| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| TDKMate |
Posted - August 02 2014 : 15:09:02
Hi All,
I'm new here and new to Macrium Reflect. I would really appreciate some guidance as, over the years, I've never had any success in restoring a backup from any of my previous backup programs.
In brief, I'm going to install a new OS drive. In searching around it seems to be a simple process IF it's a one-to-one drive swap. But I found a ton of horror stories (including my own in the past) when there's more involved like I currently have.
In more detail: I ordered a 1TB SSD (I'm new to SSD drives, too). I want to partition it up into two 500GB drives, with the first partition being my new 'C' drive.
My current set up has two 4TB drives. The first one (which includes the OS on the 'C' drive) is split up into three partitions. The 'C' partition is set to 500GB. The second drive is split into two partitions.
To complicate matters, I have programs scattered all over all partitions, which allows me to have a relatively small 'C' partition.
I would like to keep my current OS partition in tack for a redundant backup until all is proven good and reliable over time (a week? a month? I have to get some confidence in the SSD). Then I'll expand it out into storage and programs.
So how do I go about doing this? Do I put the SSD in with the other drives and clone it over? (I assume Reflect will do this.) Will leaving the current OS drive in the computer cause conflicts?
Or do I do a backup of my current OS drive, put the SSD in, then restore to the SSD? Would making an Image file be a better route?
I assume whether I have backup or image file on an external USB hard drive that it will be found if I use a rescue disk? (I've made one but have not tested it to see if it will boot.)
I would like the new drive to fire up like it was my old drive, but faster. But I've read horror stories where drivers and the like still need to be installed after a clone; I want to avoid that if possible.
I am clueless on the correct way to proceed, and I have to admit I'm quite nervous given my 100% failure rate in the past.
Any and all help is appreciated!!
Thanks.
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Arvy |
Posted - August 17 2014 : 11:40:31
quote:
Originally posted by TDKMate
One option was to switch from 'offline' to 'online.' Once I did that my non-OS partitions came back to life :)
The easy way is often the best way. Glad to hear that you're up and running.
Regards, Richard |
| TDKMate |
Posted - August 17 2014 : 02:59:38
I want to thank everyone for your help. Obviously I could not have done this without it. It is much appreciated :) |
| TDKMate |
Posted - August 17 2014 : 02:56:46
quote:
Originally posted by Arvy
... In any case, the described symptoms do seem to suggest a disk signature collision and I would strongly recommend checking for that before trying anything else that might compound the problem.
Regards, Richard
Right you are! After Googling Disk Signature Collisions as you suggested, and learning a little more about Diskpart, I discovered that both 'C' drives did indeed have the same ID/Signature: selecting each disk, I ran the Diskpart command "uniqueID disk" and the number reported was the same.
Some of the Googled fixes said to give the offending drive a number you make up. That sounded too risky to me. So I Googled some more, for different ideas. I found some info on fixing an "offline" disk, which seemed a lot less risky for my tastes.
This is where the fix got simple. Rebooting to Windows (from the Rescue disk) with the new OS booting, I went into Disk Management. I then right clicked on the offending disk number on the bottom portion of the screen and options appeared I didn't know existed.
One option was to switch from 'offline' to 'online.' Once I did that my non-OS partitions came back to life :)
All that was left was to delete and reformed the old 'C' drive, which I did.
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| TDKMate |
Posted - August 17 2014 : 02:27:00
quote:
Originally posted by Gork
quote:
Originally posted by Arvy
I suspect that you may have told Reflect to copy the disk signature from the old drive to the new one.
Just in case it helps, Reflect doesn't allow the user to choose - this is handled automatically depending on the setup. See:
http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50152.aspx
I guess that explains why I don't remember the option. But I would have most likely just used the default as, at the time, I had no idea what a disk signature is. |
| TDKMate |
Posted - August 17 2014 : 02:21:11
quote:
Originally posted by Seekforever
Can you assign drive letters to the "empty partitions" in Disk Management? Right-click on the empty partition and select Change drive letter or Paths.
