leave the ones that the current drive is using? then clone the drive again, take out the old drive(leave only the new one connected), then boot up? and see what happens?

Is that correct?


Would You mind explaning "clear the registry's drive letter table before cloning the partition" I havent done much with the registry editing in the past, does that mean that I have to delete all the letters there?


here is my registry :
http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?i...pimage2qu4.png
What should i delete before cloning?
Thank You

[foghorne]

Originally Posted by max17

Thank You for the link, got confused there a bit, so basically do i need to delete all other non used partition letters? and only leave the ones that the current drive is using? then clone the drive again, take out the old drive(leave only the new one connected), then boot up? and see what happens?

Is that correct?


Would You mind explaning "clear the registry's drive letter table before cloning the partition" I havent done much with the registry editing in the past, does that mean that I have to delete all the letters there?


here is my registry :
http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?i...pimage2qu4.png
What should i delete before cloning?
Thank You

Can you still boot off the original drive with the SATA one disconnected?
Can you still boot off the original drive with the SATA one connected ?

F.

[jonyjoe81]

Download the demo of "paragon justboot corrector" , and use that to boot up you computer. Verify with this program that your drive letters did get changed. Your system drive needs to be c: . I bought this program just for changing drive letters (in the non-booting registry of hard drive.). This is the fast way to change drive letters (it took me 5 minutes to get my non-boot restore of my c: partition to bootup). Also vcom partition commander pro v10 has a bootfixer which changes drive letters on non-booting hard drives. Last time I spent 3 days trying to get a restore to work, but if your sure it's a drive letter problem, that can be fix in less than 5 minutes with the right utilitys. One of the reason's I'm not sure if you have a changed drive letter is because your computer isn't even booting, with changed drive letters you get an incomplete boot(computer hangs at log-in screen or goes into a loop). I always prefer the quick easy fix to get my computer running.

[Brian K]

max17,

It's nothing to do with drive letters. Dan Goodell's comment doesn't apply to you.

You mentioned you have installed SATA drivers to the IDE HD. Good. I assume your SATA HD was internal during the clone process and not in a USB enclosure. That can cause problems.

These links are an overview of the IDE to SATA process.

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/co...trueimage.html

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=294

It sounds like a BIOS issue.

[max17]

Originally Posted by Brian K

max17,

It's nothing to do with drive letters. Dan Goodell's comment doesn't apply to you.

You mentioned you have installed SATA drivers to the IDE HD. Good. I assume your SATA HD was internal during the clone process and not in a USB enclosure. That can cause problems.

These links are an overview of the IDE to SATA process.

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/co...trueimage.html

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=294

It sounds like a BIOS issue.

Yes I had the SATA drive connected internally.
I checked the first link, i t didnt work, so i used the Windows XP disk and it didnt help much all it did was make the drive bootable but it whiped out all the data on the C drive, and left all other data on the other partitions, which were unusable since there was no connection to the C drive from there, so i had to reclone ...again
as to the second link i used acronis in the same way ans i have installed the drivers, it is possible for me to boot withthe ide drive, with teh SATA drive connected, in windows it just shows up as additional partitions with different letter naming, and all works well there(only when i boot to the original IDE drive)

[max17]

Originally Posted by foghorne

Can you still boot off the original drive with the SATA one disconnected?
Can you still boot off the original drive with the SATA one connected ?

F.

Yes to both questions, when i had the boot sequence set to the IDE drive, and had the SATA connected it just booted as normally, but the sata was just treated as data storage drive, and without the sata drive it all works fine as usual (I used the do not delete option in acronis...its good I did so)

[max17]

Originally Posted by jonyjoe81

Download the demo of "paragon justboot corrector" , and use that to boot up you computer. Verify with this program that your drive letters did get changed. Your system drive needs to be c: . I bought this program just for changing drive letters (in the non-booting registry of hard drive.). This is the fast way to change drive letters (it took me 5 minutes to get my non-boot restore of my c: partition to bootup). Also vcom partition commander pro v10 has a bootfixer which changes drive letters on non-booting hard drives. Last time I spent 3 days trying to get a restore to work, but if your sure it's a drive letter problem, that can be fix in less than 5 minutes with the right utilitys. One of the reason's I'm not sure if you have a changed drive letter is because your computer isn't even booting, with changed drive letters you get an incomplete boot(computer hangs at log-in screen or goes into a loop). I always prefer the quick easy fix to get my computer running.

