Help!! HDD in external USB not readable as even a usb drive after cloning

My new 2.5 sata hdd inside an external enclosure is no longer readable after cloning with ATI home 2009 I performed a clone onto the new drive from my existing internal 2.5hdd, and ever since that my computer cannot even read the new cloned hdd as a usb volume let alone boot from the new hdd.

Relevant info:
I have Acronis True Image home 2009 build 9646.
I have windows vista 32bit premium running on hp dv6500t laptop.
I have an internal 2.5 sata hdd (160gb).
I am upgrading internal hdd from 5400rpm seagate to a newer 7200rpm western digital scorpio black "WD3200BEKT" hdd(320gb).
I have the new wd scorpio drive mounted in an external usb enclosure which came with the drive

What follows are the exact steps i performed before stumbling across these forums after I encountered my problem:

The wd hdd was not initialized when i first plugged it in
I first initialized the external hdd as "MBR"
I then formatted the blank hdd as "nfts"
Drive was formatted and I allocated one partition to the full drive labeled "F:"(320gb)>utilities>clone option from
My internal drive has two partitions C:, 140gb which is system and D: which is hp recovery partition 8.6gb
I started ATI and ran Tools>clone disk
The clone source was my internal sata drive and the destination was the external usb F:
I picked custom resizing of the partitions. I kept D: as same size 8.6gb and C: the remainder of the 291.4 gb available.
ATI then prompted reboot of computer
After reboot ATI was running in black screen with white text displaying progress.
I kept checking progress which was somewhere around 92% after about 45 minutes
When i returned screen was blank with nothing on it. I waited about a half hour then pressed power button on comp to restart comp
Comp restarted and "acronis completed" flashed across the screen in white text.
At this point the external usb was plugged in and the original internal drive was still in original boot position. Vista started normally and I decided to see what the external volume was labeled. Disk management could not find the disk.I was puzzled but assumed mb windows was confused with two drives trying to be labeled the same.
I just assumed this was normal and shutdown my comp. I then placed new hdd into internal sata and completely removed old hdd. When I turned comp back on it could not find a media disk and something called pxe.
I turned off comp and put the old drive back in. Everything works fine and thankfully vista loaded fine. I then plug in the new hdd back into the usb enclosure and plug into usb to see if i can detect it or any files on it. Windows detects the usb mass storage device, but does not detect any partitions or names or volumes. When i go into disk management vista cannot see the a labeled. It see it as "disk 1", but no volumes, no info, no files, no allocation NOTHING. I then decided I would just start over and try to re-initialize the disk then reformat it, since it couldnt even see an initialized disk. I was then planning on following the processes on these forums to backup. But I cannot even initialize the disk!?!? It says "windows i/o error" whenever i try to. I checked the ATI logs and it has two log entries with clone completed successfully. One entry was the start time, the second was the completion time.

Can someone please help me?? I hope that the new 320gb drive i just bought is somehow able to be used or reformatted so I can try this process again the way it is mentioned here. I hope it did not just become toast. I cannot even initialize, view, reformat the disk in any way. I dont know what ATI did but the drive was working before and now it is not. I dont even care about the cloned info. I would like to just have a working drive at bare minimum before i start over.

 

cm20dpg,

I can't help much with your problem but while you are waiting for an answer you might like to read GroverH's guide to cloning. It has a section that applies to HP laptops and USB external HDs.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1299861&postcount=9

 

I think you're running Vista, but you mention XP several times. Are you running XP or Vista?

If Vista, does the Diskpart program see the USB drive? If it does, you may be able to clean the drive and have it work. You can look at the procedure here (it details the procedure for flashdrives, but it's the same for a hard drive).

If the drive is really messed up where nothing can recognize it, booting into Linux and wiping the start of the drive might help. I have to do that quite often with flashdrives I corrupt during testing.

 

Sorry guys it was a very late and frustrating night. To clarify any reference of xp should actually be vista. I am running vista. and the xp references were late night errors. I have vista and ati home 2009. Also assuming the hdd is able to be cleansed with diskpart, which method should I use for ati home 2009 backup. Should I use seperate usb thumbdrive for boot, or use mudcrabs all in one usb hdd with bootable partition. What is the best method for mirroring hdd with xp and ati home 2009. A lot of the guides seem older for older versions of ati and not specifically mentioning vista problems with ati home 2009. Tell me the best method and please link the guides u recommend.

