Drive C: failing – How to copy OS to a new drive?

Topic

New Reply

After logging in I receive the dreaded “Windows detected a hard disk problem” and as luck would have it, it is the C: drive which contains the operating system. Although I can use the system, I periodically get the “Windows detected a hard disk problem” message and everything is running real slow.

I have another identical drive D: installed on the computer that contains my user data (already backed up). What can I do to move the operating system to the other drive before the C drive dies entirely.

What I have attempted so far. Using Norton Ghost 15.0 I copied my C: drive to my D: drive using options

Copy My Hard Drive (Copy all existing files, programs, and settings from one hard drive to another)
Check source for file system errors
Check destination for file system errors
Set drive active
Copy MBR

After the copy completed successfully I shut down the computer and moved the SATA cable from the original drive to the new drive. Upon booting, I get the error Boot MGR is missing. Using the original DVD I did a repair and then the system booted to the login screen. It accepted my password but instead of logging me in normally, it displayed the building profile message. After running for a long time the screen turns to a light blue. In the lower right corner of the screen is displayed
Windows 7
Build 7600
This copy of Windows is not Genuine.
It hangs there with no response other than the mouse is still active. The screen is blank with the exception of the above message.

OS: WIN7 Ultimate 64 bit
Dell Studio XPS with 12 gig RAM and dual 1 TB drives.

Any help will be sincerely appreciated as I need to get this copied before the C drive dies entirely. I have spent a year getting applications installed and tweaked (Apache server, MySQL, PHP, etc.) and I don’t want to start from scratch.

Dell has sent me a replacement drive with the OS installed and it operates OK so I am confident the Motherboard is OK.

Thanks,
Steve

Reply | Quote

Replies

You can use Ghost to create an image of your current C:. Then, remove it, install the new drive, and restore the image using Ghost.

If you really want to use D:, you need to clone C: not copy. I don’t know if Ghost is capable of that.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

You can use BootIt Next Generation (fully functional 30-day free trial download) to make a byte for byte image of your failing drive and then restore that image to your good drive. It’s tiny (it will run from a floppy drive) and thorough. It will also run from CD or USB, or it can be installed in its own 8MB partition.

BootIt NG will work for what you need; I’ve done it a number of times. BootIt NG will also do a byte for byte bootable copy from one partiton to another.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

You can use BootIt Next Generation (fully functional 30-day free trial download) to make a byte for byte image of your failing drive and then restore that image to your good drive. It’s tiny (it will run from a floppy drive) and thorough. It will also run from CD or USB, or it can be installed in its own 8MB partition.

BootIt NG will work for what you need; I’ve done it a number of times. BootIt NG will also do a byte for byte bootable copy from one partiton to another.

Thanks for your quick reply. I’ll try BootItNG but since the C drive is on its last leg, I want to make sure I take maximum advantage of the up time. A couple of questions:

Which function do I use in BootItNG?
Can I go directly from my current C drive to my D drive instead of copying to a USB drive and then to my new drive (SATA to SATA is much faster than SATA to USB).

Reply | Quote

Thanks for your quick reply. I’ll try BootItNG but since the C drive is on its last leg, I want to make sure I take maximum advantage of the up time. A couple of questions:

Which function do I use in BootItNG?
Can I go directly from my current C drive to my D drive instead of copying to a USB drive and then to my new drive (SATA to SATA is much faster than SATA to USB).

Yes, you can copy one partition to another. You’ll use the “Work with partitions” button after BootIt NG has booted up. That will bring up a screen that has your drives listed on the left side (by number, drive 0, drive 1). Drive 0 will be displayed by default. The partition structure will appear in the center pane. Click on the partition you wish to copy to highlight it.

On the right side are several buttons; you’ll want to use “Copy”. Click on Copy. At the bottom of the screen the message “Paste pending for [partition]” will appear. Go back to the left side, click the radio button by the drive you want to paste to. That drive’s partition table will now be displayed in the center pane. Click the partition you wish to paste the copy to, and then on the right hand side again, click “Paste”. You will be asked if you want a byte-for-byte validation; I recommend Yes.

Keep in mind that this is a byte for byte copy and validation, so don’t get impatient, and don’t stop the process.

You said Dell, which means that the BCD store may well be on the recovery partition. You may need to edit the BCD store to get your new drive to boot. And since the BCD store is on the failing drive, you’ll also need to copy that partition to the same position on the new drive. Partition 0 is probably the Dell Utilities, partition 1 is probably the Recovery partition, and partition 2 is probably your OS partition. What all this means is that you should probably replicate your “failing” drive to your new drive completely, if you do indeed have a Recovery partition.

You can use BootIt NG to find the BCD store. Highlight a partition and click “Properties”, then click on the button “BCD Edit”. If the BCD store is on that partition, it will open; if not, BootIt NG will tell you that there’s no BCD store. Click the next partition and do the same. There is only one BCD store on the drive.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

And since the BCD store is on the failing drive, you’ll also need to copy that partition to the same position on the new drive. Partition 0 is probably the Dell Utilities, partition 1 is probably the Recovery partition, and partition 2 is probably your OS partition. What all this means is that you should probably replicate your “failing” drive to your new drive completely, if you do indeed have a Recovery partition.

I do have a recovery partition. So BootItNG copies partitions and not complete drives. To get Utilities, Recovery and OS will I need to copy 3 partitions individually? I’m showing my ignorance of operating systems here – Most of my experience is web design, PHP, Javascript and etc. You state I’ll need to copy that partition to the same position on the new drive. I’m assuming that BootItNG takes care of that for me or do I manually need to create these partitions?

One last item – I’ve read the Getting Started Guide and it seems to indicate that I can’t just download and install BootItNG. I need to create an ISO image on a CD or DVD (my computer doesn’t have a floppy). Is the ISO image a requirement?

Thanks for your patience. Hopefully I can help someone in the future in my area of expertise.

Reply | Quote

I do have a recovery partition. So BootItNG copies partitions and not complete drives. To get Utilities, Recovery and OS will I need to copy 3 partitions individually? I’m showing my ignorance of operating systems here – Most of my experience is web design, PHP, Javascript and etc. You state I’ll need to copy that partition to the same position on the new drive. I’m assuming that BootItNG takes care of that for me or do I manually need to create these partitions?

