Cannot make cloned partition active

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
O

openhead

Distinguished
Jul 31, 2011
12
0
18,510
I used EaseUs Todo Backup to create a cloned copy of my hd. There's nothing wrong with the hd, I just wanted more space.

I purchased a new WD 3TB hd and used the software to clone my 1TB. Everything went well, except I can't boot from the 3TB because the partition is not labeled as "Active".

From the research I've done, I understand that I need to copy my boot files from the 1TB to the 3TB. However, I am stuck because before I can run the bcdboot cmd, I need to create a system reserve on the 3TB and label it "Active" which I can't do for the life of me... I realize now that my words are becoming a redundant rant so I'll stop here. Any help is greatly appreciated.

specs:

windows 7 ultimate.
WD 1TB with only 1 partition on it labeled C, healthy/primary/active.
WD 3TB with 2 partitions, one is labeled A, primary (a direct copy of C minus boot files) and the second partition is B and is just 2TB excess space.

I used the free version of EaseUs Todo Backup and MiniTool Partition Wizard....
 
Sort by date Sort by votes



I started over and wiped the 3TB clean. I downloaded and used macrium software. It seems to have worked better than the others in that, I now see my 3TB labeled "Active" however I notice that is still missing the "Boot" label. And when I try booting from it, I get an error telling me that I can't boot from the HD and to insert OS disc and use startup repair to fix the missing boot files. However, when I do that my OS disc goes straight to a fresh install.

Is there a way to initiate the startup repair manually? or any other way to get the boot files on to my newly cloned, active, hard drive?

And furthermore, I just realized that the 3TB HD is formatted in RAW ?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
When I cloned my system to my Samsung 830 SSD, it showed up in Repflect as 2 Partitions: 1) System Reserved (None) NTFS Active. It has 25.7 MB used in a 100MB Partition. 2) Win 7 Pro OS (C:) NTSF Primary 50.53 GB in a 119.14 GB Partition. The first system Partition is the only partition marked as Active. The Main data portion is Primary as are 5 other partions on other HD's and SSD's ( 3HD, 3 SSD ). As I mentioned in my other post, I did nothing to create the Active, System reserved partition that sits right before the main OS partition. I may have mislead you in that I don't have a "Boot" partion, only the 100MB system partition, which I simply assumed was a necessary part of booting an OS partition. It appears like a separate partition, I just did nothing to create it, Reflect seemed to know it is supposed to be there. Any possibility this has to do with the HD being a single 3TB partition? Have you tried creating a smaller 200GB partition or a size under 2 TB, and then clone the OS. What is the basic run down of your computer/parts/OS ?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think the trick here is to start again and format the disk in Windows software before attempting another clone. Set the volume accordingly and make whatever Partitions you need, making sure one of them is set as "System". Is the Partition you're cloning from labelled C:?/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


I wiped the disk completely and re-wrote with zeros.
I used Macrium Reflect as suggested by avjguy2362 which seemed to be working fine.
It finished cloning my original C: disk (1TB) and I'm back to where I started, the 3 TB has all of the info from the 1TB but it is not marked active in Windows Disk Manager... Going in circles here...


 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Sorry, someone else recommended the Macrium Reflect to me as well, so I figured I'd try it first. I'm having no luck right now, so I'm going to wipe my disk and download the WD software that you suggested. Let you know how it goes...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


so i used the Acronis True Image that you suggested. seemed to be working although it wouldn't give me the option to initialize the disk as GPT. It would only let me continue with MBR format. it did say that the software included a section labeled Acronis Exteded Capacity manager that it specifically said to run after the cloning was finished in order to access the storage space passed the 2 TB.

I did that and it created a second "Disk" that has it's own drive name and path. I didn't like this at first but i figured that if i could at least get this to boot then i would cut my losses and use the new 3 TB as is with 2 separate disks and paths.... HOWEVER when i disconnected the old 1 TB hd, i found that i still could not boot from the new clone. I reconnected the 1TB and booted fine. Checked Disk Management and found that everything went as planned, my new clone was labeled ACTIVE/BOOT/ all the other good stuff.... but i still couldnt boot.

So I decided to say screw it all and just wipe the drive and start a fresh install of windows on the 3TB. Of course it's not that easy....

I cannot figure out how to "undo" whatever the Acronis Extended Capacity Manger did to create that second DISK (not partition). So i now have a 3TB hard drive that appears as 2 seperate disks 1 for 2000gb and the other is for 746gb... Please help... I Just want to restore the drive to the point that I am able to do a fresh install of windows on a single 3TB disk....
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom