Finally cloned my drive,but won`t boot.

Hi,after 7 months of not being able to clone my c-drive to my f-drive,i followed the advice of some members here and got it to clone using the bootable rescue cd/dvd.I know the clone took as both drives have the exact same amount of free space now.
Acronis OSS sees the cloned drive as XP PRO (2),BUT IT WON`T BOOT.I get a black screen with no information at all.

I don`t know if this makes a difference,but i had VISTA installed on the f-drive before.I got rid of vista for now and wiped the drive clean------then partitioned and formatted it before cloning XP PRO.

I`d appreciate any helpful info as to why the cloned drive won`t boot now.

 

Did you disconnect the newly cloned drive before rebooting? If not have a look here Multi-Booting with Windows in an Extended Partition. Windows gets confused if it sees multiple drives with Windows them.

 

I did NOT disconnect the cloned drive before rebooting.So would it make a difference now if i disconnected the drive before the next reboot?

 

You need to disconnect the "old" drive before booting with the newly cloned drive.

If the "old" drive still boots, re-format the "new" drive (though this shouldn't be necessary) and do the process all over again.

 

No, when Windows sees two drives that are identical at the same time, it gets confused. It changes the second one to make it different. That's why it won't boot.

You have to repeat the cloning, but shut down after the clone is finished and disconnect the first drive. Move the clone to the boot position (or change the BIOS, etc.) and boot from your new clone.

If you want to go back to the original drive, disconnect the clone before connecting the old drive. Keep the clone disconnected if you want to boot from it in the future.

 

If you're using OSS and trying to boot into the XP PRO (2) entry that was added, you'll need to set the properties for that entry so that the Disk Order lists the 2nd hard drive (the one XP PRO (2) is installed on) FIRST in the list. You will probably also want to hide the other XP partition. For the other XP entry, hide the new XP partition.

However, as stated by previous posters, you may need to redo the clone before this will work since Windows has already seen the cloned drive and has probably made it where Windows won't start properly.

 

Just change the drive letter, thats the fast way to do it. That usually fixes problems when you boot up with 2 hard drives. Thats how I would fix it.

The reason your cloned drive isn't booting is most likely cause by the drive letter of your system partition changing during the restore. This happens in the registry of windows xp. When the computer starts to bootup, it checks the registry to see where the next startup files are located, example"if the driveletter got change to d: than that's where it will look for the files, instead of c: where they are located" .


https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=174958

 

pompste,

If you are seeing a black screen then the clone process hasn't worked. It's not due to booting with two HDs attached. Have you had similar failures over the last 7 months.

Could you describe what you are trying to accomplish? How large are the HDs? How many partitions on the old HD? What does work for you with Acronis TI?

 

I have been trying to clone my c-drive(250gb,1 partition) to my f-drive (250gb,1 partiton)using TI-10 from within windows for the past 7 months.Long story short,as many others here know also,it would not clone at all.
By reading other posts here,all with the same problem in regards to not being able to clone,i found many were able to get TI 10 to clone by using the bootable rescue cd.This allows the cloning process before windows starts.
I tried this and the cloning process worked.The 2 green progress bars showed up for the first time in 7 months and the cloning process took about 3 minutes to complete.I`ve got an intel dual core processor(3.4ghz).

I went into windows disk management to see if the clone took and by the numbers i see there,it did take the clone.Both drives now have exactly the same amount of free space after the clone.Before the clone,there was a 12gb difference between the 2 drives.

I appreciate all the responses people have offered me on this problem.But i`ve got to admit i`m a bit unsure as to what response to follow since each response is a bit different from the others.

I hope i`ve given you the proper information.Thank you.

 

have you verified the drive letters? I would rule that out first.
Use the demo of "paragon justboot corrector" to boot up your computer, the program will analyze your hard drive and tell you what the windows xp registry looks like and where the drive letters are assigned.
In most cases the system partition has to be c: drive (but if you originally installed it somewhere else it can be different).

