Want to copy IDE drive (with OS on it) to SATA drive.

I just bought the Acronis True Image 9.0 Home. I currently have two IDE drives in my computer. I want to change them out for 2 SATA drives and copy all the contents of these IDE drives to the new respective SATA drives.

First, the first IDE drive. It has the OS on it along with some other stuff. I do not want to install Windows XP again from scratch. I simply want to copy this entire IDE drive over to the first new SATA drive. This is primarily why I bought Acronis.

I am trying to get my ducks in order to set up this whole process as methodically as I can with no errors.

I read the manual and am confused in places. This is what I gathered I have to do but not entirely sure. This is with Acronis already installed.

1. First make sure I install the SATA drives to my existing system and verify they are present in Device Manager.

2. Make sure the BIOS has the SATA controller(s) enabled.

3. Shut down and install the new SATA drive and boot up Windows normally (booting normally with existing IDE drive) so the empty SATA drive shows up. Do not do anything further to that drive (don't format, partition, etc).

4. (Now is where I'm getting confused. I don't know if I'm supposed to now reboot to CD and let the Acronis boot disk start or if I am supposed to be doing this in Windows). Select Clone Drive, select source, destination, etc. The reason I am getting confused at this point is because it says once these preferences are set, a reboot is required before the copy starts. I'm wondering why the reboot would be necessary if already on a boot disk. I could see it if I was still in Windows.

So am I supposed to do all this outside of Windows from the Acronis Boot disk or set this up in Acronis in Windows and then a reboot will start the process in from the Acronis boot disk?

I sure don't want to screw this up. This will be my first SATA drive experience.

I also have to copy over the contents of my second IDE hdd to a second SATA drive once I do the first one. This second drive does not contain an OS.

I would LOVE to hear instructions/comments/suggestions, etc from the experienced ones who have done this process. All help will be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks

 

Booting with the Acronis bootable Rescue Cd would not require a reboot during the Cloning process until it is complete. All of the Cloning and Image Backup features are available via the Rescue CD. No need to start in Windows.

 

I just installed Acronis and made the boot disk choosing both Safe Version and Full version check boxes.

I opened the program in Windows and saw the "Clone Disk" option. Does this mean I can do it either way?

Either (1), set it up in Windows to copy the first IDE hdd to SATA hdd and then I suppose it's going to ask to reboot (being the OS is on this first drive) with Boot CD in drive to do the actually copy? If so, is it then going to just access the boot disk and take care of the rest automatically?

Or (2), do the whole process from the boot disk?

 

It is EITHER the boot Cd OR from within Windows. Not both. I prefer using the boot CD every time all the time.

 

I did say either.

My two SATA drives should be here Friday. Just getting it together in my head how I'm going to do all this as this is my first time copying IDE to SATA and first time changing out two drives (copying both of them). I had previously done disk copying from IDE to IDE using Ghost 2003 but it won't work for IDE to SATA (have to have Ghost 10 I think).

Now is this correct? I heard you had to boot up with the empty SATA drive hooked up in Windows XP first before then rebooting and setting up the copy process (with the boot disk)?

Or can I just shut down computer, put in SATA drive, boot up straight into Acronis Boot CD and do it there?

 

Here is the neccessary steps:

1) Shutdown your computer
2) Plug SATA hard drive
3) Boot your computer up with Acronis Bootable Rescue Media
4) Clone IDE hard drive to SATA drive
5) Shutdown computer
6) Unplug IDE drive
7) Set SATA drives as the boot drive in BIOS

You should keep in mind 3 things
1) Do not instruct Acronis True Image to clear the IDE hard drive
2) Shutdown your computer right after the cloning (you should not start Windows with both IDE and cloned SATA hard drives). If you will not follow this simple rule then Windows can do some changes in letters assignment etc and your SATA hard drive OS can be unbootable.
3) It's good idea to use Sysprep before cloning. It's not neccessary, but can help.

