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Cloning Win XP help

InverseOfNeo

InverseOfNeo

Diamond Member
I have a Lenovo laptop running Win XP SP3 and bought Acronis True Image and a new HDD. I got a 2.5" hdd enclosure put the new hard drive in there and cloned the hard drive. It seems to clone the hard drive successfully (including Lenovo's recovery partition).

When I put the new hard drive in the laptop (taking out the old one), it doesn't boot. It sits there with a blinking cursor.

From what I have gathered when I googled how to do this process, some people have said that I may have to run an OS recovery using the Windows CD. The only windows cd I have is SP1, though I don't think this is the issue. The repair windows option is not available so I (using the results from google) went into the recovery console. For some reason it thinks that the Lenovo recovery partition is the c drive and the windows partition is the e drive. I am able to log in to the e drive. But when I run bootcfg /list it only shows the Lenovo partition. So I can't run bootcfg /add to use the windows partition.

I tried deleting the Lenovo partition (only 11 GB, and my old hard drive wasn't even half full so I won't miss the space). Then I get a non-system disk error when I try to boot into Windows.

Any help is appreciated. I think I need to somehow change the partition that bootcfg is looking at and things would work but I can't figure out how.

Thanks!


Update:
I tried the clone again. Same thing happens when I try to boot into windows. Again, I have to go into the recovery console. This time it only sees the windows partition. Running bootcfg /list, it looks right. I tried fixmbr but it doesn't help.
 
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you might have an older model lenovo that has trickery to hide a recovery partition.

post your lenovo model - older lenovo's most definitely caused much headaches in this respect - newer ones are cool
 
I have a Lenovo R61. It's only a few years old.

Update:
I tried the clone again. Same thing happens when I try to boot into windows. Again, I have to go into the recovery console. This time it only sees the windows partition. Running bootcfg /list, it looks right. I tried fixmbr but it doesn't help.
 
What version of TrueImage and what is your procedure? I do this weekly with 2 Lenovo Thinkpads and never have had a problem. When cloning I always use the TrueImage bootable Rescue CD it prepares - never from within Windows.
 
corkyg said:
What version of TrueImage and what is your procedure? I do this weekly with 2 Lenovo Thinkpads and never have had a problem. When cloning I always use the TrueImage bootable Rescue CD it prepares - never from within Windows.
Click to expand...

Yea, I have True Image Home 2011 and made a Rescue CD. Booted from the CD then used the clone disk tool from there.
 
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Steltek said:
Did you disable the IBM PreDesktop Area before cloning?
Click to expand...

When cloning with the bootable media, that never is an issue. Most of that is in the BIOS anyway. I clone my T60 and T510 regularly, and in that preliminary boot cycle, I hit F12 which gives me boot choice - optical or USB.

Next, do everything in the clone procedure manually - never automatic. Before cloning, it is a good idea to optimize the source drive.
 
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corkyg said:
When cloning with the bootable media, that never is an issue. Most of that is in the BIOS anyway. I clone my T60 and T510 regularly, and in that preliminary boot cycle, I hit F12 which gives me boot choice - optical or USB.
Click to expand...

Your computer may not have a protected partition, as newer ones don't.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Predesktop_area

The BIOS is actually causing the entire problem in this case, because it is hiding part of the hard drive - the HPA (host protected area, i.e. the same thing that Lenovo refers to as the IBM PreDesktop Area) - from detection by limiting the available geometry of the hard drive.

This is the reason that True Image, Ghost, or any other cloning software can't detect or access that hidden partition - as far as the software is concerned, the BIOS is lying about the geometry of the hard disk to to the computer, i.e. telling it that area of the hard disk doesn't even exist. In order to access that area, you have to turn the protection off. Lenovo is actually nice enough to provide a way to do this, other companies (Dell) not so much.

Some manufacturers (again, particularly Dell, because their BIOSes support HPA but usually don't have a HPA deactivation option in their BIOS setup) have even been known in a pinch to use BIOS HPA settings to hide the fact that a computer model actually has a larger hard disk in it than advertised.
 
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try making an image of the C drive, then restore that image back to the new drive, rather than cloning it to the other drive.
Ive had the same flashing cursor problem many times when doing a clone, but rarley when doing an image and restoring it
 
I'm trying what DrGreen said. If it works, great... if not, then I'm where I am now. And then I'll try what Steltek said, though I think I tried that and couldn't figure it out but maybe I wasn't looking for it right.
 
All good points, esp Teltek and Dr Green. After a lot of study on my Lenovos, I can attest that at least5 from the T60 on, cloning works fine. It is much faster than backup/restore of an image.

