How to clone a hard disk ?

[RJK]

I thought I'd try a route different to ghosting C:\ out to a USB hd, and
then restoring that image onto a new hd,
i.e. booting from Norton 9.0 Ghost bootable cd 'cause is slowish.

So I tried the "Copy drive" on the Norton Ghost 9.0 windows interface, to
"copy drive" C:\ on hd0
to hd1's unallocated space (both SATA hd's).

On the options screen I ticked "Set drive Active" (for booting OS)
....there's a radio button in Primary Partition.
Drive Letter is set to None, 'cause C:\ is unavailable ?
....and I put a tick in "Copy MBR"

....now I left it "copying", and when I returned, the XP screensaver was on
but, I don't think it had rebooted, and I dutifully shut it down, and
unplugged hd0, rebooted from the "new" hd if you like, and got "NTLDR
Missing"

....anyone know how to use Ghost's Windows "Copy Drive" ?

regards, Richard

 

[tuuf]

I know this doesn't answer your question but I've cloned a lot of HD's
because it works great. I've tried a lot of programs and by far the easiest
idiot proof software out there is acronis true image.

 

[RJK]

I know this doesn't answer your question but I've cloned a lot of HD's
because it works great. I've tried a lot of programs and by far the
easiest
idiot proof software out there is acronis true image.

<snip>


Thanks !
I've got Acronis, it was free on a magazine disk but, I've used Norton for
years, and succumbed to the Windows GUI / Norton Ghost "copy disk" because
it looked like it might be a little quicker !

I can quite successfully clone a hd using my tried and tested method but,
now that I've hit a problem, I wanna know what it is !!!

regards, Richard

 

[Mick Murphy]

You have formatt the partitiion that you have chosen to send the "clone" to?

 

[Mick Murphy]

In other words, make a partition on your second Hard Drive, and format it.
At the present time, it is all unalloceted space!

 

[RJK]

I think you're on the right track, ...gosh, ...it's years and years since I
used to be able to tweak hd hex. settings with something like pqedit.exe !!
I'm getting rustier as the years go by !
Anyhoo, some of it is coming back to me now !
....am just in the middle of creating a Ghost 9.0 image of C:\ on that
machine, out to USB hd, then gonna switch hard disks, boot from Ghost boot
cd, and restore it like that.
i.e like I always do - just to make sure i haven't hit some "new" problem.

regards, Richard

 

[Mick Murphy]

If you can see the destination Drive in My computer>right-click on it>Format
Then, you can send your ghost to it!

 

[Mick Murphy]

If you can see your destination drive in My Computer>right-click on it>Format
Then you can send your Ghost to it.

 

[RJK]

Thanks for your input.
....I'm now trying to pin down exactly what "Restore the original disk
signature" actually" does.
i.e. I'm cloning my 80gb Seagate (XP Home) onto a slightly different model
no. 80gb Seagate. (using the Ghost boot-cd and Ghost image, (just taken),
from external USB hd.
The nearest thing I found to an explanation was:
http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1202587014/12
I know from experience that I need "copy mbr" ticked, and I don't need
"Restore the original disk signature" ticked, but I'd still like a more
sensible explanation of what "Restore the original disk signature" actually
does.

.......
http://www.compatdb.org/support/topics/164590_hard_disk_cloning_question.html
looks like it's to do with converting a basic disk into a dynamic disk,
....whatever a dynamic disk is !!

I'll have a look at the disk with Partition Magic after it's finished, ...if
it'll boot up

regards, Richard

 

[RJK]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314343

....seems to be what "Restore original Disk Signature" is all about, and
seeing as I have XP Home, ...doesn't apply to me

...OOH! just got "NTLDR missing" after restoring that external USB hd Ghost
image :-(

regards, Richard

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I thought I'd try a route different to ghosting C:\ out to a USB hd,
and then restoring that image onto a new hd,
i.e. booting from Norton 9.0 Ghost bootable cd 'cause is slowish.

So I tried the "Copy drive" on the Norton Ghost 9.0 windows
interface, to "copy drive" C:\ on hd0 to hd1's unallocated space
(both SATA hd's).

On the options screen I ticked "Set drive Active" (for booting OS)
...there's a radio button in Primary Partition.
Drive Letter is set to None, 'cause C:\ is unavailable ?
...and I put a tick in "Copy MBR"

...now I left it "copying", and when I returned, the XP screensaver
was on but, I don't think it had rebooted, and I dutifully shut it
down, and unplugged hd0, rebooted from the "new" hd if you like,
and got "NTLDR Missing"

...anyone know how to use Ghost's Windows "Copy Drive" ?

regards, Richard

My guess is that you put the clone into a partition that has
a no. that is different from that of the source partition. IOW,
the "partition()" parameter in the /boot.ini file doesn't point to
the correct partition on the new disk. The "fix" is to edit the
/boot.ini file so that "x" in "partition(x)" corresponds to the
correct partition. As long as the partition is marked "active"
on the new disk, and the old disk has been disconnected,
the new XP should boot right up without any fiddling with
SATA ports. Disconnecting the source disk also performs
the function of isolating the clone ON THE CLONE'S FIRST
STARTUP FROM SEEING ITS "PARENT" OS. That keeps
the clone from confusing its own files with those of its "parent"
OS during that very first startup.

