Cloning to larger hard drive - Tips appreciated

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by rrssss, Jun 13, 2005.

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  1. rrssss

    rrssss Registered Member

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    Hello forum members,

    I am having a very hard time cloning my dual boot hard drive to a larger hard drive.

    I presently have Windows XP (NTFS) on one partition and Mandriva Linux 10.1 (EXT2) on the other partition (set active) using LILO as the boot manager for both operating systems.

    I also have a second hard drive used for data storage with three partitions, one NTFS and the other two FAT 32. I am trying to install both a larger first and second hard drive.

    Can anyone please give me some tips on cloning my first hard drive to a larger hard drive? I finally gave up and put my original first hard drive back in my computer in order to reach this forum.

    After cloning my original first hard drive to the larger hard drive, LILO dissappeared and would not install using the recovery CD, saying that I had some invalid devices or invalid blocks, refering to the newly installed second hard drive. LILO detected the partitions of the first newly installed hard drive okay.

    So I put my original second hard drive back into the bay and this time LILO did install but I got an error message saying "keytable read/checksum error".

    It looks like this project is going to whip me. I have Acronis version 8.00 build 859. Can anybody offer any input?

    Thanks much,
    Roy
     
  2. rrssss

    rrssss Registered Member

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    After Cloning - LILO Keytable Error - PLEASE HELP

    Hello forum members (UPDATE)

    I fixed my first problem about Linux not being able to find the devices or blocks while LILO was trying to load by partitioning and formating my larger second hard drive similar to the way my original smaller second hard drive was. Now that that problem is solved, the second problem still remains.

    After cloning my smaller first hard drive to a larger hard drive, LILO will not load and I get an error message saying "LILO - Keytable read/checksum error".

    I tried reinstalling LILO from the recovery CD but it didn't help. I tried installing Grub but it gave me a similar error message.

    My Linux partition has increased in size from 15 gigs to about 45 gigs after cloning my original smaller hard drive to my larger hard drive (automatic mode)and I am using the ext2 file system. Could the larger Linux partition be causing the error?

    Please, please, can anybody help me get LILO to load? I'll never know if the cloning process was a success if I can't get a boot manager to load up.

    Thanks in advance,
    Roy
     
    Last edited: Jun 14, 2005
  3. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Re: After Cloning - LILO Keytable Error - PLEASE HELP

    Hello Roy,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Boot from Linux installiation CD and mount your drive "mount -t auto /dev/hdx /mnt/tmp" (were x is your hd with your linux installation on it. Then chroot into your installed system and run "lilo -t -v" and if this is without any errors then run "lilo -v".
    If it still doesnt help please run 'fsck' command on linux drive in the rescue mode.

    Thank you.
    --
    Irina Shirokova
     
  4. rrssss

    rrssss Registered Member

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    Hello tech support,

    Thanks for replying to my post.

    I tried everything you suggested except I was afraid to run fsck because it said it would seriously damage my files. But I still have the same problem.

    But here is an update for you:

    I did a full compete re-installation of Linux Mandriva 10.1 including reformating the partition and I still get the same error message at boot up - Lilo - keytable read/checksum error. And if I install GRUB, I get the message "stage 1 .5 read error".

    What in the world could be wrong? I toggled all of my hard drive BIOS settings (LBA, Large, CHS) and I tried all 4 hard drive modes (mode 1, mode 2, mode 3, and mode 4) but I still get the error message. BIOS detects the full capacity of the hard drive (250 gigs).

    What in the world could be wrong? It seems like a clean install would fix any problem.

    Can you help me?

    Perplexed,
    Roy S. Smith
     
  5. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello Roy,

    Since the problem seems to be very complicated we need to investigate it more thoroughly. Could you please create Aronis Report in the way described at Acronis Help Post with the cloned hard drive plugged to the computer and send it to support@acronis.com along with the link to this thread indicating in the subject of the letter that you want to contact Marian Fadeeva. She will certainly help you with the solution.