Probably some of it is because I change my HDDs. My T60 came with Vista, and I have gone through 3 HDD changes, and have altered the partitioning. I have duplicate HDDs for each Lenovo, all mounted in rubber railed caddies. I clone from the notebook to an external eSATA drive. Then, swap HDDs in the Lenovo and clone from the eSATA external to the new internal drive. I also have other HDDs connected, my data drive being in the Ultrabay HDD adapter.

That is why I always clone manually because Acronis has no clue as to which way I am going or which drives will be involved. Here is a photo of the final Acronis screen before PROCEED. It shows all the patitions including the unmounted Lenovo "blue" key one.

clone1.jpg


And this is what Windows sees:

T510HDD1.jpg


And, this view by PerfectDisk 11 shows the unmounted Lenovo partition - a non-lettered drive, but not hidden. (Only hidden in Windows.)

T510HDD2.JPG


IOW, cloning is not a one size fits all operation. I do it every week on 4 machines - never a problem, but it is tailored to fit my usage.
 
corky, that's interesting. I wonder why my clone wouldn't work. Honestly, it doesn't matter much as I probably wont be getting a new hard drive for my laptop again. Though I suppose I never know. This laptop is the most solid laptop I've had; still works great except the spacebar can get a bit wonky at times.
 
@Corkyg

The fact you clone your laptop drives on a regular basis gives me a chance to check out something I have always been curious about.

I also clone (not image) on a very regular basis and have never had problem one ever, but I have never cloned a netbook or laptop with all their hiddens/superhiddens/recovery managers/O/S partitions/driver partitions, "return to out of box condition" partitions, etc.

Every OEM is different and has their own proprietary way of doing things
Heres just a partial list of available partition formats avail to OEMs
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html

Anyways heres a link to a full 30 day trial of the bit for bit cloning software I use. I would be grateful if you used it next - you dont have to actually clone, just let me know if it PICKED UP the hiddens/no letters etc., shows in the first window after selecting clone entire drive, and maybe a screenshot.
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/
Please note the one limitation in the resizing when using the trial vers.

thnx
 
Thnx Bankster. I don't install my cloning software or even attempot to run it from Windows. Unless I can put it on a bootable thumbdrive, it won't work for me.

However, in the interest of "science" I will temprarily install it and have a look and try to get a screenshot or photo of what it sees. That's a fair question. Resizing or proportional cloning is not an issue for me as I always go 320GB to 320GB (As Is). Will check it out.
 
OK - I did more than look. I found a spare 320GB drive and decided to do it all. I downloaded Casper 6, installed it, and then I placed the mule 320 in the Ultrabay adapter and ran Casper's Copy Drive.

It was easy to follow and designate the Ultrabay drive as the target. Since it was 320 to 320, there was no problem with a different size. It was all done within Windows.

Here is what Casper showed me - different format, but useful:

casper1.jpg


It went through the complete clone/copy cycle.

I then powered down and removed the regular internal HDD, and using the F12 option, booted to the Ultrabay drive created by Casper. Perfect boot. No problems at all. All partitions were copied including the Lenovo unmounted one.

I saw the availability of a CD ROM disk, but that won't cut it. It has to be on a flash device because with Ultrabay HDD, the optical is not there. But, since it is done within Windows, that is not a deal breaker.

The bad news is, it took about 25 minutes to do the job, and that was internal SATA to internal SATA. With the TI thumbdrive boot to the Acronis Linux interface, and Windows bypassed, the job takes only 9.5 minutes. That is a big difference.

But - if time is not a factor, Casper 6 does the job nicely. BTW, years ago I used to use Casper's ancestor, Drive2Drive. 🙂
 
Thats good to know - even tho it did NOT recognize the OEM partitions, because it was a full bit for bit clone, it copied everything anyways.
Makes my day - heh

As far as taking 15.5 extra minutes - FWIW casper is really designed to run from within a fully working Windows, whilst you are surfing the web and listening to music on WMP.
In explorer tab you can also schedule cloning like when you are sleeping.

But anyhow, appreciate the effort on my behalf.
Have a nice day.

Edit: Upon reflection, had you not gone thru with the clone, I would have been left thinking casper wasn't up to the job, because the lenovo struff was not enumerated in any window sequence - lucky me you answered!
 
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Well, it evidently did recognize the OEM partition, because it cloned perfectly. I would say it reflected the Windows view - and that is why I like to bypass the OS when cloning. :_)

Another good plus for Casper (the "friendly ghost") - it is cheaper than Acronis. 🙂
 
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