Problems after cloning C drive

magicant · 15 Nov 2015

I manually added the letter when I first built the computer. I was trying to boot into safe mode through msconfig but i was not able to select everything and doing research read that if you assign a drive letter to that partition it will work. So I assigned a letter and it work fine. I used a registry hack to make that drive hidden in my computer so it doesn't show up. I haven't had any issues with it having a drive letter so i don't think that is the problem.

I don't know why I got strange random problems like that unless the drive is defective and has some bad sectors or the docking station didn't copy correctly (although it seemed to copy the D drive fine, I've had no problems with that yet).

I may buy another drive and try that with the docking station, and if i get the same problem will than try a software solution. Unless anyone has any other ideas. And does anyone have any experience between acronis and macriu?

Thanks for the responses

RolandJS · 15 Nov 2015

System Reserved does not need a letter for it to boot or for it to be cloned or for it to be imaged. Don't assign drive letter to SysRes; leave it as it originally was.

magicant · 15 Nov 2015

Does giving it a drive letter matter? It's been like that for 5 years with no issues and I don't think that has anything to do with my cloning problem. I'm trying to figure out what could be causing these strange issues with the clone.

RolandJS · 16 Nov 2015

magicant said:

Does giving it a drive letter matter? It's been like that for 5 years with no issues and I don't think that has anything to do with my cloning problem. I'm trying to figure out what could be causing these strange issues with the clone.

After I reRead the thread, I realized in your computer, it made no difference over there, so ignore my post.
Over here, SysRes not remaining what is supposed to be, and coupled with my diddling with EasyBCD caused boot problems.

bigmck · 16 Nov 2015

magicant said:

Does giving it a drive letter matter? It's been like that for 5 years with no issues and I don't think that has anything to do with my cloning problem. I'm trying to figure out what could be causing these strange issues with the clone.

It may not make a difference, but it might also. I am only stating the correct way it should be. When Windows installs, the System Reserved does not have a letter.

magicant · 16 Nov 2015

I've been looking into macrium reflect although I haven't installed it yet.

A few questions. Does it matter if I clone within windows or from the rescue cd? I haven't find any video tutorials on cloning using the rescue cd. And how does it actually clone while windows is running? Does it clone absolutely everything? I'm not sure how it can while within windows.

I saw a few video tutorials and it seemed to do this, although when complete I noticed a slight difference in the GB size shown on the original partition and the clone. Why are they not exact?

I assume that if cloning from SSD to SSD there is no worry of aligning or anything like that? I can just clone directly.

Thank you.

bigmck · 16 Nov 2015

You can clone from Windows. The only time you need the Rescue CD is when your PC is messed up and won't boot. You can then boot from the Rescue CD and restore your files that way. == Yes, it clones all of the files. For some reason the GB might not be exactly the same amount. I am not sure why, but I have never had Macrium fail. I have always used the image instead of clone because it is about half the size. With image you do not have access to each file individually like when cloning. An image just restores the whole thing. If you need access to individual files then cloning is the way to go. == Using a SSD or a HDD is done the same way. Nothing to worry about there. == Here is a youtube on cloning with Macrium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0PyZIqecII == Let us know how it goes.

magicant · 17 Nov 2015

I dont want to do an image because I want to replace my current system SSD drive with a larger, so I need to clone it and then boot from the new drive. I will try it this weekend since my hardware duplicator seems to have not cloned properly.

One other question, can I install macrium on a different drive and still clone C (system) drive or does it have to be installed on the windows drive.

And how does it clone all of windows while windows is in use? aren't the files locked?

Thank you very much.

ICIT2LOL · 17 Nov 2015

No mate you can clone while the Windows is running - have done it many times and I don't think there would be a problem with the Macrium on a totally separate drive as you pick the disk to be cloned and then the destination one, but not having done it that way I cannot say for definite it will clone going with that process.

Having said that just install the Macrium on C: drive it really doesn't make any difference and you get Macrium on the cloned drive as well as the rest of your programs. Is it locked while you are doing the clone - no but I always leave the machine to clone on it's own - it takes only a few minutes anyway and even if it took an hour I reckon you could find something else to do

RolandJS · 17 Nov 2015

Using Intelligent Copy instead of sector-by-sector copy leads to accurate clone or imaging -- and the byte-count will differ some between the original and the clone. I've made clones and full-partition images from within Windows, and have used DVD boot to restore. No problems encountered.