Casper

[inkleput]

Several here have recommended Casper to clone your hard drive.

I got the trial version and tried to clone a 40gb drive to a 320gb hard
drive. It said it couldn't find any place to put the 40. XP Pro shows
298gb of space on that (USB) drive. Maybe I'm short on math skills, but
it seems to me it ought to be able to find 40gb within that.

Is Casper legacy software? That is, does it demand to have the first
cylinder, etc., on a new drive or it falls on its face?


JimL

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Several here have recommended Casper to clone your hard drive.

I got the trial version and tried to clone a 40gb drive to a 320gb
hard drive. It said it couldn't find any place to put the 40. XP
Pro shows 298gb of space on that (USB) drive. Maybe I'm short on
math skills, but it seems to me it ought to be able to find 40gb
within that.

Is Casper legacy software? That is, does it demand to have the
first cylinder, etc., on a new drive or it falls on its face?

Since you are trying the trial - did you think to contact the manufacturer
and/or look on their web page for assistance with their product? ;-)

 

[Big_Al]

Several here have recommended Casper to clone your hard drive.

I got the trial version and tried to clone a 40gb drive to a 320gb hard
drive. It said it couldn't find any place to put the 40. XP Pro shows
298gb of space on that (USB) drive. Maybe I'm short on math skills, but
it seems to me it ought to be able to find 40gb within that.

Is Casper legacy software? That is, does it demand to have the first
cylinder, etc., on a new drive or it falls on its face?


JimL

Did you see the 320gb as a choice?
I just put one in and did the same thing the ATI and it didn't see that
drive, found out I had formatted the drive as a dynamic and not basic
drive. (I think those are the terms).

Once I change the format of the drive it was seen by the ATI and it worked.

 

[Jerry]

Did you see the 320gb as a choice?
I just put one in and did the same thing the ATI and it didn't see that
drive, found out I had formatted the drive as a dynamic and not basic
drive. (I think those are the terms).

Once I change the format of the drive it was seen by the ATI and it
worked.

I don't understand what you mean by "seen by the ATI" what's an ATI?
Cloning software should do just what the name implies, make an exact copy or
clone or the original and that would include it's format. I use Ghost 2003
and I can install a brand new drive with zero partitions and when I choose
disk copy, it clones the original to the new one no matter what's on the new
one.
I would also wonder what good cloning to an external drive would do.
Wouldn't you have to install that drive internally in order to use it in the
pc? I don't think many, if any systems can boot from a USB disk that was
cloned.

 

[Big_Al]

I don't understand what you mean by "seen by the ATI" what's an ATI?

ATI is short for Acronis True Image. Sorry.

Cloning software should do just what the name implies, make an exact copy or
clone or the original and that would include it's format. I use Ghost 2003
and I can install a brand new drive with zero partitions and when I choose
disk copy, it clones the original to the new one no matter what's on the new
one.

When you run the program, I assume any clone software, you have to pick
a destination drive to clone to. 'Do you see that new drive of
yours?'. Formatted or not it should show up. But then maybe casper
needs it formatted?

I would also wonder what good cloning to an external drive would do.
Wouldn't you have to install that drive internally in order to use it in the
pc? I don't think many, if any systems can boot from a USB disk that was
cloned.

With ATI when you clone to an external drive, the operation must make
some initial boot it loads on the new drive. So when you then pull the
C: drive out, and stick the external drive internal as drive c:
(remember is was D: during cloning) the first boot seems to change the
drive letter and make it C: drive then boot as normal. Or that's my
layman's presentation. End result, the new drive boots with your
old software and hardware and programs.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Several here have recommended Casper to clone your hard drive.

I got the trial version and tried to clone a 40gb drive to a 320gb hard
drive. It said it couldn't find any place to put the 40. XP Pro shows
298gb of space on that (USB) drive. Maybe I'm short on math skills, but
it seems to me it ought to be able to find 40gb within that.

Is Casper legacy software? That is, does it demand to have the first
cylinder, etc., on a new drive or it falls on its face?


JimL

The trial version may not be capable of doing what you ask..

Contact Casper..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

 

[inkleput]

Since you are trying the trial - did you think to contact the
manufacturer and/or look on their web page for assistance with their
product? ;-)

After sending them a multi-page report that Casper generates, they told me
very clearly that I was making it too difficult and all I had to do was
follow the instructions.

(Insert infuriated remarks here.)

Well, I clicked on "Copy an Entire Hard Disk" whereupon it said it
couldn't find a useable hard disk to clone to.

Where is the complication?

JimL

 

[inkleput]

Big_Al <[email protected]> said:

Did you see the 320gb as a choice?
I just put one in and did the same thing the ATI and it didn't see that
drive, found out I had formatted the drive as a dynamic and not basic
drive. (I think those are the terms).

Once I change the format of the drive it was seen by the ATI and it
worked.

This is why I'm trying to find out if the drive must be pristine or what.
Frankly if I have to be a drive expert to use Casper I don't want it.


JimL

 

[inkleput]

Did you see the 320gb as a choice?

It was on the generated report but I didn't see it when I got the error
(several times).