This often happens with USB drives that were last used with a letter than is not available or has some other conflict that Windows doesn't like.
I think I did have that option, but I was "scared" to try it as all my program links, and the like, are set up for the old/existing Drive Letters. It turns out I didn't have to try this trick; see below. |
| TDKMate |
Posted - August 17 2014 : 02:18:32
I'm up and running!! I'm glad you fine folks know what you're doing, as it's obvious I sure don't. LOL
quote:
Originally posted by Arvy
I'm guessing here, but from what you say I suspect that you may have told Reflect to copy the disk signature from the old drive to the new one. Windows requires disk signatures to be unique, so when you attach a disk that has a signature equal to one already attached, Windows keeps the disk in “offline” mode and doesn’t read its partition table or mount its volumes. Google "disk signature collisions" for more info.
As for your expectation that you'd get a choice of which drive to boot, that only happens if your motherboard includes a feature to pop up a selection menu and you press the 'special' key for that feature during system start up. Check your system's use manual about that.
Regards, Richard
Using a different computer, I Googled as you suggested and printout out a 'ton' of info to test out. It turned out to be a simple fix; see below for more details.
No... I didn't think of hitting any special keys for a boot menu of OS, but the other day I did, by accident, find out I could hit the Esc key to boot from the CD. |
| Arvy |
Posted - August 16 2014 : 19:02:57
I thought I had seen a checkbox option for replicating the disk signature while cloning, but perhaps not. In any case, the described symptoms do seem to suggest a disk signature collision and I would strongly recommend checking for that before trying anything else that might compound the problem.
Regards, Richard |
| Gork |
Posted - August 16 2014 : 18:54:28
quote:
Originally posted by Arvy
I suspect that you may have told Reflect to copy the disk signature from the old drive to the new one.
Just in case it helps, Reflect doesn't allow the user to choose - this is handled automatically depending on the setup. See:
http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50152.aspx |
| Seekforever |
Posted - August 16 2014 : 15:33:57
Can you assign drive letters to the "empty partitions" in Disk Management? Right-click on the empty partition and select Change drive letter or Paths.
This often happens with USB drives that were last used with a letter than is not available or has some other conflict that Windows doesn't like. |
| Arvy |
Posted - August 16 2014 : 02:10:32
I'm guessing here, but from what you say I suspect that you may have told Reflect to copy the disk signature from the old drive to the new one. Windows requires disk signatures to be unique, so when you attach a disk that has a signature equal to one already attached, Windows keeps the disk in “offline” mode and doesn’t read its partition table or mount its volumes. Google "disk signature collisions" for more info.
As for your expectation that you'd get a choice of which drive to boot, that only happens if your motherboard includes a feature to pop up a selection menu and you press the 'special' key for that feature during system start up. Check your system's use manual about that.
Regards, Richard |
| TDKMate |
Posted - August 16 2014 : 01:18:04
I had partial success...
I got the old OS partition successfully installed on the new SSD and it (the SSD) boots fine without the old drive in there.
When I hooked up my old drive I expected to get a choice of which OS to boot from, but I didn't. Instead, None of the old partitions are recognized!
If I swap the SATA cables, I get the exact opposite results: the old drive will boot just fine, but now the new OS drive is not recognized.
By "not recognized" I mean that it will not show up in Windows Explorer. It will show up in Disk Management but as empty partitions of the correct sizes.
I tried the DISKPART trick and "Removed' the drive letter on the old 'C' drive, but on reboot it fixed itself.
So how can I leave my much needed old drive in the computer and boot from the new drive?
Maybe I can put a dongle on it and hook it up to a USB port to wipe out the old OS?
any help will be appreciated! ... I'm halfway there!
