Cloning and FAT32

I am using Acronis to transfer all data from my old notebook hard drive to my new, larger hard drive. I am using an external drive to do this, but it is FAT32. My notebook drive is NTFS. When I make an exact image on the external, it becomes FAT32, in 5 separate partitons. Should I reformat the external to NTFS, before I clone to the new hard drive?
Also, is there any place that describes how to clone a notebook hard drive using an external drive?

 

jasta - no need to reformat.

True Image would love to create a single image file of your notebook hard drive, but the FAT32 file system on the external disk have a max limit of ~4 GB in a single file. True Image knows this, and splits the single image file up into 5 sub-images (5 x 4 GB = 20 GB; does that match the amount of data on your notebook?). When you restore from those sub-images, True Image knows how to combine it all into a single hard disk image.

 

This is crazy!

Cloning is supposed to create an exact image of the disk you're cloning from! It shouldn't split or change formats to match a different partition structure. That's what cloning is supposed to make easy for us. A clone is supposed to be an EXACT DUPLICATE of the original drive not some convoluted chopped up image.

The only way I can think of that TI8 would screw up the cloning function so miserably would be if you selected not to delete the existing partitions on the destination hard drive you're cloning to and that isn't an option under cloning in my version of TI8.

Try it again and be sure to select Delete Partitions/Data on Destination Drive.

As for instructions on how to clone your existing internal hard drive, you have to have the new hard drive in an external enclosure so you can clone to it. It's a one step process. If you are trying to clone to an intermediate hard drive and then transfer that to a new drive later, that's not cloning as it was designed into TI8 as far as I know. That's more like creating an image and restoring it to a different drive.

Let us know what happens. I'm really curious.

 

In his topic heading, he says "cloning" but he describes imaging.

 

You're right, Ben.

I just tried to clone without deleting destination partitions - no can do. So, he's creating an image and calling it a clone - just a little terminology problem.

So, like MiniMax says, he created an image and it got split up to accomodate his external hard drive limits.

Hey, Jasta. I think you should reformat your external hard drive to NTFS if you're going to use it with your XP laptop. That way, your image will be saved in one piece.

 

Thanks for the replies. What steps should I follow im making an exact copy of my old hard drive and putting it on the new drive, using an external drive? The new notebook drive is not in a separate enclosure.

 

jasta - do you have a bootable CD with True Image? If you use that, are you able to access the external disk? Can you create an image of the old notebook disk on the external disk using the boot CD?

 

1) Assuming you are running XP and using an external USB drive, format your external hard drive.
2) Install TI8 on your internal drive and create a TI8 Recovery CD.
3) Create an image of your internal hard drive and save it to the external drive.
3A) When creating the image be sure to click the topmost box and select the ENTIRE hard drive and all partitions so the image is bootable when restored.
4) Install the new internal drive.
5) Boot from the TI8 Recovery CD with the external drive already connected and powered on.
6) Restore the image to your new internal hard drive and reboot.

My prefererred alternative in your case would be to mount your new drive in an external USB enclosure temporarily and clone your internal drive directly to it. Swap drives, restart and wipe the old internal drive. One step duplication and partition resizing. Dispense with the intermediate step of saving to the existing external drive if you can.

 

Thanks for the replies. I did create an Acronis bootable CD.
If you boot from this Recovery CD, how would you restore the image from the external drive to the new blank drive?

 

Just click, click, click, click, ....

Did you try to boot from the CD?

 

I used Acronis to make an exact image of my old 30GB hard drive, on a fixed external drive. I took out the 30GB drive and replaced it with a 100GB Seagate. I restored the image of the old drive with the Acronis Recovery CD, but My Computer only shows a 30GB drive. What happened to all of that extra space on the 100GB drive?

 

You started a new thread for this topic.