Pagefile problem after duplicating Win2000 partition

[Serban Andrei Dumitrescu]

Hi folks,

I've received great help before from you and since now I#ve tried all the
things that possibly came to my mind I'm asking again for help.

Here's my problem:

Because of a failing hard drive (SMART warning) I've tried to replicate
all data on the replacement hdd (identical model).

At first, using Norton Ghost 2002 from bootable floppy I tried to
replicate the entire drive, but the process failed because of a read error
somewhere towards the "end" of the drive. Then I decided to replicate my
two partitions one by one. First I partitioned the new hard drive just
like the old one was (using Partition Magic 7): one system partition
(primary, active, NTFS - "C:") and one "data" partition (also primary,
NTFS, "D:"). Using Norton Ghost again I replicated the system partition
and decided to copy the files on the data partition later manually
(because the bad sectors were obviously on that one). Leaving the data
partition completely aside now, the problem I encountered was that after
disconnecting the old drive and jumpering the new one as "master", when
booting Windows from the new drive and logging in, there comes an error
msg or warning about not enough swap space and how to set up the page file
properly. However, after I click "OK", the logon dialog reappears at once,
then after logging in the swap warning appears again, then back to the
login box and so on. So that the actual Windows desktop never comes up,
leaving me no chance to set up the page file.

I think I undesrstand why a pagefile problem occurs: Norton Ghost probably
just copies the files, more or less, not replicating their exact physical
locations, therefore the "cloned" Windows installation doesn't find it's
pagefile where expected. However, I didn't find an option in Norton Ghost
for "raw" (sector by sector) copying. Maybe it does that when duplicating
the entire drive, but that failed before already due to bad sectors.

What irritates me most is the strange "loop"-like behaviour of Windows,
after login and the popup of the warning message immediately returning to
the login box again, wihtout ever getting to the desktop.

I didn't try out the "boot to command prompt" option because I don't know
of any way to set up the page file using shell commands. The "safe"
start mode (or whatever it's called; my copy of Windows is in German)
didn't work - I got caught in the same loop.

Also using different options for partition duplicating in Norton Ghost
(direct IDE access; copy standard/boot/all sectors; etc.) didn't make a
difference so far.

Please help me with that - It's been 4 days already since I'm working on
this and I have to send the "bad" drive back within the week.

Many thanks in advance!!

Andrei

 

[Stefan Kanthak]

Multiposting is a BAD HABIT!
Multiposting to groups in different usenet hierarchies is REALLY EVIL!
First find the ONE AND ONLY group where your question is on topic, then
post, in the appropriate language! Fup set to comp.os.ms-windows.misc.
And no, I won't read YOU again.

Hi folks,

I've received great help before from you and since now I#ve tried all the
things that possibly came to my mind I'm asking again for help.

Here's my problem:

Because of a failing hard drive (SMART warning) I've tried to replicate
all data on the replacement hdd (identical model).

[a fool with a tool is still a fool]

Get a small Linux recovery floppy or CD and use dd_rescue to copy the
hdd by sector.

Stefan

 

[Jiri Tuma]

and what is setting of your original swap file?

"Serban Andrei Dumitrescu" <[email protected]> píse v diskusním
príspevku

 

[DL]

If its only data you wish to recover why nor simply partition/format new hd,
connected as master, with win cd then connect old hd as slave and copy data
to new

 

[Serban Andrei Dumitrescu]

Well it seems I didn't explain my problem clearly.
I already copied the data manually with both drives plugged in, it's the
system partition which I wanted to duplicate exactly, to save me the
trouble of reinstalling windows and myriads of programs...

I duplicated this partition with Norton Ghost, but when starting windows,
after logging in there comes an error message about the page file not
being set up correctly, and after acknowledging this by clicking " ok" the
login dialog reappears immediately, and so on, leaving me no chance of
geting to the actual windows desktop and correcting the problem.

Any sugggestions?

TIA,
Andrei

 

[Jiri Tuma]

I did not asked for size, but for location. Seems like your system is not
able to access (either to find or open) your pagefile. If it is on different
partition then C: then there can be problem if there is forced letter
assigment in use. If it is your case, try to move pagefile to C: partition
before cloning. Also it is better to release assigned drive letters before
migration (at least on drive in question), because it is hard to release
letter assigned to unconnected disk without special tool.