 

Ok so in the interim I am going to see if diskpart can read the hdd.

While I am doing that can someone tell me: should I clone or restore from a backup, if I am using Vista and ATI home 2009 and trying to replace one internal 2.5 drive with a newer internal drive(I only have one internal 2.5 sata bay)? I cant seem to find much relevant info on combinations of ATI home 2009 being used with Vista, many examples and recommendations are based off older ATI and xp. In the end all I need is the new drive to have the old drives info on it, and boot vista so that I can get rid of the old one. PLEASE any help is much appreciated!!

 

Diskpart can find the drive. Diskpart can get all the way through to clean the drive. But when i go to "create partition primary" It says "Diskpart has encountered an error: The request could not be performed because of an I/O error. See the System event log for more information." SO it sees it and cleans it, yet cannot get any further. Event log says "VDS fails to write boot code on a disk during clean operation. Error code: 8007045D@02070008"

Help! Now what do I do to get the drive working again?

Also in the interim I'm going to buy a different external sata to usb enclosure to see if thats the problem as well as a second hdd, to see if its either the enclosure failing or the hdd. Should I format the 2nd new hdd in fat32 as per mudcrabs direction or should i use nfts? and should i just quick format the drive or full format it. The last drive i did a full format and it was setup as nfts.

 

cm20dpg,
Regarding my guides, yes the examples are for versions prior to 2009 but the underlying principles are the same.
A quick review is below.

1. Cloning or an Imaging Restore of your disk has its best chance of success when performed booted from the TI REscue CD or bootable Flash Drive. (Note: if using the trial version of 2009, you cannot perform a clone from the bootable CD. If using the trial version, your chances of success would be much better if you use the Partition Restore with Resize procedure which is allowed from the trial version.)

2. Install the blank target drive in its intended boot position. No drive preparation is needed. Target drive is best if blank-unallocated. You can use 2009 to delete any existing partitions as illustrated by this posting.

How To Delete Disk Partitions Using TrueImage Home
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=213446

3. If cloning, original drive installed in an external enclosure; or if laptop, in an extra laptop drivebay; or if desktop, in another internal slot, etc. If restoring a disk option backup archive, then backup can be stored on any internal or external source which has room for the *.tib backup files. A disk option backup is one which includes all partitions (both hidden or diagnostic or recovery). In other words, a disk option backup archive includes everything on the entire disk.

4. If cloning is to be performed, use My guide to Manual Cloning using the TI Rescue CD Or, if restoring a full disk option backup archive, then restore according to the guide listed on line 3 of my signature below.

5. Following the completion of the procedures, power down and disconnect the original drive. During the first bootup, you only want the new disk attached.

6. The guides gives you a step by step illustration.

7. Yes, there may be other procedures but following these offer the best chances of success.

8. One of the nice things about True Image Home is that it gives you the chance to practice and practice and practice until you feel comfortable with your selection of options. It's practice as long as you do not press the Proceed button. This is plainly illustrated in any of my guides.

 

So to recap I have some remaining questions

1) Can anything be done to get my currently unusable 2.5hdd working again, or atleast reformatted? It shows up in vista and diskpart, but nothing further works, i can make no changes, cannot use it in any way. It does not show up at all in ATI, and mudcrabs method of trying to create a primary partion cant get past "create primary partition". I need some ideas..

I also bought a new enclosure to test to see if the drive will work. Any other ideas?

2) I'm going to use Grovers guide to restore image to external hdd with resizing (thank you grover) I didnt understand at first what that method was, so i skipped it for the cloning guide, but slowly im making sense of all the titles around these woods! Now do I need to first format the new hdd as nfts or fat32(which one recommended) before placing it into my internal bay? I know im going to leave it unallocated and with no partition in either case, but I wanted to clarify the difference between formatting a drive in a format and leaving it unallocated with no partitions vs just being blank factory drive w no formatting whatsoever.

thanks for the help so far grover and mudcrab!

