Disk's Layout will remain MBR???

CotS, please take a look at post: 128057: [Tutorial] How to recover an entire disk backup and in particular see page 4 of the PDF document which shows where the option to "Recover disk signature" is found.

Steve thanks for posting that.

However, my interface in ATI 2017 differs significantly from the images posted in the tutorial you posted. Alghough I did see the check box on page four of the pdf...

Allow me to walk you through the process using this interface.

In this GUI, the program opens, and I clicked on "Recover Disks"

In the next screen, it reads my most recent backup. and here is where I choose what to restore. "Partitions" highlighted. I switch to "Disks" I also put a highlight in the box next to my Internal Hard drive.

It now wants to know where to recover to. From the drop down list that appears, I select my A drive i.e. my Samsung SSD.

There is one more button I could click on. "Recovery Options" The options lised here are similar to those found to "Backup Options" but even on that page, there is no option to inlude the Disk Signature.

Apart from letting me know that the disk will be resord as is (disk['s layout will remain MBR) it seems to me, the only other button to ckick, notwithstanding those on the toolbar on the left hand side, is "Recover Now" which is highlighted by a green background. Your only other choice is: "Cancel"

I hate to belabor the point, but it was at this juncture in the tutorial, where the checkbox appeared on screen that you could check to include the Drive Signature.

Could you help me out?

Thanks in advance,

CotS

CotS,

Are you trying to perform this recover/restore operation while booted into the Windows True Image application?  If you are this is why your screens differ from that in the PDF instruction.  The PDF shows views from bootable recover media which is what you should be using to perfrom the recover/restore operation.

Create Recovery Media using the Medai Builder tool found in the Tools section of the Windows application and use it to perfrom your restore task.

 Yeah, I was using the application...Thanks Enchantech for the clarification.

I'll let you know how it goes.

CotS

I'm at the Settings of Partition 1-1 and do not understand if the information displayed below reflects the source drive, or destination drive.

Also, I'm trying to restore (C:) to my SSD, but the program shows the drive on this page as (E:). (E:) on this computer refers to one of my 2 optical drives.

Am I confirming a Source or Destination drive?

Thanks in Advance,

CotS

Cots,

Look on page 3 of the PDF file.  You will see 2 screenshots.  The bottom screenshot is the one I think you are refering to.  Note the check mark with the arrow pointing to it (Disk 1).  This selection reslults in all partitions on disk to be recovered.  The disk in use for the screenshot has a number of partitions and as youcan see they are all selected for a full disk recovery.  This is what you should see as well.

Do not be overly concerned with drive letters being different.  You are in a Linux environment when using the Recovery Media and Linux uses a different lettering scheme thus the reason for the difference.

Well, I booted my drive after having successfully used the program from the flash drive. The thing is, b.c. both drives were the same, my ssd won't boot.

I have since installed the new HDD I bought. Now the computer does not boot.
Do I need to reinstall the original HDD, and recover again?

Thanks in advance,

CotS

You shoudl only have one drive connected when attempting to boot the first time, hopefully the bootloader was not changed by the bios after attempting to boot with both installed :(

With the one drive installed, check your bios boot order and make sure that disk is listed as the first boot option - it may be trying to boot the wrong device.

What is the behavior of it not booting - any prompts,  messages, blue screen messages, etc?

CotS, 

The process described in the PDF tutorial document works for other users, but it assumes that both the original and new drives are both of the same type, i.e. both are SATA and are being connected to the same, original SATA controller and port to match up with the Boot Configuration Data held for how Windows boots.

Both drives should also use the same controller mode, i.e. both AHCI or both IDE or both RAID.

Your backup must also have included all hidden partitions required by Windows to boot, i.e. System Reserved/ EFI partition (if BIOS is this type).

So what should I do now to make my sad bootable?

CotS

First things first.  Put the original drive where it was originally, remove the new drive.  Check the bios and make sure the boot order is correct and sees the original drive as the first boot option.  Can you still boot that - if not, what errors do you get?

If it does boot - please verify the following - what is the SATA mode in the bios - AHCI, IDE or something else?

