Restoring from external drive

Tony,

That should be fine.

 

Hi Brian,
Thanks,
I read somewhere mentioning that after migration to another hard drive by Paragon drive copy 12, the original drive won't boot anymore
Is there any truth to this? sorry to bother you

 

Tony,

I haven't used Paragon Drive Copy but I'd be surprised if it stopped the original OS from booting.

So I can understand your system better, can you post a screenshot of Disk Management. I'd like to see the partition rectangles and the Capacity and Free Space columns.

 

Hi Brian,
Sorry for late reply, I was testing to see whether I can restore an OS partition using Paragon drive copy 12 pro.
It worked fine, I could restore to a previous date (using an old archive created by Paragon, I bought it , created archive mirrors periodically, faithfully...but never test them)
This weekend I will try to migrate the current drive to a new HDD (to keep just in case!), at least you give me some confidences to go ahead.
I am sending you a link to the screenshot of my Disk Management (if there is a better arrangement partition wise, please let me know. Also, Can I add another small hard drive permanently to this computer? without causing conflict ?)

disk1= SD card reader
Document (E) is the where I keep the Paragon backup archives (on top of an external HDD)

 

Tony,

Is that a Dell computer? I'm glad you posted the screenshot because it shows you have the booting files in the Recovery partition (it is the System, Active partition) rather than in the Win7 partition. So if your HD failed and you only restored the Win7 image to a new HD, the Win7 OS wouldn't boot. It won't boot unless the Recovery partition is present. With Dell computers I always copied the booting files to the Win7 partition, set it Active and did a BCD Edit. Then I deleted the Recovery partition.

In this tutorial below, assume the Recovery partition is the SRP for copying purposes...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409

Questions?

Yes, you can add another HD. I use a second HD to store my (primary) backup images. I use a USB HD as a secondary backup site. Let's talk about partitions after you have decided what to do with the booting files.

 

Hi Brian,
That's a Dell Vostro270, win7 Pro...thank you for the tip about booting, in fact I did have problem about booting when I tried to restore
recently even on the same original drive...so I think you're absolute right ( I restored just the windows partition). I need some time to digest the tutorial you sent, my head are spinning at the moment!, may be too much for me, I might just copy (migrate) entire current drive to the new one and test it out later.
What is the purpose of the OEM partition (39MB) ?

 

On your computer it is fine to just restore the Win7 partition because the Recovery partition is already present. With a new HD you would have to restore both partitions.

The OEM partition is for Dell Diagnostics. Good to have but not essential.

I would copy the booting files into the Win7 partition because when it is working you can delete the Dell Recovery partition and that makes future imaging easier. If you make a mistake with the copying you can restore your current Win7 image and start again. So it isn't dangerous.

That tutorial is detailed but there is only a few minutes work. I'll summarize it if you like.

 

Tony,

Summary. You are already using the E: drive letter so let's use P: drive letter.

In Disk Management assign P: to the Recovery partition. (as per Part 1 Step 2)

Open an Admin Command prompt and copy/paste these lines. One at a time and press Enter after each line has been pasted. You have to use your mouse to copy lines into a Command Window. Right click and choose Paste.

reg unload HKLM\BCD00000000

robocopy p:\ c:\ bootmgr

robocopy p:\Boot c:\Boot /s

dir c:\ /ah

bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:

bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {memdiag} device partition=c:


Open Disk Management and Right-click on the Windows partition and select Mark Partition as Active from the pop-up menu.

In Disk Management

1. Right-click on the Recovery partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths... from the pop-up menu.
2. Click the Remove button.
3. Click the Yes button to confirm the change.

Restart your computer.

 

Hi Brian,
You are amazing, Thank you for spending time helping me out and encouragement.
I think I can handle this.
Will do this weekend after fixing the garage door!
Report to you later
Tony

 

Hi Brian,
Forgot to ask you, Do I need to full format the new drive before migration old hdd to it?
or just migrate over the bare drive? the drive is WD Blue 1TB, brand new.
I am using Paragon Drive Copy 12 Pro .... .( If I have to format, then this is PRIMARY ?)

I think I try this way first to have a good copy. Then remove the boot, test to see everything OK, then migrate again.
Thanks

 

Tony,

I'm not familiar with how Paragon works but usually when you "Copy" one drive to another the target drive is left blank. Unallocated space without partitions on the target drive.

 

Given the increasing spread of CryptoWall , and CryptoLocker variants sure to come, I hope you do not keep that external hard drive connected to your PC at all times. CryptoWall is particulalrly sinister because rather than denying you an encryption key if you don't pay the ransom with some type of gift card within a certain period of days, CryptoWall doubles the ransom every 3 days and only accepts bitcoins as payment. The initial ransom is $500

 

Hi Brian,
I did migrate successfully the current drive to an external drive, I bought a USB enclosure to carry out this task instead of mounting the WD drive
in the computer. To test, I replaced the current Seagate drive with the new WD drive, and the computer booted up nicely, it took a minute or two at first loading something(?) but then quite fast with subsequent boots. I really appreciate your help and encouragement.
You are right, I do not need to format the bare drive, the migration took <2hrs for 500GB ... .
On the side note, the Paragon Drive Copy12 restarted auto by itself after done migrating, this might cause problem had I installed the new drive in the computer.
Thank you
You and some others are helping people, meanwhile we have people spreading ransomwares , what an interesting web world!