reboot after cloning

[Guest]

I've seen advice here that says you should not reboot after cloning the
system drive with both the cloned drive and the original drive attached.

What happens if you do?

I recently cloned my laptop drive and the cloning software seemed to do one
automatic reboot too many. On the other hand, I then took the original drive
out and replaced it with the new cloned drive and things seem to be working
OK. Did I dodge a bullet or is there some problem lurking?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I've seen advice here that says you should not reboot after cloning the
system drive with both the cloned drive and the original drive attached.

What happens if you do?

I recently cloned my laptop drive and the cloning software seemed to do
one
automatic reboot too many. On the other hand, I then took the original
drive
out and replaced it with the new cloned drive and things seem to be
working
OK. Did I dodge a bullet or is there some problem lurking?

If you reboot after cloning while both disks remain connected
then Windows may treat the original disk as its system disk
because it remembers the partition signature of the original disk.
When you remove the original disk prior to the next reboot,
Windows will be unable to locate the original partition. If will then
assign a drive letter to the system partition on the new disk. That
drive letter is likely to be something other than C:, which will
cause your logon process to loop. This is a fequent problem
when cloning disks.

 

[Ron Badour]

I've never heard that advice and when I cloned partitions with BootIt NG, I
never had a problem with multiple hard drives installed, multiple systems
installed or a cloned drive residing along side its twin on another drive.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Have a look here:
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;223188&x=9&y=13
The relevant reference is buried inside the Summary section:
". . . when you break a mirror volume or there is a drive configuration
change."

I've seen it several times on my own machines, always after cloning, and
I have assisted a few posters in resolving the problem on their own
machines.
It only rears its ugly head if both disks are connected during the
***first***
boot.

 

[Ron Badour]

Maybe the reason I did not have that problem is because I used a good boot &
disk management program instead of the half baked one provided with the
system. Viel Dank for the information and to the OP, I stand corrected.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info. I guess I was saved either by the cloning s/w I used or
by the "may" in "then Windows may treat the original disk as its system disk"
because the cloned disk is now the only disk in the laptop, it has been
assigned drive letter C, and it boots and runs nicely (much better than
before: I went from an almost-full 4200 rpm 20 GB drive to a 7200 rpm 100 GB
drive).

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Maybe the reason I did not have that problem is because I used a
good boot & disk management program instead of the half baked
one provided with the system.

Disconnecting the "parent" OS's HD (or hiding its partition) before
starting the clone for the *first* time is standard advice for all cloner
utilities. I've had problems by not doing that with Drive Image, the
utility that was bought by Symantec to be given the name "Ghost".
If you want a detailed explanation by someone who seems to know
the mechanism of the problem, do a search in this NG for an author
by the name of "John John" in the last 6 weeks. His solution is to
delve into the registry of the clone after it is made.

*TimeDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I've seen advice here that says you should not reboot after cloning the
system drive with both the cloned drive and the original drive attached.

What happens if you do?

[.........]

If you reboot after cloning while both disks remain connected
then Windows may treat the original disk as its system disk
because it remembers the partition signature of the original disk.
When you remove the original disk prior to the next reboot,
Windows will be unable to locate the original partition. If will then
assign a drive letter to the system partition on the new disk. That
drive letter is likely to be something other than C:, which will
cause your logon process to loop. This is a fequent problem
when cloning disks.

If by "system disk" you mean the Microsoft term "system partition",
I don't think that is correct. The MS term "system partition" refers to
the partition containing the boot files - which doesn't have to be on
the same partition (or even on the same HD) as the OS. If you mean
the partition which contains the OS, Microsoft calls that the "boot
partition" - for historical reasons, I'm told.

As for the drive letter assignment, the clone's partition will be given
the name "C:" even if started for the first time in isolation. (It's a clone,
after all.) I pointed this out to you about 18 months ago, Pegasus, and
you did an experiment to confirm it. And even when both the "parent"
OS and the clone are visible to each other thereafter, each will call its
own partition "C:" *when it is running* with no problem at all as long
as there are no shortcuts which point to other partitions (including that
of the other OS) since the names of other partitions may be reassigned
when you switch between OSes. I normally have several clones
visible to each other on my 3 HDs, and starting up any one of them
can mean *all* the other partition names get ressigned, but the clone
will always call its own partition "C:".

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I've never heard that advice and when I cloned partitions with
BootIt NG, I never had a problem with multiple hard drives
installed, multiple systems installed or a cloned drive residing
along side its twin on another drive.

As Pegasus pointed out, the problem only occurs if the
clone is started up for the *first time* with its "parent" OS
visible to it. And this seems not to occur for Windows
prior to NT/2K/XP. Once the clone has started up in
isolation from its "parent", it can thereafter be started with
full view of its "parent" with no problem. The reverse -
starting the "parent" having view of its new clone - is never
a problem. Cloners of Win95 and Win98 didn't have this
problem, and they assume that WinNT/2K/XP work the
same way.

What's insidious about this problem is that it frequently
is very subtle. I don't know the mechanism, but I've seen
files that were seemingly in the clone actually be files in the
"parent" OS's partition. I could edit the "clone's" file all I
wanted, but I was actually editing the "parent's" file. And
when the "parent's" HD was disconnected, the clone's file
"disappeared". You can imagine the problems if at some
point the user decided that the clone was OK and then
re-formatted the "parent's" partition. Goodby, file.

*TimDaniels*