Are you using the external PCIE card before or after with the SSD?  Don't add it to the mix until you have everything working with just transferring from the old drive to the new drive and making sure the new Drive boots on the same port as the old drive, all on it's own.

We really don't know exactly what's been done up to this point, so the more info and details you can provide, and the less additional changes you make at a time, the better. 

It is set to ACHI. And I am using the SATA card I bought.
CotS

When you say it is set to ACHI and you are using the SATA card you bought, how is the original drive connected?  Is this connected to the same SATA card?

Pull the card out completely.

For the migration, use the same internal SATA connector as your original hard drive until you get that sorted out.  

Once the SSD boots, leave it in the original slot as well, but then attach the PCIE card with nothing in it and boot into the OS on the SSD that is on the original SATA controller.  That should automatically install drivers for it in the OS to prep the move (if need be).  If not, download drivers from the manufacturer and install them while the OS is booted - this will help ensure the OS can utilize the card when you go to move the SSD into it.

After that, you can then put the SSD in the card and will most likely need to change the boot order in the bios as well.

You've compicated the transfer of HD to SSD by trying to do too much at once.  Start small, get the HD to SSD and then when that's working, then work on getting the SSD to work with the new card.  Who knows - maybe the card is bad, but making several changes at once, it is much harder to troubleshoot and also complicates the process.

Sorry Steve,

That was a comment about the SATA mode of the SSD.

CotS

Bobbo,

If I pull the card, the SSD will get plugged into a SATA 2 port for the migration. And for some reason, the boot order is now defaulting to my flash drive (think Acronis bootable media) so it wouldn't boot.

I wento to the boot order menu, and changed the order, pressed F10 to accept the changes, and saved the changes upon exiting. However it is still starting from the USB stick. Go figure.

So what I do, is change the order for a one time change. (That's my impression of the effect of my  menu selection...)

CotS

The boot order should boot the first bootable drive in that order. I'd pull all drives, even the USB of acronis and only have the original attached. Make sure it is first and showing in the bios and save the bios settings and then try to boot. If it doesn't boot with just it attached, you may have other issues after having both drives connected and trying to boot, which is a no-no.

CotS wrote:

If I pull the card, the SSD will get plugged into a SATA 2 port for the migration.

Why?  The way you should be doing this migration is to do as follows:

1. Backup the original HDD (or SSD) drive to an external drive.
2. Remove the original drive and replace with the SSD.
3. Boot from the Acronis Rescue Media with the external backup drive connected.
4. Restore the backup from step 1 to the new SSD drive.
5. Shutdown, remove the Rescue Media and external drive.
6. Boot the SSD into Windows.

You shouldn't need to use an additional SATA card or have both original and new drives connected in the computer.

Doing things as above means that the original HDD is isolated from the Restore actions and kept safe 'just in case!'  It also means that the SSD is in the right place to assume the role of the HDD with no need to change anything else unless your BIOS settings need to be refreshed to pick up the SSD. 

Steve, he has an old system.  He posted awhile back in a few different threads that he only has a single SATA 2 port free so needs a PCIE card to attach the new SSD and use a data drive. to take advantage of PCI-E 2.0 x16 lane for the SSD to get closer to optimal performance since he has no SATA 3 ports.  I'm all for him using the card, but not going there yet until he gets the SSD to boot with the internal system first and not adding the PCIE adapter to the mix until that's taken care of. 

Rob, thanks for the extra information.  Most of my systems are old too, still have a number of Intel P4 systems with limited SATA ports, hence using an external USB backup drive and replacing the original internal SATA drive is a way of eliminating any add-in PCI-E card.  Performance shouldn't be the main driver when aiming at getting the migration to succeed - simplicity should trump that until the new SSD is up and working. K.I.S.S...!

Steve,

I also bought 2 port SATA3 PCI card that I could plug my SSD into to get the performance out of the SSD. The SATA cable from the SSD is plugged into that card.  If I remove the card, the SATA cable (from what was the PCI card,) will be left hanging. For the system to recognise the SSD, it has to be plugged in to the motherboard. In this case, my one open SATA2 port.

