[RESOLVED] Harddrive copy program?

[Teseng]

Quick question, is there any programs that can copy 1 harddrive's data (including boot sector, other vitals) onto another drive? I need an exact copy of my drive, that copies EVERY bit of data, so i could plug it up to another PC and have it boot.

oh, and the drives are different sizes, but theres not enough data to fill either of them

[Hack]

There is Norton Ghost which will take an exact image of one drive, and copy/install it on another.

This is actually used by many companies to roll out computers to their users with the exact same configuration/software on it.

[dark_shadow]

Quick question, is there any programs that can copy 1 harddrive's data (including boot sector, other vitals) onto another drive? I need an exact copy of my drive, that copies EVERY bit of data, so i could plug it up to another PC and have it boot.

oh, and the drives are different sizes, but theres not enough data to fill either of them

that might not work of the hardware of the computer is different than that of the one your copying off of since drivers and such will be needed

[RobDog888]

It will work with the additional drivers but if its Vista then you may run into trouble with supported hardware and drivers.

[Teseng]

Okay, so i used Norton Ghost(my father had a disc of it that came with his dell)
And it took 8 hrs to tell me that it couldnt copy, twice. First time everything went fine for about 7 hours, woke up to find it just saying "ready" and the disk unformatted and completely empty. 2nd time, after cleaning up etc, it took 9 hours and did the same thing, with a simple

Description: Error EC8F17B3: Cannot complete copying of Main (C:\) drive.
Details: 0xEBAB0005

And again, the drive was empty and unformatted, less of what it was when the darn thing started.

Anyway to find out whats wrong, or any alternative programs? I don't really like not having a usable system for 8 or 9 hours, for multiple times.

[RobDog888]

Do you have partitions other then windows on the disk? Whats different about it then say a basic install of windows perhaps?

[Teseng]

Just a single partion, With Windows XP SP2 and a few programs, and its a fresh install of windows on this drive as well. May just end up installing windows and manually copying files/installers =\

[RobDog888]

There is a Windos Transfer Wizard which helps you transfer Windows settings and stuff to a new system. Perhaps if only for your settings it would save time.

[Lord Orwell]

There is a Windos Transfer Wizard which helps you transfer Windows settings and stuff to a new system. Perhaps if only for your settings it would save time.

i used it recently. It will copy every single document on your system that has a registered extension and creates all directory structures where needed. It will not copy installs.

[vbcode1980]

I use Acronis TrueImage to make images and restore them.
Works like a charm. Fast and cheap.

[RobDog888]

i used it recently. It will copy every single document on your system that has a registered extension and creates all directory structures where needed. It will not copy installs.

Yea, as I mentioned, if only for your settings

[TheBigB]

The problem you're dealing with at the moment is that you are trying to copy an active disk.

Try finding Hiren's Boot CD.
It contains a lot of disc clone tools, including Norton Ghost and TrueImage.
The Norton Ghost on that CD is a live-tool which runs from memory, so that you probably won't encounter problems.

As for the next problem you might find; when you put the cloned disk in the new PC, you will undoubtedly find out Windows won't boot (unless the PC is exact the same). This is because you're loading the incorrect drivers.

To solve this:
Insert the Windows CD and proceed to the installation menu.
Press Enter in the first menu to proceed with the installation; F8 for the agreement and next up, you will be notified that there's already an operating system on the disk and then you press 'R' (or some other key; I don't quite remember) to start Windows Restore. It will copy some files, reboot, do the usual installations stuff (ask you for serial key etc.) and reboot once again. Then in the user creation screen, you press skip and there is your new Windows PC. All is left to do is installing the drivers.

Good luck

[penagate]

use sysprep to seal the OS into a transferable state, then apply imaging tool of choice.

[Teseng]

Success, thanks for the reccomendations, but after a bit of googling, i ended up using a freeware program called XXClone, took 1/10 of the time of Norton Ghost (which kept saying "Failed to copy C:/" after 8 hours, with no other error messages), and im currently running off the drive i copied onto

I'd reccomend it to anyone who has the same problem i did.


EDIT: As per another post i made, it does seem my SATA drive has caused the slowdowns.