Issue with Upgrading/Cloning HD, 250gb--->1tb, Win7

[Attic]

I have an old Seagate 250gb HD that I want to upgrade to a 1tb WD Black drive. I have used gparted and Acronis True Image 2010 with no success.

250gb drive has two partitions, one for the OS, one for everything else. I am cloning it to the 1tb and the 1tb will have two partitions as well, but the partitions are different sizes from what the 250gb has.

When I use gparted I get a confirmation that everything copied over and was applied, but I get boot errors. Repairing with Win7 system disc gives a botched desktop that doesn't go as far as loading explorer.exe. Acronis True Image 2010 applies the image of the 250gb drive's OS partition (the image is stored on a external) to the 1tb, but again the system won't boot from the 1tb without issues.

I have done the same process multiple times on WinXP and did not encounter any issues. Is there something unique I need to consider when upgrading my HD for Win7 use? Any other programs or techniques you guys would reccomend I use to get my desired result? I'm considering Clonezilla, Easeus, as well as Windows 7 built in image backup utility. I prefer not to use Windows 7 built in as it requires a 3rd drive when upgrading between 2 hard drives (linux distros don't need this) and my external would require some data pruning at this point.

 

[FishAk]

I've had very good luck with Macrium Reflect (free edition).

One thing you might try, if you think the different partition sizes are giving you trouble, is to make them the same size on your bigger drive. Once you're up and running, use Partition Wizard (free edition) to move/expand the partitions.

 

[Attic]

Thanks for advice. Will try that tonight.

 

[RebateMonger]

Did your cloning software also clone the 100 MB "System Reserved" partition that Win7 puts on disks that haven't been previously formatted? Upgraded Win7 systems won't have it, but if Win7 was originally put on an empty disk, you'll have one that needs to be moved along with the other partitions.

 

[Attic]

Did your cloning software also clone the 100 MB "System Reserved" partition that Win7 puts on disks that haven't been previously formatted? Upgraded Win7 systems won't have it, but if Win7 was originally put on an empty disk, you'll have one that needs to be moved along with the other partitions.

That little System Reserved partition has caused some issue in the past for me. In this case I installed Win7 onto a HD that was already formatted, so the small partition Win7 creates otherwise wasn't a problem.

I'm up and running on the Western Digital now. Had to be picky with the utility I used because my mobo has just 2 SATA ports which won't fit a bootable CD and two HD's, GParted I was able to load to ram and plug in the 2nd HD after it loaded. What worked for me was EASUS Todo Backup 1.1. This allowed me to do the cloning within windows. The partition sizes were kept the same for this process, I didn't see an option to change the partition sizes in Todo Backup. Was able to extend my non OS partion using Win7 Disk management, was not able to extend the OS partition, would need partition wizard or parted magic for that it looks like.

Not sure why it was such an issue to get the Win7 up and running after cloning with gparted and Acronis, glad its working now though. Thanks for tips and help.

 

[mv2devnull]

Had to be picky with the utility I used because my mobo has just 2 SATA ports which won't fit a bootable CD and two HD's ...

I presume that there is no "boot from USB" possibility in your mobo, for else you would have booted a Live distro from USB?

 

[Blain]

What worked for me was EASUS Todo Backup 1.1. This allowed me to do the cloning within windows. The partition sizes were kept the same for this process, I didn't see an option to change the partition sizes in Todo Backup. Was able to extend my non OS partion using Win7 Disk management, was not able to extend the OS partition, would need partition wizard or parted magic for that it looks like.

Just use EaseUS Partition Master to resize your partition.

 

[FishAk]

I like Easeus Partition Master, but the free version only works on 32 bit. Partition Wizard supports 64 and 32 bit. Both work very good.

 

[Attic]

I presume that there is no "boot from USB" possibility in your mobo, for else you would have booted a Live distro from USB?

Actually there is, i've used it in the past installing an OS and flashing. I was using UNetbootin to try and load live distro's to my flashdrive, but when attempting to boot from USB I consitently got "BootMGR" not found and then couldn't proceed. From UNetbootin's webpage i gathered that the program prepares the USB fully, but maybe i'm missing a crucial step to prepare the USB stick to be made bootable? My success with booting from USB has been inconsistent. What do I need in addition to dumping an .iso contents to the usb stick to make it bootable? If I could just keep the usb stick bootable and dump/delete distros to it, i'd find that useful.

I like Easeus Partition Master, but the free version only works on 32 bit. Partition Wizard supports 64 and 32 bit. Both work very good.

Nice, thanks.

 

[mv2devnull]

Well, I usually make Fedora Live USB from Fedora ...
perhaps:
http://www.linuxliveusb.com/

 

[joetekubi]

Actually there is, i've used it in the past installing an OS and flashing. I was using UNetbootin to try and load live distro's to my flashdrive, but when attempting to boot from USB I consitently got "BootMGR" not found and then couldn't proceed. From UNetbootin's webpage i gathered that the program prepares the USB fully, but maybe i'm missing a crucial step to prepare the USB stick to be made bootable? My success with booting from USB has been inconsistent. What do I need in addition to dumping an .iso contents to the usb stick to make it bootable? If I could just keep the usb stick bootable and dump/delete distros to it, i'd find that useful.