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| Arvy |
Posted - August 15 2014 : 00:17:37
I'm afraid I have no idea how, or even whether, Crucial runs factory tests on each of its SSDs, but 65 restarts in 2.1 days shouldn't be any cause for serious concern if they do. I think I'd be more worried about that "SMART Status: Unknown" result.
Yes, that diskpart tech note that you read is certainly correct. At this point, however, I'm even less sure that I fully understand what you are asking about.
Once you have your new SSD properly set up with the required partitions (either cloned or restored) and your system UEFI/BIOS boot priorities configured accordingly, I would expect that you'll then be booting with that new drive. The new one, not the old one, will then have the active system partitions and, even if you could hide or change any assigned 'drive letter' for those, you would not want to do that as I said earlier. In fact a successful 'clone' should replicate OS 'drive letter' assignments for other partitions as well, but you can check to be sure of that in Windows disk management.
There should be no need to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows, but if you are worried about possibly needing to do that for some reason, there's a Microsoft article that explains how to do it at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188.
Regards, Richard
__
P.S.: If it might make you feel just a little less worried, I can assure you that I switch my own computer between two Windows operating systems on two separate boot drives very frequently and each of them is quite happy to assign its own partition 'drive letter' C: while active. The other one gets whatever I decide to assign it myself. Even junctions and hard links to other data drive/partition folders are no problem.  |
| TDKMate |
Posted - August 14 2014 : 22:47:01
quote:
Originally posted by Arvy
I suppose you are aware that you can hide a partition (remove any assigned 'drive letter') using either Windows Disk Management (http://www.7tutorials.com/how-hide-or-dismount-partition-windows) or DISKPART (http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/windows-tips-tutorials-articles/31678-how-hide-show-your-hard-drive-partitions-using-diskpart.html).
Regards, Richard
P.S.: Please excuse if I haven't correctly understood what you are trying to accomplish.
In preparation in doing this, I was reading up on Diskpart and apparently I can't hide what will be the old 'C' drive:
Taken from this link http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766465%28v=ws.10%29.aspx :
Remove: "... You can use the remove command to change the drive letter associated with a removable drive. You cannot remove the drive letters on system, boot, or paging volumes. In addition, you cannot remove the drive letter for an OEM partition, any GPT partition with an unrecognized GUID, or any of the special, non-data, GPT partitions such as the EFI system partition. ..."
Am I reading the above correctly (in that it is a boot drive)? So if I leave the old 'C' drive intact, will I be offered a choice of OSes to boot from?
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| TDKMate |
Posted - August 14 2014 : 01:55:18
I received the replacement drive today. At least this time it looked like it was in 'original' packaging instead of a poor heat shrink wrap job.
And things didn't start out good this time either. I popped the drive in the SATA docking bay and the HDD activity LED came on. And it stayed on for a full 25 minutes. During this time nothing showed up in either Windows Explorer or Disk Management.
I pulled the drive and it was pretty dang warm. Guessing I'd say about 95-100°F. I stuck it back in and no activity, and it was still not showing in either Windows Explorer or Disk Management.
So I figured I'd reboot and look in the BIOS. I didn't hit the Del key quick enough so Windows booted. Windows then searched for a driver for the new hardware found. (Why didn't it do this before, I wonder...)
I still had to go into Disk Manager and initialize it, which is fine. I split into the two partitions I want while in there. No problems there.
Then I fired up Speccy to see what it said. The part number was right this time but there are a couple of things that showed up bother me:
Power On Count: 65 times
Power On Time: 2.1 days
SMART Status: Unknown.
So do you think I got a used drive?? ...or does Crucial burn in/test their drives first?
Any ideas?
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| Arvy |
Posted - August 08 2014 : 16:12:15
Good luck. Whether you 'clone' the required partitions directly or restore them onto the new SSD from a backup image is entirely up to you. Likewise, partition hiding is just a possible alternative to the multiple drive swap approach that you seemed (as I understood it) to be contemplating earlier. Whatever works to get you what you want is fine.
Regards, Richard |
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