JimL

 

[inkleput]

Big_Al <[email protected]> said:

ATI is short for Acronis True Image. Sorry.
When you run the program, I assume any clone software, you have to pick
a destination drive to clone to. 'Do you see that new drive of
yours?'. Formatted or not it should show up. But then maybe casper
needs it formatted?
With ATI when you clone to an external drive, the operation must make
some initial boot it loads on the new drive.

Which is why I'm asking if it demands having the first cylinder. (I've
used other operating systems that can boot from anywhere.)

JimL

 

[inkleput]

"Mike Hall - MVP" <mikehall@remove_mvps.com> said:

The trial version may not be capable of doing what you ask..

Contact Casper..

I came here because Casper was unhelpful.

JimL

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I came here because Casper was unhelpful.

To be completely honest - if they are unhelpful during the trial - things
are not likely to get better after purchase and that would make my decision
for me if I were in your shoes.

 

[inkleput]

To be completely honest - if they are unhelpful during the trial - things
are not likely to get better after purchase and that would make my
decision for me if I were in your shoes.

I'm not at all inclined to disagree with that. But I thought I'd check
here where some people seemed to like it.


JimL

 

[inkleput]

To be completely honest - if they are unhelpful during the trial

You know, I haven't found a business in a year or two in which people
cared about anything but picking form letters off a list on a computer
screen. A lot of them are sending autoresponder replies and deny it.
It's easy to tell when the form letter is on a completely different
subject than what you asked about. Sometimes when I run into one of those
I email them with a totally unrelated keyword alone at the top of a page.
A sure way to get a few pages of blather!

JimL

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

"Mike Hall - MVP" <mikehall@remove_mvps.com> said:





I came here because Casper was unhelpful.

JimL

Many trial versions only show what can be done, and will not actually
complete tasks.

As Shenan has so wisely pointed out, Casper's response to you is a marker of
their mettle..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

 

[inkleput]

Many trial versions only show what can be done, and will not actually
complete tasks.

This one is supposed to be functional but limited in one feature.

I suspect my first question in this thread is on the mark; you have to set
up the target drive in a certain way. Altho I couldn't find any such
instructions.

As Shenan has so wisely pointed out, Casper's response to you is a marker of
their mettle..

More recently, their refusing to even answer my last email seems equally
telling. Glad I went for the trial version instead of just buying it.

JimL

 

[Daave]

Several here have recommended Casper to clone your hard drive.

I got the trial version and tried to clone a 40gb drive to a 320gb
hard drive. It said it couldn't find any place to put the 40. XP
Pro shows 298gb of space on that (USB) drive. Maybe I'm short on
math skills, but it seems to me it ought to be able to find 40gb
within that.

Is this 320GB drive essentially an internal one that is temporarily in
an external case that you eventually plan on placing inside your PC?

If not, I wouldn't bother with a cloning-only program. Instead use
something like Acronis True Image to *image* (not clone) your hard
drive. And if there is ever a reason to clone, ATI does that, too.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Several here have recommended Casper to clone your hard drive.

I got the trial version and tried to clone a 40gb drive to a 320gb hard
drive. It said it couldn't find any place to put the 40. XP Pro shows
298gb of space on that (USB) drive. Maybe I'm short on math skills, but
it seems to me it ought to be able to find 40gb within that.

I know nothing about Casper and how it works, so this is just a guess.

Are you writing to a FAT32 drive? If so, and Casper is somehow
treating the clone as a single file, be aware that FAT32 has a limit
of 4GB for a single file. Perhaps you are running into that limit.

 

[inkleput]

"Daave" <[email protected]> said:

Is this 320GB drive essentially an internal one that is temporarily in
an external case that you eventually plan on placing inside your PC?

Right now I'd prefer to copy a system back than swap drives.

If not, I wouldn't bother with a cloning-only program. Instead use
something like Acronis True Image to *image* (not clone) your hard
drive. And if there is ever a reason to clone, ATI does that, too.

Whoa. W-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-Y too complicated for me. I bought it and fought
with it for a couple years and never could restore a single thing from it.
You couldn't even get rid of old, outdated files without deleting the
entire image system and starting over. You have to know a lot about drive
systems to even run it.

I had a setup under OS/2 with which I could just click off a clone - in
either direction - using a CD they sent me. All this fritzing and
fiddling never was of interest to me and now it is beyond me.


JimL

 

[inkleput]

I know nothing about Casper and how it works, so this is just a guess.

Are you writing to a FAT32 drive? If so, and Casper is somehow treating
the clone as a single file, be aware that FAT32 has a limit of 4GB for a
single file. Perhaps you are running into that limit.

That may be it. But I cut the FAT32 partition in half and formatted the
other half NTFS (exactly the kind of tomfoolery I was hoping Casper would
circumvent for me). It still says there is No Suitable Drive available.
Which leads me to believe it does require the up front end of the drive of
ancient lore to be able to function.

In my opinion, in this day and age, a cloning program should be able to:

1. Check all drives for space.

2. Identify spaces of sufficient size.

3. Ask which one you want to use.

4. Do the necessary work to set up the necessary configuration on the
target area.

5. Make the clone in a way so that you can, if you want, get one or all
files from it.


I once used BAT files and copy commands to do pretty much this, but the
cloning was easier and faster. I don't even know if BAT files are still
in existence and couldn't write what I needed if they were.

In summary, I think ease of use is F-A-R more valuable than the hot-new so
many developers throw at you by the truckload.


JimL