Re: HD Cloning Help Needed - Argh!
- From: "Anna" <myname@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:57:25 -0400
"EricG" <EricG@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46179B90-F3DB-4C29-AD2B-0EC5E75B23D6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Anna,
Thanks for your response. My "other PC" is my laptop at work. I only
have
the one PC at home. I can answer some of your questions now, but I can't
do
any testing until I get home. My wife has a laptop (at home) so I'll be
able
to talk to the NG after doing any suggested tests. See my responses to
your
questions below.
Eric
"Anna" wrote:
1. It's hard to imagine there's a hardware-issue involved here.
Presumably
your "old" 120 GB HDD booted & functioned without any problems prior to
the
disk-cloning operation, right?
Eric wrote...
The old HD booted and functioned fine prior to the disk-cloning. The only
problem I was having was a constant stream of "you're almost out of disk
space on drive C:" messages. I was down to about 200MB of free space in
the
system partition, and I had done all the cleaning, deleting and
compressing I
could stand. Hence the desire for a larger HD.
"Anna" wrote:
2. And we'll assume that your new 650 GB Seagate is non-defective.
There's
no reason to think otherwise, is there?
Eric wrote...
The new drive had been installed in the same PC and was being used
(although
sparingly) to store some data temporarily. Didn't have any problems with
it.
It was recognized by Windows from the beginning.
"Anna" wrote:
3. There's an old saying that if you "clone garbage, garbage is what
you'll
get". You have indicated that prior to the disk-cloning operation "I had
to
run chkdsk a couple of times on the existing drive to clear out some bad
spots."
You're pretty sure you "clear(ed) out" these "bad spots"? After doing so
can
we assume that you booted to the 120 GB HDD and it functioned perfectly?
Booted without incident and no problems with any programs, etc.? And it
was
at that point that you undertook the disk-cloning operation?
Eric wrote...
The first chkdsk pass found about four bad "segments"?? in the first of
the
three chkdsk phases and fixed them. The second pass found one thing wrong
in
the file index (again ?? not sure of the terminology) in (I think) the
second
chkdsk phase and fixed that. The third pass was completely clean, with no
complaints from chkdsk. After the third pass, I continued to boot the
machine and had no problems. And yes, I then did the disk-cloning
operation
(after rebooting yet again to start up with the Acronis CD).
"Anna" wrote:
4. Setting aside the 650 GB HDD...when you install *only* the 120 GB HDD
in
the system, you've checked the BIOS boot priority (boot preference)
setting
and does it indicate a first HDD boot to that drive? Are you indicating
that
the disk is not recognized at all in the motherboard's BIOS (again, when
connected as the sole HDD in the system)?
Eric wrote...
I tried installing either drive by itself, and neither worked. When I had
only the 120GB drive installed, I figured out how to get into the BIOS,
and
looked at the installed hardware. The drive did not show up in the
primary
IDE list at all. Nothing did. The CD and DVD drives showed up in the
secondary IDE list. The boot settings only allowed selection of either
the
CD or the DVD drives. No HD showed up in the list. I also installed BOTH
drives (original=Master, new=Slave), and neither one showed up in the
BIOS.
"Anna" wrote:
5. Have you tried jumpering the 120 GB HDD as Master (or Single if it's a
WD
disk) in lieu of Cable Select?
Eric wrote...
Yes, I move the jumper for the 120GB drive to the "Master" setting,
plugged
it into the "Master" connector on the IDE cable, and tried booting. I got
the same error message.
"Anna" wrote:
6. Saving the worst for last, it's possible that the ATI disk-cloning
operation went awry in such a way as to cause substantial corruption in
the
source HDD. To the point where the disk becomes an unbootable device.
While
rare in our experience with various versions of the ATI program, we
*have*
encountered that misery more than once. And we could never account for
that
problem.
Eric wrote...
This is only the worst if it means I lose all my data. That would be bad.
I can probably live with having to reload XP from my recovery disks. I'm
just hoping I don't have to because of all the programs, etc. to be
reloaded
also.
7. Since you obviously have another PC at your disposal, is there any
chance
you can install the 120 GB HDD as a *secondary* HDD in that machine to
determine if it's detected by the system and you can access its contents?
Eric wrote...
Unfortunately, I don't have another PC. I'll have to find a friend with
one
and try installing the drive(s) in their PC.
8. Can I assume you've previously used the ATI version you're working
with
for routine disk-cloning purposes? You're reasonably familiar with the
program?
Eric wrote...
This is my first time using the software. It was recommended by a friend
who found it "easy and reliable". I played with its features for a while
before I was comfortable with the approach I took. It seemed to work very
smoothly, although it took a while to finish.
"Anna" wrote:
(Hopefully) there's no chance you might have confused the "source" &
"destination" drives while undertaking the disk-cloning operation, is
there?
Eric wrote...
That is highly unlikely. The graphical display clearly showed the
destination drive having a 13.97GB system partition, and the new drive
having
a proportionally larger system partition.
Eric wrote...
Any suggestions you have in terms of things for me to try will be greatly
appreciated. I have become aware that Acronis provides absolutely no
technical support for their product, unless you're willing to pay much
more
than the product itself cost.
Eric
Eric...
We'll assume that there's no hardware-issue involved here re either HDD (or
any other component) and that your source HDD (the 120 GB one) was
completely bootable/functional at the time you undertook the disk-cloning
operation.
Also that you carried out the disk-cloning operation without error and that
all connections involving the source & destination disks were proper &
secure.
So, if the preceding is correct, something (obviously) went awry with the
disk-cloning operation.
You've got to examine your 120 GB HDD to determine if the drive is at least
detectable by another PC and you can access its contents and as best you can
determine whether it appears the drive contains a bootable, functional OS.
The only practical way to do this is (at the minimum) install it as a
secondary HDD in another machine. I realize this process is not definitive
in terms of determining whether the drive is potentially bootable &
functional, but it's a start.
The disk-cloning program we use nearly exclusively these days is the Casper
5 program. For a variety of reasons which I won't go into here & now we find
it a superior product and generally prefer it to the Acronis True Image
program. On the other hand the ATI v11 program you already have is a sound
program and also highly recommended by many users.
Under ordinary circumstances I would recommend you download/install the
trial version of the Casper 5 program and undertake the disk-cloning
operation with that program. But obviously that's not an option since
there's no way to install the trial version of that program (at least for
the moment) on a non-bootable HDD.
And while you're going through this diagnosis process you may also want to
download the HDD diagnostic utility from the manufacturer of the 120 GB HDD
to verify that the disk is non-defective.
Anyway, keep us informed of your progress and/or developments.
Anna
.
- References:
- HD Cloning Help Needed - Argh!
- From: EricG
- Re: HD Cloning Help Needed - Argh!
- From: Anna
- Re: HD Cloning Help Needed - Argh!
- From: EricG
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