True Image Cloning

[George W. Barrowcliff]

My 80gb Vista laptop is out of space, so I bought a 250gb drive and
installed it in a USB 2.0 enclosure.

I have tried both the True Image clone procedure and also partitioning the
250gb with 2 partitions then backing up the original drive to one of the
partitions, replacing the 80 with 250 and tried to recover into the blank
partition but no success.

I get the cannot boot message and must use the install cd to enable the new
clone but I still am unable to boot into the cloned version. I have had
great luck with Acronis but just cannot make this work.

I am using True Image Home V10 Build 4.942) with Windows Vista Home Basic
with SVC Pk1.

I would appreciate any insight into this procedure or a different product.

Are there any of the drive manufacturers that have a utility that will get
around this boot problem with Vista? I am ready to buy another drive just
to get this done.

Thanks, GWB

 

[Anna]

My 80gb Vista laptop is out of space, so I bought a 250gb drive and
installed it in a USB 2.0 enclosure.

I have tried both the True Image clone procedure and also partitioning the
250gb with 2 partitions then backing up the original drive to one of the
partitions, replacing the 80 with 250 and tried to recover into the blank
partition but no success.

I get the cannot boot message and must use the install cd to enable the
new clone but I still am unable to boot into the cloned version. I have
had great luck with Acronis but just cannot make this work.

I am using True Image Home V10 Build 4.942) with Windows Vista Home Basic
with SVC Pk1.

I would appreciate any insight into this procedure or a different product.

Are there any of the drive manufacturers that have a utility that will get
around this boot problem with Vista? I am ready to buy another drive just
to get this done.

Thanks, GWB

George:
If I correctly understand your situation, you're attempting to boot a cloned
copy (created by the ATI program) of the Vista OS from a USB external HDD.
Do I have this right?

If so...

We have never been successful in booting to a USB-connected external HDD in
an XP environment (at least in any reliable way). And we've worked with a
large variety of systems that ostensibly had USB boot capability. However, a
number of various newsgroup contributors and other commentators users have
reported that they have indeed been successful in booting to a USBEHD
containing a potentially-bootable XP OS. Usually their claims are couched in
phrases like "as long as the motherboard's BIOS supports this capability",
or some such. But as I've indicated we have never been able to duplicate
this capability.

However, my experience with the Vista OS re this issue is quite limited so
I'm unsure whether Vista would be more "forgiving" in this regard. Also, I
haven't worked with the latest ATI 2009 version to any extent so I don't
know if that would be a consideration re this issue (although I note you're
working with v10). You've indicated
"I have had great luck with Acronis but just cannot make this work." Are you
indicating that you've been able to previously boot reliably from a cloned
copy of the Vista OS contained on a USBEHD, but now you can't?

Having said all that, if you want to pursue the matter (re booting from a
USBEHD) further...

Take a look at this Fred Langa article where Fred purports to have come up
with a process to achieve this "bootability". See
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticleSrc.jhtml?articleID=177102101

Also, a poster to one of the MS XP newsgroups claimed that he too has come
up with a methodology to do this as well. See
http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

And here's another one...
http://www.vandomburg.net/installing-windows-xp-from-usb/

(I haven't checked the above links in some time to determine if they're
still active.)

No doubt a Google search will reveal a good deal of information on this
issue.

Assuming a user is working with a PC that has SATA capability, what we
recommend to achieve boot capability via an external HDD is to use a SATA
external HDD that provides SATA-to-SATA connectivity (between the external
enclosure-SATA HDD and the PC). Naturally the system must have SATA
capability to begin with and a connection must be made to one of the
motherboard's SATA connectors or through a SATA or eSATA port on the PC, or
through a SATA adapter on the desktop PC's case. (It's a different type of
system where a laptop/notebook is involved).
Anna

 

[DL]

I read it that he had cloned the existing installation to a usb connected
new drive, then shutdown and replaced his internal drive with the one that
he cloned to

 

[Anna]

I read it that he had cloned the existing installation to a usb connected
new drive, then shutdown and replaced his internal drive with the one that
he cloned to

DL:
You may very well be right. It wasn't entirely clear to me from his post
(even after re:reading it more than once!). Anyway I thought if his problem
*did* involve booting a cloned copy of the OS from the USBEHD then my
comment might be relevant to his situation.

His comment that "I get the cannot boot message and must use the install cd
to enable the new clone but I still am unable to boot into the cloned
version" was also puzzling to me.

