hard disk unbootable after cloning

Hi there,

i just cloned my main boot/system drive to a new bigger harddisk. The process seemed to have gone well. Afterwards i tried to boot from the new disk: no NTLDR... I try to boot from the old source disk... Windows starts booting but restarts within the loading screen....

So i try to hang the destination disk into another system to copy data, but the disk is completely empty and has it't old name - as if untouched...

so i hang the old source drive into the other system to copy my files... windows says: new hardware found please activate and format... of course i cancelled...

is it possible that the drive is still locked and can only be read from, not written to... is it possible to reactivate my drive... or at least to copy my data? if so, please tell me how...

 

What version and build of True Image?
Is this a Win2k, XP or Vista system?

I think your best bet is to do a Repair Install of Windows if you have the Windows CD.

 

kuv,

Do you see the WinXP logo without any text on the screen and then the computer reboots? Sounds like a drive letter problem. Did you switch HDs in the computer after the clone and run with two HDs?

If this is happening I'd try zeroing the DiskID. It can't do any more damage than you already have on your hands. Make a bootable CD from this ISO and boot to the CD. Follow the instructions. Hopefully your OS will then boot.

http://www.acronis.com/files/support/mbrautowrite_en.iso

Let us know either way.

 

@Brian
that's exactly what happens. After running Acronis, i removed the old drive to run from the new drive, which didn't work, so i plugged in the old drive, which resulted in the described behavior, i then also tried with both drives..

by the way both drives are SATA, if that makes any difference..

I will try your suggestion once i'm home... thank you


@Ralphie,

i was using version 10, not sure about the build. I can tell you when i'm back home.

It is a windows XP system, but a repair-install doesn't work because windows also says that there is 'no disk in current drive' (or similar, since my message is not English ) - if there was, i could as well copy my data within windows on another machine, but the OS behaves as if the harddisk is factory new

thanks for answering

 

ok, so i just tried this. Unfortunately nothing changed....Somehow the procedure went very fast, too... is it possible that this does not work with SATA drives? or maybe, that even this program doesn't find the drive?

I have a trial version of partition table doctor at hand and this finds the disk, but does not find any error...

i don't need this harddisk to run perfectly as before, i just need to copy some files from it...

thank you again..

 

That's unfortunate. Yes it does run fast. Did you see the message, "Press any key to rewrite MBR"? If not then it didn't load properly.

Could you describe in detail what you see when you try to boot? There may still be a chance.

You should be able to get at your files with a BartPE CD and copy them to another HD.

 

thanks for being so fast..


yes i saw that message and pressed a key... then it said press enter to reboot. Enter however gave an error-message like 'no bootable drive' or so... a real reset lead to the old problem.

The computer POSTS as normal and the always gives me the options to run windows in Safe Mode, safe mode with network and so on.... no matter what i do: deafault or safemode it starts loading with the windows logo in the middle of the screen and the loading bar underneath it... after a couple of seconds the harddisk makes a noise... not really sounding defective, more like the harddisk is a readjusting its head (similar to the sound when the driv starts on bootup). and the system restarts...

 

kuv,

Thanks for that detail. It's not a drive letter problem. I was wrong.
I'd try a BartPE CD and I hope it sees your OS partition..

You could try to boot with all PCI cards removed in case a bad card is preventing booting. Just leave your video card in place. Also check your RAM with Memtest 86+. Swap cables to your HD as well in case it's a bad data cable.

Best of luck.

 

Check your Bios to see if your SATA drive is listed in th first 3 bootable devices:

1. Floppy
2. CD-ROM
3. SATA HDD (this would be in lieu of HDD 0 drive when it's an IDE drive)

 

but if BartPE would see my drive, wouldn't another computer also see that drive?

there are already no cards but graphiccard in the system and i tried 2 cables. Problem is the system is pretty new (6 months) and i already tried two different cable..

i will try BartPE but i am already pretty much out of hope...

 

BartPE does not seem to find my drive... it display only the RAM-Drive and the CD-Drive...

@mfabien
the computer already starts booting but can't get through... also other computers can not identify the harddisk...

 

The fact that it is booting to the logo with the scrolling bar underneath, I really think a Repair Install will work. There are a few Repair options that present themselves when installing Windows, however. The one you want, which would leave your files and apps intact, is the one that appears after the EULA screen. So ignore all options for Recovery or Repair until you get the one after the EULA screen.

 

thank you again for your time and work...

as i said a repair install was not possible as windows did not recognize the drive and always wanted to format it... very weird...

However, i need to say this: I start lovin Linux... especially KNOPPIX... in this very moment i am copying everything from the disk... Knoppix said: Warning, dirty drive forced to mount, but i can see all files and can easily access them... although Knoppix didn't start up with another hdd installed i can access a network resource and copy my files there, which is slow but working... afterwards i will try some of the other methods that were suggested with ease of mind...

again: i'd like to thank all of you for your help...

 

kuv,

I'm pleased you have found a way to recover your data. I don't understand what happened but when you have your data safely stored would you mind booting to a Partition Magic CD and a Partition Table Doctor CD and see if they report any errors.

 

Brian,

i already tried a partition table doctor cd before, it found no errors. After copying all files i ran it again and 'rebuild the MBR' rebooted, checked, no change, i rebuild the partition table, rebooted, checked, no change... i also used fixboot, which also didn't help...

unfortunately i don't have a partition magic cd at hand. How could i get one? Just download the trial and create one?

Sidequestion: The new drive is a maxtor Maxline III 320Gig drive. Formatting it with the windows XP installer took about 90Minutes, my old Samsung was way faster - actually i can't remember to have ever waited this long for formatting (i read about a compatibility issue between via chipset and maxtor but with older chipsets and drives). Are 90 Minutes ok-ish or should i not even start to trust this drive. Otherwise it seems to work just fine...

 

kuv,

I'd forgotten that you had already tried Partition Table Doctor and there were no errors. I don't think Partition Magic would add any more information.

We know that your MBR and Boot Sector are OK and that the partition is active. But the WinXP CD and BartPE don't see the partition. Other computers don't see the partition either so it's surprising that PTD reports no errors. But despite the partition anomaly, WinXP does start to boot. What could cause this?

I haven't tried partitioning large drives from WinXP Disk Management so I don't know how long it takes. Partition Magic is much faster whenever I've compared it to Disk Management.

I'm sorry but I have no further suggestions. Please let us know if you find the cause or any further information.

 

Brian,

i definately will, although i already started setting up the new drive, reinstalling my applications and copying over my files...

i will have a short look at the old drive, but will eventually format it and use it in another computer. It is just to weird. Gladly Linux found the drive. I think i saw some partition tool in linux too, maybe that'll find an error...

Greetings