One last item – I’ve read the Getting Started Guide and it seems to indicate that I can’t just download and install BootItNG. I need to create an ISO image on a CD or DVD (my computer doesn’t have a floppy). Is the ISO image a requirement?

Thanks for your patience. Hopefully I can help someone in the future in my area of expertise.

Yes, you will need to burn the ISO to a CD, and boot from it. You can work directly from the CD, no need to install. If, in any of these procedures you see a checkbox on one of the BootIt NG screens that says “Data only” (you shouldn’t but just in case), be sure to remove the check and leave the checkbox blank. Those come up on some of the operations, but I don’t redall that they do in the partition creation or partition copy work that you’ll be doing. Also, the SATA cables need to be in their original positions; failing drive as drive 0, target drive as drive 1. We’ll switch after completion.

The easiest way to create the right size partitions is to let the Copy process get it started for you. You’ll need to delete the partitioning from the target drive first (highlight a partition, then click the Delete button, then highlight the next, Delete, til they’re all gone), then create one big full-size partition and choose HPFS/NTFS as the file system. BootIt NG won’t actually format NTFS (it leaves that for Windows), but it will faithfully Copy NTFS formatting when it copies a partition that’s formatted NTFS. The partition creation process itself doesn’t take long at all.

You should copy the partitions in order, (I’m assuming Dell Utilities, Recovery, OS). When you Paste the Dell Utilities partition you want it in the same position, on the first partition on the new drive (if that is indeed where it is), which so far will be the only partition on the new drive.

BootIt NG will give you the complete partition of the same size as the original, with whatever space that was not needed left as free space after the copied partition. BootIt NG won’t copy to free space, so you will need to create another partition, and the simplest way to accomplish that is to make it the same size as the second partition you need to copy, so write those numbers (for the Recovery partition) down when you’re looking at the partition table of the failing drive. The numbers are in MB.

When you click on the “Create” button, you’ll get an option of the smallest possible size and the largest (which is whatever free space is left). In the size box, just type in the same size as the next partition you want to copy. Choose HPFS/NTFS for a file system and the copy process will take care of that by copying the formatting when it copies the second partition.

After you have created that second partition on the new drive, copy the second partition from the failing drive to it. After that copy and validation process is complete, create a partition for your OS (which is probably the rest of the drive, unless you have done some partition work yourself), select HPFS/NTFS for the file system again, and after the partition creation process is complete, copy the OS partition from your failing drive to the new drive.

And again, BootIt NG will copy the formatting as well as all the bytes. And remember when you’re copying these partitions, it’s byte for byte and not screaming along, so just be patient, and don’t stop the process. It’s also copying the empty spaces and laying down the formatting.

If you have to edit the BCD store, I can help you do that with BootIt NG as well.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

I have the ISO CD created and have booted BootIt NG. On HD 0 (the failing drive) there are 3 partitions, DellUtility-0, RECOVERY-1 and OS-2. I have deleted all partitions on HD 1 and created one large partition on HD 1. If I highlight DellUtility-0, the only options available are Delete, Image and Properties. Obviously I can’t use copy if it is not highlighted. DellUtility-0 is Bootable: FAT16, Size 39 MB, Cluster Size 2048 bytes with *Warning* File system ends at LBA 80321.

How can I copy it or do I need to copy it?

The BCD is in RECOVERY-1.

Reply | Quote

Another question – Above you stated I need to “create one big full-size partition and choose HPFS/NTFS as the file system” on the destination drive. In reading the instructions for BootIt NG, it states I can only paste into free space but since I created one large partition, there is no free space available.

Reply | Quote

Another question – Above you stated I need to “create one big full-size partition and choose HPFS/NTFS as the file system” on the destination drive. In reading the instructions for BootIt NG, it states I can only paste into free space but since I created one large partition, there is no free space available.

I use drive images for backup, and I’m much more familiar with that routine. I’m sorry about that.

The Copy button will stay grayed out unless there is free space on a drive somewhere, because the Paste function only works in free space, as you noted (No need to Copy if there’s nowhere to Paste).

Go back to your target drive and Delete that partition. Then when you return to the failing drive and highlight the Dell Utilities partition, the Copy button won’t be greyed out. Copy, change drives, then highlight the free space and Paste to the target drive. Then continue without the incorrect partition creation steps. The partitions will be created in the correct sizes by the Copy function.

Again, I’m sorry about the mixup.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

I deleted the partition on the destination drive and now the copy button is highlighted when the RECOVERY-1 and OS-2 partitions are selected but not when the DellUtility-0 partition is selected. Possibly it has something to do with that partition being formatted as FAT16.

I have successfully copied the RECOVERY-1 partition and now I am in the process of copying the OS-2 partition (this will take a long, long time). Since I can’t copy the DellUtility-0 partition, I’ll attempt to boot without it.

Anything else I need to do before attempting to boot with the new drive?

Again – thank you very much for your help.

Reply | Quote

As far as the FAT 16 Dell Utilities, perhaps it something in the Copy function; I know that BootIt NG will “Image” a FAT 16 partition. But no matter, we can work around that.

The BCD store will have to be edited, because it probably points to the third partition (partition 2) on the drive for the OS partition, and will need to be edited to point to the second partition (partition 1) on the drive.

Once the OS partition is copied, you’ll need to open the BCD store in the Recovery partition as you did before, and this time you’ll click the Edit button.

On the left side is a column of values in the BCD store. We’re only interested in a couple of them. The first one we’re interested in is “Description”. Highlight “Description” and click on the “Edit” button at the bottom. “Description” is the name you give your OS. You can name it whatever you like; Windows, OS, Windows 7, whatever you want to name it. It will probably be pre-filled with a name, and if that one suits you, leave it as it is.

The next value we’re interested in is “Device”. Highlight “Device” and click the “Edit” button. A dialogue box will popup with two textboxes. Both textboxes are labeled “Type”. The top textbox needs to be filled with the drive number where your OS partition lives. I’m assuming that since you’re replacing your failing drive, it is labeled “HD0” (that’s a “zero”) in the “Type” textbox.

You’ll be switching SATA cables once all the partition work is done, and you’ll want your new drive plugged into SATA0 on the motherboard, so the top “Type” textbox needs to be labeled “HD0” so the position will be correct.

