Migrating a 32Gb partition to a bigger one using Norton Ghost

Don't worry, the entire point of the board is to help people troubleshoot stuff and learn how to use their PC correctly.

First pic is the boot panel of the USB drive, "Unetbootin" on top of it does hint to the program to make bootable usb drives of the same name. This is a unetbootin usb drive containing an Ubuntu linux distro.
So, it boots the USB fine, but the drive does not have anything installed on it, just the bootloader and that screen.
"Default" would be to boot the stuff it has inside the usb drive.

Since Unetbootin isn't usually known to misfire this way, and not being able to boot from a parted magic bootable iso is another hint (in general ANY known bios can and does boot from bootable CD since the days 1.44 mb floppies ruled the Earth, and if it does not work then it's you that are doing something wrong, no offence intended, just like being a bit dramatic sometimes ), I think you might have downloaded a corrupt iso.

Did you do an md5 hash check? this program saves the hassle of going from command line, but you need to look on the site you downloaded the iso from for a genuine file md5 checksum to compare yours to. Md5 is basically number-crunching the file's contents down to a string following an algorithm. If the file is different (usually due to corrupted download), the string is different. And your file has to be redownloaded.
There are others checksum algorithms like SHA1, and it's just a matter of googling to find the corresponding tool.

Also, another thing worth noting is that AOMEI partition assistant can do it too if you can connect both drives at the same time select the drive and click on "wipe", let it run 1 time (more times were for the HDDs). Might reboot to do that as windows 7 is likely actively fighting against altering system files even if not of the current booted system.

whs said:

Best way to erase a SSD is this:

How to securely erase an SSD drive | How To - CNET

Hum wished I had seen this yesterday as I did a SSD with th e Partition Wizard disk wipe. Will be wise to this next time.

ICit2lol said:

whs said:

Best way to erase a SSD is this:

How to securely erase an SSD drive | How To - CNET

Hum wished I had seen this yesterday as I did a SSD with th e Partition Wizard disk wipe. Will be wise to this next time.

You live and learn, LOL

bobafetthotmail said:

Don't worry, the entire point of the board is to help people troubleshoot stuff and learn how to use their PC correctly.

First pic is the boot panel of the USB drive, "Unetbootin" on top of it does hint to the program to make bootable usb drives of the same name. This is a unetbootin usb drive containing an Ubuntu linux distro.
So, it boots the USB fine, but the drive does not have anything installed on it, just the bootloader and that screen.
"Default" would be to boot the stuff it has inside the usb drive.

Since Unetbootin isn't usually known to misfire this way, and not being able to boot from a parted magic bootable iso is another hint (in general ANY known bios can and does boot from bootable CD since the days 1.44 mb floppies ruled the Earth, and if it does not work then it's you that are doing something wrong, no offence intended, just like being a bit dramatic sometimes ), I think you might have downloaded a corrupt iso.

Did you do an md5 hash check? this program saves the hassle of going from command line, but you need to look on the site you downloaded the iso from for a genuine file md5 checksum to compare yours to. Md5 is basically number-crunching the file's contents down to a string following an algorithm. If the file is different (usually due to corrupted download), the string is different. And your file has to be redownloaded.
There are others checksum algorithms like SHA1, and it's just a matter of googling to find the corresponding tool.

Also, another thing worth noting is that AOMEI partition assistant can do it too if you can connect both drives at the same time select the drive and click on "wipe", let it run 1 time (more times were for the HDDs). Might reboot to do that as windows 7 is likely actively fighting against altering system files even if not of the current booted system.

It must be the reason why my system doesn't boot up on the USB in first place.
Thank you a lot for the detailed paragraph ! I was getting bugged by volatile answers !

Also, I've read about a "clean all" DOS command, even though they say it is recommended to perform such only two or three times at max on a SSD.
Not like I'm going for the easy-risky way but I'd like to hear some more information about consequences of such an operation if I ever have to pick alternative solutions for less important drives.

EDIT : All right, so, MIGRATION COMPLETE ! But was a failure ... after the PreOs Mode migration of my SSDs with AOMEI, I set my BIOS to boot on it then (as an external SSD for now since I can't fit any bigger SSD than a 32GB in the backbone). But after the Windows start loading screen, just when it's about to boot on the Account window, I get a Blue screen and some text on it that is impossible to read since it just flashes and then the Laptop reboots from start. Non Stop looping.
So, what did I do wrong this time ? The AOMEI migration interface of the software is pretty easy to follow, like 5 small steps, it's very simplified so i don't think I did anything wrong here, must be somewhere else, but where dammit !

heh, at least there is someone listening to my ramblings.