In any event, perhaps he'll clarify his message if he's still experiencing a
problem.

As I believe you're aware from my posts in a number of the MS XP newsgroups,
my disk-cloning program of choice is the Casper 5 program. While my
experience with using that program with the Vista OS has not been
particularly extensive, I've found it quite effective the relatively few
times I've used it with Vista. And from what I've heard from Vista users in
general they are similarly pleased with that program relative to that OS.
Anna

 

[Randall Flagg]

As I believe you're aware from my posts in a number of the MS XP newsgroups,
my disk-cloning program of choice is the Casper 5 program. While my
experience with using that program with the Vista OS has not been
particularly extensive, I've found it quite effective the relatively few
times I've used it with Vista. And from what I've heard from Vista users in
general they are similarly pleased with that program relative to that OS.
Anna

She can't even bring herself to NAME the product. That is SO telling.

 

[DL]

my disk-cloning program of choice is the Casper 5 program

 

[Patrick Keenan]

She can't even bring herself to NAME the product. That is SO telling.

Sorry, but it is named: "the Casper 5 program".

 

[George W. Barrowcliff]

Sorry about the delay and the obtuse posting before. When I wrote it
recounting my experience seemed so clear but I had to re-read this:

" I get the cannot boot message and must use the install cd to enable the
new
clone but I still am unable to boot into the cloned version"

What I was trying to say is that after cloning to the USB connected drive,
and removing it from the usb enclosure and installing it into the laptop
and booting up, I received the 'Cannot boot' message that suggests using
the original install CD to repair the installation. I used the install CD
that I made using the laptop recovery software but after this process, I
could still not boot into the cloned version.

Probably not any clearer but at least more verbose.

I did read several of the postings relating to modifying the boot file using
bcdedit to remove the explicit reference to the C: path before using TI.
Unfortunately I have been using the 250 GB replacement laptop drive as a
general purpose storage and move around usb connected drive and now have to
buy another one to replace the original 80gb. I have moved back to my XP
Pro Desktop for daily use to keep from overflowing the drive on my laptop.

Thanks for all the discussion and details. Still not cloned but will look
into the alternative program mentioned.

GWB

 

[Anna]

Sorry about the delay and the obtuse posting before. When I wrote it
recounting my experience seemed so clear but I had to re-read this:

" I get the cannot boot message and must use the install cd to enable the
new
clone but I still am unable to boot into the cloned version"

What I was trying to say is that after cloning to the USB connected drive,
and removing it from the usb enclosure and installing it into the laptop
and booting up, I received the 'Cannot boot' message that suggests using
the original install CD to repair the installation. I used the install CD
that I made using the laptop recovery software but after this process, I
could still not boot into the cloned version.

Probably not any clearer but at least more verbose.

I did read several of the postings relating to modifying the boot file
using bcdedit to remove the explicit reference to the C: path before using
TI. Unfortunately I have been using the 250 GB replacement laptop drive as
a general purpose storage and move around usb connected drive and now have
to buy another one to replace the original 80gb. I have moved back to my
XP Pro Desktop for daily use to keep from overflowing the drive on my
laptop.

Thanks for all the discussion and details. Still not cloned but will look
into the alternative program mentioned.

GWB

George:
Why you've experienced the problem you describe using the Acronis True Image
program is practically impossible (at least for me!) to discern. Naturally
we're assuming that your "source" HDD is perfectly functional in that it
boots without incident and functions without any problems. Likewise, the
"destination" HDD is non-defective and properly connected/configured to the
system.

Presumably at this stage the reason for the disk-cloning operation is
because you desire to install a larger HDD in your laptop's machine.

As you've indicated (and as "DL" correctly surmised from your initial post)
you cloned your laptop's present HDD to a USB-connected (2 1/2"
laptop/notebook) HDD and then removed the latter drive from the enclosure
and installed it in the laptop in lieu of the present disk.

There should be no reason to modify the boot.ini file or any other system
file. The cloned HDD should boot straightaway.

I'm not entirely clear from your present post where things apparently stand
at the present time re your source & destination HDDs. I'll assume that the
present laptop's drive is an 80 GB HDD and your intended destination drive
is the 250 GB HDD.

Anyway, do try the disk-cloning program I suggested - Casper 5. A trial
version is available at http://www.fssdev.com
The trial version is somewhat crippled in that the partition created on the
destination HDD will be no larger than the disk size of the source HDD. So
that in your case (assuming I've correctly indicated the disk sizes above),
following the disk-cloning operation the 250 GB destination HDD will contain
a 80 GB partition containing, of course, the contents of the source HDD. The
remaining disk-space will be "unallocated". Naturally this limitation is not
present in the licensed (commercial) version of Casper.

