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Need help transferring Vista install to another HDD...hit a few snags

L

Liberator21

Golden Member


Here's my setup, I'm ready to part with my Raptor's, and I've been working all night to transfer this properly:

2xRaptor 74Gb RAID 0
WD 500Gb SataII --> 120Gb Partition for Vista, already formated
The remainder of the drive is in a used partition, with files I'm not willing to suffer through a complete reformat.

At first I tried just dragging and dropping (is there a more noob thing to do?)
Then I followed some very detailed instructions for ROBOCOPY from within the Vista install disk. Here are the steps I tried:

SHIFT + F10 from second screen in Vista DVD
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 0 (500Gb)
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION 2 (empty)
ACTIVE
LIST VOLUME


Now, C: is Raptor, E: is the partition on WD500Gb

I issued this command:

ROBOCOPY E:\ C:\ /e /efsraw /copyall /dcopy:t /r:0 /XJ

I could SWEAR this was the right command! The instructions I was reading was for transferring EVERY system file, hidden or encrypted it didn't matter.

Anyhow, it left 14Gb not transferred. I can get to the boot screen, even the user screen. But after that it's like a light pastel blue (vista) screen that never loads. Any advice?

I'm seriously thinking about reinstalling Vista on the partition, then restoring all of my other files from the RAID array. I just really didn't want to lose my settings and such.




Thanks!


 
That's not going to work, I don't think. You want to use a program like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. Copying every single file is not the same as copying every single sector as a 1:1 image like Acronis or Ghost can do.
 
Thanks Nocturnal...I just really didn't want to spend any money on this. There has to be a free way to do it right? Maybe those programs have a free trial or something.
 
Why don't you just use the Easy Transfer Wizard built into Vista? You can save everything from the first drive to an external drive or network share, and then pull it back over to a fresh install on the new drive.
 
Stash, I looked at that from the Vista DVD. As far as I could tell, that was just for programs, pics, etc. and not for the OS itself. I'll look again though, thanks.
 
Thanks Nocturnal...I just really didn't want to spend any money on this. There has to be a free way to do it right? Maybe those programs have a free trial or something.
Click to expand...

Your method will not work, ever! Where did you get it anyway ???
Robocopy can do miracles with copying files only. There is much more to do in terms of setting up an active boot partition that OS can recognize and use.

Acronis would be best (read: easiest to use) to transfer partition over...
Since you don't want to spend $20 for one of the most useful programs ever you can:
1. Use windows backup - if you have Ultimate (create OS backup -> restore it to new HDD)
2. Use Seagate Disc Wizard - Stripped version of Acronis but works great - Needs at least one Seagae HDD installed.
3. Drive Image XML - Sometimes it works... but I've not tried it with Vista...

Good Luck
 
Originally posted by: Liberator21
Stash, I looked at that from the Vista DVD. As far as I could tell, that was just for programs, pics, etc. and not for the OS itself. I'll look again though, thanks.
Click to expand...
Why would you want to copy the OS over when you have the DVD? Just install Vista clean and Easy Transfer will copy back all the stuff that actually matters like your files.
 
Last time I installed Vista the other day it took only a few minutes before I was on the desktop and configuring. The time and effort getting a 3rd-party imaging or transfer app working seems to be more time consuming and tedious than a fresh install.
 
Originally posted by: stash
Originally posted by: Liberator21
Stash, I looked at that from the Vista DVD. As far as I could tell, that was just for programs, pics, etc. and not for the OS itself. I'll look again though, thanks.
Click to expand...
Why would you want to copy the OS over when you have the DVD? Just install Vista clean and Easy Transfer will copy back all the stuff that actually matters like your files.
Click to expand...

If it says "Easy" it surely can't work and will end up being difficult.

If you try something difficult like say doing a robocopy from recovery console it will surely work and therefore be easy.

uh, right??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facepalm

 
I'm not bothering to figure out what all your drives and partitions are, but if you have Vista Ultimate or Business AND the new drive is the same size or larger than the old, you can just do a Complete PC backup to an external HD (or what have you), remove your old HD, put in your new HD, boot off the Vista DVD and restore to the new drive.
 
Ok so as far as I can tell, I've made this entirely too complicated. Yes I have a fresh backup on external, but I wanted to figure out how to just copy the OS to another drive. All I've done my entire life is reinstall, and there are some instances when I wish I could have copied the OS instead of erasing it.

To make things clear, the other drive (where the OS is going) is already in the system, being used. A spare partition is where it's going.

A quick question: that drive is E:, the one now is C:. All of my shortcuts and what have you that point to C: should still work right? After I make the transfer, I'm planning on changing the drive path to C:

I've downloaded the ultimate boot CD and burned the image. it has HDClone and some others I'm going to try tonight.
 
Well...no luck with the bootable CD. The only program that apparently had disk to partition cloning was HDCLone, and that method wasn't supported in that version. I'm also trying out the trial version of Acronis Home. But it doesn't have that option either. I can't do it without loosing all data. What now? I'm open to other programs.
 
Your method will not work, ever! Where did you get it anyway ???
Click to expand...

Actually it can, just not from inside of Windows because of file locking issues and you'll probably need to run 'fixmbr/fixboot' from a rescue console with just the new drive installed before it'll boot properly.
 
Apparently Acronis Home 11 Free Trial is not 'nuff said' as I can't figure out how to make it do what I want. I need to copy the contents of a drive to a partition of another partly full drive. Acronis only wants to tell me it's for 'new' drives that are blank, and all partitions will be lost, which is unacceptable. I know this program is supposed to be the best, and I'm sure the paid versions have what I'm looking for, but at the moment I'm not too impressed with it.

Now with Nothinman's encouragement I will retry my ROBOCOPYing!
 
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