Foiled Again? XP Not Quite Recovered

[Watty]

Here's the short tale of my story.
a. C-drive fails
b. All contents of the c-drive are captured onto an external drive
c. XP is installed on a new drive.
d. unstoppable copier puts contents of external on new drive. Program
Files folders and all else are replaced with the 'old' folders
e. Put new c-drive into machine and boot up

Supposedly the new drive should be identical to the original. True or false?

In my case, it wasn't, but the desktop looked good. However, few if any
apps from there would fire up. One large non-MS app fires up. Icons are
missing from the tray. Folder contents seem to be in order. All Start
items are available.

 

[Andrew E.]

Well if C: drive failed,then that would automatically require a new XP
installation,probably on new hd & all other non-essential hardware discon-
nected..How the printer moved OS files around is a mystery,unless its
connected during the xp installation...Also,boot to xp cd to install OS.

 

[Daave]

Here's the short tale of my story.
a. C-drive fails
b. All contents of the c-drive are captured onto an external drive
c. XP is installed on a new drive.
d. unstoppable copier puts contents of external on new drive. Program
Files folders and all else are replaced with the 'old' folders
e. Put new c-drive into machine and boot up

Supposedly the new drive should be identical to the original. True or
false?

In my case, it wasn't, but the desktop looked good. However, few if
any apps from there would fire up. One large non-MS app fires up.
Icons are missing from the tray. Folder contents seem to be in order.
All Start items are available.

Had you imaged the old hard drive and then restored the image to the new
hard drive, then it would have been identical. But it sounds like you
merely copied data, and this doesn't work (generally) for programs. You
will need to reinstall the programs.

Do yourself a favor and in the future be sure to regularly use a program
like Acronis True Image. Then you'll never have to worry about losing
your customized system ever again.

 

[Watty]

Had you imaged the old hard drive and then restored the image to the new
hard drive, then it would have been identical. But it sounds like you
merely copied data, and this doesn't work (generally) for programs. You
will need to reinstall the programs.

Do yourself a favor and in the future be sure to regularly use a program
like Acronis True Image. Then you'll never have to worry about losing
your customized system ever again.

I think unstoppable is an image copy. That's what it looked like to me
as it showed copy activity.

If it's not, then where do I get Acronis or a free package?

Apparently then, I did the right thing in expected the master boot
sector to be created, so the old XP would be used.

 

[Watty]

Well if C: drive failed,then that would automatically require a new XP
installation,probably on new hd & all other non-essential hardware discon-
nected..How the printer moved OS files around is a mystery,unless its
connected during the xp installation...Also,boot to xp cd to install OS.

Printer?

In principle then,what I did should have worked. I think the software is
an image copier. The trick in all this was to create a boot sector, so I
am told.

 

[Mick Murphy]

Unstoppable copier is for Data recovery from bad files!
Google it!

http://www.acronis.com.au/

Acronis True Image; you buy it.

 

[Watty]

Unstoppable copier is for Data recovery from bad files!
Google it!

http://www.acronis.com.au/

Acronis True Image; you buy it.

But is it an image copy, and not simply a transfer?

 

[Paul]

But is it an image copy, and not simply a transfer?

You have forgotten one other useful resource. When you
buy the new hard drive, you can go to the manufacturer's
web site, and download their tools.

Say you bought a Seagate drive.

Discwizard manual. The logo on the first page of the manual
says "powered by Acronis"

http://www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf

Discwizard program download.
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

I think I see a "clone disk" option in the manual. If
the program was installed on a second computer, and the
old and new drives were connected to that second computer,
then you should be able to clone one drive to the other.
(There are undoubtedly other options, if you're a rocket
scientist.)

If you want to perform some repairs to a disk, you can
try this program. Since this is an "in-place" repair, you'd
want to try your best to copy the disk, before running this.
Because there is always a chance, a program like this can
mess up a disk worse than it already is. I really prefer to
work on a copy of a busted thing, because if the repair
goes wrong, I can try again. I learned this many years ago,
when a repair utility ruined a disk for me. Now, the
first thing I try to do, is copy if possible. So even
in that case, a tool like the above could be used to make
that essential copy.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

Paul

 

[Watty]

You have forgotten one other useful resource. When you
buy the new hard drive, you can go to the manufacturer's
web site, and download their tools.

Say you bought a Seagate drive.