BTW, I haven't used Ghost in several years, but since I tried
Casper, I've stuck with Casper. It can clone single partitions
like Ghost - something that True Image cannot do directly -
and it can make incremental backups to its clones as well.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

BTW, it's not necessary to format a partition in which you
make a clone. The cloning process copies the formatting
information right along with the data since the formatting
information is just seen as more data by the cloning utility,
and it doesn't even distinguish between the two levels of
information.

*TimDaniels*

 

[RJK]

Many thanks for your response.

I'm having another go !

This time I'm trying the "Restore multiple drives using system index file
*.sv2i" {using the Ghost 9.0 boot cd restore wizard}.
and I have pointed Ghost boot cd restore wizard to the source directory on
USB hd, containing the *.sv2i file and 6 or 7 1gb *.v2i files. (old habits
die hard, I can't seem to break the habit of choosing 1gb chunks!).
After selecting this option there was no screen where I could choose to
restore 'MBR' or 'disk signature' as in previous attempts using the "Restore
a single drive," and it's currently being restored to my new 80gb
Seagate --- "Disk 6, unallocated," so I hope it's going to do a proper job,
and leave me with a bootable drive ! i.e. I've never had to fiddle around
with partitioning a new drive and formatting it etc. with Ghost.
I have often, in the distant past, used Partition Magic to check what sort
of a job Ghost did in expanding the partition out fully - on a new bigger
drive.

anyhooo, looks like it's going to take a while !

regards, Richard

ps I assume that Ghost is calling the new 80gb hd drive 6 because USB hd is
obviously plugged in, 4 Card slots seem to have been enumerated, & 1 dvd
rewriter !

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Many thanks for your response.

I'm having another go !

This time I'm trying the "Restore multiple drives using system
index file *.sv2i" {using the Ghost 9.0 boot cd restore wizard}.
and I have pointed Ghost boot cd restore wizard to the source
directory on USB hd, containing the *.sv2i file and 6 or 7 1gb
*.v2i files. (old habits die hard, I can't seem to break the habit
of choosing 1gb chunks!). After selecting this option there was
no screen where I could choose to restore 'MBR' or
'disk signature' as in previous attempts using the "Restore a
single drive," and it's currently being restored to my new 80gb Seagate...

Words like "restore" and "system index file" and "cd" and
"USB hd" suggest that you've been making and restoring image
files, not clones. (A clone, being a byte-for-byte copy of the
original partition, could not be stored on anything but a bootable
hard drive.) If the MBR isn't restored in image restoration, you
may have to run "fixmbr" from the Recovery (Repair?) Console
of the XP installation CD.

*TimDaniels*

 

[RJK]

Hi thanks for all your help, and that was a careless and innaccurate word I
used in my OP subject, sorry about that.

Anyhow, Ghost "Restore" just completed, and when I returned from having my
tea, the XP screensaver was there to greet me

So to summarize:-
Using Ghost 9.0 in Windows to "Backup a drive" (which is saved as a *.sv2i
and *.v2i file/s on USB hd), will perhaps only restore properly back to the
same drive ? ..'cause I've done that lots of times, and never had a
problem.

The difference, perhaps, (and which started my ramblings here), was that I
had "backed up" from a noisy Seagate ST380813AS 80gb hd,
and had restored to a quieter 80gb Seagate ST380815AS ...which perhaps
made Ghosts' "Restore a single drive" fall over ? It's so long ago that I
replaced hard disks in my own machines ! Even with "Overwrite MBR" switched
on, the aforementioned would not work, resulting in "NTLDR missing".

Whereas Ghost 'restoring' those same "Ghost backup," *.sv2i and *.v2i
file/s from USB hd, via the Ghost wizard, to the quieter ST380815AS 80gb hd,
using the option "Restore multiple drives using system index file *.sv2i"
has obviously done the job.

....when the new "restored" drive wouldn't boot yesterday, I booted from
Ghost boot cd and looked at the partition table with PTEDIT32.exe and all
looked fine,
Type Boot Cyl Head Sector Cyl Head Sector Sector Before Sectors
07 80 0 1 1 1023 254 63
63 156280257

and Boot.ini looked okay ...but, ...NTLDR is missing was all I got.

Call it me getting old and rustier by the year !!!

regards, Richard

 

[Timothy Daniels]

...when the new "restored" drive wouldn't boot yesterday,
I booted from Ghost boot cd and looked at the partition table
with PTEDIT32.exe and all looked fine,
Type Boot Cyl Head Sector Cyl Head Sector Sector Before Sectors
07 80 0 1 1 1023 254 63 63
156280257

and Boot.ini looked okay ...but, ...NTLDR is missing was
all I got.

Was the partition that contained /boot.ini (and ntldr and
ntdetect.com) marked "active"?

*TimDaniels*

 

[RJK]

Hi,

As an aside, in previous posts, "new" hd is model ST380015AS, not a 380'8'
as I was repeatedly mis-labelling it.

Was the restored backups' partition marked Active?, ...that's a good
question. I had been assuming it was, obviously choosing the "Restore
multiple drives using a *.sv2i file" option to restore that single boot
drive marked it as active, perhaps the "Restore a single drive" didn't.

....anyway, I will experimnet further on that 2nd machine.

thanks again.

regards, Richard