    Thank you.
    --
    Ilya Toytman
     
  6. rrssss

    rrssss Registered Member

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    Acronis Report Utility On Linux?

    Hello tech support team,

    I told you earlier that I did a clean install of Mandriva Linux 10.1 with a format on my new larger cloned hard drive, and I still get the LILO/Grub error message. I performed this operation only to see if Linux would boot, which it did not, so I performed yet another clone of my original working hard drive to my new larger hard drive in order to get to the point where I originally was.

    Well, here I am, right back where I started from with the same LILO/Grub error message. But I am afraid I will not be able to run the Acronis Report Utility because this report utillity will only run on a Windows machine and I am only able to boot into the cloned copy of Mandrive Linux with the help of a boot floppy. It will not boot on its on since the Linux boot manager will not load. And I can not boot into Windows at all since I don't have a start up disk for this operating system yet (I have a dual boot configuration on this cloned hard drive). So at least I know Mandriva Linux 10.1 will work (and probably XP also) if only I could get the boot manager to load.

    Do you have a Linux version of the Acronis Report Utility? Or do you know of ANY report utility that will work on Linux? I don't know of any way I can get the Acronis Report Utility to execute on this LInux operating system and I can't access Windows yet.


    Is there any hope left for me getting my new cloned hard drive to work?

    Thanks much,
    Roy S. Smith
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2005
  7. rrssss

    rrssss Registered Member

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    edited out.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2005
  8. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Re: Update

    Hello Roy,

    Thank you for all the information you sent us. If you do not receive any response from Acronis Support Team within 48 hours please let me know your Acronis Request # which will be sent to you in autoreply.

    Thank you.
    --
    Irina Shirokova
     
  9. rrssss

    rrssss Registered Member

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    Update -

    I think I've figured out my problem. Because I can't even do a clean install of Windows XP sp1 without a disk read error upon boot (repartitioned and formated) so the problem has nothing to do with Acronis.

    I also tried using another identical hard drive but had the same problem so the problem has nothing to do with a bad hard drive.

    So, I guess my BIOS needs upgraded even though it sees the hard drive's full capacity.

    Do you think my BIOS needs upgrading? Or maybe I should buy a PCI IDE controller card? Keep in mind that I had no problems with my original 80 gig Seagate hard drives, only with the new 250 gig Western Digital hard drives.

    Roy S. Smith
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2005
  10. klapton

    klapton Registered Member

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    This could be either a problem with your BIOS supporting large drives (larger than 137MB) or with Windows XP support for large drives. XP SP1 does support drives larger than 137MB, but you have to make a registry setting to enable that support. But you can't make this setting during install. As far as I know, current Linux distros don't have this limitation. You should be fine with creating a NTFS partition below the first 137MB and creating your Linux partitions above that.

    You should have a look at the knowledge base documents on the Western Digital website for more information on large disk support in Windows.

    If you find that your BIOS doesn't support large drives and you continue to have problems, then a PCI IDE controller with a BIOS chip should resolve your problem.
     
  11. rrssss

    rrssss Registered Member

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    Problem Fixed !

    Update --

    Sure enough, after upgrading my motherboard's BIOS to the latest version, the Acronis 8.00 build 800 cloning process was a total success. All I had to do afterwards was re-install LILO from the rescue CD and re-activate Windows XP because of the BIOS upgrade. The problem I was having had nothing at all to do with Acronis.

    My original BIOS version was only two years old and it did detect the full capacity of my new hard drives (250 gigs) so I really did not think the BIOS needed upgrading, but it did.

    It seems like the Acronis technical support team really does try hard to help its customers with their problems. I'm liking Acronis more and more each day.

    Pleased,
    Roy S. Smith
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2005
  12. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Re: Problem Fixed !

    Hello Roy,

    Glad to hear you have solved the problem. If you encounter any further issues please feel free to contact us.

    Thank you.
    --
    Ilya Toytman
     
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