Discwizard manual. The logo on the first page of the manual
says "powered by Acronis"

http://www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf

Discwizard program download.
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD


I think I see a "clone disk" option in the manual. If
the program was installed on a second computer, and the
old and new drives were connected to that second computer,
then you should be able to clone one drive to the other.
(There are undoubtedly other options, if you're a rocket
scientist.)

If you want to perform some repairs to a disk, you can
try this program. Since this is an "in-place" repair, you'd
want to try your best to copy the disk, before running this.
Because there is always a chance, a program like this can
mess up a disk worse than it already is. I really prefer to
work on a copy of a busted thing, because if the repair
goes wrong, I can try again. I learned this many years ago,
when a repair utility ruined a disk for me. Now, the
first thing I try to do, is copy if possible. So even
in that case, a tool like the above could be used to make
that essential copy.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

Paul

Thanks for the tips. I'll contact WD. I have a 30 day period to get help.

 

[Watty]

I just noticed something interesting about this re-build from the
restored disk contents. On the Start menu, I see a title that I used in
the install to the new drive. If my unstoppable copier was an image
copy, I would think it would be the old title. ?? Maybe I do need a
different copier program.

 

[Jim]

I just noticed something interesting about this re-build from the restored
disk contents. On the Start menu, I see a title that I used in the install
to the new drive. If my unstoppable copier was an image copy, I would think
it would be the old title. ?? Maybe I do need a different copier program.

What you need is a good backup program like Acronis True Image.

I had a similar experience with my laptop early last spring. The one and
only hard drive died.

So, I bought a new one. As it happens, I have a backup to a DVD of the
contents of said hard drive. I also have another computer handy.
I installed the new drive in a USB enclosure and connected the drive to my
other computer.
I got the latest monthly backup DVDs out and created a backup file on a disk
in the other computer.
I then restored the backup to the new laptop disk.
Finally, I installed the new disk into the laptop.

In a couple of hours or so, I had my laptop up and running.
Jim

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Here's the short tale of my story.
a. C-drive fails
b. All contents of the c-drive are captured onto an external drive

If the drive actually failed, how were you able to do this?

c. XP is installed on a new drive.
d. unstoppable copier puts contents of external on new drive. Program
Files folders and all else are replaced with the 'old' folders
e. Put new c-drive into machine and boot up

Supposedly the new drive should be identical to the original. True or false?

Since you've said nothing about what software you used to do the
captures/copies, I can't answer that question. But I'll mention that
if you tried to do it with built-in Windows functions, it will never
work properly. Third-party software is required for such functions.

In my case, it wasn't, but the desktop looked good. However, few if any
apps from there would fire up. One large non-MS app fires up. Icons are
missing from the tray. Folder contents seem to be in order. All Start
items are available.

Moreover, did you install XP from scratch, them copy your applications
from the backup external drive? If so, that never works for the great
majority of applications. That's because there are pieces of those
applications within the Windows folder (in the registry and elsewhere)
that you lose entirely when you do this.

 

[Daave]

If the drive actually failed, how were you able to do this?

That's a good question. Does OP mean that the hard drive is shot? (Or on
its way out?) Or does OP mean that although the drive is healthy, the
Windows installation isn't working? What makes this more difficult is OP
is not sticking to the original thread. It looks like he has started six
(!) threads within the last 24 hours. Hard to keep track of all that!

Since you've said nothing about what software you used to do the
captures/copies, I can't answer that question.

Yes, he did. He said that he used some program called "unstoppable
copier."

 

[Paul]

I just noticed something interesting about this re-build from the
restored disk contents. On the Start menu, I see a title that I used in
the install to the new drive. If my unstoppable copier was an image
copy, I would think it would be the old title. ?? Maybe I do need a
different copier program.

If your new drive is a Western Digital, you can download
their tools for copying a disk.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=613&sid=1&lang=en

"The downloadable Data Lifeguard Tools now comes in both DOS and
Windows versions and was written specifically for the installation
of Western Digital EIDE hard drives. If your computer system already
has a hard drive installed with an operating system of Windows 98SE
or greater, you should use the Windows version of Data Lifeguard for
best results. The DOS version is required if installing a hard drive
in a new system without existing operating system support. If you
plan on copying the contents of a boot drive, Western Digital
recommends using the DOS version of Data Lifeguard Tools."

When you go to their download link, they list tools according to what
drive you bought. So that page is just an example.

Paul