Need Help Cloning Disk

Hi all - I've been trying to clone an existing disk on my computer using Acronis True Image 10, but have been having some major problems - hoping that someone can help me.

I have an existing 74G Seagate SATA drive which holds my OS (Windows XP Home SP2) on the C: drive. The drive has four partitions on it (it used to be used on a multiboot system, but is not anymore). The first partition on the disk is an E: partition, which is currently empty. The second partition is the c: drive, which holds XP and my program files. The last two partitions are small (~2G) - they were once used for temp files, but are now empty and unassigned.

I am trying to clone this drive (the c: partition in particular) to a new 150Gb WD SATA Raptor drive.

I started by saving a full image of the c: drive to an external USB drive, which I also verified before starting.

I then hooked the new drive up to the second SATA channel on the motherboard and booted Acronis TI from the CD to do a disk clone (auto settings) from the old drive to the new. I did an exact replica, copying all 4 partitions. After the clone completed, I disconnected the original SATA drive and connected the new Raptor to the same SATA controller channel that the original drive was attached to.

I rebooted the controller and got the HAL.dll error on boot. I did a bootcfg /rebuild and a fixmbr. Neither solution fixed the problem.

Interestingly, I could boot windows on the new drive in safe mode, but when I tried rebooting it in normal mode (even in diagnostic mode with win.ini, sys.ini, etc. turned off), the system fails to boot. If I do try to boot into normal mode and the system fails to boot, then it chugs along for a long time, and eventially gives me a NTLDR or 'no bootable media' error, and I have to start over.

So, I tried plan B. I manually reinstalled Windows XP from the windows cd on the c: partition of the new Raptor drive. That loaded fine. I then tried to restore the image of the old drive from the external USB drive to the new Raptor. I got the same set of problems (HAL.dll, NTLDR, etc.). I tried it two different ways - restoring the MBR and not restoring the MBR. Same result. Once again, I could boot into safe mode, but not normally.

I suspect that the multiple partitions on my original drive is somehow causing the problems. I rebooted the original drive to Windows (it still works fine) and tired deleting the three unused partitions on the old drive using the Windows administrative tools (since I don't really need them anymore). Windows would not let me delete the partitions because it said that they were in use, even though there is nothing on them, and I have no environment variable (that I know of) pointed to them.

I briefly considered deleting the 3 unused partitions from the original drive using Acronis Partition Manager, but decided against doing that. My fear is that I will have a problem using Partition Manager, and then won't be able to re-install the original image because of whatever this problem is.

I am at a loss. Short of starting from scratch and doing a clean install (which I really don't want to do), I can't figure out how to make this work.

Could anyone please give me some advice as to what I might be doing wrong, or how to fix this?

Thanks,

Paul

 

With what you said here:
"Interestingly, I could boot windows on the new drive in safe mode, but when I tried rebooting it in normal mode (even in diagnostic mode with win.ini, sys.ini, etc. turned off), the system fails to boot. If I do try to boot into normal mode and the system fails to boot, then it chugs along for a long time, and eventially gives me a NTLDR or 'no bootable media' error, and I have to start over."

... I would try a Repair Install of Windows. Boot with your Windows install cd and choose the Repair option that comes up right after the EULA agreement - not any other repair option that is before that.

 

Thanks for the suggestion - I actually thought about trying that next. My only question / concern is that the image that I created with True Image is XP SP2. My Windows disk is only XP SP1. Can you do a Windows repair using an earlier service pack version? I seem to recall somewhere that there might be an issue with doing that.

Thanks again,

Paul

 

Paul,

I would try restoring the full drive image you created to the new SATA drive just as it is (don't resize any partitions), just check the Disk # check box and restore it. It would be interesting to see if it would boot correctly.

Also, you said you used the "automatic" clone option. I think this expands partitions to fit the new drive. Have you tried to do a "manual" clone and leaving the partitions exactly as they were on the orginal drive?

