Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Partition Clone

Ok I have tried several methods of cloning my Windows system partition, I have two 500GB Hard Drives and 60GB on each for the OS partition, the main aim being to clone from IDE-0 to IDE-1 for a dual boot-backup to avoid having to open the case if I have a problem with my main OS partition.

I tackled the blinking cursor problem fairly easy each time (windows 7CD automatic repair, bootrec commands via console and super grub live... same result with all methods).

So I get the choice of 2 OS's at boot as expected, windows does load off the second drive up to the point before the windows logon screen appears, which Im guessing is also the point where it will load all the drivers, which it cant find for some reason, so it will just cycle through that phase trying to load the drivers over and over.

I'm guessing the problem is its either down to the IDE channel being 1 instead of 0 or the drive letter being D: instead of C:. I dont remember this being a problem with earlier windows versions though.

So I'd like some pointers in getting this dual boot functioning properly if possible.

Note: I haven't checked it for clarity will try and do it later to see if I need to edit.

@windude99

Yes automatic repair = startup repair.

@windude99

That doesnt sound likely to work, plus I tried that with one of the first attempts at cloning and it couldnt even find any restore points.

Thanks for trying to help but I've tried all the simplest things first and some of the more manual/complicated methods to no avail already, I need someone with a deeper understanding of how Windows7 works as I've yet to find a definative answer from many a google search.

Some further information:

I did do a boot log which is why I know the problem is --for whatever reason-- that it cannot load my drivers(they are physically there in D:/ where they should be) at startup, it loads a few of the windows drivers and then the list of failed drivers just grows and then cycles.

My best guess is that its the IDE channels being different that windows 7 doesn't like, I did try changing the drive order in my bios settings but no luck with that, I haven't physically switched the sata cables over to confirm but hopefully someone here will be able to tell me(I've already seen some vague info that points to this being the case too) to save me doing all that.

@windude99

There's not much point in doing another clone, everything looks as it should on the drive.

I have used Visual BCD already(unless EasyBCD is much different?) and already have the 2 OS' in the bootloader menu, thats not the problem.

I was originally using the PartedMagic Live CD for backup purposes, from there I tried Clonezilla, Ghost and GParted with various settings(all methods seemed to clone as expected bit for bit), then startup repair and Visual BCD to update the BCD but all clones hung before the logon phase even after startup repair, the problem being it couldn't load in any of my systems drivers even though they were right there on the disk.

My advice now would be to save yourself the trouble of getting windows 7 to dual boot with any of those and use Acronis(free to download if you have a Seagate or Western Digital drive... I have both) the best method for me was creating a backup image in my data partition then restoring that to the backup partition(OS partition). I think there was a few options for dive letters I had to change too but all very straight forward. This is actually the easiest method by far too compared to all the others I've tried.

Now when I boot from the Western Digital(backup) drive which was D: it shows up as C: . Im geussing Acronis simply fixed that where none of the other methods did was the key difference in the end, Windows7 may need to load these from whatever the drive letter was on the original install.

Thought I'd post for anyone else who goes down the same route I did for windows 7 cloning, encountering the same problem.

The problem is not the booting !

The problem is that there are links in the registry that point to original file system (partition).

You cannot have an exact clone running on the same computer.

If you want to invest time and effort I can give you the locations in registry that I know that have to be changed but again I am not 100% sure that these are all the changes needed to separate the original and the clone completely.

When the clone is attached Windows mechanically fixes partition identity of the clone as you cannot have two partitions with same signature. But the needed changes in registry are not done by Windows automatically as there is no way all existing "absolute" links in registry to be known by nature - some of the links could be half absolute and half relative in the sense "if this partition is a clone then change these links to point to new partition"

What if the user or a program created an absolute link - should this link be changed when cloning ?
Yes or No ?
I think there is no formal method of deciding as we do not know what kind of link the user or program have stored.
Maybe the link is absolute and should remain absolute !