Disk Clone Troubles

[vertexx]

I am trying to clone a system HDD using several different tools, and I keep getting the message that "The machine cannot boot from the destination disk after the clone."

I have tried EaseUS, Seagate Disk Wizard, and CloneZilla to the same effect.

Here are the details:

1. This is a budget gaming system build running AMD Phenom II X4 965, MSI 760GM-P34 Mobo, Windows 7 Home Premium x64.

2. Current OS HDD is a Toshiba MK2561GSYF 2.5in laptop drive with 98GB of data used. This was a spare Laptop drive I had lying around when I did the original build. It checks out error free with HDTune.

3. New HDD is a salvaged Seagate Barracuda ST31000340AS. It's been running on my NAS for the past 3 years, and I upgraded that to 2 3TB WD Reds. One of the Barracudas had to be thrown out. This one has been tested satisfactory using Seagate Tools and HDTune.

I have tried cloning multiple times, and none have resulted in a bootable disk. All of the data looks good, but the disk is not bootable.

When I try to boot to the new drive, I have tried both (1) leaving both drives in and modifying the boot sequence to load the new drive 1st and (2) disconnecting the old drive, and plugging the new one into the old drive's SATA port.

I have even tried using a Windows Recovery CD per instructions here (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/32523/how-to-manually-repair-windows-7-boot-loader-problems/) to no avail.

With all 3 cloning tools I have used, they indicate "The Machine cannot boot from the destination disk after clone."

Seagate Disk Wizard gives some additional information about needing to enable UEFI BIOS support on the Mobo. However, I can't find any UEFI setting in this Mobo's Bios.

Are there any workarounds with this or am I stuck?

Would I be able to just install Windows fresh on this drive (not desirable) or does this Mobo really not support this drive as a boot device?

Note, when I clone, I can access the files fine. So, the system can read the drive no problem. It just can't boot.

Thanks in advance for any help/insights!

JB

 

[smorizio]

With the laptop drive unplugged try booting from a Linux cd tool or hirem boot cd. Do an fdisk and fdisk/mbr. It could be that the drive was formatted for raid and there may be third party software in the mbr. Windows won't boot if it can't write to the mbr.

 

[Trent Quan-Sing]

Are you testing the hard drive fully or just a quick test?

The sectors involved in the first 2048 bytes also known as the MBR (Master Boot record) may be damaged in which case when the clone or any other data is written there it may not be the same as the original disc.

This would not allow it to boot and still let you see data externally.

HD Tunes error scan wont care about 2048 bytes of the first block.

You need an individual sector surface scanner to accurately go over every sector.

 

[vertexx]

With the laptop drive unplugged try booting from a Linux cd tool or hirem boot cd. Do an fdisk and fdisk/mbr. It could be that the drive was formatted for raid and there may be third party software in the mbr. Windows won't boot if it can't write to the mbr.

Thanks - Yes, it was running in Raid 1 on a D-Link NAS - not sure what format it was using, but it was not recognizable in windows. I deleted all partitions before starting the cloning process.

I will try booting in Linux to see if I can fumble through it - I'm not a Linux guru, but have some familiarity with Linux Mint and happen to have a Mint ISO USB Drive handy.

CloneZilla looked like it was running in Linux, though, shouldn't that have taken care of any existing boot record?

Thanks!

 

[vertexx]

Are you testing the hard drive fully or just a quick test?

The sectors involved in the first 2048 bytes also known as the MBR (Master Boot record) may be damaged in which case when the clone or any other data is written there it may not be the same as the original disc.

This would not allow it to boot and still let you see data externally.

HD Tunes error scan wont care about 2048 bytes of the first block.

You need an individual sector surface scanner to accurately go over every sector.

I ran the HD Tunes Error Scan (without Quick Scan checked). It took about 3 hours to run. Would the EaseUS Partition Master Surface Scan be a better test? It looks the same as the HD Tune test once it starts. Is there one (Free) that you'd recommend? Thanks!

