Cloning Problems

[glaskow4]

Dell Inspirion / 1000 XP/SP3
Existing HDD extremely slow, ran Fujitsu’s diagnostics. Indicated problems on drive.
Bought Hitachi replacement and Apricorn upgrade kit.
Ran cloning program with “as is” to duplicate drive. Cloning program ends successfully.
Partition Magic can see both drives after cloning and they are duplicates.
Swap new into old. Cannot boot. Get as far as Loading PBR for descriptor (same message appears for both drives) with new drive, then nothing.
Swap old back in and PM can no longer see new drive. Message indicated bad creation.

Any help appreciated.

[EzyStvy]

Which cloning program did you use?

Many cloing apps insist that you shut down when the clone is complete - disconnect one drive before booting so as not to confuse the heck out which C drive to boot off of.

[glaskow4]

I used the program supplied with the Apricorn package. Called EZ Gig II.

The clone program did require shutdown between swaps. I did not swap drives on the fly. Complete shutdown and reboot.

[EzyStvy]

EZ Gig is a re-bagged version of Acronis I believe...(good stuff)


When you shutdown, did you unplug one of the drives?

[glaskow4]

After the successful cloning,when the system shutdown, I removed the old drive (from the laptop), removed (from the upgrade kit enclosure) the cloned drive, installed the cloned drive into the laptop and installed the old drive into the enclosure; then tried to reboot. Got the message "loading PBR for descriptor", then could go no further. Turned off the laptop. Removed the cloned drive from the laptop, removed the old drive from the enclosure, put the old drive back in the laptop, and the cloned drive into the enclosure. Reboot successful, although PM (from above post) had an error message that indicated PM could not read the drive and it was created incorrectly.

[glc]

Dell hard drives have multiple partitions. You have to use the expert mode with EZ-Gig to get a correct clone. The small diagnostics partition at the front is appoximately 32mb and has to come over exact size and exact placement. The recovery partition at the end is about 4gb and it also has to come over exact size and placement.

[glaskow4]

I was in expert mode and specified "as is" which, in my mind, should have created an exact duplicate. If that is not so, how does one go about creating the perfect clone?

BTW, thanks for the replies.

[glc]

As is only works with a totally identical drive. Others require partition size adjustments to keep the diagnostic and recovery partitions EXACTLY the same size.

[EM199Si]

Did you set the jumper to primary?

[glc]

The described kit doesn't need the jumper moved from default. These are laptop drives - and the kit is a USB adapter.

If the original drive is having problems, you may not be able to do a successful clone with anything.

Try recloning with the old drive in the enclosure and the new drive in the laptop.

[glaskow4]

1. I've tried to reclone several times thinking I've missed something. Each time it ends successfully but then I can't boot with the new drive in the laptop.

2. How would I get the system running with the new drive in the laptop and the old drive in the adapter if I can't boot with the new drive? Is there a way to boot EZ GIG II from the CD?

[glc]

Yes, it's bootable and that's the preferred way to do a clone. Cloning in Windows does not alsways work right.

[glaskow4]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Booting from the CD did it!!!:D

I could not have done it without all of the folks here suggestions!!

Greg