I always had very inconsistent results when trying to boot from usb until I discovered UNetbootin. It's possible that a distro might have trouble booting on your hardware (video especially), but you could always test that by burning a CD with that particular distro.

Just point UNetbootin application to a Linux live cd .iso file, and you should be good to go.

-joe

 

[0roo0roo]

That little System Reserved partition has caused some issue in the past for me. In this case I installed Win7 onto a HD that was already formatted, so the small partition Win7 creates otherwise wasn't a problem.

I'm up and running on the Western Digital now. Had to be picky with the utility I used because my mobo has just 2 SATA ports which won't fit a bootable CD and two HD's, GParted I was able to load to ram and plug in the 2nd HD after it loaded. What worked for me was EASUS Todo Backup 1.1. This allowed me to do the cloning within windows. The partition sizes were kept the same for this process, I didn't see an option to change the partition sizes in Todo Backup. Was able to extend my non OS partion using Win7 Disk management, was not able to extend the OS partition, would need partition wizard or parted magic for that it looks like.

Not sure why it was such an issue to get the Win7 up and running after cloning with gparted and Acronis, glad its working now though. Thanks for tips and help.

figured i'd update this since i went through this annoying process just now and had to trouble shoot.

easus does let you change the partition size, you simply drag the picture of the partitions around and stretch them, about as simple as it gets.

easus finally worked for me after clonezilla result failed to boot because my file system was imperfect or something grumble. had to check disk the thing.

 

[0roo0roo]

ok weird, seems after the clone all the data on each partition is at the end of the partition

guess that is the default behavior for easeus after you resize while cloning.


defrag time...

 

[corkyg]

That's why I like TI (2011.) There are three selections - "As Is" - "Proportional" - and "Custom." When going from smaller to larger or vice versa, choose proportional and it is all automatic - the 250 GB is cloned to the 1 TB proportionally.

Custom lets the user define partition sizes up front - never after the process starts.

My golden rule of cloning . . . I always use the cloneware from bootable media, not from within Windows.

 

[RaiderJ]

I've always used Clonezilla to copy an old drive to a new drive, then I boot up GParted and adjust sizes as necessary.

 

[squick3n]

I have a RAID0 set up, and have had trouble with both Paragon (free) and Acronis (trial) not seeing my array when using the USB bootable media. Is there something that will work from within Linux that can image my array?

Is the full version of Acronis better than the trial version?

 

[Emulex]

acronis easy migrate (30 days free trial) is the same thing the drive manufacturers (intel ) give you. does a great job. doesn't resize the win7 boot partition but does resize (down/up) the others in auto mode. always reliable.

for software raid do this:
clone to usb external drive (thus un-raiding the contents)
then boot that and clone to ssd.

works every time for me.

 

[squick3n]

It's a hardware RAID from with the motherboard option ROM. The array is visible from within Windows, just not when using the bootable CD or USB recovery CD they have you create. Seems like something with my setup since neither Paragon nor Acronis see it.

 

[Emulex]

wierd i've cloned raid-1 using soft-raid (AKA ICH9R) to usb external drive. then cloned external usb drive to ssd. no problems using acronis easy migrate.

ich9r is software raid-0

 

[squick3n]

Ah. I thought software RAID meant when you did it within Windows. I'm on an AMD board. Worst case is I have to reinstall Windows. I've also got an image with the native Win7 program

 

[maxP]

There is no need for third party tools.

Mount new drive and partition it.

Use Windows backup to backup and restore system drive to the new disk, all while you are still in windows.

Use bcdedit to correct the bcd in the new system partition:

bcdedit /store h:\boot\bcd /enum
bcdedit /store h:\boot\bcd /set {XXX-YYY-ZZZ} device   partition=H:
bcdedit /store h:\boot\bcd /set {XXX-YYY-ZZZ} osdevice partition=H:

Use diskpart or GUI disk manager to set new system partition active.

Detach old drive and boot to new drive for the first time

 

[Old Hippie]

I have a RAID0 set up, and have had trouble with both Paragon (free) and Acronis (trial) not seeing my array when using the USB bootable media

Weird but I may have found the problem.

Check out the limitations for the trial versions.

Clone disk is disabled and bootable media is restore only.

I thought they were exactly the same as a purchased version but I screwed-up.......again.

 

[squick3n]

Thanks for catching that. It would explain my issue. I think I'll give the a try since they seem to be most people's choice I really want to have faith in Windows 7's tool, but I've had so many issues with system restore in the past.

 

[Old Hippie]

I've been using Acronis for years and with the exception of some the "Series 10" versions, it been great.

Normally I just make my images from the desktop and I'm sure the trial version will work from there if ya just want to play with it and see how it works.

I've never had any problems restoring an image made from the desktop.

 

[FishAk]

Hiren's Boot CD has Macrium Reflect, TrueCrypt, and Partition Wizard.

Macrium Reflect installed under Windows, works great to create images right from the desktop. In the default mode, the images are compressed, and only the used space is copied, minus the page file, or restore points. This makes the image about half the size of the OS install- or less depending on the size of the page file or restore points.

If you keep your images in a Truecrypt container to control access, you can us Hiren's CD to mount the container, then run Macrium Reflect during the same session, to recover an image.

Since the partition isn't mounted, it's simple to use Partition Wizard to manipulate it, either before or after recovering the image.