Thank You, I am burning the programm as I type, and report back wheather the letter change was the issue or not.

[foghorne]

Originally Posted by max17

Yes to both questions, when i had the boot sequence set to the IDE drive, and had the SATA connected it just booted as normally, but the sata was just treated as data storage drive, and without the sata drive it all works fine as usual (I used the do not delete option in acronis...its good I did so)

I could not tell from your earlier comments whether you had rebooted with both drives still connected after the clone.

If you did, since your source drive is still booting, I would repeat the clone procedure, but remove the source drive before rebooting after the clone.

If that still does not work then you need to look at a) loading the default settings for your BIOS b) reviewing your SATA drivers.

F.

[max17]

ok, i tried that paragon just boot corrector, it showed me the same thing I saw in the registry, but I was unable to change a thing, since it was a demo version, it actually did not specify anything at all regarding the letters of any particular partitions, just that each partition was unassigned.

So I guess i will delete the letters in the registry editor and hopefully the next clone will be a working one, and I hope that I will not make my current IDE drive unbootable,or damaged in any way.

[max17]

Are there any programs that I could use for free(frweware) that do change the partition lettering? drom dos?

[Brian K]

max17,

I repeat, it's not a drive letter problem. Your SATA hard drive isn't being recognized appropriately (as the boot drive) in the BIOS. Check the boot.ini too.

[max17]

Originally Posted by Brian K

max17,

I repeat, it's not a drive letter problem. Your SATA hard drive isn't being recognized appropriately (as the boot drive) in the BIOS.

So Do You know how may I be able to fix this? the Hd is recognized in the bios just dine, I set all the related settings as tehy should be set when I just boot the pc(to bios, or even before that it is recognized(make and model)), thats about it, and I agree that the recognition of the drive as a bootable one is the issue, how may I be able to fix it?
I just bought Acronis True Image Today, but I will wait with opening the box till i atleast find out what is the issue with the clone not being bootable(so if anything I will be able to return it if it is the fault of not creating good clones of the hd).

Overall I spent almost 11 days trying to have the hd working, and to be honest im beggining to think that there might be somethign wrong with the software itselfe, since I followed all the instructions (also the ones provided BY You in the first link, since I found that one couple days prior to Your posting) but none of the suggestions work, so thats why I wanted to try that letter changing, maby that might work out.

[Brian K]

I'd start on the boot.ini. Do you have a BartPE CD to directly edit boot.ini? Do you have a floppy drive to use EditBini? You could try Method #2 from this link.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

Sorry, I've no suggestions regarding changing your BIOS settings.

[max17]

^ thank You , I will check it out, so far I found out that the drive letters have actually been changed, but changing them back using some dos freeware apps didnt help, I also crrected teh MBR with no success, so the only thing that might help will be edyting the boot.ini......hopefully that will help.

I just cant understand why a program that should do this didnt work and deos not make a "true" clone of the original hd....anyways ill get to reading the article and see what progress ill make

[max17]

Would a Hiren Boot cd help in any way? I think one of my friends has one, I might be able to borrow it from him.

[Brian K]

max17,

I think the Microsoft Method #2 will work.

Here's a quote from Dan Goodell regarding cloning software not making true clones.

For a long time now, "cloning" programs haven't been making true clones. But that's okay, because most of the time you don't really care if it's a true clone, you just want the end result to boot properly.

A true clone of a partition is an exact copy of the source partition--every sector, every fragmented file, every deleted file, the drive parameter block in the boot sector, the volume ID, the same boot.ini, DiskID, and registry [MountedDevices] key. However, almost always one or more of these items must be changed for the copy to boot properly. A few, like the drive parameter block and DiskID, are not directly up to you. The assorted cloning programs draw the line at different places as to how much of this they will modify ... "on your behalf", as it were.

