Cloned Win7 Hard Disc won't boot

[ZaphodB]

Hi folks,

Hope someone can help with this.

After Win 7 end-of-life, I have decided to go to Linux Mint rather than Win 10. Call me paranoid if you will, but I have a sneaky feeling that at some point M$oft will move folks to a subscription-based service (much like Office 365) and because Win 10 is so locked down, there won't be anything you can do about it. I really can't see M$oft giving away copies of Win 10 without some form of payment being required in the future. Anyhow, to my question ...

I have cloned my existing 1TB Win 7 disc to a 2TB hard drive, the intention being to partition the disc and install Linux Mint so that the pc will boot into Linux or Windows 7. This would allow me to keep and run Win 7 apps and programs without a problem and use Mint for day-to-day things. Although badged as compatible (and indeed it opens M$ documents), Libre Office has some issues - particularly with formatting.

The problem is that the new (clone) drive won't boot. I suspect that although the data has been copied, the partition containing the OS has not been set 'active'. A Windows 7 disc is attempting a 'Repair'.

What I would like is help and/or suggestions as to (a) what may indeed be wrong and (b) what I can do to fix the problem so that initially the new clone drive will boot.

Originally I'd used Acronis True Image to clone hard discs but this wouldn't work this time (I kept getting a RPC error 1772 "RPC Server is unavailable". I attempted several suggested fixes, including checking that the RPC Service and DCOM were running and also three registry keys in HK Local Machine\System\Current Control Set\Services were set correctly (they were). Despite this, True Image kept throwing up the 1772 error.

I tried EaseUS Todo Backup (was taking bl**dy ages) so aborted and tried AOMEI Backupper (which ran a bit faster but still have taken damn-near 24hrs to clone the 1TB hard drive.

Can anyone help?

Zaph

 

[samuria]

Can you post a screenshot from disk manager or simliar so we can see all the details from both disks

 

[ZaphodB]

Can you post a screenshot from disk manager or simliar so we can see all the details from both disks

Can't at the moment for several reasons.

1) The Win 7 disc is "attempting' to repair the clone copy on the large 2TB disc (which is currently in the machine).

2) When attempting to boot the clone disc, I get the message that it needs to be repaired as it cant boot from the HDD (can't remember exact message)

3) When booting from original disc, the new clone can only be attached as an external drive on a USB connection. It shows up in Disc Manager though and appeared healthy.

If and/or when the "repair" completes (or aborts) I can do a screenshot of Disc Manager.

I was wondering if I could do a boot repair and/or activate partitions from a Live Linux CD??

Zaph

 

[file3456]

You can repair boot loaders with EasyBCD. There is a non-commercial free version. Look at the bottom. EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies

Also note that Windows likes to put its boot loader on another HDD if it's present at the time of installation.

 

[ZaphodB]

Hi again samuria,

If I can figure out how to post a screenshot, what you should see below is the two discs - the original 1TB (in the pc) and the 2TB clone of this disc (attached via a USB interface).

Looks OK to me.

F22

First, thanks for the input. This prompts some questions as I haven't heard of EasyBCD before.

a] Is EasyBCD available as an .iso?

b] Is it freeware?

c] Is EasyBCD bootable (once you burn it to a CD/DVD given the answer to (a) is yes)

d] How can I check where the boot loader is when I have the new clone drive attached via USB with the original drive in the pc?

I presume that EasyBCD would be bootable and that the procedure would be to put the new 2TB clone in the pc and boot from the CD/DVD?

Any further help/advice on this would be most welcome.

Thanks,

Zaph

 

[samuria]

Disk 1 has the system reserved partition and nothing else it's blank so it's not been cloned it has no files on it you need to reclone

 

[ZaphodB]

UPDATE

Found EasyBCD.

Doesn't seem to have an option to burn to CD/DVD as a bootable disc image, but wans to install on a working pc *shrugs*

neosmart offer a paid-for application that you can burn to a disc for $20 (link below)
[url]https://neosmart.net/EasyRE/Order/Place[/URL]

Going to try EaseUS Todo Backup again if I can't find an easy way to sort out the current problem.

Acronis True Image just worked. Cloned the existing drive, swapped old drive for clone, re-booted and it worked straight away.

Don't know how to sort the 1772 error out as all services and registry keys appear to be fine.

Zaph

 

[ZaphodB]

Disk 1 has the system reserved partition and nothing else it's blank so it's not been cloned it has no files on it you need to reclone

Thanks. You are right (I didn't look too closely at it *blushes* )

... and that took damn near 24hrs! What the hell has the program being doing all that length of time??

Zaph

 

[samuria]

What make is pc some HP have a thing running in the bios to stop cloning of the hd which you must tuirn off before you can copy may be called intel protect or simliar

 

[ZaphodB]

What make is pc some HP have a thing running in the bios to stop cloning of the hd which you must tuirn off before you can copy may be called intel protect or simliar

Hi samuria

That's odd. I posted a reply to this around 5 hrs ago and it ain't in the thread!

Having a second go ...