 

The recommended condition for the new drive is as you buy it-- blank. This is unpartitioned; unformatted--the space shows as unallocated in the Computer Management display;

Once you have done work to it, then delete the partitions as illustrated and look at the DP-05 sample image carefully. This will produce an unformated full disk space with no partitions.

If you cannot get your disk recognized, have you tried the manufacturer's utilities? You may have some success using the Hitachi Feature Tool
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/533-ibm-hitachi-feature-tool.html

The new disk will assume the file characteristics of the original drive during the cloning or restoration process. This will be done by TI which is why no disk preparation is necessary.
[/b]How To Delete Disk Partitions Using TrueImage Home[/b]
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=213446

Once you have attempted the cloning or restoring and have partitions on the new drive, it is best to remove these as illustrated above before performing another clone or restore.

My experience has been that TI will see the new blank drive or in whatever condition it is before it removes the partitions as my illustration above shows.

 

Ok I understand precisely what state a new hdd should be in before starting the process. That clears much up

I tried the drive in a different enclosure and still cannot get vista to recognize anything more than a usb external drive is connected. diskpart sees a disk "disk 1" with no volumes and cannot format or create partitions. It does perform "clean" though. ATI also will not recognize the disk in any way. So it is definitely not the enclosure, it seems isolated in some way to the hdd

What would have happened to the drive to cause this unusable state? It worked before cloning. And I've downloaded the western digital diagnostic tools and it too just tells me a read I/O error message. Is this an issue with acronis 2009 and vista of some sort or hdd failure. Any other ideas to salvage this expensive new puppy. Im going to try the hitachi tools u mentioned.

I'm debating returning the hdd altogether. But the thing is, I need to know if this issue is something that I caused, or more likely to have been good old fashioned hdd failure. And more importantly if i return it and it is not drive failure, but the result my actions using acronis to clone, has created some kind of unusable drive. If I return it, would they be able to detect that it is drive failure or consequences of my cloning. Reason i ask is because there is a restocking fee if it is not broken or due to manufacturer defect. So i need to either fix this or prove it is broken and it was not me before i can return it and get another one....

thanks

 

What options did you try with the WD diagnostic tools? Will it let you wipe the drive (zero it out)?

Do you have high-speed internet? If so, and you want to see if Linux can wipe the drive, you could download the Live Ubuntu CD. Then you could burn the Ubuntu CD, boot it and we could find out if it gives the same errors. If you want to pursue this, I can give further instructions.

Also, when you try to run any diagnostics on the drive, is it always in the USB enclosure or have you tried it by booting to a CD and having the drive installed in the computer?

It is possible that there is something actually wrong with the drive.

 

cm20dpg,

Would you mind opening up your Vista ComputerManagement program in graphical view and confirm whether the Recovery partition (D) is illustrated first (partition 1) or last (partition 2)? I am referring to your 160-gb master system disk.

 

ok so i have attached a photo of disk management. Here is the graphical view.

and also yes I have 16Mbps connection. I could dl ubuntu, but doesnt that open up a can of worms, as I have very little experience with linux. I would need some help.

 

Thank you for the posting. Did you pursue the utilities offered by WD as suggested by MudCrab? What if you run a WD test to determine whether it passes or fails?

 

It fails the WD diagnostics test. And WD data tools when booted from dos, does not even recognize the drive, to perform any maintenance on it. I'll post a pic of the wd diagnostic error.

here it is..the first pic is diskmanagement not recognizing the disk. the next three are the error codes as i try to write zeros to the disk. I get the same error message when I try to test the disk with other wd tests. Also I used a bootable dos cd rom version of wd tools, to boot into a different wd diagnotsic program. I boot into it and it still fails to zero the drive with that method.

 

In the diskmanagement photo, what happens if you open DiskManagement and Right click on disk1 in the large empty space. Do you get any options--such as to Initialize?

Have you tried switching sata cables (but use the same MB connection points)?

Have you logged into the WD site and asked for an RMA? This procedure (as I remember it) will run diagnostics and give you an error code. Then the error code will get them to authorize a return--if deemed defective.