The second “Type” box is labeled with the name of the partition where the OS resides. Check the name that is listed, and make sure it matches the name of the partition where you copied your OS. Correct it if it’s wrong. When the two textboxes contain the correct information, click OK and we’ll move on.

The next value we’re interested in is “OS Device”. Highlight that one and click “Edit”. In your case, the values in the two textboxes should be the same as the values in the “Device” textboxes. If they’re different, correct them, then click OK.

All the other values are filled with the default values, so there is no need for any editing of them. You can click the “Close” button on that screen, click “Close” on the BCD Edit screen, then click OK on the Properties sheet.

Next click “Close” on the “Work with Partitions” screen, then click the “Resume” button, and finally click the “Boot” button. If all the little imps and gremlins are satisfied, you should be booting into Windows shortly.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

I have completed the copy and verified the BCD contained the proper values (I did not need to change anything). You stated “The BCD store will have to be edited, because it probably points to the third partition (partition 2) on the drive for the OS partition, and will need to be edited to point to the second partition (partition 1) on the drive.” I saw nothing that mentioned the partition number, just the partition name.

I shut down, moved the cable from the old drive to the new drive and left the old drive disconnected. When I attempted to boot, I get the following message:

Reboot and select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in selected boot device and press a key

Still no joy.

UPDATE:
I am now up and running. I found I needed to make the Recovery partition “Active”. So far everything seems to be working and there are no hard drive errors reported by Windows. Thanks for all the help. I still need to restore drive D, my data drive, but that should be an easy task

I should probably start a new post on this, but I need to find out what to use to make this easier next time an OS drive fails. Obviously Norton Ghost is not doing the job. Although I routinely verify I can restore regular files from backup, I didn’t have the guts to wipe out the OS and test recovery of drive C.

Reply | Quote

I have completed the copy and verified the BCD contained the proper values (I did not need to change anything). You stated “The BCD store will have to be edited, because it probably points to the third partition (partition 2) on the drive for the OS partition, and will need to be edited to point to the second partition (partition 1) on the drive.” I saw nothing that mentioned the partition number, just the partition name.

I shut down, moved the cable from the old drive to the new drive and left the old drive disconnected. When I attempted to boot, I get the following message:

Reboot and select proper Boot device or insert Boot Media in selected boot device and press a key

Still no joy.

You say you moved the cable from the old drive to the new drive and left the old drive disconnected. Are you talking about the end of the cable that connects to the drive itself, or the end of the cable that plugs into the motherboard?

The cable for the new drive should be plugged into the first SATA port on the motherboard. I think Dell numbers them 1, 2, 3, 4. Some motherboards number them 0, 1, 2, 3. Whichever way they are numbered, the new drive cable should be plugged into the first SATA port on the motherboard.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

See the update to my previous post.

Reply | Quote

See the update to my previous post.

Good News!

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

Next time: Try Acronis True Image. It will do a bit-for-bit clone of your old drive (without the hardware errors) to the new, with no need for any additional actions at all. Swap the cables and you’re done.

The reason you might get an “Invalid copy of Windows” error is that Windows checks to see if the hardware ID of the drive it’s on is the same as the one it was installed on, to prevent pirating. One call to Microsoft will get the new drive validated.

Reply | Quote

Next time: Try Acronis True Image. It will do a bit-for-bit clone of your old drive (without the hardware errors) to the new, with no need for any additional actions at all. Swap the cables and you’re done.

Note to all (and I hope this isn’t gonna offend anyone): Bitsdujouris selling Acronis True Image Home today (Feb 17) for $30 (download only, I think). If you’re thinking about giving TIH a try (or want if for that next drive cloning need), this is about as good of a price as I’ve seen over the past 2-3 years.

Reply | Quote

Note to all (and I hope this isn’t gonna offend anyone): Bitsdujouris selling Acronis True Image Home today (Feb 17) for $30 (download only, I think). If you’re thinking about giving TIH a try (or want if for that next drive cloning need), this is about as good of a price as I’ve seen over the past 2-3 years.

Isn’t FREE a better price ?
The Seagate (or Western Digital) DiscWizard is Acronis.

Reply | Quote

Isn’t FREE a better price ?
The Seagate (or Western Digital) DiscWizard is Acronis.

Actually, DiscWizard is a limited edition, missing the true cloning features of the Acronis True Image Home full version. In fact, if you want to do an exact clone to new hardware without invalidating Windows, you may need the Acronis Plus Pack, which costs extra. As posted earlier, True Image can be had for under $30.00 frequently. Just check local stores or on line specials. Deal of the Day is a web site which occasionally has offered the full version for free. But the Plus Pack still will have to be bought separately, and I have never seen the Plus Pack on sale or free.

And yes, partitions can be copied or moved using Acronis Disk Director, which is a different program and costs additional money, unless you find a bundle deal or a Disk Director free giveaway. Disk Director and True Image can be combined onto the Acronis Rescue Media CD, offering much broader capabilities than either program separately.

I don’t mind paying for quality,reliability and simplicity, so I have bought Acronis products and upgrades since 2005, when I got my first laptop computer. And no, I don’t find the Acronis 2011 user interface simple — I preferred the 2010 and earlier layouts.

BTW, my current Toshiba Satellite stops the hard drive if there’s any position change or impact or vibration, limiting potential damages. Still, I would not move this computer while the drive is still spinning.

My Image Backups are by Partition, include my Recovery Partition, and are stored on two independent external hard drives. (One is a copy of the backups on the other.) Acronis products can operate on FAT-16 partitions, but they aren’t reliable on Linux partitions. Linux has its own cloning and backup tools, like Clonezilla (which also can clone Windows FAT-16, FAT-32, and NTFS Partitions, and is free).

-- rc primak

Reply | Quote

Actually, DiscWizard is a limited edition, missing the true cloning features of the Acronis True Image Home full version. In fact, if you want to do an exact clone to new hardware without invalidating Windows, you may need the Acronis Plus Pack, which costs extra.

I believe that’s incorrect, and that you can use virtually ANY utility to clone “without invalidating Windows” because, as I noted before, it takes a LOT more hardware alteration than simply changing your disk and partition IDs to invalidate Windows (this was true in XP, and Microsoft claims that Windows 7 allows even more latitude in this area). Which is why I suspect that the problem which Steve encountered may have been due to his failure to clone the partition holding his boot support along with his Win7 system (after which he then created new boot support using the system repair mechanism which did not match the original – Microsoft does say that one of Win7’s validation checks uses the ‘name’ and ‘hash’ of what it calls the ‘boot file’).