Hope that helped,

CotS

CotS, I understand about the SATA3 PCI card, but you look to be trying to make too many changes all at the same time here.

Let's get back to basics for a moment.  How is your original OS drive connected - I am assuming that this does not connect to the new SATA3 card but goes directly to a motherboard SATA port / connector?

This is where you need to put the SSD to start with, not the SATA3 PCI card.  Get the SSD to boot correctly as a direct replacement for the original disk drive.

Once that is working, then you have a different task to migrate the SSD from the motherboard port to the PCI SATA card port.  You start this process by adding in the PCI card on its own and letting the system recognise it and install any drivers that are needed without connecting the SSD to it.  After that is done, then make a new backup of the SSD to an external drive for safety, then try moving it to the SATA3 card port.

You will need to go into your BIOS settings to select the SSD as the boot drive in its new placement as otherwise the system will not find a boot drive as none is connected to the original port.  Note: do not add in any other drives while you do this.

Keep this as simple as you can as you work through each stage of this process.

Thanks for the post. I appreciate the time you took to write it.
Update: I removed all the cards I bought from the system. The SSD is now connectected
to the SATA 2 port.
The only things in the computer are: graphics card and the SSD.

When I ran the recovery program, all goes well, up until the program asks for me to choose partition settings. The first tab is for partition 1-1 (whatever that is), and I chose the SSD. The next tab, partition settings for C: there is only one option avail.: My ext
ernal drive, where I keep my b/u's. So, when I choose that, it won't let me, for that reason.

Can you help me?

Thanks in advance,
CotS

CotS, if you are following the tutorial document then you shouldn't be needing to set any individual partition settings.

See page 3 of the document, where for the Recovery method you should have selected "Recover whole disks and partitions" and then on the next panel shown, you should just select just the top Disk box (which automatically puts ticks against all partitions).  If you do this then the next selection should be for the destination drive as shown on page 4 of the document.

I have been doing the steps you describe in your last post. But even though I checked all the boxes, in the previous step, in the next step, a partition location still needs to be selected. This is the difference between the tutelage and my experience

I can't. follow the tute because I can't get into windows. The orig. Drive has been removed, along with the win 7 os.

CotS, please see the relevant screen shots from the document.

Recovery method = Recover whole disks and partitions

What to recover = Disk 1 only.  
Only select the top disk option shown, do not touch any of the partitions - these should already be shown as selected.

Destination of Disk 1 - this should be the next panel shown when only the Disk 1 option is selected.  
If you are seeing panels requiring setting the destination for individual partitions, then this would suggest that you had touched one of the partitions in the previous What to recover panel.

Thanks Steve for the. png's. I was able to see them on my tablet, and the first two images are exactly what I've seen on my end - and done it just as the pictures show.

On my end, the next screen that I see, after all that, starts asking about the settings of partition 1-1; because apparently, it doesn't have a clue. even though I. .put a checkmark in the first box, which selects all partitions. Go figure.

So anyway, because no selections are made, the program asks me something about t.he settings of partition 1-1.

I got two out of three right. re: images.

CotS

CotS, in this case you are going to have to do the restore partition by partition, which means that you will need to set the correct partition sizes as you go along too.

See the ATIH 2017 User Guide: Recovering your system to a new disk under bootable media.

In step 9. make a note of the sizes shown for the partitions in your backup image.

In step 10. you need to set the Size of the partition back to its correct size as otherwise it will occupy the full size of the disk you select.

• Size. Click Change default in the Partition size area. By default the partition occupies the entire new disk. Enter the correct size in the Partition size field (you can see this value on the What to recover step). Then drag this partition to the same location that you saw in the Backup Information window, if necessary. Click Accept.

You will need to repeat this for each partition you are restoring. 

I don't understand why it would require partition by partition. I've never seen that before.

Heres a thought though. Was the new ssd formatted as GPT or MBR?

I'd like to go back further...

Return to the original disk - is that still possible? If so, connect the ssd to a second  slow sata port on system main board directly. Then, boot to the old drive. With Windows running, format the new ssd... didkpart clean and then you can use disk manager to initialize and setup  as MBR...  which will make sure it's initialized and formatted to match the old drive scheme and your old, legacy system.

