Hard Drive cloning with XCOPY

[William B. Lurie]

Vanguard, I followed your instructions and made copy
of just about same size as Master. But it fails to
boot because (it says) the clone is missing file
\windows\system32\config\system. On searching, the
clone's \windows\system32\config is missing a lot
more than just the \system file. I've tried copying
that subdirectory or just the \system file, from C:,
every way I can (except XCOPY).....and I always get
an error message saying "file is in use" etcetera.
I even tried copying it to a CD......same failure.
Your next advice???

Bill Lurie

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

How do I clone/backup a hard disk under Windows?
http://navasgrp.home.att.net/tech/clone_copy.htm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Vanguard, I followed your instructions and made copy
| of just about same size as Master. But it fails to
| boot because (it says) the clone is missing file
| \windows\system32\config\system. On searching, the
| clone's \windows\system32\config is missing a lot
| more than just the \system file. I've tried copying
| that subdirectory or just the \system file, from C:,
| every way I can (except XCOPY).....and I always get
| an error message saying "file is in use" etcetera.
| I even tried copying it to a CD......same failure.
| Your next advice???
|
| Bill Lurie

 

[Richard Urban]

You do not, and can not, copy an operating system partition or drive with a
standard copy applet.

Get a real imaging program and do it correctly!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[William B. Lurie]

You do not, and can not, copy an operating system partition or drive with a
standard copy applet.

Get a real imaging program and do it correctly!

Thank you, Richard. I tried XCOPY on advice received
here, after trying more than one 'imaging program'...
in all cases, I got wonderful copies......and not one of
them could be made to boot up. (Partition Magic......
PowerQuest Drive Image 7.0.......both in Drive Image and
Disk Copy mode.........). I've tried Recovery Console....
FIXMBR......FIXBOOT......

 

[Guest]

Richard is dead wrong,you can copy xp in its entiretee.
If a file or folder is missing,boot to xp cd,install xp,select,repair
this copy of xp.Also,in the DOS window did you get prompts from
time to time,if no,youre spaceing of the XCOPY text was off.

 

[William B. Lurie]

In the DOS window, I typed XCOPY and followed it, on the command
line, with EXACTLY all of the options which Vanguard told me
to use, spacings, slashes, caps etcetera, exact. It then FLEW,
and in maybe 20-30 minutes it was finished, with no halts
or prompts that I recall.

 

[Richard Urban]

Xcopy "will not" copy any open or active files. There are hundreds of these
when the computer is up and running. And, if you try to do it from a DOS
boot disk, you will not be able to access an NTFS partition to copy it.
Plus, there is no compression!

Have you ever tried to restore a crashed system by using Xcopy. It can't be
done!

So, how am I wrong?

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[William B. Lurie]

Andrew, I just tried your latest advice....booted to XP CD..
got choices which did *not* include 'install'. One choice was
RC (doesn't fix it), one choice is exit, and last choice was
"Setup XP now"....which I tried. It led me to a long story about
Nt and 2000 and 98 ... pointedly didn't mention XP.....but never
to a question like "repair this copy of XP".

 

[Richard]

Vanguard, I followed your instructions and made copy
of just about same size as Master. But it fails to
boot because (it says) the clone is missing file
\windows\system32\config\system. On searching, the
clone's \windows\system32\config is missing a lot
more than just the \system file. I've tried copying
that subdirectory or just the \system file, from C:,
every way I can (except XCOPY).....and I always get
an error message saying "file is in use" etcetera.
I even tried copying it to a CD......same failure.
Your next advice???

Bill Lurie

Bill I am surprised that you cannot get Drive Image 7 to make backups of you
system.

At any one time I have four daily images of my system on a separate mounted
hard drive and two more on a weekly basis on an external USB drive. These
images as you know are created in the windows environment and may be
scheduled to run in the background.

Should I have need to restore the system either to it's original location or
to a new " Bare metal" drive the whole procedure takes about 20 minutes. I
have tested the recovery in both modes and have had no problems.

Assuming you are following the DI instructions I can only guess that there
is something wrong with your installation. You do need to have .NET
installed. The only other possible step that you may have missed when
entering the recovery environment is to hit a key when asked if you wish to
continue. The message only stays on screen for a few seconds and if one does
not respond the PQRE process closes and the computer continues to boot into
Windows.