IME, Terabyte's products, BootIt-NG and Image for DOS, are the most conservative programs (amongst those that are still viable on modern disks). You cannot even resize a partition when it is copied, it must be exactly the same size as the source. It tinkers the least with the copy, which makes for an extremely predictable and reliable result, but potentially leaves the most for the user to touch up.

Drive Image 2002 is almost as conservative--fragmented files are left fragmented, and boot.ini and the registry are untouched. It's not quite an exact clone because certain files aren't copied (such as the paging file and deleted files), and if you copy/restore to a different sized partition, it will obligingly adjust the boot sector and drive parameter block.

Ghost 2003 goes a step further. As normally used, files are copied instead of sectors (which means the copy ends up defragged in the process). It also attempts to adjust the boot.ini file, guessing at what will be needed to make the OS boot properly. But it still doesn't touch the registry.

AFAIK, Casper XP was first on the block to try adjusting the registry. That was soon followed by True Image (not sure which version--9, I think) and Ghost 10. (I don't think v9 tinkered with the registry.) I don't use all of these versions, so don't take my word for which versions do what, but the point is that increasing intelligence is being added (since Ghost 2003) to try and cover as many bumps in the road as possible, so hopefully the user doesn't have to do any touching up.

The caveat, though, is just how good they are with their guesswork. And it is still guesswork, despite what the marketing brochures would like you to believe--no program can be 100% sure what touchups are needed unless the program sees the copy installed in the exact spot it will need to boot from, and that's seldom the case. If you don't throw a scenario that is too complex at the program, they seem to guess quite reliably.

So, the general rules I've been propounding for the last several years are just that: generalizations. Different programs try to achieve different levels of sophistication, and the more intelligent they are the less touching up there may be left for you to do. But just because the program guesses right in some scenarios doesn't mean it will always guess right in other scenarios. My general rules will still help reduce the risk of you getting bit in the backside, but the more sophisticated the program, the looser you can be about following those rules.

[max17]

^ lol what I ment was make a bootable/working coppy of an existing drive, or atleast give the user some options of making the "important" changes in the process(or prior, or after), so that the final result would be an actually working "clone" since that is what the software is for

[max17]

Quick question, is there somewhere any info how should i edit, that is what should be in the boot.ini file , what exact data should be there for the system to work correctly/boot?
Thank You

[Brian K]

Using Method #2 you don't need to do any editing.

Boot.ini can be different in different computers. Here is my boot.ini. My OS is in partition(2). Most OS will be in partition(1) and the boot.ini will reflect this.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

[max17]

ThankYou for the details, so would it be ok if I would coppy and paste that into my boot.ini (the one on the cloned hd?) after changing the partition to the right one, and the XP to Home (instead of Professional)

what do : "fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn" stand for?

btw just to make shoor, wouldn't it be a good idea to just coppy my current boot.ini (text) into the cloned one? wouldnt that work?
if yes, how may I acces it threw windows to check my old hdd's boot.ini?
Thank You

[max17]

^ actually I found instructions on how to do so, so Im just uncertain regarding my other question ^

[max17]

Originally Posted by Brian K

Using Method #2 you don't need to do any editing.

Boot.ini can be different in different computers. Here is my boot.ini. My OS is in partition(2). Most OS will be in partition(1) and the boot.ini will reflect this.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

when I checked mine i had "signature, and teh numbers in the parenticies, instead where You have "multi(0)" so I guess it all depends on each pc then.

One more question , on the M$'s site it stated "If your computer starts from an IDE, EIDE, or ESDI hard drive, replace the scsi(0) with multi(0). If you are using scsi(x) in the Boot.ini, copy the correct device driver for the SCSI controller in use on the computer and rename it NTBOOTDD.SYS. If you are using multi(x) in the Boot.ini, you do not need to do this."

so what should be the option for a SATA hard drive? , should it be multi(0)?