Reply | Quote

Next time: Try Acronis True Image. It will do a bit-for-bit clone of your old drive (without the hardware errors) to the new, with no need for any additional actions at all. Swap the cables and you’re done.

The reason you might get an “Invalid copy of Windows” error is that Windows checks to see if the hardware ID of the drive it’s on is the same as the one it was installed on, to prevent pirating. One call to Microsoft will get the new drive validated.

As many times as I’ve used BootIt NG to upgrade to a larger hard drive or replace a failed drive, I have never had a single issue with Windows validation.

Steve hasn’t mentioned any such such issue with the BootIt NG copy method used in this thread, either.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

As many times as I’ve used BootIt NG to upgrade to a larger hard drive or replace a failed drive, I have never had a single issue with Windows validation.

That’s likely because hard disk and partition IDs are only two of the many characteristics that Windows uses to determine whether your hardware has changed sufficiently to cause it to revalidate. Since it takes considerably more change than that, I suspect that Steve’s earlier problem may have had more to do with the lack of his recovery partition (which contained the early boot code and BCD data).

BootIt may be a wonderful product. So is Acronis TI – and by extension its free DiscWizard (and equivalent WD) versions, which will do all that you were complimenting BootIt as being able to do except copy individual partitions (IIRC they will only copy an entire disk, which in this case was what was desired). Free partition managers like Paragon’s, EASEUS’s, and MiniTool’s (not to mention gparted live) can perform similar copy (but not imaging) functions – including copying only the parts of the partition that are in use rather than the entire thing bit-by-bit (unless, of course, you tell them to do the latter; they can also, either optionally or by default, retain partition and disk IDs).

I’ve used both Paragon PM and DiscWizard for many years with never any problem, so while I’ve also heard good things about BootIt I’ve never had any need to purchase it. As others have suggested, when you can get good software for free that covers your requirements it seems a bit silly to pay for something else.

Reply | Quote

UPDATE:
I am now up and running. I found I needed to make the Recovery partition “Active”. So far everything seems to be working and there are no hard drive errors reported by Windows. Thanks for all the help. I still need to restore drive D, my data drive, but that should be an easy task

I should probably start a new post on this, but I need to find out what to use to make this easier next time an OS drive fails. Obviously Norton Ghost is not doing the job. Although I routinely verify I can restore regular files from backup, I didn’t have the guts to wipe out the OS and test recovery of drive C.

You just used my favorite. It’s $34.95 retail, and as you have seen, it has multiple uses. I use multiple partitions to categorize my files, and there are many files that need only periodic backup.

There are other similar imaging software packages that are free, and there are many who give them high praise.

I am a firm believer in drive imaging for the most reliable backup method. What you just did was to copy a drive image (actually two partition images) from one hard drive to another. The time element can be adjusted by additional partitioning, and infrequent backup of files that change infrequently.

But I’m certainly glad that you salvaged your system from that failing drive. A few months back I had a sudden hard drive failure that wouldn’t even let the machine POST. I even changed motherboards before I started suspecting the drive. I changed the drive, restored its last image, and all was well.

I hope you have smooth sailing from here on out…

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

Next time, try the imaging software that comes with the new drive, ie Seagate’s disk wizard or Maxtor’s Max Blast. The all have a disk copy feature that should do what you want. I’ve had great luck with them in the past.

Jerry

Reply | Quote

Next time, try the imaging software that comes with the new drive, ie Seagate’s disk wizard or Maxtor’s Max Blast. The all have a disk copy feature that should do what you want. I’ve had great luck with them in the past.

Jerry

I too recommend the FREE Seagate DiscWizard.
Create a bootable CD, and do all of your Imaging and restoring from the bootable CD (NOT whilst Windows is Running).
And to give you further encouragement, it is based on Acronis.

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the additional responses. The replacement drive was supplied by Dell under warranty and did not include the wizard (it already had the OS loaded).

Regardless of the utility I choose for my OS backup and restore plan, I intend to purchase an additional internal drive so I can perform a “test restore” so I am better prepared next time.

Reply | Quote

I’ve been using BootIt NG for several years now (along with its free updates), and this Fred Langa article got me interested. My original $34.95 has carried me successfully through hard drive upgrades, hard drive failures and even a house fire that wrecked two PC’s.

If you’ve read through this thread completely, you’ve seen just one of the capabilities of BootIt NG, copying partitions byte-for-byte from a failing hard drive to a new drive resulting in a successfully booting system (even though I neglected to mention to Steve to make the partition containing the BCD store Active, he figured that part out and got it up and running).

BootIt NG’s partition imaging combines that byte-for-byte with compression that yields an image file(s) roughly half the size of the original files on the partition. I have used BootIt NG imaging every time I have upgraded to a larger hard drive, and I’ve never had a problem of any kind. The image file can be placed on any device that the system BIOS can see; internal drive, USB external drive, external eSATA drive, or even direct burn to DVD or DVD DL. Direct burn to DVD will span the image over as many DVD’s as are required. (I use 2GB segments to a hard drive, then burn those to DVD two-at-a-time at a later date).

To move your installation to a new drive, just take out the trash (disk cleanup), defragment, image, remove the old drive and insert the new, create a full-drive partition, then restore your partiton images, one at a time, in whatever order you wish. As you restore each image, that restored partition can be enlarged if desired, if you’re changing to a larger drive. The image restore leaves the rest of the drive as free space, so just create one partition using all that free space again, and restore the next partition. Again, it can be enlarged if desired. And so on until all partitions have been restored to the new drive.

There is no formatting to do. You’ll be asked for file system type, but no formatting is actually done then; the image restore takes care of that. There is no partitioning of the new drive necessary (other than the first, using all free space, prior to each restore operation); restoring a partition image automatically creates a partition of the same size (which can then be resized).

Terabyte has an email support system, and I’ve found it to be excellent. Whenever I’ve had a question, I would email support and get an answer the next day. If I needed further clarification of my question, I would reply to that email, and get an answer from the same tech the next day.

Read Fred’s article in the link I posted for more information.

