True Image or Migrate Easy?

HI,

I need to migrate my failing (bad read sectors) IDE hard drive to a new, bigger, SATA hard drive. I cannot boot into Windows because of the sector errors and need/want to basically "clone" the contents to the new drive?

Should I get Migrate Easy or True Image? Pros/Cons? Thanks.

- Matt

 

100% of Migrate Easy is included in True Image, so True Image is the way to go unless you have absolutely no need for the backup capabilities of True Image.

 

If it was mine, neither. I would setup the new drive from the XP distribution and reload the apps etc. I would then install the bad IDE drive and attempt to get whatever data off it I could. I don't see why it is a good idea to clone garbage to a new drive, although you may have your reasons. TI and MigrateEasy both assume your hardware is in good shape - they are not intended as data recovery tools.

After you get the new drive operational then start using True Image to make backups of the partitions or files and folders.

 

Hmmm, that's certainly a consideration. Actually, I don't mind reinstalling Windows and the apps, but I dread the thought of doing it "blind", if you will... my memory is terrible and I can never remember personal settings/favorites/shortcuts, etc... Normaly when I do a reinstall, it is on a new drive/computer and I use the old one as a guide to remember what settings and such I used.

On top of this, I don't really have the time right now to go through the process... I kind of need it like it was.

I understand that TI is not a data recovery tool, per se, but from what I've been reading here, it works very well as one. Also, I am afraid that the drive will get worse, so my immediate concern is getting the data off there pronto... and TI appears to handle bad read sectors well. So my first priority is to get a full (albeit not super-clean) backup of the drive and then decide from there.

If I end up restoring the entire image to a new drive, what are the potential problems with the original backup having bad sectors (I'm assuming a bit-by-bit backup...)?

Thanks for the comments.

- Matt

 

OK, you are aware that a restore of a faulty image may not work but would like to save time if possible. It makes sense to give it a try and see how it works. It won't take much effort, and if it fails, you just have to do the clean install.

As far as what might go wrong, well, the restored image won't boot if the original won't boot. What you need to correct this is a standard Windows XP installation CD and what you need to do is an "upgrade in place." This reinstalls Windows over the existing installation. That will replace the missing or damaged files and make the system bootable.

Here's a link to the Microsoft instructions:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341

After the upgrade in place, you will have to reapply all the Windows updates because those get uninstalled in the process.

If this works, it will take you X minutes to make the backup and Y minutes to restore it to the new drive. The upgrade in place probably will take 45 minutes and the Windows updates another 30 minutes. So, X + Y + 75 minutes and you are back to where you are now with all your programs and settings.

Or else, it runs like crap, and you format the new drive and do a clean install.

Good Luck! I'll bet that it works.

 

Thanks, John. Actually, I'll probably end up doing the clean install anyway... but I need to get back to my old setup first.

As far as the backup and restore... with TI will it recognize the bad sectors as such and replace/repair them on the backup image or will it simply copy it bit-for-bit, including the bad sector information? If it's the latter, will restoring it to the new drive correct this? I seem to remember reading here that if I restore and make the target partition bigger than the original, then it will fix that problem... is that relevant to what I'm doing here? On the other hand, if the restored image includes all the bad sector data, is there a utility to re-check the sectors (I'm thinking something like chkdsk or scandk... I can't remember the utility in DOS)?

I have purchased TI (with Disk Director and Drive Cleanser in a package deal), so I will give it a try. I'll update this thread with my results.

Thanks again!
- Matt

 

Hmm..

I used the boot CD of TI to make a whole drive image of the failing drive to a new drive. Everything went as planned and I started the process and went to bed.

This morning, the program is still running and the status bars haven't moved (actually, they are both white... 0%). I tried to cancel the process and a dialog box appeared asking me if I was sure... I clicked "Yes", but it didn't stop it. I can click Cancel again and get the confirmation dialog box again, but it won't quit.

The hard drive light is on, so I'm afraid to hard boot. Any suggestions?

 

The cancel finally worked (I guess I'm impatient). Anyway, I have now started a "clone", but 1 hour in and no status bar change has me worried.

Any clues out there?

 

Unfortunately, you are using TI for the first time when you have a serious problem. Ideally, you would have confirmed with good hardware that the product works as intended for both a create and a restore.

Another problem is that when using the CD you are running in a Linux environment and this can be problematic on some machines. So it is possible that there is a problem with the Linux environment on your PC. Is it possible to select "Safe mode" when booting the CD? This is not the Windows Safe Mode but will use a DOS-based TI recovery environment. It usually is a poor choice because it is much slower and on many systems does not provide USB or Firewire support.

My other best guess is that the HD is suffiently screwed up that TI can't make sense of it and thus it is screwed up. If the HD light is on and nothing is happening it normally is a bad sign.

I would consider putting the new HD and getting a base XP system running and putting your bad HD in and seeing if Windows can recover anything for you in terms of data files that you have nowhere else. Since your HD is in poor shape if there is anything on it you must have, I would attempt to get it sooner than later before all is lost.

 

Yes... you are confirming what the little voice in my head has been telling me but I have been shutting out.

I will try the "safe mode" once and then reinstall the OS.

 

Good luck!

Once you get your base XP system loaded (and you have your files off the old disk etc), make sure the first application you load is True Image.

Make an image of your base system, validate it and restore it to ensure it works. Use the bootable rescue CD for the restore since this is what you need to run if you have a problem.

The reason I am mentioning this is so you can confirm the proper operation of TI on your system before you spend a lot of time setting it up with configurations and apps only to find out when you do a test restore it blows up. This way you won't lose too much if that should happen. I am assuming you won't recover your old system.

Many TI users use a spare HD to do test restores with new versions of TI, this is an even better method if you have one.

I am not trying to say that it is likely to go bad on you but better to find out without too much invested.

 

Thanks, that's a good idea and I have an extra HD to test it.

The latest for me was after several hours of no progress on the clone (at least no progress bar), I decided to cancel and clicked the Cancel button. When I did, I got a dialog box that said the clone was sucessful! Not sure I trust that... I had some apointments today, so I haven't had a chance to try it out, but I'll do it tomorrow and let you know how it turned out.

 

Not having SATA drivers on the IDE HD may present a problem with the clone.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=294

 

Hello msb,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Please note that as Ozmaniac mentioned Acronis True Image includes the functionality of Acronis Migrate Easy. In addition, Acronis True Image allows you to create a special archive file for backup and disaster recovery purposes.

Moreover, there are several advantages of creating an image over the disk cloning procedure such as: you can create an image without rebooting your PC, image creation can be scheduled for the particular point in time, Acronis True Image allows you to create incremental and differential images, image archive contains only the actual data and so it has a smaller size, images are ordinary files and so they can be stored on any type of the supported media, etc. However, the final choice is always up to your needs.

Generally, it is not recommended to perform any operations with the hard drives having bad sectors as it may result in a complete data loss. However, for those people who want to back up and afterwards restore such hard drives anyway, we can suggest a workaround: in order to avoid restoring sectors marked as bad you should simply change the size of partitions during the image restoration. I would recommend that you take a look at this previous post of mine about backing up disk/partition that contains bad sectors.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov