Anna wrote...
.......... the prudent course of action in most cases is that immediately
following the cloning operation the source disk should be disconnected and
the initial boot be made with only the destination drive,
PA20Pilot said:
Hi Anna,
Maybe you're using a different version of Ghost from mine, perhaps newer
than 2003. When I clone a drive there is no opportunity to disconnect the
cloned drive before the computer reboots after making the clone, unless
you're there at the exact instant the computer reboots after completing
the cloning operation. Ghost shuts Windows down, does its cloning, then
reboots. It doesn't matter in the least if the cloned drive is in there or
not for later booting. As I wrote earlier, Windoze is only going to be
looking for a boot disk in one place at a time, if it find the first
original disk it won't go past there looking to boot again. Ghost does
have a dos way of doing things too, maybe that what you're writing anout,
I use the GUI interface right from Windoze.
Anna writes...
...........Should both internal drives be connected at the time of that
initial boot immediately following the cloning operation, there is a
decided risk that subsequently the cloned drive will NOT boot
Why do you think that? Has that been happening to you?
---==X={}=X==---
Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com
Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
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Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)
Technical Counselor
Jim:
I do use the Ghost 2003 program. For basic disk-to-disk cloning (our
virtually exclusive interest) we prefer that version to the later Symantec
ones. As you may have noted from my previous posts on this issue re the
cloning of HDs with the Ghost 2003 program, I nearly always use the Ghost
bootable floppy disk (or Ghost bootable CD) to perform the cloning
operation. I prefer its simplicity of use as well as the portability aspects
of using that media. (Truth to tell, we've been using this media for so long
now that it's become second nature for us). I virtually never use Ghost's
GUI.
After the cloning operation has concluded and the user receives the "Clone
Completed Successfully" message, it's a simple matter of pressing the
Continue > Quit buttons which will shut down the Ghost program, and at the
A:\ prompt simply removing the floppy disk or CD and powering off the
machine. So there will be no "automatic" rebooting of the machine. After
shutting down the machine we ordinarily disconnect the source disk and boot
with *only* the destination drive (the drive that was the recipient of the
clone). Which brings me to responding to your final question re my previous
comment that "Should both internal drives be connected at the time of that
initial boot immediately following the cloning operation, there is a decided
risk that subsequently the cloned drive will NOT boot."...
Let me illustrate the problem with an example...
For simplicity's sake, let's say the computer is equipped with only two
HDs - no optical drives or any other storage devices are connected. The user
clones his/her C: drive to the second HD. But following the cloning
operation, instead of disconnecting the C: drive (as we recommend) and
making that *initial* boot with *only* that second cloned drive connected,
the user boots with both drives connected. As expected, the source disk will
retain it's C: drive assignment letter and the cloned drive will be
designated D:.
Here's the problem, at least a potential problem. The user now wants to boot
directly to the newly-cloned HD. In a significant number of cases it will
not boot. It will not boot because it retains the D: drive letter assignment
because of that former initial boot with both drives connected. Had the
initial boot following the cloning operation been made with *only* the
cloned drive connected, there would be no subsequent problem. As I've
indicated, the problem does not *always* arise. Actually, in probably a
majority of cases, no problem will arise even when the source & destination
disks have been connected and booted to following the cloning process. But,
in our experience, it happens with sufficient frequency that the user should
be aware of this potential problem. BTW, we have also run into this
identical problem with other disk imaging products, e.g., Acronis True
Image.
Interestingly enough, if the booting problem with the cloned drive does
occur along the lines I've described, should the need later arise to restore
the system using the contents of that cloned drive - there's no problem. Its
contents can be re:cloned to a HD for restoration purposes and that
recipient drive *will* be bootable.
BTW, I should mention that all this is another reason why we are strong
advocates of equipping one's desktop computer with removable hard drives.
The simplicity of using that hardware configuration for making disconnects &
connects of one's HDs is most appealing in addition to its other advantages.
Virtually every desktop computer we build comes equipped with removable HDs,
and it's a configuration we highly recommend to our customers.
Anna
P.S.
Jim, since you have an interest in using Ghost 2003, you might be interested
in perusing my post of 2/17/06 in the
microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support NG under the subject "Re: Adding
a drive". In that post I detailed the steps for using a Ghost bootable
floppy disk (or CD) to undertake the cloning process. I also covered created
the bootable floppy (CD) as well.