Regardless of the utility I choose for my OS backup and restore plan, I intend to purchase an additional internal drive so I can perform a “test restore” so I am better prepared next time.

That is an excellent idea, and I do that periodically myself; knowing is better than hoping.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

After logging in I receive the dreaded “Windows detected a hard disk problem” and as luck would have it, it is the C: drive which contains the operating system. Although I can use the system, I periodically get the “Windows detected a hard disk problem” message and everything is running real slow.

I have another identical drive D: installed on the computer that contains my user data (already backed up). What can I do to move the operating system to the other drive before the C drive dies entirely.

What I have attempted so far. Using Norton Ghost 15.0 I copied my C: drive to my D: drive using options

Copy My Hard Drive (Copy all existing files, programs, and settings from one hard drive to another)
Check source for file system errors
Check destination for file system errors
Set drive active
Copy MBR

Steve

First off, I have been doing PC repair for 10 years. In that time I have learned that a Symantec product is not a good product, excepting their uninstallers which I recommend to everyone.

I have been using Acronis True Image to deploy images of the current installation to other drives meant for the same machine without a problem. You can use it to put XP to different machines if you want with some fiddling about but not Vist or Win 7 without the Extras you can buy (like Universal Restore) from them. I trust their products as they always work. One problem you will face when backing up using True Image is that if the drive has faults on it already, the backup will fail. So, before you do a backup using it (and you CAN download a trial that will allow you to do it), you need to, assuming you cant just attach the drive to another computer, open My Computer (or Computer depending on your OS) and then right click on C and select Propterties, go to Tools and Check Disk and tick both boxes and start it. At this point it will say it cant do it and ask to schedule for next boot. Say YES and reboot it, let the check finish and then do the backup to an external drive.

After that is done, go into Start (depending on OS the word START may not be there) then All Programs and Acronis then Acronis True Image Home then Tools and Utilities and choose to make Bootable Media which is basically a CD to boot from. Now shut the machine down, take out the original drive and put the new one in while keeping that CD you made in the drive. Turn the machine on and it will boot from the CD. Choose Restore and point it to the spot on the external drive where the image is that you made for backup purposes above. Tell it to restore that.

Time passes and eventually it finishes. You reboot and extract the CD and it boots normally into Windows. At this point, go into My Computer (or Computer) and check the size available on your drive is the right size according to the new hard drive and not the old size of the old one. If you have a bigger drive you may find it actually doesnt allocate part of the drive. All you have to do is use Windows own tools to extend the drive to fully use the space and you are done.

One last thing – problems on your hard drive may JUST be physical sector errors. People dont understand that when a laptop with a normal hard drive is running, you have a spinning disk so you do NOT turn it with force to a different orientation and you avoid things like tucking it under your arm unless it is asleep or off and the drive not spinning. The Law of Angular Momentum applies to hard drisk drives that spin. That means that when you savagely turn the orientation of a laptop from level to something else, the spinning disk doesnt immediately turn. It resists a different orientation. This CAN lead to damage and has, many times, that I have had to repair. A lot of the time a simple disk check as I described above fixes everything but not all the time. If you DO put another drive in, make sure the new drive gets treated softly. You wouldnt grab your desktop computer, while running and change its orientation from a tower standing up to laying on it’s side, quickly and expect it to be OK every single time you do that, right? Laptops are the same.

Greg.

Reply | Quote

I’ve also been using Acronis for a few years, and are quite happy with it.
Some backup rules:
1. Have backups in different places (“grandfather” off-site (updated less regularly – say monthly), “father” on-site, updated regularly (say daily),
2. Have different backup forms – I use Acronis for daily on-site, but have an off-site portable hard disk with a file-by-file copy, and a Blu-Ray (DVD would be fine also) file copy of just data.
3. Always always check your backups.

Reply | Quote

Have been using Acronis from XP through Vista to Win7 satisfactorily. Created a self-booting CD of True Image Home 11 and use it to clone primary drive to an identical secondary drive (internal). Can then boot from the secondary drive either by changing the boot sequence in software or by changing the SATA cables.
Has saved my bacon several times when I’ve loaded something that fouls up the system or acquired a virus or taken some other stupid action. Just boot from the secondary drive (which now becomes the primary), confirm that it still works as desired and clone it back to the old primary. Can also just copy (drag & drop) individual folders or files from the secondary back to the primary when I do an unwise deletion.
Full cloning operation takes about 20 minutes on my system. Chose the self-booting CD route because DI seemed complicated, slow and a little flakey when operating from within XP (with an older version of DI) and haven’t tried that route with later versions.

Reply | Quote

Buy an external dock.
It should have USB and eSata sockets (for cable going to your PC).
Buy a Seagate 3.5″ drive (any size, except the Series 11 1TB drive).
Shove the drive vertically into the dock (it sits there in the cool open air)
Go to the Seagte web site and download the Free DiscWizard program.
I believe the latest version must be installed.
Do that and then create a bootable CD.
You can leave the program installed, if you like, but that is not necessary, as all you need from now on is the bootable CD.
The docks cost about $30
I do not understand why everyone is not using them, as they are brilliant.
Rob
PS The external dock, is for storing the images that you create.

Reply | Quote

I probably use partitions a bit more than the average user.

27596-Partitions

BootIt NG is the swiss army knife of disk tools. Years ago I downloaded the 30-day fully functional free trial, and I got hooked. It’s tiny, and even though I’ve been using it for years I have yet to utilize all its capabilities.

The simple beauty of it is that there is a single, straightforward user interface that does it all. I can image, copy, resize, slide, multi-boot, BCD edit, etc. etc. all from a single interface. And it runs outside of Windows, which is my #1 priority for working with hard drives.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

I probably use partitions a bit more than the average user.

27596-Partitions

…

The simple beauty of it is that there is a single, straightforward user interface that does it all. I can image, copy, resize, slide, multi-boot, BCD edit, etc. etc. all from a single interface. And it runs outside of Windows, which is my #1 priority for working with hard drives.

If you’re literally working with partitions all the time, then perhaps having a single tool to work with is worth paying for. For the rest of us, the free tools work just fine (and, incidentally, also run outside Windows in their bootable CD configurations).

Reply | Quote

If you’re literally working with partitions all the time, then perhaps having a single tool to work with is worth paying for. For the rest of us, the free tools work just fine (and, incidentally, also run outside Windows in their bootable CD configurations).

