[SOLVED] Recovery disk sees but won't open image on my passport or hdd.

[twinoaks]

I am trying to upgrade the hard drives on my Dell Studio XPS. I have used Windows 7 to make a system image to both a My Passport and a hard drive in a docking station. When I boot up using a recovery disk, it sees the new hard drives and the system images on the external sources, but Windows 7 won't let me open either image to begin the transfer to the new hard drives. Regardless of which image I select, the Next button never changes to let me proceed.

I made a system image because my understanding is that it will allow me to continue using Windows 7 on the new hard drives just as if nothing has changed. I am out of ideas on how to fix this and my old hard drives are trying very hard to die, so I don't think I can make another backup of any kind. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Grobe]

You do not share vital information about the disk clone process, so it's just guesswork about booting issue.

However, in general - if a hdd is on the verge of complete failure, it's often too late to sucessfylly make a complete backup.

 

[twinoaks]

Grobe - Thank you for your reply! I wasn't sure what information would be needed. I did not use any additional software to create the image other than what is built into the Windows 7 backup program. I've since learned that there is other software out there that is supposed to make it easier/better somehow.

As I said, I have more than one copy, including an older one. Windows said the image creation was complete . . . was there something else I needed to do to make the image functional? I've never even restored a computer from a backup, much less transferred a clone to a new hard drive. So, I am at a complete loss as to what to do.

When I look at the guts of the My Passport backups files on a different computer, the file is My Passport\the name of my pc\Backup and the date of the backup\bunch of numbers and letters.vhd. The vhd file is over 7 million kb, does that sound right? There is a second vhd file that is an additional 1.2 million kbs. I have a raid 0 , two 1 tb setup. I have an older image that has the same files with only minor differences in size.

Is there other information I can provide that would be helpful?

 

[Grobe]

Ok, to be hones I've never used that windows feature. I've created many images in the past and also restored many, but I'd always used Clonezilla for that. So therefore I'm not familiar with potential pitfalls using the W7 built in tool. Other users on this forum will probably suggest other tools, and I can only imagine most of those will work better than the built-in tool.

 

[twinoaks]

Grobe - I am trying it your way and am making a Clonezilla image, cautiously optimistic that the hard drive has one last effort left! I've gotten as far as selecting the my passport as the repository. The problem is that Clonezilla shows the drive in the preliminary list, but then when I hit ctrl-c to get to the actual selection process, it does not show up; the hard drive I am trying to image is the only choice. I am hoping you've seen this before and can share some advice.

The preliminary list also shows my two hard drives separately. On the following selection page, they show up as a single hard drive.

 

[Grobe]

Thing about Clonezilla is that you have to follow the guidelines, and it is very easy to select the wrong disk in the beginning.

Also, for USB sticks and hdd's, you should wait until Clonezilla ASK you to insert the drive.