Also, I've read about a "clean all" DOS command, even though they say it is recommended to perform such only two or three times at max on a SSD.

This is a legend. Does have some truth behind it though.
SSDs have a limited read-write ability. That is, each chip they contain can be written only X amounts of times, then it will fail and the SSD will degrade (= lose capacity as dead cells are deactivated and avoided by the drive controller).
The entire point behind SSDs having badass controllers (processing power comparable to low-end smartphones) is managing the data input/output to optimize the use of all the cells of the drive, so that they all age together.

Wiping a disk, regardless of how you do it (AOMEI partition assistant, the stuff you do with the partition tool in the linux live-cd linked above, the "clean all" command) is over-writing ALL of its memory with "0", the "empty space" in binary code.

So you shorten the lifespan of ALL the memory cells by one "write".

Secure erasing is harder for HDDs, that being magnetic disks need ore time to fully (irrecoverably) erase, so you have to repeat the process (write "1", erase, rinse and repeat) various time (that's why in AOMEI partition assistant you can choose to have it wipe the drive more than once, and was one of the main selling features of the famous DBAN).
HDDs don't have a limit on write times, so you can wipe them to your heart's content. They do fail more often than SSDs tough (statistically).

Now, most modern SSDs (120+ GB ones) are rated for a very high amount of writes (there are numbers you can go and look for, but they aren't really worth checking), and from real-life tests can last a decade if you write 5 GB of data on them per day for the whole decade.

The benchamrks were done by wiping the drive continuously until it failed (for the sake of getting results in a decent timescale), then looking at how much wipes they managed to do before it failed, and this, multiplied by the capacity of the drive gave a good estimate of the amount of GB it can write before failing.

In general, most home users don't write 5 GB every day for years on their SSDs, so for home use their service life is effectively irrelevant (they will become obsolete well before they fail). So yeah you can wipe it every once in a while in special occasions, but don't go bonkers with it.

As a sidenote, this is why SSDs are not yet employed in servers. Good servers move hundreds if not thousands of GBs per day like they were peanuts, and a SSD will die pretty quickly under such stress.

Now Bob this has been known for a very long time re the rewrites on SSD;s I don't know why you have to get so testy about it - it certainly doesn't become one who knows what they are on about.

Just because everyone isn't jumping around slapping you on the back and making a fuss of what you do for the forum is rather demeaning in a way. I sent you a rep and a personal thanks you a few days ago despite my intense dislike of people asking for rep as a) I will not give it out of principle and b) what is the great and burning desire to want it.

If I think someone has been particularly helpful then I will give rep as I did with you, and I found the the absence of any reply to my messages to you rather aloof. I am saying this here because a PM just does not cut the mustard with you at least in my case.
I am no expert and I do this for a hobby and a retirement pastime plus I have always been heavily interested in electronics since I was ten years old. To be honest and up front I couldn't care less if I had rep or not as a personal thank you is in my book a far better way of showing gratitude and not some way of building ones status up.
You can take this message however you like but I am one for speaking my mind and as I se it.

So, what did I do wrong this time ? The AOMEI migration interface of the software is pretty easy to follow, like 5 small steps, it's very simplified so i don't think I did anything wrong here, must be somewhere else, but where dammit !

You can try tapping F8 when the white bios text disappears to go in safe mode (select it from the list of boot options that should appear) and then follow this tutorial to fix system files that somehow got corrupted. Might have to run it up to three times. (does not fix non-system files that may be corrupted)

If it does not work or you want to make sure that you did transfer all your stuff correctly, run a full disk check (both boxes checked) of the 32 GB drive and of the 120GB one (if possible) and then start again. This makes sure that both drives don't have file system errors (or are failing), that can cause a failed cloning.

---------------

ICit2lol said:

Now Bob this has been known for a very long time re the rewrites on SSD;s I don't know why you have to get so testy about it - it certainly doesn't become one who knows what they are on about.

The OP asked for more info about why is bad to do so too much wipes. Also seems to be interested in understanding what he is doing other than just being bossed around by techs.

