Solved How can I switch the names of my original C: drive ad its cloned copy?

[wertuias]

I apologize in advance for any misuse of technical terms; I don't have too much experience with the innards of hardware and operating systems.

So I recently bought a new, 1TB hard drive and using Clonezilla, cloned the contents of my original, smaller (160 GB) C: drive. This didn't go without hiccups (Clonezilla could be only booted in safe mode, and had to use the win7 recovery tool to boot the new drive), but now it seems to work: the files on the two drives are the same, and when I choose to boot the "recovered" OS, the command prompt displays "G:\Windows\system32> instead of C:\Windows\system32>, so I presume it's entire mechanism works from the new partition.

Here's a screenshot of Disk Management, taken while I was booted from the C: drive:



(The lines under Állapot (=Status) are the following:
C: | Healthy (Boot, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
G: | Healthy (Page File, Primary Partition)
System Reserved | Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
System Reserved (F: ) | Healthy (System, Primary Partition)
)

Now, what I want to do is to rename the current G: partition (1TB) into C:, and the current C: partition (160 GB) into something else. Also, if possible, disable the booting from the smaller drive in order to skip the dual boot screen when starting the computer, but that would be just icing on the cake.

The problem is, most threads I read said that renaming the C: drive isn't possible without reinstalling Windows, and the one person who did have the same problem received a solution so vague, I dare not to use it for the fear of inadvertently wrecking my computer.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AddRAM]

The other partition will always be a different letter then C.

You have to boot into it for it to show as C

Whichever drive you decide to keep, has to boot on it`s own.

Then you simply format the other drive, then create a new partition or partitions out of it, then assign it whatever letter/letters you want.

You say you are booted into the C drive, but you don`t specify if it`s Disk 0 or Disk 1, right now you have to be using Disk 1, because it`s showing as C

Boot into Disk 0, and it should show up as C and Disk 1 (the 160 GB drive) will have another letter.


You have to unplug Disk 1 to see if Disk 0 boots on its own before you do anything else.

 

[wertuias]

Okay, after some further testing, I realized that I mixed things up in my previous post. The screenshot I posted was actually from a booting from disk 0 (1TB). When I do that, the machine offers me a choice between loading the two available op system: "Windows 7" and "Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)". The screenshot was from choosing the former. Choosing the latter results in this:



While actually booting from disk 1 (160GB) doesn't offer a choice, just boots into this:



This left me even more confused.

I will try disconnecting disk 1, as soon as I can find a screwdriver.

 

[whs]

C is always the partition from which you run. No fiddling with the letters will change that.

 

[AddRAM]

But he`s saying that when he boots into Disk 0 (931 GB) it shows as D, and still shows Disk 1 (160 GB) as C

I would`ve just kept windows on the 160 GB and used the 931 GB for storage.

160 GB is more then enough for windows and your programs.

 

[wertuias]

The reason I want to do this is that disk 1 is quite old, and I don't want to have anything important on it if (more like when) it fails.

 

[DavidE]

I will try disconnecting disk 1, as soon as I can find a screwdriver.

You don't have to physically remove the disk drive.
If you disconnect either the sata (data) connector or the power connector for that drive, it will "remove" the drive from the PC.

You can disconnect the sata connector from either the drive or the motherboard, whatever is easiest.
You can PROBABLY only disconnect the power connector from the drive, that cable is probably wired into the the PSU.

Make sure everything is turned off before unplugging any cable !!!!

For the drive/partition letter issue, i would "nuke" the new drive, and create/restore an image using Macrium Reflect Imaging.

To me it sounds like the Clonezilla CLONE did something wrong.
I've used Macrium and Acronis imaging many times to "transfer/copy/move" my OS's to a new storage device.

 

[wertuias]

Okay, I tried to boot from disk 0 with disk 1 disconnected, and the OS sorta booted up... but the Desktop was just a blank blue slate, with no icons or taskbar. Now I'm going to make a new clone, this time using Macrium Reflect (the free version), and try to boot it first time without the other drive connected. Is there any tips or tricks I should be aware of?

 

[DavidE]

My responses are in blue.

Okay, I tried to boot from disk 0 with disk 1 disconnected, and the OS sorta booted up... but the Desktop was just a blank blue slate, with no icons or taskbar.

I've seen that happen if multiple monitors are used or enabled and screen resolution is set to "Extend these displays".
Sometimes Windows is displaying the desktop/taskbar on a monitor that is not available.
The "quick-fix" is to change screen resolution to "Duplicate these displays", or turn on the other monitor.

Now I'm going to make a new clone, this time using Macrium Reflect (the free version), and try to boot it first time without the other drive connected. Is there any tips or tricks I should be aware of?

I haven't used Cloning, I use Imaging.

The System/Active partition is where the boot-loader is stored.
The Boot partition is where Windows is installed and running from.

Each drive should have a System/Active partition, in your case this should be the System Reserved partition.
Each drive should be able to start Windows with the other drive disconnected, and the Windows (Boot) partition should always be . [/COLOR] [/QUOTE] I apologize, i can't read your Disk Management screen prints. I don't know the language :( :o

 

[wertuias]

I added some subtitles:



If I understand correctly, using an image would require a third drive where I could place the image file that I would later restore to disk 0. Or you just saying this to show that you have no experience with cloning?

 

[whs]

In my experience cloning always gave me problems. Imaging seems to be more straight forward.

 

[Layback Bear]

I use a image and a clone. So I don't get confused I change the name of each partition. This way now matter what partition letter they get or disk number they I know what is what.

 

[DavidE]

You can't create a backup image on the same partition that you are imaging.

You can create a backup image on the same Hard Drive, but it must be saved to a different partition on that Hard Drive.
You could also save the backup image to a different Hard Drive, such as a USB external drive.

I do it both ways, i save backup images on multiple devices.

I played with cloning years ago, and it didn't work well for me, so i have no recent experience.

Your screen print (notes) in post #10 shows
- disk 0 is the Active/System partition, so that is where the boot-loader is used from to start Windows.
- disk 1 is the Boot partition, so that is where Windows is running from

You want the disk 0 [G] partition to be the Boot partition.
If you disconnect Disk 1 and a re-boot doesn't work, you probably only need to run Startup Repair to fix this.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

 

[Layback Bear]

Now I'm on my Clone ssd and here is a Disk Management.

 

[wertuias]

Well, I finally given up on fixing the previous mess, and just made a new clone with Macrium. And it worked perfectly! (Wel, at least so far.) Here's a screenshot:



Thanks for everyone's help, I'm incredibly grateful.

 

[Layback Bear]

Now just rename them so you don't get them confused. Like post #14.