I'd then attach the new pcie card with NO disks in it and boot the old OS again and see if the card is at least detected.  We are not using the card here, only preparing the OS for it later down the road, but there's still work to do before that.

Disconnect the ssd. Disconnect the add in card.

Take a new full offline image of the original drive.

Disconnect the original and swap in the ssd into the exact same connector. Leave the original out of the system.

Restore the image to the ssd using full disk and automatic. Does it still want to do a partition restore? Are you sure you're selecting automatic here too? Let's assume it will work as expected now, but let us know.

After we get that sorted out...

Boot the new ssd in its current sata slot and make sure it works. Test it to make sure it as you would expect.

At that point, if it does, swap it into the pcie card and check the bios boot order to make sure it sees the drive and it has 1st priority. Then try booting it in the card.

Update:

When I tried this a-way back when, I had both drives, the original drive, ( so the system could see it, and the ssd for the same reason, and then rebooted with both of them still under the hood.

So, how do you find out what is on the SSD? (I wonder if that first attempt was a success or not.)

Anyway, here's the latest:

The Acronis thumb drive, has been in the USB port nearly all day. It worked, i.e booted into the program earlier - but now, I just get text with the number choices. I press one. and nothing. but it worked this morning. Go figure. So, because I couldn't get past that "opening screen" I just mentioned, I re-installed my C: drive the one with the OS on it.  Get this: the default boot drive is this C: drive. So how was it working this morning? Under the same circumstances? At any rate, this gave me an oportunity to print out:

• atih_2017_disk_restore.pdf (just in case I needed it.)
• Your post Bobbo #29
• the info behind Steve's link: Recovering your system to a new disk under bootable media.

So, at this point I have no cards (except for the Video Card,) and my C: drive installed. Not to it's original SATA port...but it's original location in the drive cage.

Bobbo: to your question about how the drive was formatted, MBR; because this is a 250GB SSD - well under the limit of 2TB.

I know like three days ago the program on the thumb drive ran it's course all the way to the end. I know, because it took all of eight minutes.  Then I tried to reboot a couple of times, no dice. But then again, I didn't change the boot order. Also, back then I didn't know that F10 was the key to press to get into BIOS. Seeing as how C: still boots, I heard on the web that if you do that - boot with two drives with the same image on them, one of them will become "unbootable." So, with that said, Bobbo, a) you want me to connect to the mainboard?  But then, you'll could potentially be booting two drives with the same image on them...

Thanks in advance,

CotS

COTS,

Oh man, we're working with more limited information than I had thought... every time you provide an update, we learn something new... Honestly, this shouldn't be too difficult, but we're pulling in new scraps of information with each response.  Here goes, based off your last update.

1) The issue with booting 2 drives is primarily right after a recovery or clone - the bios doesn't know the difference between the 2 drives at this point because last time it booted, there was only one drive.  The key point above is to first boot the system again with the one good (old drive) and make sure it works.  Then attach the second drive and still boot to the main old drive after that - the bios should recognize they are different after booting the OS at least once.  However, you never can be too sure.  If you want to be more cautious leave the SSD disconnected, boot the main hard drive (the old one) and attach the new one via USB if you have an external adapter - that will still work.  Windows cannot boot from a USB drive so there is no issue here.  The question though, is do you have an external USB adapter for your SSD to do this?

2) About your comment above regarding the SDD being formatted as legacy/mbr.  You can't assuem it's mbr just because it's less than 2TB.  Most of the time, a brand new drive will come from the vendor "uninitializerd - not formatted at all".  The user usually has to initialize the disk and then choose to format it as MBR or GPT - their choice.  On a UEFI system, I format all drives as GPT - especially since I use Windows 10 on all my home systems, which works well with GPT.  An SSD from the vendor that may have been formatted already, is most likely to be formatted as GPT/UEFI because it is the newer technology and Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 have been around awhile now.  Windows 7 handles GPT disks as well.  For an external drive, GPT is fine.  For a boot drive, GPT is probably fine, but it depens on the motherboard and whether or not the OS is a UEFI or Legacy install.  