If I think someone has been particularly helpful then I will give rep as I did with you, and I found the the absence of any reply to my messages to you rather aloof.

I'm sorry for that. I never reply to such messages as I don't know what to say... I'm afraid I might sound false and that would be worse. What should I say?

I am saying this here because a PM just does not cut the mustard with you at least in my case.

Well, a PM would have been the best for these things. This thread isn't here to discuss of my errors, that's disrespectful for the OP.

bobafetthotmail said:

So, what did I do wrong this time ? The AOMEI migration interface of the software is pretty easy to follow, like 5 small steps, it's very simplified so i don't think I did anything wrong here, must be somewhere else, but where dammit !

You can try tapping F8 when the white bios text disappears to go in safe mode (select it from the list of boot options that should appear) and then follow this tutorial to fix system files that somehow got corrupted. Might have to run it up to three times. (does not fix non-system files that may be corrupted)

If it does not work or you want to make sure that you did transfer all your stuff correctly, run a full disk check (both boxes checked) of the 32 GB drive and of the 120GB one (if possible) and then start again. This makes sure that both drives don't have file system errors (or are failing), that can cause a failed cloning.

---------------

ICit2lol said:

Now Bob this has been known for a very long time re the rewrites on SSD;s I don't know why you have to get so testy about it - it certainly doesn't become one who knows what they are on about.

The OP asked for more info about why is bad to do so too much wipes. Also seems to be interested in understanding what he is doing other than just being bossed around by techs.

If I think someone has been particularly helpful then I will give rep as I did with you, and I found the the absence of any reply to my messages to you rather aloof.

I'm sorry for that. I never reply to such messages as I don't know what to say... I'm afraid I might sound false and that would be worse. What should I say?

I am saying this here because a PM just does not cut the mustard with you at least in my case.

Well, a PM would have been the best for these things. This thread isn't here to discuss of my errors, that's disrespectful for the OP.

I have to agree and I am apologising to the OP most profusely for airing my views as I did it was not out of disrespect for you my friend more that I had no other avenue..

I'm an internet user since I'm 3. Don't worry guys, your negotiation had no impact on me, neither do I feel disrespected, I'm used to read, write and post through a lot more junk-like posts and people out there ! Nonetheless saying you pretty much solved it like mature adults (So, there are REAL adults on Internet now :P ?)
And it gives me the opportunity to add my gentle 2cts here by saying to Bobafett that his help within this thread is much appreciated since he carefully and precisely answers to my questions and issues. And the whole explanation about SSDs' writing process is more than welcome since I surely wasn't aware of all this and it does make a difference to know about it. So, I don't know how will other people react and how it works for other users on the board, but for me, it's more or less exactly what I want/need. So thank you again !!



EDIT 1 : Boot up on SSD failed again, same behavior as before, blue screen and reboot after loading Win7.
I will retry the whole thing again, and try a secure erase again.

EDIT 2 :
Chkdsk of the SSD B (destination drive) : Done
Boot on SSD B : Fail again (Flashing Blue screen after Windows 7 loading animation)

Then -
Secure Erase with Parted Magic : Done
Migration from SSD A(Drive to migrate) to SSD B : Done
Turn PC Off, Unplug, plug again, boot up : FAIL !

And here I remember I completely forgot to chkdsk the SSD A before migrating again !!!! Just did it now.
So I read again your detailed explanation of HDD and SSD wiping and it comes to confusion since you say that the Clean All command (for ex.) rewrites 0 everywhere while Secure Erase "write "1", erase, rinse and repeat". But in Parted Magic, they actually tell me it's gonna write 0 everywhere ... Although I may have misread the notice in a rush of getting rid of this operation, but now I feel kind of afraid to wipe the disk out one more time. It'll be the third time in two days.

Secure erasing is harder for HDDs, that being magnetic disks need ore time to fully (irrecoverably) erase, so you have to repeat the process (write "1", erase, rinse and repeat) various time (that's why in AOMEI partition assistant you can choose to have it wipe the drive more than once, and was one of the main selling features of the famous DBAN).

PS : Last minute info : reading of CCleaner being unable to perfom wiping operations on SSD since the wiping protocol is made up for magnetic disks (HDD). I remember performing a Free Space Wipe with CCleaner on SSD A (disk to migrate) though. Must be paranoid, but could this have any effect ?