If either of these methods work, then you could use Windows Disk Management or Acronis Disk Director (or another partitioning program you like) to make the necessary adjustments. Just make sure that the boot.ini file in the Windows partition is pointing to the correct partition as listed in the partition table (this thread shows an example) and that the Windows partition is the active partition.

I don't know about doing a SP1 repair over SP2. If it worked, you would have to reinstall SP2 and the rest of the updates.

 

Okay ... didn't realize this was the situation. You should, for future, download SP2 and then create a new Windows Install disk by slipstreaming SP2 into it. But you can still try the SP1 disk ... after all ... you have nothing to lose except to start over.

 

Ok - just tried this suggestion (it was the easiest one to try first) - no luck. The clone creates successfully, but when I try to boot, I get to the Windows XP splash screen, then the computer just reboots, I tried bootcfg /rebuild, but no luck.

I'm now starting on suggestion 2 - I'm currently creating a slipstream version of XP SP2, and then I will try repairing the windows install with that.

I've got my fingers crossed, but I am getting less and less hopeful with each new thing that I try. Any other suggestions, in case this fails?

Thx,

Paul

 

Just to be clear... did you restore the Entire Disk Image (without any resizing) or did you do the "Manual" clone (without resizing)?

You say the "clone creates successfully", but my quote was referring to an entire disk image restore.

 

Complex. Too many variables for my brain but this may work. It can't do any harm.

 

Sorry - I did a "manual clone" without any resizing.

Should I try to restore the entire disk image? I'm not quite sure that I have what I need to do that.

When I did the image of the original disk, I only did the image of the c: partition, not of the other 3 partitions on the drive.

Are you suggesting that I restore all four partitions (even the 3 empty ones)? If so, then I will need to re-image the original disk, including all four partitions (not just c.

Thanks,

Paul

 

Yes. The "Entire Disk Image" has to have the Disk # checkbox checked and include ALL the partitions on the drive.

 

Paul0521,

You may have to do the whole process again but could you try fxdisk first? It will only take 5 minutes.

 

Trying now - I'm having a problem burning the image file using Nero 7. The system won't boot from the CD - I must be doing something wrong in the options when I am buring. Will try again.

 

In Nero you need to cancel the first window and click Recorder, then click Burn image.


Or you can use ImgBurn

http://www.imgburn.com/

 

Thanks - got the image burned - unfortunately, I got an Invalid Operating system error.

Looks like the next step is to try to repair the windows installation using the Slipstream disk that I created.

Moving to that now.

 

So the CD booted OK and you reset the MBR?

Where did you see that error in the boot sequence? Earlier than the WinXP logo screen where it rebooted before?

 

You have the classic drive letter change problem during restore.

Don't bother with the repair installation, that's only going to repair the windows installation and leave the drive letter the same as before.
With windows xp, drive letter change problems is the first thing to check whenever the restored drive doesn't boot up.
The first clue of drive letter problem is getting the computer to boot up to the windows splashscreen and then reboot or go into a loop. This is caused because the system registry is trying to look for the startup files in the wrong drive.

Download the demo of "paragon justboot corrector" , use that to boot up your computer, look at your system partition and what the drive letter is. Your system partition needs to be C:, if it's anything else , thats your problem. All you need to do is find a way to change it back to what it's suppose to be and reboot. It's a quick fix, if you know your way around the registry.

That's your problem, I've seen it too many times. It's a simple fix.

demo here
http://www.justboot.us/boot_corrector.htm

directions to change drive letters
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=174958

 

Yes - right at the beginning of the boot sequence.

I also tried the XP2 slipscreen repair. The windows install disk saw the Windows partition and offered to try to repair it, which it said was successful, but still no success on reboot. I got the same 'Invalid Operating System' error at the beginning of the boot sequence. This could have been a byproduct of what we did to try to fix the boot record (I did not restore the image again, before trying to repair Windows - I don't know).

So, my next plan of attack - I am going to do what MudCrab suggested - re-image my entire old drive (all four partitions) and then try to restore that complete image. The backup is running now, but this is going to take a while. I am going to let it run overnight, and start again tomorrow.