No, I’m not literally working with partitions all the time. I am, however, working with drive images on a very regular and frequent basis as my primary method of backup. Same tool. I dual-boot, and use a boot manager. Same tool. If I decide to play with Linux again (it’s about progressed enough to see what’s up) and triple-boot, same tool.

If I do decide to play with Linux again and want to make a partition for it, same tool.

$34.95 several years ago, one time. Every minor version update since then has been free. There hasn’t been a major version update – it’s that good at what it does, and it does a lot. I’m on 1.87, which was made available in November 2009.

And I want something that runs outside Windows all the time. I want byte-for-byte partition imaging, nothing else. I have used BootIt NG (and a couple of totally legal techniques) to move Retail XP Pro to a completely different motherboard/CPU/RAM/Drive and not trigger Windows validation. The only items that were not changed were the case and PSU.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

No, I’m not literally working with partitions all the time. I am, however, working with drive images on a very regular and frequent basis as my primary method of backup. Same tool. I dual-boot, and use a boot manager. Same tool. If I decide to play with Linux again (it’s about progressed enough to see what’s up) and triple-boot, same tool.

I really, really do understand that you like BootIt, believe me. I’m just not that impressed myself, because the free tools that I mentioned handle all my needs very satisfactorily (which include all of what you described above, save that I prefer to handle multi-boot management using either a version of GRUB or Windows’ own facilities: I don’t know whether the current free version of PPM handles multi-booting, but the older version that I got for free does if I wanted it to).

And I want something that runs outside Windows all the time.

Interesting: I’d consider that a significant drawback, since I frequently use both PPM and Disc Wizard within Windows to check partition characteristics, copy partitions (usually being careful to be sure that no data on them is being used at the time, though the programs can handle that), partition and populate new disks for use elsewhere, mount saved images to extract files from them, etc.

I want byte-for-byte partition imaging, nothing else.

That’s a MAJOR drawback if you really mean it literally, because instead of imaging (and compressing) only the active data within the partition (which is frequently much smaller than the partition size itself) you also image every byte of garbage as well (plus unneeded data like pagefile.sys and hiberfile.sys). True byte-by-byte images are primarily useful for imaging partitions whose content the imaging utility doesn’t understand well enough to perform such pruning upon.

I have used BootIt NG (and a couple of totally legal techniques) to move Retail XP Pro to a completely different motherboard/CPU/RAM/Drive and not trigger Windows validation. The only items that were not changed were the case and PSU.

Hmmm. That should only be possible if you used mostly identical components in the new box – otherwise, something in BootIt is doing something decidedly ILlegal (given the EULA) with the Microsoft data during the move. I have moved a retail XP system to a totally DIFFERENT hardware setup legally, but it required reactivation (which Microsoft was happy to provide) – and I seriously doubt that using BootIt would have avoided that requirement.

Out of curiosity, does BootIt provide control over the number of ‘boot sectors’ used at the start of a FAT32 partition and also provide the location of the first data sector as part of the partition’s properties? The latter was the reason I had to expand my tool set to include EASEUS Partition Master recently, because I was interested in manually creating suitably-aligned but old-style (pseudo-cylinder-aligned) partitions on an Advanced Format drive to optimize small-write performance of older systems while maintaining layout compatibility with older partitioning tools (which worked out fine but required that information and control; NTFS partitions only required their start sectors to be suitably aligned).

Reply | Quote

I really, really do understand that you like BootIt, believe me. I’m just not that impressed myself, because the free tools that I mentioned handle all my needs very satisfactorily (which include all of what you described above, save that I prefer to handle multi-boot management using either a version of GRUB or Windows’ own facilities: I don’t know whether the current free version of PPM handles multi-booting, but the older version that I got for free does if I wanted it to).

“Tools” vs “Tool”. I use only one tool. And it’s a very tiny tool – will fit on a single floppy disk with room to spare. I have it on CD, but I normally use it from its own 8MB (you can’t make an NTFS partition any smaller) partition on one of my hard drives. BootIt NG can take over GRUB in a reboot, one mouse click, and another reboot. GRUB then becomes one of BootIt NG’s boot options. It can do the same with Windows boot loader.

And I want something that runs outside Windows all the time.

Interesting: I’d consider that a significant drawback, since I frequently use both PPM and Disc Wizard within Windows to check partition characteristics, copy partitions (usually being careful to be sure that no data on them is being used at the time, though the programs can handle that), partition and populate new disks for use elsewhere, mount saved images to extract files from them, etc.

I usually get my partitions the way I want them early on. I’ve been at this for a bit. I don’t often have to do anything more with them. I already pretty much know their charactistics. If I should want to extract a single file from a partition image, Terabyte has a free utility that will run in Windows called TBIView which can open a BootIt NG drive image in an explorer window and allow single (or multiple) files and/or folders to be extracted and saved to any location. I’ve downloaded and installed it, and ran it just to see how well it works (quite well), but I’ve never really needed it that I can recall. I may have used it once.

I want byte-for-byte partition imaging, nothing else.

That’s a MAJOR drawback if you really mean it literally, because instead of imaging (and compressing) only the active data within the partition (which is frequently much smaller than the partition size itself) you also image every byte of garbage as well (plus unneeded data like pagefile.sys and hiberfile.sys). True byte-by-byte images are primarily useful for imaging partitions whose content the imaging utility doesn’t understand well enough to perform such pruning upon.

What you see as a MAJOR drawback is not how BootIt NG actually works, or the way I work. If you’ll note my partitions.png image in the earlier post, you’ll see that I have my page files on their own dedicated partitions. No need to image those partitions at all. My OS partitions are 60GB, but if you’ll notice, Ultimate is 77% free space, and Premium is 70% free space. The Users partitions for each OS are 40GB, and they are 90% and 96% free. Only the OS and Users partitions need imaging regularly. The other partitions need imaging infrequently, or not at all (as in the pagefile partitions).

If I image two partitions of exactly the same size, one partition 50% empty and the other partition 90% empty, they don’t each take the same amount of time to image. The 90% empty partition will image in a flash compared to the 50% empty partition. The speed is pretty much directly related to the amount of data on the partition, and the slack space between file fragments. And I always cleanup and defragment before I make a backup drive image.