If you never intialized the disk in Windows, no idea how the SSD would be formatted at this point.  The reason being based upon the next couple of items and how you booted the rescue media to restore the OS to the SSD.

3) Your system may not be as old as you think it is.  Apparently it is capable of UEFI bootingt - based upon your note above that the Acronis USB recovery media booted as text with a couple of choices .  Please take a look at these.  A blue background with GUI icons means you've launched the recovery meida in legacy boot.  A black screen with white letters and a text menu means you launched the Acronis recovery media in UEFI mode.  

Based on the info of your system and apparent age with SATA 2 only and being a legacy/mbr install, I've assuemd the entire time your computer is legacy/mbr only, but that sounds like it may not be the case.

Your thumb drive is fine, but appears to be attempting a UEFI boot. Why it is attempting to boot UEFI now instead of legacy, I can't tell you - the bios settings, the boot order, someting.   However...

4) With this this new information that sounds like your system does support both legacy and/or UEFI mode:

    a) double check your original OS install (install just the original drive and detach the SSD and boot into windows from the original drive)- we thought it was MBR/legacy from your previous info, but please make sure.  This will help you identify the install type.  https://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/29504-bios-mode-see-if-windows-boot-uefi-legacy-mode.html.  If you're not sure, take screenshots of the different options and post them back here for confirmation.  

An alternative method is to launch diskpart from an elevated command prompt and type "list disk"  GPT disks will be identified with an * - see my screenshot. This assumes you know which disk is which - disk management in computer management will give you the disk # if you're not sure. 

    b) once verified then you need to ensure you are booting the Acronis recovery media to match.  As identified in the screenshots above.. blue screen with GUI icons is a legacy boot of Acronis and a black screen with white icons is a UEFI boot.

    c) Your motherboard should have a one time boot menu - F12, F1 Esc, Del - I'm not sure what yours is - it should say in the manual somewhere.  F12 is standard for Dell's and custom motherboards, other OEM's often use F1, Esc or Del.  As posted above this is an example boot override menu - note the same USB drive has an option for UEFI or one without UEFI in the name (legacy).  Based on what you've stated above, your system should be capable of UEFI or legacy and if your OS is a legacy install, you need to specifically pick legacy mode.  If it is a UEFI install, then you need to pick the UEFI boot mode for the USB.

I'm not going to try to provide detailed instructions on how you can proceed because we don't have any information about your system. Without it we are just wasting our time.

I will provide an answer to your original question about the restored disk staying MBR. You must boot the recovery media in Legacy mode. If you boot in UEFI mode, TI will convert the restored disk to GPT. The restored disk will never be bootable. It looks like this is your basic mistake. The fact that you see a black screen with only a text menu tells me you are booting the Linux recovery media in UEFI mode. You need to boot the media in Legacy mode. Figure out how to enter the one time boot override menu for your computer. If you see more than one entry for your media, do not select the entry that starts with UEFI.

If you are willing to provide the necessary information about your computer, BIOS and Windows disk formatting and partition layout, we will be able to help you.

Are you willing to answer some basic questions about your system?

Hi Mustang.

Thanks for posting. Yeah, I'd be happy to help out by answering any questions about my system that I could.

Right now, the BIOS is set up so that my original HD is first in the boot order. Not that there are other drives installed...but to get the bootable media to boot, doesn't that have to be first in booting order?

The text was talking about looks similar to Bobbo's images he posted. (Thanks Bobbo!) As I recall, the only difference being, when the media loads, it's white text on a black background.  And instead of eight or 10 choices to choose from, I have only 3 choices.

Bobbo: Yeah, the computer is as old as I think it is. :( I went to disk management, and there was *no* sign of EFI in any of the drives displayed. Although, much to my suprise the BIOS did provide for a "UEFI Application" that could be launched. However, when I pressed the corresponding number, nothing happened.  The bootable media presents itself in "Legacy" mode.