In registry check key SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session
manager/Memory Management

Value PagingFiles is list of paging files and their defined sizes

Value ClearPageFileAtShutdown can be set to 1 to enable this feature.
Clearing of paging file before cloning can avoid some pagefile related
problems during migration.

382-1024 MB

"382" because that was the minimal size recommended by Windows in Control

Panel->System, and 1024 because that's double my RAM and I thought it

would be a good idea.

 

[Joep]

Well it seems I didn't explain my problem clearly.
I already copied the data manually with both drives plugged in, it's the
system partition which I wanted to duplicate exactly, to save me the
trouble of reinstalling windows and myriads of programs...

I duplicated this partition with Norton Ghost, but when starting windows,
after logging in there comes an error message about the page file not
being set up correctly, and after acknowledging this by clicking " ok" the
login dialog reappears immediately, and so on, leaving me no chance of
geting to the actual windows desktop and correcting the problem.

Any sugggestions?

Win98 bot diskette > fdisk/mbr

 

[chriske911]

Serban Andrei Dumitrescu formulated the question :

Hi folks,

I've received great help before from you and since now I#ve tried all the
things that possibly came to my mind I'm asking again for help.

Here's my problem:

Because of a failing hard drive (SMART warning) I've tried to replicate
all data on the replacement hdd (identical model).

At first, using Norton Ghost 2002 from bootable floppy I tried to replicate
the entire drive, but the process failed because of a read error somewhere
towards the "end" of the drive. Then I decided to replicate my two partitions
one by one. First I partitioned the new hard drive just like the old one was
(using Partition Magic 7): one system partition (primary, active, NTFS -
"C:") and one "data" partition (also primary, NTFS, "D:"). Using Norton Ghost
again I replicated the system partition and decided to copy the files on the
data partition later manually (because the bad sectors were obviously on that
one). Leaving the data partition completely aside now, the problem I
encountered was that after disconnecting the old drive and jumpering the new
one as "master", when booting Windows from the new drive and logging in,
there comes an error msg or warning about not enough swap space and how to
set up the page file properly. However, after I click "OK", the logon dialog
reappears at once, then after logging in the swap warning appears again, then
back to the login box and so on. So that the actual Windows desktop never
comes up, leaving me no chance to set up the page file.

I think I undesrstand why a pagefile problem occurs: Norton Ghost probably
just copies the files, more or less, not replicating their exact physical
locations, therefore the "cloned" Windows installation doesn't find it's
pagefile where expected. However, I didn't find an option in Norton Ghost for
"raw" (sector by sector) copying. Maybe it does that when duplicating the
entire drive, but that failed before already due to bad sectors.

What irritates me most is the strange "loop"-like behaviour of Windows, after
login and the popup of the warning message immediately returning to the login
box again, wihtout ever getting to the desktop.

I didn't try out the "boot to command prompt" option because I don't know of
any way to set up the page file using shell commands. The "safe" start mode
(or whatever it's called; my copy of Windows is in German) didn't work - I
got caught in the same loop.

Also using different options for partition duplicating in Norton Ghost
(direct IDE access; copy standard/boot/all sectors; etc.) didn't make a
difference so far.

Please help me with that - It's been 4 days already since I'm working on this
and I have to send the "bad" drive back within the week.

Many thanks in advance!!

Andrei

this is a common mistake using imaging for cloning installations
but it should not be a unrecoverable mistake
even if it doesn't get copied along it shouldn't matter
I delete the pagefile all the time before I make an image
it decreases the image size considerably
and I have never had any troubles

boot into safe mode (with or without GUI)
see to it that system and/or administrators have,
at the least write permission on the root (C: or any other root)
or better yet, full for system

the pagefile will automagically be recreated
even a tiny temp one of 20MB will do
then you can set the option in the properties of my computer or however
you are used to do this

grtz

 

[Martin Hedinger]

Win98 bot diskette > fdisk/mbr

Sometimes it helps, sometimes not.
With me it helped.

Regards, Martin

 

[Guest]

I am not sure if it is proper to post a reply like this but I have almost the
identical situation and would appreciate you posting the solution if found.

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Since I have almost the exact situation, I have struggled with several of the
suggestions given here and other places. I finally resolved it this way:

1> I Ghosted my partition with my needed w2kpro.

2> I started a new install (did not use Recovery Console or ERD)

3> When the new installation saw the previous (Ghosted) w2kpro partition, I
chose to "repair" instead of "clean" install.

Worked pretty good.