I have used BootIt NG (and a couple of totally legal techniques) to move Retail XP Pro to a completely different motherboard/CPU/RAM/Drive and not trigger Windows validation. The only items that were not changed were the case and PSU.

Hmmm. That should only be possible if you used mostly identical components in the new box – otherwise, something in BootIt is doing something decidedly ILlegal (given the EULA) with the Microsoft data during the move. I have moved a retail XP system to a totally DIFFERENT hardware setup legally, but it required reactivation (which Microsoft was happy to provide) – and I seriously doubt that using BootIt would have avoided that requirement.

When I said completely different, I meant completely different. I went from a Socket 7 motherboard with an AMD K6-III 450 MHz processor with PC 133 RAM (yes, it ran XP rather well, actually) to an Intel D875PBZ motherboard with a P4 3.0E processor with DDR RAM. Did you not read the part about “and a couple of totally legal techniques”? There are a couple of things I do in Windows that do not violate the EULA in any way before I make the drive image. BootIt NG doesn’t do anything illegal, and neither do I.

I was running it on the Socket 7 setup just to see if it could, and it ran rather well (the motherboard supported 1GB of total RAM). When I tired of playing with it, I decided to try something I had been contemplating for awhile about changing machines. I tried it, and it worked as I had suspected it would; it did not trigger Windows validation.

When I get enough spare hardware collected up, I want to try it with Windows 7. I’m fairly certain it will work in 7, too.

As for you last question, BootIT NG will let you view and edit your MBR to your hearts content.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

“Tools” vs “Tool”. I use only one tool.

I really, really did get that too, several posts ago. It just doesn’t mean much to me, given that I use all sorts of different tools for all sorts of different things that BootIt does NOT do, so using two tools rather than one for the things that BootIt DOES do is no big deal.

If I should want to extract a single file from a partition image, Terabyte has a free utility that will run in Windows called TBIView which can open a BootIt NG drive image in an explorer window and allow single (or multiple) files and/or folders to be extracted and saved to any location.

So that would be a second tool – but since you say you don’t need this facility, you don’t count it as such. I DO use this facility, so that would be a second tool for me if I used BootIt rather than the two tools that I’ve been describing.

What you see as a MAJOR drawback is not how BootIt NG actually works, or the way I work.

Then that’s because you misspoke in describing BootIt as performing “byte-for-byte partition imaging” rather than doing what most other imaging programs do: preserving only the relevant bytes in the partition for partitions whose internal structure they understand (modulo the grain of the understanding – e.g., whether they also ignore certain system files).

If you’ll note my partitions.png image in the earlier post, you’ll see that I have my page files on their own dedicated partitions. No need to image those partitions at all.

I prefer to use a shared, contiguous, fixed-size page file embedded in one partition, plus minimal, extendable page files embedded with each system that seldom are touched (because the shared file satisfies most needs): it cuts down on partition clutter and space use without compromising performance noticeably. If I were really concerned about performance, I’d use a fixed-size contiguous page file embedded in roughly the middle of the partition otherwise getting the most disk access.

My OS partitions are 60GB, but if you’ll notice, Ultimate is 77% free space, and Premium is 70% free space. The Users partitions for each OS are 40GB, and they are 90% and 96% free.

That was my point about the drawbacks of “byte-for-byte partition imaging”: you save a great many useless bits which compress well only if you’ve zero-filled the unused space (and even then you still have to READ it while imaging).

If I image two partitions of exactly the same size, one partition 50% empty and the other partition 90% empty, they don’t each take the same amount of time to image. The 90% empty partition will image in a flash compared to the 50% empty partition. The speed is pretty much directly related to the amount of data on the partition, and the slack space between file fragments.

Then BootIt is very clearly NOT performing “byte-for-byte partition imaging.”

When I said completely different, I meant completely different. I went from a Socket 7 motherboard with an AMD K6-III 450 MHz processor with PC 133 RAM (yes, it ran XP rather well, actually) to an Intel D875PBZ motherboard with a P4 3.0E processor with DDR RAM. Did you not read the part about “and a couple of totally legal techniques”? There are a couple of things I do in Windows that do not violate the EULA in any way before I make the drive image. BootIt NG doesn’t do anything illegal, and neither do I.

Since Microsoft’s activation/validation software uses the hardware configuration to determine whether an XP system is activated/valid, you’ve clearly subverted its operation if you’ve done what you claim. Without a description of those “totally valid and legal techniques”, that claim is suspect.

I was running it on the Socket 7 setup just to see if it could, and it ran rather well (the motherboard supported 1GB of total RAM).

That does not surprise me: Win2K will run fairly well on such a system, even with only half that RAM.

As for you last question, BootIT NG will let you view and edit your MBR to your hearts content.

My last question had nothing whatsoever to do with the MBR.

Reply | Quote

I use all sorts of different tools for all sorts of different things

I’ve heard about “whoever dies with the most toys wins”, but I’m not interested. I’m more of the “less is more” type.

Then that’s because you misspoke in describing BootIt as performing “byte-for-byte partition imaging”

Are you confusing “copying” a partition with “making an image” of a partition? BING’s “copy” function creates an exact copy of the entire partition, wheras the “image” function creates a compressed image of the contents of the partition which can be saved to a file. And in reading my statement again, I did mispeak. What I should have said is that BING does a byte-for-byte validation of the drive image that it creates.

I prefer to use a shared, contiguous, fixed-size page file embedded in one partition, plus minimal, extendable page files embedded with each system that seldom are touched (because the shared file satisfies most needs).

You seem to misinterpret Windows use of the page file. Regardless of the number of page files you have, Windows will always use the file on the least accessed disk. If your big file is on the busiest disk, your little extendable file on the least accessed disk is the one being used.

Since Microsoft’s activation/validation software uses the hardware configuration to determine whether an XP system is activated/valid, you’ve clearly subverted its operation if you’ve done what you claim. Without a description of those “totally valid and legal techniques”, that claim is suspect.

Oh it’s real, all right, and completely legitimate; no subverting going on at all. Windows it totally being Windows throughout the operations. Consider very carefully your statement there (except for the subverting part). You might be on to something…

My last question had nothing whatsoever to do with the MBR.

What kind of processor are you using that can find the boot sector without first consulting the MBR?

