Clone not "enabled"

[rcktexas]

I have two WD 80 GB drives. The first one is the boot disk and the second one is a clone of the first one I made with the Acronis True Image CD.

When I attempt to add the second disk to the system, Windows BSODs - "Unaccessible Boot Device". If I remove the second cloned disk then Windows boots properly. Sometimes I manage to get past the BSDO and get into Windows, and the second drive is partly mounted but it does not have a drive letter assigned. When I attempt to assign a drive letter I get an error message claiming that the partition/volume is not "enabled".

If, however, I take the clone disk and use it immediately as the boot disk, it boots properly. I then shut down and add the first disk keeping the second as the boot disk. Now Windows mounts the second disk properly. If I swap the disks back to the original configuration, Windows now mounts the second clone disk properly.

I do not have this problem is I use a different model WD disk as the second disk. I can mount it immediately using the first disk as the boot disk.

Somehow the fact that the two 80 GB disks are the same model is causing a mounting problem when I try to mount them together right after cloning. If, however, I use the clone to boot, Windows does something to the disk that causes it not to BSOD.

Can you tell me what the problem is using two of the same model disk in the cloning procedure and how to fix it other than the method I discovered by trial and error.

[TheQuest]

Hi, rcktexas

Have you checked the jumpers.

Take Care,
TheQuest

[rcktexas]

Originally Posted by TheQuest

Hi, rcktexas

Have you checked the jumpers.

Take Care,
TheQuest

Yes. I am using the official 80-wire, blue-ended, cable-select IDE cables and have the disks jumpered accordingly. The BIOS recognized them, Acronis CD recognizes them. Sometimes if I make it past the BSOD, Windows recognizes them but does not mount the clone (assign a drive letter).

That is not the issue. The issue is the disk signature which is identical to the source from which the second disk is cloned. Somehow this causes a serious problem when the two disks are the same exact model. Apparently Win2K can't distinguish them and either brainfarts (BSOD) or won't mount the second disk.

What I want to know is how to prevent this so I do not have to go thru the ritual of booting from the clone to prevent the problem.

[Menorcaman]

Hello rcktexas,

As you have found out, Windows NT, 2K and XP will throw a wobbly if it finds two drives with the same DiskID, which is usually the case when you make a drive to drive clone.

Have a read of this <Dan Goodell article> and then zero out the offending 4 bytes via Method #3 ("Kawecki's Trick").

If you can't get hold of a Windows 98 Startup floppy I can send you a bootable CD ISO of one if you want. Just send me a Private Message via this forum (click on Menorcaman at the top left of this reply and select "Send a private message to Menorcaman") with your email address and I'll forward it as an attachment.

Regards

[Acronis Support]

Hello rcktexas,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Menorcaman is correct, so you can try the method he has suggested.

However, you should be aware that we recommend you to unplug on of the hard drives right after the disk cloning process was finished (as you may already noted, your PC automatically shuts down in order to allow you to unplug one of the hard drives), since keeping the both source and destination hard drives connected might cause the boot problems.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

[rcktexas]

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

Hello rcktexas,

As you have found out, Windows NT, 2K and XP will throw a wobbly if it finds two drives with the same DiskID, which is usually the case when you make a drive to drive clone.

Have a read of this <Dan Goodell article> and then zero out the offending 4 bytes via Method #3 ("Kawecki's Trick").

If you can't get hold of a Windows 98 Startup floppy I can send you a bootable CD ISO of one if you want. Just send me a Private Message via this forum (click on Menorcaman at the top left of this reply and select "Send a private message to Menorcaman") with your email address and I'll forward it as an attachment.

Regards

Excellent response! That explains the whole thing.

One thing I would point out - I tried deleting all the keys in MountedDevices (Method 2) but Windows just put some of them back when I rebooted, so the problem persisted. Maybe I did something wrong, but it is moot because I am going to use Method #3.

I have a Windows98 startup floppy which I will try to use. If it does not work then I will take you up on your kind offer.

I wonder if you have an ISO that I can burn to a CD that will then boot and permit me to do the fix? I have the Acronis FixMBR CD but as the article says it does not clear the last 4 bytes because it is based on NT.

Thanks for your assistance.