Good luck Richard H.

 

[William B. Lurie]

Xcopy "will not" copy any open or active files. There are hundreds of these
when the computer is up and running. And, if you try to do it from a DOS
boot disk, you will not be able to access an NTFS partition to copy it.
Plus, there is no compression!

Have you ever tried to restore a crashed system by using Xcopy. It can't be
done!

So, how am I wrong?

Dear Crusty: I'll match you age for age and crust
for crust. But I think I'm legitimate.
What you say makes sense, and what Andrew says,
and what Vanguard says......but I have to sit aside
and just try all that you tell me, and report the
news. I can't judge who's right or wrong, but I can
judge what does and doesn't work.

 

[William B. Lurie]

Bill I am surprised that you cannot get Drive Image 7 to make backups of you
system.

At any one time I have four daily images of my system on a separate mounted
hard drive and two more on a weekly basis on an external USB drive. These
images as you know are created in the windows environment and may be
scheduled to run in the background.

Should I have need to restore the system either to it's original location or
to a new " Bare metal" drive the whole procedure takes about 20 minutes. I
have tested the recovery in both modes and have had no problems.

Assuming you are following the DI instructions I can only guess that there
is something wrong with your installation. You do need to have .NET
installed. The only other possible step that you may have missed when
entering the recovery environment is to hit a key when asked if you wish to
continue. The message only stays on screen for a few seconds and if one does
not respond the PQRE process closes and the computer continues to boot into
Windows.

Good luck Richard H.

Richard, I have the feeling that my system is complicated by
certain circumstances which it may not be possible to work
around. My Master always boots up with a choice to be made,
between Recovery Console and XP. I always choose XP, because
I am afraid to entrust my one and only pristine system to
anything different.

So everything I try, I try on one or another clone, either a
Drive Image copied system, or a Partition Magic copied
Partition, or an XCOPY copied system. I will not do anything
to 'repair' my Master until I have a clone of it that will
boot, and that hasn't happened yet. When it does, I'll be
willing to repair my Master the same way. But now it's still
CATCH-22...

But I fear that the presence of RC, and the MBR and what makes
it offer the RC alternate, is preventing any of the copying
systems from making a clone that will work.

I would have no objection to formatting a new drive, and installing
XP on it, from scratch, but then I'm back in the same boat....it
would be impossible for me to get what is now on the Master, over
to the "new" system. Essentially, that's what none of the above
methods has succeeded in achieving.

 

[Richard Urban]

William,

I have been using Drive Image, every single version, since ver 1.0 was
released. I have never had a problem. Either you have a bad install or you
are doing something (or not) that you should, or should not, be doing.

Feel free to e-mail me (after removing the obvious from my posted address).
I will see what I can do to assist you.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[David Candy]

Recovery console affects nothing. If you don't select it it has NO EFFECT on a computer. It is defined wholely and solely in the boot.ini. Like a MSDos boot it has a special Partition Boot Record in a FILE. NTLDR loads, reads boot.ini and (if the user chooses RC or a Dos boot) realises it's not required, loads the alternative PBR FROM A FILE and transfers control to it. Don't select it on the menu and it does nothing. Nor does it change or have any effect on disk structures. Read your boot.ini.

 

[Richard]

Richard, I have the feeling that my system is complicated by
certain circumstances which it may not be possible to work
around. My Master always boots up with a choice to be made,
between Recovery Console and XP. I always choose XP, because
I am afraid to entrust my one and only pristine system to
anything different.

So everything I try, I try on one or another clone, either a
Drive Image copied system, or a Partition Magic copied
Partition, or an XCOPY copied system. I will not do anything
to 'repair' my Master until I have a clone of it that will
boot, and that hasn't happened yet. When it does, I'll be
willing to repair my Master the same way. But now it's still
CATCH-22...

But I fear that the presence of RC, and the MBR and what makes
it offer the RC alternate, is preventing any of the copying
systems from making a clone that will work.

I would have no objection to formatting a new drive, and installing
XP on it, from scratch, but then I'm back in the same boat....it
would be impossible for me to get what is now on the Master, over
to the "new" system. Essentially, that's what none of the above
methods has succeeded in achieving.