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

I’ve heard about “whoever dies with the most toys wins”, but I’m not interested. I’m more of the “less is more” type. [/quote]

As I observed, BootIt would NOT be ‘less’ for me, since it does not do everything of interest to me that the two utilities I prefer to use do. I’m not into toys per se: I just don’t mind using different toys for different jobs when there’s no overall-better option available.

Are you confusing “copying” a partition with “making an image” of a partition?

No, I am not. ‘Copying’ a partition copies every byte in the partition from the existing partition to a new partition instance, though it can be (and usually is) used loosely to mean copying every RELEVANT byte of the partition to the new partition instance (possibly adjusting the resident file system to a new partition size in the process) – which obviously is only possible for partition contents which the copying utility understands sufficiently well to treat this way.

‘Imaging’ a partition takes every byte in the partition and converts it losslessly to another (usually compressed) file-structured form suitable for later access or restoration, though it, too, can be (and usually is) used loosely to mean taking only every RELEVANT byte of the partition and converting it losslessly to another usually compressed form suitable for later access or restoration (and again this requires that the imaging utility understand the partition’s content sufficiently well to treat it this way).

When the copying or imaging utility does NOT understand the partition content it has no choice but to copy or image it in its entirety. This is usually called something like a ‘byte for byte’ copy or image specifically to distinguish it from the more typical (and as noted looser) usage that includes only RELEVANT bytes. It is also typically offered as a copy or image option in cases where the utility may THINK that it understands the partition content sufficiently well to handle it selectively but the user, for whatever reason, prefers a byte-for-byte approach.

The bottom line is that partitions and the structures which occupy them are not the same thing. The partition includes every byte between its start and its end, and thus a true ‘copy’ or ‘image’ must include every such byte. The internal structure imposed on the partition, by contrast, may include a lot of irrelevant space which can be compressed out of a (loosely-defined) ‘copy’ or ‘image’ without loss of information.

[/FONT]You seem to misinterpret Windows use of the page file. Regardless of the number of page files you have, Windows will always use the file on the least accessed disk. If your big file is on the busiest disk, your little extendable file on the least accessed disk is the one being used.

I do understand that, but I was referring to a single-disk system (or one in which no page files are defined on other disks: while I often have multiple disks running together, all but one are usually transitory) – which operates as I described it.
[/FONT]

Oh it’s real, all right, and completely legitimate; no subverting going on at all. Windows it totally being Windows throughout the operations. Consider very carefully your statement there (except for the subverting part). You might be on to something…

Well, if Microsoft wrote its activation/validation software at a high enough level for someone to write legitimate drivers using documented interfaces that could lie selectively to it (while treating other requests normally), that could arguably be termed ‘legal’ (though it would still constitute ‘subverting’ the facilities). Since you seem to want to be cute about the details here, I’ll simply observe that whatever you may be doing could equally be done with other utilities than BootIt, so does not constitute the kind of advantage for that utility that you originally implied.

What kind of processor are you using that can find the boot sector without first consulting the MBR?

Once again you appear to be confusing a partition with the structures that occupy it. The MBR only specifies a primary partition’s location and how large it is (and its ‘type’ and whether it’s ‘active’), whereas my question was solely related to the the CONTENT of a FAT32-structured partition – specifically, what information a partition management utility might provide about the offset of the first cluster of a FAT32 file system within its partition, and what control over that offset it might offer by tweaking the number of internal ‘boot sectors’ (the initial sectors of the partition in which partition-specific boot information resides if indeed the partition is bootable at all, else they just contain basic file system characterization data) preceding the first FAT.

Reply | Quote

I was going to reply, but you seem to be so pleased with yourself that I am pleased to leave you that way.

As Ted would say,
Have a great day!

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

You guys are starting to get very redundant. Enough is enough. Neither of you will change the others mind. Use the app you wish to and stop with the back and forth banter, please. It almost seems you have hijacked the original op’s thread.

Reply | Quote

You guys are starting to get very redundant. Enough is enough.

What’s ‘enough’ for one person may constitute a continuing discussion for another. That’s why some people stick with a thread while others drift elsewhere (which IMO is preferable to attempting to control its content because THEY don’t happen to be interested in it any more).

Neither of you will change the others mind.

I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. I joined this discussion because bbearren appeared to be inclined to dismiss other equally-legitimate viewpoints in favor of his own, and I attempted to make this more evident to him. But while some of the back-and-forth has centered on that, it has also brought in other technical topics of interest to me (and apparently to him, since he’s kept responding and says he would have continued to but for your interjection).

Of course, if the WS lounge has strict policies against thread-creep, then we should both apologize for having violated them. Otherwise, I see no problem here.

Reply | Quote

(… says he would have continued to but for your interjection).

Actually, I had typed my post, left to get something to drink and saw upon my return that I had not clicked the “Submit Reply” button. It was only after I finally clicked the button that I saw Ted’s post. He had not yet posted when I first clicked on the “Reply” button.

My quotation of Ted’s signature phrase was purely coincidental, meant as a “goodbye”.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

X2 for BING as well. Used it for many years.

Here is another imaging/backup product that has a free version. Check it out.
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

Reply | Quote

Here is another imaging/backup product that has a free version. Check it out.
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

Turns out that Paragon Partition Manager 11 Personal Special Edition is available for free today – see http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/paragon-partition-manger-11-personal-special-english/ (this appears actually to be a 2010 version, but it’s still current).

A quick glance suggests that it does all or at least most of what’s been reported that BootIt NG does, plus more. I’ve been very happy with Paragon’s products in the past, and expect to be equally happy with this one.

Unlike some 24-hour specials, once you’ve extracted the installer and obtained the product keys for this (which you must do today) you can install it later – on systems going all the way back to Win2K – and also make bootable CD/DVD/flash versions for use outside Windows.

Reply | Quote

Just to point out the obvious, Steve1951 accomplished what he wanted to do in the OP for free.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Reply | Quote

Just to point out the obvious, Steve1951 accomplished what he wanted to do in the OP for free.

In fact, he noted that he had accomplished his original goal less than 1/3 of the way through this thread. In that post, he then raised a new question:

what to use to make this easier next time an OS drive fails

– and discussing THAT question (unless he will then be eligible to conduct a SECOND free trial of BING) is what the balance of this thread has been about (right up to the suggestions that High Sierra and I just offered).

As long as we’re pointing out the obvious…

Reply | Quote