windows to a new drive

ripbox · 23 May 2010

Ok so my WD raptor died a week or so back and i RMA'd it and i will receive my replacement drive (concidering selling it and going SSD)
Anyway back in Vista i made a system back up via windows back and when the Raptor died i swapped over to my Caviar only to find that an error would put up saying i could not restore from the backup which in turn was due to a difference in drive size or something similar

So this time round with windows 7 i want to know if i can make a backup that will restore from the caviare onto the Raptor without such an error

Will 7's backup utility allow this to happen? or would i have to use a 3rd party software utility and if so what?
Or will i have to make a full fresh install???
I want to try avoid this if i can since im OEM rather than retail this time round

dives = 1x Western Digital Raptor - 1x Western Digital Caviar

(May replace the raptor for a SSD)

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For those interested in the RMA here is the model numbers for the defective and replacement drive

Defective = Western Digital Raptor - Model No: WD1500ADFD-00NLR1
Replacement = Western Digital Raptor - Model No: WD1500ADFS-00SLR5

osholt · 23 May 2010

I believe the restore problem you were having is caused by you trying to put your image onto a smaller drive than the one it was taken from (even if the amount of data on the image can fit on the drive).

This is a well documented flaw with the built in imaging software.

As long as the drive you are trying to image to is greater than or equal to the size of the original you won't run into problems.

It's always good to make a second manual backup in this sort of situation.

If you have anymore questions feel free to ask.

Oli

ripbox · 23 May 2010

No the drive that the backup was made from was a 150GB western digital Raptor
the new destination drive was a 500GB western digital Caviar

so the drive was most defiantly larger just vista wouldnt restore from the image

SIW2 · 23 May 2010

In theory it should be ok.

I wouldn't bet on it.

Use a free 3rd party app. to make a backup image - they are more flexible and predictable.

Macrium and Paragon both do good free versions. They will have no problem restoring to a new drive - same size or larger.

Paragon can also restore to a smaller drive , but it takes a while.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/0...mber-key-code/

Whichever you use - first check the boot disc you run off from within the program is able to boot and load up on your particular machine.

whs · 23 May 2010

From many postings and some own experimenting I noticed that the Windows imaging is not perfect. For starters it is quite complex and there are many traps you can fall into. If your target drive is equal or larger in size, I suggest you use one of the other imaging programs. I use Macrium, but that is not the only option.
If, however, you need to go to a smaller drive (which is most likely the case with an SSD as target), you will have to use the cloning functions. Cloning is available in the Pro versions and I believe there was a free version of Paragon that had a cloning facility too.

LOL, SIW2 types faster than me.

SIW2 · 23 May 2010

Hi whs,

Nowadays, all the Paragon apps. can restore an image to a smaller drive ( has to be larger than the used space on the source, obviously )- takes maybe twice as long.

gregrocker · 23 May 2010

The way to troubleshoot this and most other errors is to Google the exact error message text, or enough of it along with indentifying numbers so that you can tap many others' solutions who have posted it before. All of the world's knowledge is now on Google.

For example, if you had quoted the error message as many do, I would have highlighted it, and when the accelerator pops up I would tell it to search Google. Then I would scan the Google results to find the most promising fixes, study the issue and post back a synopsis or link to direct fix.

The only way to make your backup images failsafe is to back up more than one. For an image you cannot afford to lose, use Win7 backup imaging and free Macrium Reflect, for example.

whs · 23 May 2010

SIW2 said:

Hi whs,

Nowadays, all the Paragon apps. can restore an image to a smaller drive ( has to be larger than the used space on the source, obviously )- takes maybe twice as long.

Thanks, that is good to know. Last time I played with Paragon was nearly 2 years ago. I did win a product key in a contest at the time. What I did not know was that the key was only good for 6 months. After that I lost interest in it. Maybe I should freshen up with the free version.

whs · 23 May 2010

SIW2 said:

Check your PM, whs.

Hmm, last PM I received was from Greg. Do I miss something?

SIW2 · 23 May 2010

It's there now.