 

Thanks, that was very helpful. Now another question about that second IDE hard drive I have hooked up.

Can I leave this second IDE hard drive hooked up through this whole process? Then when finishing up copying that first IDE to first SATA (and removing first IDE hard drive), shut down and hook up the second SATA, boot back up and copy the second IDE drive (without OS on it) to the second SATA hard drive using Acronis in Windows (then shutting back down and removing that second IDE hard drive)?

 

Yes, you can. Your second hard drive will not affect the process of OS cloning.

 

I think just to be on the absolute safe side, as you have a spare IDE drive, would be to make an image of your existing boot drive to this - just in case something goes wrong.

Then you'd be able to go back and start all over again, and, if neccessary re-use your old setup.

Colin

 

This is a very, very good idea.

 

I read someplace else that SATA drivers are not needed for SATA150 cause Windows XP SP2 already has them but if the drive is SATA300 (which mine are) that SATA drivers are needed.

Is that correct? I will not be using RAID. I see a floppy with motherboard that has the SATA/RAID drivers. I don't want RAID. I don't see any just SATA drivers.

 

XP since SP1 has had SATA drivers however, there may be some controller chip specific files that aren't included.

Since you are getting 2 SATA drives put one in and initialize it with XP's Disk Management and set up a partition and format it. You can delete it after if you wish. This should cause any needed SATA files to be loaded.
When you do your OS cloning or imaging the drivers will be present and you know they are operational.

Like I said in one of my other posts, the hard way is likely to be the easy way.

 

Success! I now have two operating SATA drives in my computer.

Shut down computer and hooked up first SATA drive (outside of case).

Booted up, went into BIOS, enabled the SATA controller, changed boot up first to CD. Put in Acronis Boot CD.

Saved Bios, it went into the Acronis Boot Disk. Copied the first IDE drive over to the new SATA drive. The old IDE drive had two partitions. I kept them and manually adjusted them to my liking. Fiddling with those 3 settings (un-allocated before, size, un-allocated after) took me a minute to figure out what I was doing.

Finished it and shut down computer. Unhooked first IDE drive and booted back up. Went into BIOS again and made sure the new SATA drive was showing (it was), and set it to boot first of the two hard drives.

Saved BIOS and booted (holding my breath here) straight to Windows! After booting up, I got a message saying something like new configuration loaded and asked to reboot again. I did. Booted back perfect.

One down, one to go.

Shut down computer again. Hooked up second SATA drive (on top of the first one on desk outside of case). Booted back up, BIOS change again to CD. Saved, booted to Acronis and did the same thing again copying the second IDE drive to second SATA drive.

Shut down again. Unhooked second IDE drive, booted back up. Went straight into Windows, got that same message again asking to reboot again. Did.

Then proceeded to shut down and manually remove old drives from case and put new ones in.

Now I'm up and running and stoked! NOTHING WENT WRONG! I'm happy as a F-ing clam!

 

I don't have anything that says SATA in Device Manager. Am I supposed to?

Under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" I have.

Primary IDE Channel
Primary IDE Channel
Secondary IDE Channel
Secondary IDE Channel
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller

First one, nothing is listed under either of the 2 in Advanced.

Second one, I assume is the 1st SATA drive listed as DMA 6 for the 1st entry in Advanced and nothing in the 2nd entry in Advanced.

Third one, nothing is listed under either of the 2 in Advanced.

Fourth one I assume is 2nd SATA drive also listed as DMA 6 for the 1st entry in Advanced and nothing in the 2nd entry of Advanced.

Fifth and sixth ones just say working properly.

All of them have Microsoft listed as drivers (original 2001).

Shouldn't there be some newer drivers listed somewhere there? And not from Microsoft?

 

Not necessarily, it depends on the motherboard chipset it seems. Only my newest machine shows anything about SATA controllers in Device Manager.