MudCrab - just to be clear that I know what you are suggesting - After the backup runs, then I should restore the entire drive (all four partitions) together, without any re-sizing. Is that correct? Also, should I restore the MBR at the same time?

Thanks for everyone's help. I'll give you an update tomorrow on what's happening.

Paul

 

Thanks for the suggestion - that makes sense - you give me hope. I'm too tired to try anything new right now and the new backup is currently running.

I think that what I will do is let the backup run, and use the new full backup to restore tomorrow as MudCrab suggested. That way, I will have a clean image on the new drive to work from. If that doesn't boot, then I will download justboot.

Does that make sense to you?

Paul

 

Paul,

Thanks for the clarification.
Just so we are on the same wavelength, which splash screen did your computer reboot from? The one with the large logo and the scrolling bar below or the small logo WinXP with blue background that occurs just before the Welcome screen (if you have a Welcome screen)?

 

Yes, that's correct. When you check the Disk # checkbox during the restore, it will automatically select all four partitions and the MBR and Track 0 item. All the checkboxes should be checked. The restored partitions will have the same size as on the original disk.

 

I believe that it was the first one - I don't remember for sure, but it was early on in the boot sequence.

 

Paul,

Thanks. Then I misled you. It's the second screen that's associated with drive letter problems and it's towards the end of the boot sequence. Problems on that first screen are more serious. Drivers, hardware, software corruption. I look forward to your success.

 

jonyjoe81,

The system in question was previously setup as a multi-boot system so it's possible that there is some partition "cross-contamination" going on that's causing some problems.

If Paul runs the "Justboot Corrector" program and it fixes the problem, then great.

I would like to make a note on a statement that you made in your post and in other posts (I've bolded the part in question):

In this case the Windows drive is the C: partition and is assigned the C: drive letter (per Post #1).

However, the statement you make would be more accurate if you said "The system partition is normally C:" as it does not have to be C:. Also, when you say "if it's anything else, that's your problem" isn't true in the cases where the Windows partition wasn't originally assigned the C: drive letter.

Windows doesn't have to be the C: partition. If you're multi-booting using the Windows bootloader you often end up with other drive letters for Windows. If you install a second copy of XP on your computer and other partitions are found before the one you install too, then XP will assign a later drive letter. It may be D: or E: or F:, for example. In those cases, the correct drive letter is the original drive letter and not C:.

I've had this happen before. I installed XP onto an empty hard drive. I had another internal drive and a CD drive and a DVD drive. Since no partition was found on the "new" hard drive, the letters were assigned to the second internal ( C: ), the first DVD drive ( D: ) and the second DVD drive ( E: ). As a result, when the new partition was created on the empty hard drive, it was assigned the letter F:. That is what Windows had and used for its drive letter.

 

MudCrab ,

I've deliberately created an OS partition with an incorrect drive letter by doing a partition clone incorrectly. JustBoot Drive Corrector demo does show the incorrect drive letter but the demo can do nothing about it. Dan Goodell made this comment.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=174958#15

So if you suspect a drive letter issue, just do fdisk /mbr or its equivalent. I don't see JustBoot Drive Corrector demo as having a place. As I now realize, Paul0521 did not have a drive letter problem.

 

Update and a question

Ok - update as of 8:00 AM ET today -

I re-ran the image on my original drive as MudCrab recommended, selecting the entire disk 1. This morning I ran a verification on the archive, and it verified fine, so I started the restore process before I left for work.

One thing that I noticed as the restore started to run - the restoral does seem to be assigning different drive letters to the restored image from what was on the original disk.

I forgot to write down the mappings before I left, but from memory I believe that C on the old drive is mapping to E on the new drive, E on the old is mapping to F on the new, etc. So it looks like my windows partition is not going to end up on my c: drive (it is interesting that this didn't happen when I did the clone last night, but it did when I restored the image).

So, when I get home tonight, what would you suggest that I do next? My guess is that this won't just boot from scratch.

Thanks,

Paul