MBR destroyed while attempting to clone HDD to USB HDD on laptop

Hi all,

Seems like a few other people have had the same sort of issue that I have had but I still cant seem to fix the problem.


I used Acronis TI 11 to clone my old 40GB notebook drive that had 3 factory partitions (one for media direct, one being a restore partition, and lastly the main partition with windows on it).


I got a new 320GB notebook HDD and it was hooked up via USB and windows XP rebooted and proceeded to clone the disk using the auto feature, it showed all three partitions being equally expanded which was not ideal but made sense. The clonedisk finished, I rebooted, then turned it off and proceeded to swap drives ONLY running the new 320GB drive. It reboot and then I got a windows bluescreen of death and that was that.

I took the drive to another computer and all that was there was a ~40GB partition. There is no "unallocated" space or anything -- just says that the 320GB drive is 40GB.


Me being an idiot, I tried another 160GB drive and the exact same thing happened. I am now stuck with two dead drives -- how do I bring them back to life?


My bigger thought is, what is the point of putting in a clone feature that kills hard drives?

 

irev210,

Fortunately it can be fixed. Completely. It's not the fault of TI. All imaging apps do this with Dell laptops that have MediaDirect 1 and 2.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=167401

Give me a little time to decide on the best way to fix it.

 

irev210,

I think you should clone again, zero LBA-3 and unhide the HPA.

Use the 320 GB HD. Put it in your USB enclosure, boot to your old HD and from Disk Management delete any partitions on the external HD. You should see 40 GB of unallocated space. Now do a reverse clone by installing the 320 GB in your laptop and put the 40 GB HD in the USB enclosure. Boot to the Acronis TI CD and perform the clone. Disconnect the external HD before the first boot to the 320 GB HD. Let us know when the 320 GB HD has booted to Windows. It will still show as 40 GB.

What brand is the 320 GB HD?

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/hpa-issues.htm

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/mediadirect.htm

 

MBR cannot be destroyed your hard drives are still good. Just repartitioned the hard drives. This time partition the hard drive yourself, do not let acronis do it for you. Next backup each partition on your laptop seperately. Do not backup the MBR of the source hard drive, that is where the problem is.

The system partition that you backup will be automatically bootable (even if you don't copy the MBR)when restored on the new hard drive. I do it all the time and it has worked everytime.

The MBR is unique to each harddrive, it lists the drives size and partition layout. If you copy it to another drive, that drive will show the same info as the old drive.

When you partition the new drive, that will automatically create a new MBR that will list that drives correct size, partition layout. All you need to do is fill the partition with the backup partition you made.

The only problem you might have with windows xp, is drive letter change problems. That happens if the source windows xp has seen the new hard drives before and ID'ed them. If the new hard drive boots up to the logon screen then hangs/reboots that means youi have a drive letter change problem.

Stay away from doing a clone and you will be ok.

 

This is the Dell MediaDirect problem as Brian K has stated.

Let him take the lead on fixing this problem.

 

irev210,

It's strange that we haven't heard from you again.

 

So what is the "best", "preferred" method for reloading a new HDD in a Dell Media Direct computer? I'm looking for a straightforward, step-by-step process, as I think I may encounter this more often, going forward.

Thanks!

 

QuiGonJohn,

This is described in one of GroverH's guides.

Here https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=203480

 

Sorry, I got frustrated and gave away the hard drives.

Two seagate HDD's were destroyed. A 100GB 5400 and a 160GB 7200.


Stupid dell.

 

irev210,

Thanks for replying. At least Dell don't use HPAs anymore.

I wish you had given those HDs to me. They are fixable. Not destroyed.