I have controller drivers that are from Intel. Are you looking at the controller driver or the drive driver? My SATA HD drivers are listed as Microsoft and are circa 2001.

 

Either the driver drivers or the controllers drivers, same thing. All list as Microsoft drivers 7/1/01

 

If you are really concerned about this go the MB website and see what drivers are available for your board.

 

I have already done that. There are so many different opinions on what's going on about what drivers are needed (or if any are) for SATA drives tha's it hard to get a general agreement of what's to be done.

The automated driver install of the Nvidia N4 drivers do not install any so called "SATA" drivers. At least not according to Device Manager.

There is a folder in the Nvidia N4 drivers called "IDE SATA". I even tried updating the drivers in Device Manager and pointed it to that folder. It chose the .inf there. Then I saw the supported devices which listed "Nvidia SATA controller" and "Nvidia SATA Intel Controller". I chose the first one and then got a message saying it did not recommend installing these drivers cause it could not verify compatibility and that installing them could result in the system to stop working. Needless to say I cancelled out of the install (I'm not that brave).

So it seems with all the SATA drives out there, there is not a clear cut method of installing SATA drivers or no clear cut instructions of doing it or if it is even necessary. I am also quite tripped out on how many different opinions there are on the matter. A lot of people don't seem to know much more about it than I do (which is quite little).

I ran HD Tach and got around 175 for burst speed which is higher than DMA 6, and ATA 150 on the graph. So I guess that's pretty good. I do notice my system is speedier now than it was with my old hard drives.

 

Your system is working so obviously it is using SATA drivers, the question then is anything lacking.

Edit: Oops didn't see the last bit of your postYou could run the free version of HDTach and see how your transfer rates compare.

Make and verify some images with TI, that usually shows up any flaws in the system !

 

Probably your S-ATA-Controller is set to IDE-Compatibility. That would be the reason why all cloning and Windows booting worked flawless. If you want real S-ATA, you have to prepare Windows to recognize the HD-Controller on the next boot.

In one Intel driver package i have seen some batch-files that should do that. But i hadn't the chance to test that till now.

Theory is:
1. Execute a special batch-file, which will lead Windows to recognize new HD-Controllers on next boot and place the needed files in the right place.
2. Shut down Windows.
3. Enter your BIOS-Setup.
4. Set the S-ATA-Controller to "Native" or something like that.
5. Reboot and hope Windows recognizes the new controller.

 

Finally figured out how to install the SATA drivers. Now have it showing in Device Manager.

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h86/MikeO1989/DM.gif

Also some different showings than before.

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h86/MikeO1989/DM2.gif

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h86/MikeO1989/DM3.gif

 

And the magic solution was...?

Any obvious performance difference?

Since SATA is one of the newer major devices on PCs and one to which people are upgrading to for the first time, I'm sure your answers will be helpful information.

 

When I first tried to update drivers, I pointed it to the wrong folder (updating the second " Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" entry, first one is SATA 3/4 and 2nd one is SATA 1/2). I pointed it to the SATA IDE folder and was supposed to point it to the Legacy folder. Go figure, heh heh.

Anyway so now got the SATA entry in Device Manager. I guess I'm just anal retentive, wanting to see "SATA" listed there, heh heh.

I don't notice any performance difference (HD Tach scores about the same). It's not any worse that I can see.

Here is the HD Tach graph:

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h86/MikeO1989/HDTach.gif

Dunno how good that is, don't have any comparison to judge by since I've never had a SATA driver before. I do see it's definitely higher than my old IDE hard drives which were Ultra DMA 5.


Note: Added two more screenshots to my previous post.

 

I have the same drive and your results are virutally identical to mine although you managed to get an extra 8MB/s on the burst.

Thanks for posting.

 

Cool, at least I know I'm in the ballpark. I went on the forum where HD Tach is and saw some postings from HD Tach readings there. Man, some of those guys are getting some insane speeds!