[Menorcaman]

Originally Posted by rcktexas

I wonder if you have an ISO that I can burn to a CD that will then boot and permit me to do the fix?

Hi again rcktexas,

Indeed I do. This is what I meant when I offered you a bootable CD ISO

Just send me your email address via a PM as detailed in my previous reply.

Regards

[rcktexas]

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

Hi again rcktexas,

Indeed I do. This is what I meant when I offered you a bootable CD ISO

Just send me your email address via a PM as detailed in my previous reply.

Regards

I read that sentence but failed to parse it because I was so excited about having been given an articulate explanation of something has obsessed me for the past 48 hours straight. Now I will be able to sleep tonight.

I used an old Win98 startup floppy and sure enough fdisk /mbr worked. However I will contact you right now by PM so I can have the CD ISO which I prefer to fooling with floppies.

Thanks again for your timely solution. You spared me continued sleepless nights.

[Menorcaman]

Originally Posted by rcktexas

I read that sentence but failed to parse it because I was so excited about having been given an articulate explanation of something has obsessed me for the past 48 hours straight. Now I will be able to sleep tonight.

I used an old Win98 startup floppy and sure enough fdisk /mbr worked. However I will contact you right now by PM so I can have the CD ISO which I prefer to fooling with floppies.

Thanks again for your timely solution. You spared me continued sleepless nights.

Just pleased I could help. The ISO should be with you by now.

Regards

[rcktexas]

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

The ISO should be with you by now.

I have not received it - the time is 3:03 pm CT.

That may be too large to get thru my ISP.

I will wait for a while to see if it makes it. Otherwise, perhaps you can put it on your web site and I can download it from there.

Thanks.

[Menorcaman]

Originally Posted by rcktexas

I have not received it - the time is 3:03 pm CT.

That may be too large to get thru my ISP.

I will wait for a while to see if it makes it. Otherwise, perhaps you can put it on your web site and I can download it from there.

Thanks.

Unfortunately I don't have a web presence (did someone shout "Ludite"?!!). I've sent it again as a ZIP archive (1.64MB) in the hope that the reduced size might make a difference.

Regards

[rcktexas]

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

Unfortunately I don't have a web presence (did someone shout "Ludite"?!!).

Your ISP should offer you some space for a website. You access it by FTP on your end.

I've sent it again as ZIP archive (1.64MB) in the hope that the reduced size might make a difference.

I suspect it's still too large for my ISP.

Do you have an account with Yahoo Messenger?

You can correspond with me at the email address I sent you if you want to bypass this forum.

[Detox]

gmail (googlemail) also has a 1 gig storage limit - if you would like a gmail invitation PM me with your email and I'll send one along.

[rcktexas]

Originally Posted by Detox

gmail (googlemail) also has a 1 gig storage limit - if you would like a gmail invitation PM me with your email and I'll send one along.

Thanks for the offer. That sounds handy. I will send you a PM.

[Menorcaman]

Originally Posted by Detox

gmail (googlemail) also has a 1 gig storage limit - if you would like a gmail invitation PM me with your email and I'll send one along.

Hi Detox,

Many thanks for the Gmail invite. The registration process was quick and painless.

Kind regards
Tom

[Detox]

Good to hear - and no problem whatsoever

[rcktexas]

Originally Posted by Detox

Good to hear - and no problem whatsoever

Likewise thanks for the gmail invitation. However, I finally remembered that I had an email account on Yahoo, and the file was successfully transferred using it.

I have spent far too much time on this little project, largely out of curiosity. The only reason I would ever want to mount a clone is to retrieve something I accidentally trashed on the original disk. That happens so rarely that all this effort seems like overkill. But it is good to have a fix because when I do need to mount the clone I won't have to go thru the hassle of using an intermediate drive.

[Kapiti]

Send large files free.

http://www.yousendit.com/

[Menorcaman]

Originally Posted by Kapiti

Send large files free.

http://www.yousendit.com/

Nice one Kapiti. Many thanks for the link. I've checked out its Privacy Statement and Terms of Use and can't find a downside. So that's another handy URL stashed away in my Favorites for use on a rainy day .

Regards

[rcktexas]

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

If you can't get hold of a Windows 98 Startup floppy I can send you a bootable CD ISO of one if you want.