 

[avjguy2362]

I would first un-format the destination drive in Disk manager. Make sure it is completely empty, no small 200 MB partitions at the beginning! DO NOT FORMAT IT! Then using using any cloning software ( I use Macrium Reflect, free version, it clearly shows the boot partition in front of the OS ) make sure you are cloning both the boot partition from the original disc, should be about 100 to 200 MB, and the OS partition in one pass. If you are cloning the OS only, the new disc will not boot!

 

[vertexx]

I would first un-format the destination drive in Disk manager. Make sure it is completely empty, no small 200 MB partitions at the beginning! DO NOT FORMAT IT! Then using using any cloning software ( I use Macrium Reflect, free version, it clearly shows the boot partition in front of the OS ) make sure you are cloning both the boot partition from the original disc, should be about 100 to 200 MB, and the OS partition in one pass. If you are cloning the OS only, the new disc will not boot!

In the current OS disk, I have the following partitions in order:

1MB Unallocated GPT
100MB FAT32 with 25MB Used, GPT (EFI System Partition)
128MB "Other" with 128MB Used, GPT (Reserved Partition)
C: 233GB NTFS with 98GB Used, GPT (Data Partition)
167KB Unallocated GPT

In the new 1TB disk, all partitions have been deleted using EASUS Partition Master. I have tried initializing this disk as GPT and MBR.

In both cases, with all the cloning tools, after cloning, the Partitions on the Seagate drive look EXACTLY like the partitions on the current Toshiba drive.

Could this be an issue with GPT on the current system drive? I'm not familiar with that at all.

 

[avjguy2362]

Looking at my W7Pro on a 128 GB SSD (in Reflect) is that your second partition "100MB FAT 32 with 25 MB used" is the boot partition you want with the C drive. Mine is exactly 25.2 MB in a 100 MB "NTFS Active" partition. I would try cloning only those two!

If necessary try without initializing. Leave the destination disc un-formatted.
Technically, when cloning it shouldn't matter, but when there are issues, It is always best to start fresh, let the cloning software work with a blank slate, so to speak!

 

[Trent Quan-Sing]

Are you testing the hard drive fully or just a quick test?

The sectors involved in the first 2048 bytes also known as the MBR (Master Boot record) may be damaged in which case when the clone or any other data is written there it may not be the same as the original disc.

This would not allow it to boot and still let you see data externally.

HD Tunes error scan wont care about 2048 bytes of the first block.

You need an individual sector surface scanner to accurately go over every sector.

I ran the HD Tunes Error Scan (without Quick Scan checked). It took about 3 hours to run. Would the EaseUS Partition Master Surface Scan be a better test? It looks the same as the HD Tune test once it starts. Is there one (Free) that you'd recommend? Thanks!

Seagates: 'Seatools Dos' or 'Desktop' as a pre-boot to disc or 'WD data lifeguard' in windows or as a boot disc.

If you can runa chkdsk x: /r - where x is the drive letter; it will surface scan and may bring back something or mark the sectors as bad so they never get saved to again. (takes a long time)

 

[vertexx]

Update - I tried a fresh install of Windows 7. That succeeded, and it boots fine. So I'm assuming that means there is nothing hidden in the destination drive that would have been causing the prior boot failure.

I'm now seeing if I can do a partition copy of just the data partition from the old disk to the new.

I think my problems have to do with it being a GPT disk. A couple of links I found lead me to believe there are issues cloning GPT disks.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/269749-32-cloning-disk

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg463525.aspx

Anyone have any insights on cloning GPT formatted disks?

 

[vertexx]

Ok - that actually worked - can't believe it - what a mess that was.

