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ppppenguin · 27-05-2018, 09:18 AM

After my recent PC problems I decided that having a bootable clone of my C drive would be a very good idea. A lot easier than doing a clean instal. I should add that all my own data is on a separate drive which I routinely clone for backup and this works fine. The problem is making a bootable cloned drive.

I thought the problem might be with Aeomi Backupper which I've used for cloning until recently. So I tried the free version of Macrium Reflect as recommended here: https://www.howtogeek.com/199068/how-to-...r-an-hour/

I made a clone with Macrium Reflect and it wouldn't boot. So I tried my W7 instal disk (the same one I used to rebuild just a few days ago) and when I tried to repair it said that it was the wrong version of Windows. I also tried the rescue CD I'd prepapred using Macrium Reflect. This offered to repair the C drive but it still wouldn't boot. "Boot selection failed because a a required device is inacessible".

At least I'm doing all this at my leisure, not under the stress of having a non-working main PC. I should add that I'm attaching the cloned C drive to the same connector as the normal C drive so the BIOS shouldn't get confused.

What am I doing wrong?

Murphyv310 · (This post was last modified: 27-05-2018, 09:38 AM by Murphyv310.)

Boot your PC from a live Linux CD, I'd use any mint CD.
Read this: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions...dard-tools
It works but you MUST be careful or you'll wipe the wrong HDD. The whole process takes a good few hours but you'll get a 100% clone.

This is a better explanation
https://www.opentechguides.com/how-to/ar...clone.html

ppppenguin · (This post was last modified: 27-05-2018, 10:54 AM by ppppenguin.)

I've got an Ubuntu live linux disk so that should work. All should have the command line available.

Presumably this is what I want to do, from your 2nd link:

Quote:How to clone an entire disk

To clone an entire disk, say for example sda to sdb, run:

# dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=64M conv=sync,noerror status=progress

Taking great care that I'm using the correct source and destination disks.

Doing it from live linux has the advantage that I'm not using the disk that I'm trying to clone.

Murphyv310 · 27-05-2018, 10:59 AM

Spot on Jeffrey.
Like I say it does take some time.
Normally the source is SDA 0 and the destination is SDA 1.
Just take your time and double check the command line, accessible via "Terminal".

BusyBee · 27-05-2018, 05:42 PM

It's something that I am looking into too, but Windows is steadily trying to stop such access I think. I created a bootable Linux disc which works Ok on my old desktop Vista system, but have had no joy as yet on my more modern Windows 10 laptop. The indication I was getting was that, when I changed boot settings in the bios, these were automatically changed back. I could easily be wrong though as , on the day I was attempting, I had a lot of issues to sort.

Tracy

ppppenguin · (This post was last modified: 27-05-2018, 06:17 PM by ppppenguin.)

This article suggests you can clone a W10 system disk. I'm only trying to do W7. https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/sto...0-3663261/

Another article on cloning: https://windowsreport.com/clone-windows-10/

Might I have a problem with MBR or GPT? How do I know what I've got. I've attached a screenshot of the disk manager. If I right cllick on the disk and check its properties it doesn't tell me anything about MBR/GPT either.

Windows event viewer (accessed via Macrium Reflect) is showing some issues with Volume Shadow Copy Service. Not sure what all this means but I've attached it as a text file. Possibly something to do with AVG antivirus trying to protect me from myself? And fouling up the copying of critical bits of the disk while doing so.

Terry · (This post was last modified: 27-05-2018, 06:36 PM by Terry.)

Jeffrey, have you tried Microsoft?

Download Windows 7 Disc Images (ISO Files)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software...d/windows7

I realise this is not really what you want although it should be the most recent release.

Why not install it and see if you can clone that installation, then work from there?

ppppenguin · 27-05-2018, 06:38 PM

When I did the clean re-instal I used W7 64bit pro sp1 from Digital River. Effectively an official microsoft download but I beleive no longer available.

I can build a new C drive, what I want is a clone of my fully built drive with all my software installed.

**Mark Hennessy** · 27-05-2018, 06:38 PM

(27-05-2018, 06:09 PM)ppppenguin Wrote: Might I have a problem with MBR or GPT? How do I know what I've got. I've attached a screenshot of the disk manager. If I right cllick on the disk and check its properties it doesn't tell me anything about MBR/GPT either.

Right-click on the grey area where it says "Disk 0" or "Disk 1", and look at the context menu. If there is an option called "Convert to GPT Disk", then it's currently MBR. Likewise, if there is an option called "Convert to MBR Disk", then it's GPT.

GPT requires UEFI, of course. If you're not using UEFI, then the "Convert to GPT Disk" will still be on the context menu, only it'll be greyed out.

ppppenguin · 27-05-2018, 07:19 PM

Thank you. It's MBR. Convert to GPT is greyed out. AFAIK I'm using conventional BIOS, not UEFI.

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