I just finished burning that Win98 Startup ISO you sent me, but it fusses about not having a FAT filesystem. I am running Win2K, so the natural filesystem is NTFS.

As mentioned, I do have a floppy-based Win98 boot disk with fdisk. I ran it and it worked as it was supposed to in terms of putting zeros in the signature.

So how come my Win98 boot disk can handle the NTFS filesystem but the one you sent me can't?

How do I create ISO files of my own? I prefer using CDs instead of floppies whenever possible.

[Menorcaman]

Hello again Bob

I just finished burning that Win98 Startup ISO you sent me, but it fusses about not having a FAT filesystem. I am running Win2K, so the natural filesystem is NTFS.

As mentioned, I do have a floppy-based Win98 boot disk with fdisk. I ran it and it worked as it was supposed to in terms of putting zeros in the signature.

So how come my Win98 boot disk can handle the NTFS filesystem but the one you sent me can't?

Can you explain what you mean by "it fusses about not having a FAT filesystem"? Using Nero Burning ROM, I've just used the same ISO to burn another image CD (Recorder > Burn Image). I can boot from it and when I type fdisk /status it shows my two NTFS disk, albeit the partition sizes given are limited to that seen by DOS. I can also access my disks individually via the fdisk menu. Obviously I didn't try the fdisk /mbr command!!

How do I create ISO files of my own? I prefer using CDs instead of floppies whenever possible.

I created a bootable CD direct from the Windows 98se Startup Disk using Nero Burning ROM's CD-ROM (boot) option. The only reason for converting the bootable CD to an ISO file (using WinISO in my case) is to send it as an email attachment .

Anyway, I've just created another boot CD but this time setting Nero's ISO tab to ISO 9660 File system, Level 1 file system name length (8 + 3 charecters) and no relaxed restrictions. Converted the CD to an ISO via WinISO as before and have sent it to your Yahoo address. It didn't seem to perform any differently on my system but you never know.

Regards
Tom

[rcktexas]

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

Can you explain what you mean by "it fusses about not having a FAT filesystem"?

After the CD launches Win98, it produces a screenful of warnings about not having FAT type filesystems.

I did not proceed any further - maybe it would have worked but I did not want to mess with something that threw me a curve like that.

My version of Win98 is 4.10.1998. It does not produce any warnings about FAT filesystems.

I did not check which version of Win98 is on the CD.

[Menorcaman]

Originally Posted by rcktexas

After the CD launches Win98, it produces a screenful of warnings about not having FAT type filesystems.

I did not proceed any further - maybe it would have worked but I did not want to mess with something that threw me a curve like that.

My version of Win98 is 4.10.1998. It does not produce any warnings about FAT filesystems.

I did not check which version of Win98 is on the CD.

O.K. I understand now. I get the same warning, whether I boot from the original Windows 98 Second Edition startup floppy or the bootable CD I created from it. Was your startup floppy created with Win98 or Win98SE?

Anyway, it would appear that the ISO I sent and the boot CD you created from it are fine. Although I've never used the fdisk command on a totally NTFS system, I would just ignore the warning message. Fdisk not detecting a FAT file system is probably the reason the Kawecki trick works in the first place!!

Regard

[rcktexas]

Originally Posted by Menorcaman

O.K. I understand now. I get the same warning, whether I boot from the original Windows 98 Second Edition startup floppy or the bootable CD I created from it. Was your startup floppy created with Win98 or Win98SE?

Anyway, it would appear that the ISO I sent and the boot CD you created from it are fine. Although I've never used the fdisk command on a totally NTFS system, I would just ignore the warning message. Fdisk not detecting a FAT file system is probably the reason the Kawecki trick works in the first place!!

Regard

I will give it a try next time.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by rcktexas

I just finished burning that Win98 Startup ISO you sent me, but it fusses about not having a FAT filesystem. I am running Win2K, so the natural filesystem is NTFS.

As mentioned, I do have a floppy-based Win98 boot disk with fdisk. I ran it and it worked as it was supposed to in terms of putting zeros in the signature.

So how come my Win98 boot disk can handle the NTFS filesystem but the one you sent me can't?

How do I create ISO files of my own? I prefer using CDs instead of floppies whenever possible.

Using MagicISO to create iso files. It is a good ISO creator.
It is very easy and simple to use.

http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-overview.htm