I have cloned hard discs from this computer before and never encountered a problem - so I don't think that's the issue.

I purchased Acronis True Image 2020 having used their products before. Installed the prog, made a boot CD and followed their instructions as to how to clone the drive.

They said: "Put the boot CD into the optical drive, put new drive in the pc, attach the old drive as an external USB device then restart the pc so that it boots from the optical media".

I've done this TWICE now and all that happens is the machine boots from the CD "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD..."

The black "Starting Windows" splash screen with the gently animated flag appears after various drivers etc have been loaded into RAM and then the pc simply sits there. No optical drive activity and no hard disk activity either.

First time I tried it, it was a good 5/6/7 mins before I got bored and powered the pc off. Second time, I removed the external drive (so that the new HDD was in the pc and the bootable CD in the optical drive) and again it stalls at the splash screen. This time, I timed it and after 15 (yes FIFTEEN) minutes of looking at the "Starting Windows" splash screen with the gently animated flag, I again powered off the machine. Again there was no further optical drive activity after the initial loading of drivers, etc and no HDD activity either.

Looks like I'll be contacting Acronis Tech Support to see if they an provide an .iso image (or link to one) rather than me downloading a prog and burning it to disc.

Ideally, I'd like to see what is behind the splash screen to verify that the pc is actually doing something - but I suspect that that's not something I can do. I also suspect that after the initial activity, nothing is going on behind the scenes.

Any ideas?

Zaph

 

[SIW2]

I think they do provide a downloadable iso - they used to.

How to download Acronis bootable media ISO | Knowledge Base

 

[file3456]

@F22

First, thanks for the input. This prompts some questions as I haven't heard of EasyBCD before.

a] Is EasyBCD available as an .iso?

b] Is it freeware?

c] Is EasyBCD bootable (once you burn it to a CD/DVD given the answer to (a) is yes)

d] How can I check where the boot loader is when I have the new clone drive attached via USB with the original drive in the pc?

I presume that EasyBCD would be bootable and that the procedure would be to put the new 2TB clone in the pc and boot from the CD/DVD?

Any further help/advice on this would be most welcome.

Thanks,

Zaph

Check out Hiren's Boot CD which has EasyBCD in it. Download | Hiren's BootCD PE

But it looks like you never made the clone from the jump?

 

[ZaphodB]

I think they do provide a downloadable iso - they used to.

How to download Acronis bootable media ISO | Knowledge Base

Thanks SIW2

I'll check that out. Sent email to Acronis - pretty much what I said earlier - awaiting their response.

Zaph

EDIT: Link works. Following is for me (so I can easily find them again!)

How to download Acronis bootable media ISO
How to download Acronis bootable media ISO | Knowledge Base

Acronis True Image 2020: How to create bootable media
Acronis True Image 2020: how to create bootable media | Knowledge Base

Acronis True Image 2020: Restoring to dissimilar hardware with Acronis Universal Restore
Acronis True Image 2020: Restoring to dissimilar hardware with Acronis Universal Restore | Knowledge Base

Acronis True Image 2020: How to restore your computer with WinPE-based or WinRE-based media
Acronis True Image 2020: How to restore your computer with WinPE-based or WinRE-based media | Knowledge Base

Z

Check out Hiren's Boot CD which has EasyBCD in it. Download | Hiren's BootCD PE

But it looks like you never made the clone from the jump?

Hi F22, thanks for the reply.

Will check out that s/ware.

Don't understand BiB. If you are asking "Did I manage to make a successful clone of the HDD?", the answer is NO.

Zaph

 

[TechnoMage2016]

Z,
I'm embarrassed, because I know what you need, but I'm not allowed by forum rules, to post it here.

If you lived nearby I'd just fix it for you. But I see you're on the wrong side of the pond.

Since I read this thread earlier today, I went on-line and found and downloaded my favorite backup program, (Ghost 11.5), in an ISO form. Then I burned the ISO to a CD-R, booted up my main PC with the new Ghost Boot Disk, and made a backup of my C: drive to my Storage partition, using Maximum Compression.

I've been using Ghost for all my Backup and Cloning jobs, since 1997. Ghost will backup or clone every OS from DOS to Windows 10/Pro/64. It even works with Linux, Server, whatever.

Over the past 40 years, I've tried every backup program that has come along, and I've found every one of them Seriously Wanting. After testing the other ones, I've always come right back to "Ghost 11.5".

Good Luck to you, Mate!
TechnoMage

 

[William2020]

Most of the times, Windows will not boot if the hardware has changed. The best way to ensure this never happens again is by sysprepping the Windows 7 installation before cloning it. Sysprepping Win7 will ensure it will continue to boot even if all the hardware in the machine had been replaced with different ones.

 

[ZaphodB]

Most of the times, Windows will not boot if the hardware has changed. The best way to ensure this never happens again is by sysprepping the Windows 7 installation before cloning it. Sysprepping Win7 will ensure it will continue to boot even if all the hardware in the machine had been replaced with different ones.

Okay.

Not used Sysprepping before. What is it and how do you do it?

Zaph