With windows xp, every single time I couldn't get a restored hard drive to boot up, it's always been the drive letters.

If thats not your problem, what I would recommend is for you to do a partition image backup of your c: drive and restore it to your other drive. Bypass the clone procedure. A partiton image of a system drive will be automatically bootable when you restore it.

 

pompste,

How much used space (GB) is there on your old HD?

Could I ask why you want a clone of your old HD? There are various reasons and I'd like to hear your reason.

Do you have an external HD?

That means it didn't clone.

 

Ordinarily, I'd agree that 3 min is too fast for a clone, but in this case, I think it did. This is one fast system (dual 3.4GHz CPU) with SATA drives; and Disk Management shows the right format and used space for the clone.

I think your questions are exactly the right ones to ask!

 

John, I should have waited to hear how much data he has in his old HD. If it is only a few GB then 3 minutes would be OK but if he has 50 GB, it's impossible.

 

I agree.

 

Hi,There is only 9gb USED space on my original drive.Also,9gb USED space on the drive i cloned,but won`t boot.
I want a cloned drived simply in case my original drive fails.
All my 4 drives are INTERNAL.

Everything happens QUICK on this intel dual core 3.4ghz pc,so 3 minutes for a clone may be reasonable.

 

Then 3 minutes sounds an OK time.

You mentioned that you haven't been able to make a successful clone in the last 7 months. Would you like to try an image/ restore?

Just briefly, I suggest deleting all partitions on the new HD. Do this from Disk Management so that Windows knows the HD has no partitions. Using the Acronis TI CD, create an image of your old HD, writing the image to one of the other HDs. Remove the old HD from your computer and replace it with the new HD. Same cables/ SATA port as the old HD. Using the Acronis TI CD, restore the image to the unallocated space on the new HD. Restore MBR and Track 0 as you have a boot manager. Remove the CD and (hopefully) boot to the new HD.

 

Pompste,

From what you want to do, I think BrianK is correct that an image backup fits your needs better than a clone. A cloned disk would have to be disconnected after every clone and reconnected to clone again to update it, and then disconnected again. That's a waste of time.

A backup image can be stored on any disk and restored to either the same disk or a replacement. You can store several images since they are much smaller than the size of a disk. You also don't need to connect and disconnect drives to make images.

 

I`d like to try a backup image,but i have`nt a clue as to how to go about it.I like things to come easy-----if backup imaging involves a complicated procedure,i won`t even bother with it.

 

Its actually no more complicated then cloning. You may want to read GroverH's excellent guides for assistance. Need Help? These Beginner's Guides May Fill That Need!

 

pompste,
Check out my guides listed below. These show how to create and restore a full disk backup archive.

 

Dude,i appreciate the help you all offer me here,and everyone else also.

The backup procedure seems way more complicated to me than cloning----probably because i have not done it yet,and i probably won`t be for some time.If i tried a backup now and it does`nt go well,i would not be happy.At least my original drive works great.

I tried cloning my drives for 7 months,finally get it to clone,and then it does`nt boot-----unbeleiveable.There`s got to be an easier way.

I wish this 3.4ghz pc i have been trying to clone on for 7 months would clone as easy as it does on my slightly slower 2.4 ghz other home pc.
On my slower pc it clones easy,i switch drives either by OSS or switch from within the bios---i don`t have to physically change any drives at all.

The faster pc`s bios won`t allow any hard drive boot order changes.Naturally.

 

It should. Most newer comptuers I've built and worked on now have a separate menu list in the BIOS for the hard drives. The hard drive you want to boot is selected in that list (the top one gets priority). Then in the the "regular" boot order list, the hard drive just shows as "HARD DRIVE" or something like that.

 

Yes there is. Make a backup image.

I think making a backup image is a lot easier than cloning. You just click on Backup and follow the wizard. You don't need to swap any drives around, and you can do it all in Windows. Way easier than cloning.