DD cloning, impossible to boot from new DD

[Stelteck]

Greetings.
I'am using Paragon backup&recovery system suite 10, with windows vista.

I recently tried to change my three years old, noisy and slow serial ATA hard drive by a new one, with better performance / more space / less noise.

I sucessfully plug in the second hard drive and with paragon backup i copy all the disk one (500go) to the second disk (creating one partition of 500go, and 500go unused (ready for later formating/partitionning).
I used the option "raw copy" on copy option selection, in order to be sûre to copy all elements of the first hard disk.

The copy took around 8 hours . But it is not the problem.

I have no issue seing and using the second (clone) drive. I see that the contains are identical. My bios see it. Everything ok.

But, if i tried to boot from the clone disk. It does not work.

I have the following error (sorry from the term, i have to translate the error from french) :

"Windows is enable to start"
File \windows\system32\winload.exe
status 0x0000000E

Impossible to load the selected entry because the entry is not present or damaged.

I do not understand. I can confirm that the file is present in the disk.

I tried the bootable CD of Paragon backup&recovery searching differents way to fix the problem. I noticed that the "system" partition did not have a letter affecter, so i affected the letter c: as on the previous DD. It did not change anything.

The boot repair tool see no problem and nothing to fix.

My PC is an HP PC so i did not have complete windows vista Cd to try a new installation/repair. I only have a restoration CD which did not repair anything/found anything to repair. I have the option to reinstall the DD from scratch but it will erase all user's data during the process and i do not want it.

My BIOS detected OK the new DD and selected it as boot drive with no issue.

Can someone have any idea of the problem ? I cannot really try randomly new copy/differents copy options. 8h00 a test is a bit too long .

I thought the cloning of DD was a routine manipulation.

[Robin A.]

Check that the partition you want to boot from is set as "active".

[Stelteck]

I just reconnected the clone hard drive. Both the new and the old are viewed by windows as active.

[seekforever]

Did you have both drives connected when you did the first boot after copying? If so this possibly may be the problem.

I'm not sure but I think a Paragon raw copy means that it copies all the sectors both used and un-used which is why it took so long. If so, when you restored it to your new drive you have 2 drives that look identical to Windows and it gets confused.

Disconnect your old drive and boot the new drive by itself. After the first successful boot then you can reconnect the old drive if you wish.

I don't know if trying to boot both together has corrupted anything but if the above doesn't work you could try restoring, then immediately shut down the machine and disconnect the old drive.

You could just do a regular image and probably save some time. It will capture all the data.

[Robin A.]

Yes. The best "strategy" to copy a disk is to do a "reverse copy", replacing the old disk by the new before copying it, and disconnecting the old disk before the first boot.

Also, I find the 8-hour time to copy the 500 GB disk far too high for a SATA-to-SATA copy. It should be copied in less than 2 hours. It is too high even for a copy to a disk connected to an USB 2.0 port.

[wptski]

My 750GB RAW copy to another 750GB using USB 2.0 took 12 hrs.

[Stelteck]

The copy is slow because my SATA controller are configured as "IDE", halving data transfert. (and because of raw copy of course).

It was installed like this and i cannot change it. (HP!!!).

I'am currently trying another time a copy, but not with raw copy this time. It seems to be faster. I will disconnect the old disk before the first boot.

More info later.

[Stelteck]

IT IS WORKING !!!

The standard copy worked where the raw copy failed. I noticed that at the end of the copy, the software search for windows and update the boot table in order to make the new disk bootable.

It is perhaps this that solved the problem, or the fact that i did not reboot with both drives after the copy.

The standard copy took a little more than 3 hours .

Thanks for your help.

[wptski]

Originally Posted by Stelteck

IT IS WORKING !!!

The standard copy worked where the raw copy failed. I noticed that at the end of the copy, the software search for windows and update the boot table in order to make the new disk bootable.

It is perhaps this that solved the problem, or the fact that i did not reboot with both drives after the copy.

The standard copy took a little more than 3 hours .

Thanks for your help.

Just looked at the PDF manual for your product and don't see anything called a "standard" copy. Do you have a "standard" copy option? A RAW copy is an "exact" sector by sector copy of the source and if anything should work, it would be a RAW copy.

[seekforever]

He is just using "standard" to identify the normal imaging instead of the raw method.

My main theory of the problem is with raw he ended up with 2 absolutely identical disks in the system and Windows got confused. This is a known situation to watch our for until after the first successful boot. Regular imaging doesn't have this problem.

There could be a flaw in the program for the raw method but that isn't my first choice.

Good thing is that he is now up and running.

[wptski]

Originally Posted by seekforever

He is just using "standard" to identify the normal imaging instead of the raw method.

My main theory of the problem is with raw he ended up with 2 absolutely identical disks in the system and Windows got confused. This is a known situation to watch our for until after the first successful boot. Regular imaging doesn't have this problem.

There could be a flaw in the program for the raw method but that isn't my first choice.

Good thing is that he is now up and running.

I'd have to look at the manuals again but I'm not sure it would explain the difference between "standard" and "RAW" or a copy without any option checked. I've only did one RAW copy and I don't remember if your forced to select one of options or not.

Okay, using HDM2011S copy function, when you get to the options page both resize options are checked by default. I "assume" that's what the OP meant by "standard" copy.

[Stelteck]

Sorry for the terms, i had to translate the interface from french to explain it on this forum. (i have a french version of the software).

By standard, i mean non-raw copy, with both resize options checked by default.

My first (failed) attempt was raw copy with no resize options. I thought it was the best solution to avoid problem with system partition. I was a fool :-)

[SIW2]

Identical disk signatures will cause windows to change one of them - the original bcd entry will be incorrect.

Easy to fix - anything with a boot corrector of some kind - paragon boot media, or windows 7 startup repair will be fine.

[cincinnatijack]

I like to use EasyBCD as a boot corrector, it is free for non-commercial, private use and very flexible.

EasyBCD Download Page

[Robin A.]

EasyBCD works from Windows. I don´t see how it could help in a case like this, when Windows does not boot.