Give it a try and see how you like it.
Anna

 

[George W. Barrowcliff]

OK Anna, I will look at the Casper product, but I still wonder why I was
unable to get TI to operate successfully. I have used it since V8 without
issue until Vista. I now need to buy another drive to try again.

It has been a while since I went through all the steps but I tried cloning
to the usb drive (then removing from enclosure, installing in laptop) and I
also made (usb connected) an 80 gb partition along with a 160 gb partition,
then did a TI backup to the 80 gb. Installing the drive in the laptop and
booting from a TI CD, I tried to use the backup to restore to the 160 but
with no luck. I think the error had to do with the drive letter but I am
not sure at this point.

GWB

 

[Messy]

Hii guys ... i've an i7 nd dx58so ... 2*1 tb hdd... i wanted to put the hdd
in raid ... but i cannot get the xp cd to boot in my hdd... it is givin a
boot load error ... wat shud i do now... i tried gettin raid drivers but i
got only an exe file ... hw do i integrate it to the xp cd.. please do reply
soon....

 

[Gordon]

Hii guys ... i've an i7 nd dx58so ... 2*1 tb hdd... i wanted to put the
hdd
in raid ... but i cannot get the xp cd to boot in my hdd... it is givin a
boot load error ... wat shud i do now... i tried gettin raid drivers but i
got only an exe file ... hw do i integrate it to the xp cd.. please do
reply
soon....

Maybe if you posted in an XP group? This is for VISTA as in the title.....

 

[Rick Rogers]

Check with the manufacturer of the system board for instructions on
extracting the needed driver files from the .exe, often it's just an added
parameter like /x. Not only will you need to do this, you will also need to
put them on a floppy disk - you can't integrate them into your install disk
unless you are familiar with building your own custom image (not something
you would do for a single installation in any case), plus there is the fact
that the *only* way XP setup can accept drivers during setup is from a
floppy (there is no usb or optical disk support in XP setup).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
Vote for my shoe: http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Messy]

Maybe if you posted in an XP group? This is for VISTA as in the title.....

i wud be grateful if u cud also tell me hw to boot vista as it also gives
the same problem..

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Is this the Intel DX58SO MoBo? If so, I seems like a great choice.

The RAID drivers are here:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...18&DwnldID=12018&strOSs=44&OSFullName=Windows
XP Professional*&lang=eng

Short version:
http://tinyurl.com/q5o6kz

Probably, the exe from the site is the RAID utility you can install and use
after the OS in installed. The contents of the appropriate Zip file are used
to create a floppy. Use the floppy to add the drivers during the OS
installation.

You say you have an exe. What is it called? What is the source? Did it come
with the MoBo on a CD or DVD? Possibly, when run, the exe will ask you to
insert a floppy and create the floppy for f6-use. In that case, it probably
has the same content as the zip files from the www site. Or it might be the
same as the exe from the site - just the RAID utility. Or it might be a
self-extracting archive that contains both the f6 files and the RAID
utility. Do you have a MoBo manual ? Does it contain information about that?

I'm not sure what you mean by "but i cannot get the xp cd to boot in my hdd"
[Sic]. Possibly you mean the HD is not being recognized.

You have to enter the BIOS setup and make sure the boot order is set to be
DVD/CD, HD as first and second. The HDs will not be recognized until they
are properly set up.

To do that, enter the BIOS setup and set the HDs to RAID rather than IDE.
Reboot the computer. Enter the RAID setup menu. Set to RAID 0 or 1. If you
don't know which to use, read up on RAID configurations.

Put the XP CD in the drive and boot from the CD. With an array with such a
large capacity, you will probably want to partition the RAID into more than
one partition. Read up on partitions and logical drives if you are unsure.
Do check with forums/newsgroups as desired.

In short, you have many choices as to what software/tools to use to do that.
The XP CD does have some basic utilities that allow you to create a usable,
efficient basic setup.

After the array is prepared, install XP. During setup, you will be asked if
you want to install drivers. Choose to do that. You will be asked to insert
the floppy (the one you created earlier) by pressing f6. Do that and follow
the on-screen prompts.

No matter what, the good news is no matter how badly the first attempts
might get fouled up, you can wipe the drives and do it over. No harm done.

Best of luck. Do let us know.

Tom Ferguson