Here is the process that finally worked:

Disk A (Source): Toshiba MK2561GSYF 2.5in 256 GB Drive formatted as GPT with the following partitions:

- 1MB Unallocated GPT
- 100MB FAT32 with 25MB Used, GPT (EFI System Partition)
- 128MB "Other" with 128MB Used, GPT (Reserved Partition)
- C: 233GB NTFS with 98GB Used, GPT (Data Partition)
- 167KB Unallocated GPT

Disk B (Destination): Seagate Barracuda ST31000340AS 1TB previously used on DLink NAS

Resources Needed: EaseUS Partition Manager Free Edition, EaseUS Todo Backup Free Edition, Windows 7 Installation DVD

1. Mounted Disk B and booted into Windows with Disk A.
2. Using EaseUs PM:
- deleted ALL partitions on Disk B
- re-initialized Disk B as MBR Disk (I had tried GPT, but when I tried installing Windows, it reverted back to MBR for this drive. I'm not sure why - perhaps it being a few years old, it doesn't support GPT)
3. Shut down the system. Disconnected Disk A. Connected Disk B in the Sata port previously used by Disk A (I think this was a function of my Motherboard being finicky with recognizing new boot devices).
4. Inserted the Windows Install CD. Booted the PC. Ran through complete Windows Installation (I unchecked "Automatically Activate Windows" because I didn't want any activation issues confusing things).
5. Shut down the PC. Reconnected Disk A. Restart, boot into Windows using Disk A, and shut down. (Again, I think this is a function of my cheap motherboard having to be forced into recognizing a new boot device. When I had both drives connected, it wouldn't boot. Once I forced one, I could then shut down and connect the other).
6. Leaving Disk A connected, reconnected Disk B into a spare SATA port. Booted up using Disk A.
7. Ran EaseUS PM, disk B now showed to be a MBR formatted disk with the following Partitions:
- System Reserved NTFS 100MB with 28MB used.
- NTFS 931GB with ~20GB used (fresh Windows Install)
8. Using EaseUS PM, I deleted the Disk B 931GB data partition.
9. Then, I had to switch to EaseUS Todo Backup. For some reason, EaseUS PM does not support copying/cloning MBT data partitions. It wouldn't give me the option. So, using EaseUS Todo Backup, I entered the Partition Clone Utility.
10. Using the Partition Clone Utility, I cloned the Disk A Data Partition to Disk B Unallocated Space (now at 931GB). Because Disk A Data was the current OS partition, this required a couple of reboots, but the Clone utility handled that without a hitch.
11. At the end of the cloning process, the utility automatically booted me back into the Disk A OS. Launching EaseUS PM, Disk B now had the cloned Data Partition at 233GB with the rest unallocated.
12. Using EaseUS PM, I expanded the Disk B Data Partition to use the full 931GB available.
13. I then shut down the PC, disconnected Disk A, reconnected Disk B to use the SATA1 Port. Started up.
14. At this point, I received a Windows boot failure screen, prompting me to insert the Installation Disk, which I did. (With prior attempts at cloning the entire drive, I wouldn't even get this far. The drive simply would not get be recognized as a bootable device, and the Bios would hang there with a blinking cursor and otherwise blank screen).
15. After inserting the Install Disk, I pressed a key to continue as prompted. It then restarted into the Windows Install, at which point I selected the "Repair Windows" option.
16. Windows then identified the Boot record fixes required and provided a prompt to continue. Once I confirmed, Windows repaired the boot record quickly (took about 3 seconds) and then proceeded to restart successfully, simple as that!

I now have my previous OS and files on the "new" (salvaged) 1TB Barracuda formatted as MBR.

Perhaps someone else has an easier method, but I had tried several clone utilities (even using Seagate Disk Wizard and CloneZilla in Boot mode creating a bootable DVD to do the cloning). In all cases, my end result was not bootable.

The only way I was able to get this to work was (1) to do a fresh Windows install, (2) delete the new data partition, (3) copy the old data partition over, and (4) have Windows repair the boot record.

Thanks for the help Trent Quan-Sing and avjguy. Seeing what you guys had done pointed me in the direction of trying this approach.