Copying Windows to another Drive

EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
edited May 2006 in Hardware
I've been fumbling about all day trying to figure out how to get Windows from my old drive to the new one, and I can't figure out a way of doing it without cloning the partition using something like partition magic (which I don't want to do because then I'll need to resize the partition and then resize the clusters too, which is a bad idea because every single time I've tried that on this machine before it's irriversibly corrupted the entire drive).

So yeah, I need to get this done before I can do anything else and I can't figure anything out :rant: (gotta love Linux 'mount -o bind / /mnt/reroot; cp -a /mnt/reroot /mnt/newdrive' would be all I'd need to do to copy the entire in-use system drive).

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Use Acronis - they offer a 30 day trial.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Isn't that Shorty's line? :p
    Erm, which Acronis program?
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Ok, I downloaded TrueImage due to what it claimed but it lies. It will only backup files/drives to a backup file, it won't copy the files somewhere else (why the hell is this such a difficult concept? Jesus) or when "cloning" partitions it wants to delete the existing partition and clone the old one over (which isn't viable).
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Ok, I think I've found a program that works. VisaVersa (advanced backup/syncronisation program with Volume Shadow Copy). Lets see if this works...
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Ok, nothing else worked so I ended up cloning the partition to the new drive and that works, but now it's using 4k clusters and it needs to use 32k clusters. I've tried using Partition Magic to resize them but it keeps telling me the data is "compressed or sparce". I've ran the compress command line that they give to make sure nothing is compressed and I've followed the instructions on their site to "fix" the issue but it still doesn't work, giving the same error. So does anyone know how I am going to resize these clusters?
  • EssoEsso Stockholm, Sweden
    edited May 2006
    You are going to like this :D
    I am using the Acronis OS selector to resize the hard disk drive.
    It is now included in the Acronis Disk Director Suite, together with the partition expert.
    http://www.acronis.com/
    http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/

    But I'll guess what free is good,
    http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml

    Note, I haven't tryed it.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    Imaging is no use to me, neither are backup programs. I'm likely to start getting ratty soon because Windows is just ****ing me about to be honest. It wont detect my RAID array if I boot from the Windows CD due to it's complete lack of Drivers, so I need a driver disk WHICH DOESN'T EXIST and even if I had one it will only accept it on a ****ing FLOPPY DISC. Yes, welcome to 1986. So I manage to make one from the folder and then alter the oem file like in MM's post and it loads the drivers but then when it goes to start IT ASKS FOR THE DRIVER DISC WHICH IS STILL IN THE DRIVE, and guess what, when you hit enter (which it asks you to do after inserting the disk) IT DOESN'T EVEN CHECK THE DRIVE!! I hate Windows, I really do. Only reason I use it is for these stupid games.

    So...

    I can't copy one drive to the other because "files are in use"
    I can't image one drive to the other as then I need to resize the clusters which doesn't work "because some files are sparse or compressed" (which they aren't).

    I'd reinstall but I can't be bothered to reinstall all the programs, sure, I could keep those copied somewhere but that wouldn't work would it because of the stupid registry.

    I swear Microsoft go out of their way to make everything as inhumanly difficult as possible, I guess the idea is that you'll get ****ed off with all the stupid issues and 20 year old technology in the OS in the hopes that upgrading to their latest POS OS won't have such retarded functions, but sure enough after not too long they will likely surface very quickly. And why the hell should I have to pay £££ for software to perform simple tasks because the stupid ****ing OS is to backward to let you have any control over doing it yourself.

    So in conclusion; ARGH.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    FAN ****ING TASTIC. Not only did it want all my details just to install the demo version (appologies to Mr ****@off.com who will be getting an email shortly) it wont actually let me DO ANYTHING ANYWAY.
  • EssoEsso Stockholm, Sweden
    edited May 2006
    I see
    I am also a fan to Microsoft and its gorgues and lovely understanding software.

    Well, I don't know what kind of Raid card you are having and why you can't find the driver.

    Also there is one way to get around the 1982 mad installation procedure using the 3.5" floppy to load the system with correct drivers.
    And that solution is to make one slipstream installation disk, with all drivers.

    What raid card are you having ?
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    I'm using the nForce 4 Ultra's onboard SATA RAID. Slipstreaming is also a bit messy, longwinded and requires burning of more discs (also wouldn't help me get this drive copied and normally when I need a slipstreamed disc is when I don't have an OS anyway and thus can't make a slipstreamed disc).
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited May 2006
    If you want to clone the drive boot in linux and type this in your console 
    dd if=/dev/source of=/dev/target bs=1M

    Example
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdc bs=1M
    That will clone the primary master to the secondary master drive.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    I know how to clone a drive in Linux, but I don't want to clone a drive in Linux. I've already said I cloned the partition and that has left me with the issue that the clusters are now 4k (the size of the old drives) and they need to be 32k.
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited May 2006
    Enverex wrote:
    I know how to clone a drive in Linux, but I don't want to clone a drive in Linux. I've already said I cloned the partition and that has left me with the issue that the clusters are now 4k (the size of the old drives) and they need to be 32k.
    Run partition magic :).
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    GrayFox wrote:
    Run partition magic :).

    Please read the thread before commenting, this has been covered over and over.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited May 2006
    How large is the partition you want to duplicate?
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited May 2006
    It was an entire drive which was 160GB (90GB used) but it's ok, I managed to sort something out now.
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