 

[Richard]

Apologies for the extra post. I hit the send button by mistake when I was
going through Bill's reply.

Bill, in all your comments you refer to cloning and copying and making exact
bootable copies and all the ways you have tried have, apart from one
exception which I vaguely remember, ended in failure. Why will you not put
the past behind and use Drive IMAGE in the way that it was designed to
perform. Make images and restore when necessary, as bootable " clones". It
works day in day out for myself and many thousands of others.

to sum up, in a no insult intended manner, RTFM.

Richard.

 

[William B. Lurie]

Recovery console affects nothing. If you don't select it it has NO EFFECT on a computer. It is defined wholely and solely in the boot.ini. Like a MSDos boot it has a special Partition Boot Record in a FILE. NTLDR loads, reads boot.ini and (if the user chooses RC or a Dos boot) realises it's not required, loads the alternative PBR FROM A FILE and transfers control to it. Don't select it on the menu and it does nothing. Nor does it change or have

any effect on disk structures. Read your boot.ini.Thank you, David. The line ending cmdcons in boot.ini
doesn't exist on my cloned drive. My Master might still
work okay if I removed that line from its boot.ini but
I do not dare make that drastic a change until I have
another one that works. And everybody tells me that the
clone should work, but it is missing files that should
have copied. And then there's the helpful fellow who
says that XCOPY won't copy them. So I work only with
the clone, and booting to it says that the \config\system
file is missing, and nobody has shown me a way to copy
them back in. They're on the Master....but they don't get
to the Slave. I even tried XCOPY to copy it directly and
it refuses because they are "in use". Maybe there's a way
to boot to something like DOS that doesn't load Windows,
so that file won't be in use......

I have several nice people trying to help, but so far....
it's an enigma wrapped in a mystery.

 

[William B. Lurie]

Apologies for the extra post. I hit the send button by mistake when I was
going through Bill's reply.

Bill, in all your comments you refer to cloning and copying and making exact
bootable copies and all the ways you have tried have, apart from one
exception which I vaguely remember, ended in failure. Why will you not put
the past behind and use Drive IMAGE in the way that it was designed to
perform. Make images and restore when necessary, as bootable " clones". It
works day in day out for myself and many thousands of others.

to sum up, in a no insult intended manner, RTFM.

Richard.

It didn't work when I tried it that way, both in Copy and Drive Image mode.
I will, however, talk to you aside and try it again, maybe
this evening.

 

[David Candy]

The recovery console.

It has no effect unless you choose it. None, none, NONE.

It's only an enigma because you keep doing things stupidly. The RECOVERY CONSOLE is irrelevent, IRRELEVENT.There, not there, it won't make a bit of difference.

You are only making problems for yourself. Either fix your problem (get the install time System and copy it over the other one using the recovery console).

Or just reinstall windows. Hpow long before your lazyness exceeds the work.

 

[*Vanguard*]

William B. Lurie said in news:[email protected]:

Vanguard, I followed your instructions and made copy
of just about same size as Master. But it fails to
boot because (it says) the clone is missing file
\windows\system32\config\system. On searching, the
clone's \windows\system32\config is missing a lot
more than just the \system file. I've tried copying
that subdirectory or just the \system file, from C:,
every way I can (except XCOPY).....and I always get
an error message saying "file is in use" etcetera.
I even tried copying it to a CD......same failure.
Your next advice???

Bill Lurie

Could you reference the other thread (since you disconnected from it with this post) where I said to use XCOPY? A search in OE didn't show me saying to use XCOPY but then I don't keep messages over 10 days old yet I did a search in Google Groups and didn't find an applicable post there, either. No copy operation will work when ran under the OS that is running and runs the copy command (unless it uses the shadowing that Microsoft's Backup, a crippled version of Diskeeper, uses).

 

[=?iso-8859-1?B?uyBtcnRlZSCr?=]

Please try TrueImage from www.acronis.com. It works. Create an image on a 2nd HDD and restore it to a 3rd.

I create the image by booting from the TI CD and click Create Image or the image can be reated while running Windows (your choice).

--
Just my 2¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________
|
| It didn't work when I tried it that way, both in Copy and Drive Image mode.
| I will, however, talk to you aside and try it again, maybe
| this evening.
|
| --
| William B. Lurie