And finally. my Samsung SSD did not come pre formatted; as after installation, it wouldn't show up in Windows Explorer. So, I went to Disk Management, and accepted Windows choice of MBR (after looking up the differences,) created 1 partition on the drive, and that was that. Windows Explorer then recognized the drive.

Thanks guys for all your help. I appreciate it.

CotS

Let's take this one question at a time.

What is the brand and model number of your computer? If it is a home built computer, what is the brand and model number of the motherboard? I want to download a user's manual to start with.

Model No. HPE-570t

Mobo: Google "Cleaveland Motherboard" That should take you the webpage with the info on it. You might find a manual under this model no.: Pegatron Corp 2AB6. But remember, this mobo, i.e. the one inside my computer, is manufactured to HP's specifications.

Hope that helps.

CotS

Funny how the HP site shows your model number machine as having PATA IDE hard drives and the Motherboard model you quote on the spec sheet shows it supports SATA II with 4 ports available.  In this thread you say that you only have 2 drive connections on the motherboard.  Can you clarify?

Well, that was a disappointment. The HP user's manual is useless. I did see a post saying that F11 may be the key to bring up the one time boot override menu. Try booting with the recovery media and rapidly tapping the F11 key repeatedly to see if a boot menu appears. If that doesn't work, try the same thing with the other F keys. One of them (maybe F10) will bring you into the BIOS setup mode. This is not what you want. You want to see a boot menu.

You want to see the recovery media listed more than once in the boot menu. One line should say UEFI and the other line should not say UEFI. You need to select the non UEFI menu line to boot the recovery media in Legacy mode.

If you don't see a non UEFI line in the boot menu for the recovery media, you will need to enter the BIOS and enable something like CSM (Compatability Support Module). I suspect this is already done if your Windows 7 disk is MBR. 

Once you know you've booted the recovery media in Leagay mode, you have a chance of restoring the system to the new drive and having is stay formatted MBR.

Now lets discuss your goals. As I understand from other topics, you want to add USB 3.0 and SATA III support using cards and migrate to a larger SSD. Is that correct, or am I getting you confused with another poster?

The USB 3.0 support is realistic. The larger SSD is realistic. Booting the new SSD from an addon SATA III card may not work. Most addon SATA III card don't have boot ROM capability. That means you can use them to add storage drives, but you can't boot a Windows system from them. The only SATA III addon card I know of with boot ROM code is an Asus card that works well with Asus motherboards, but is questionable with other motherboards.

EDIT:

On second thought, it is the addon USB 3.0 cards that don't have boot ROM. Booting from the SATA III addon card is realistic.

Those 2 SATA ports were all that was left after accounting for everything that was using a sata port.

So let's assume, that  my two optical drives are SATA drives. I don't know that they are, and I don't know that they aren't. I'm showing you a plausible way how you *could* fill 3 SATA ports.

So, 2 optical drives, and one hard drive = 3 SATA ports in use. Therefore, I'd have one free for the addition of my SSD. So, two free SATA ports on board may have inaccurate. Or the 2 sata ports may have referred to the 2 SATA 3 ports on the inateck card I bought for the speed increase for the SSD, hence making that one free SATA 2 port still free to use.

Conversly had I said,I have 4 sata ports, you might be thinkiing all were available  - when in reality - it's only one (on the motherboard.) And that doesn't include the (in effect) 1 port SATA 3 port on the PCI card. I say one because if I used both, the bandwith available for the SSD would be cut in half. so, for all intents and purposes, it's a 1 port card....Not that it's installed, (same goes for my 4 port USB 3.0 card,) but that's the game plan. (to run the SSD off that card.)

Thanks for all your help.

I hope this helps.

CotS

Ok, you convinced me you know the difference between IDE and SATA.  That's a relief and a good start.  I agree with Mustang the HP user manual is worthless!  I have to leave on an out of town trip but you are in good hands with Mustang, Bobbo and Steve, I'm sure they will get you where you need to be.

The process of what you're trying to accomplish is relatively simple, but there are a number of steps involved.

Here's a general outline step by step.

1. Put the computer back the way it was when it was working. Original drive only with no new cards installed.

2. Boot into Windows 7 to confirm Windows is working properly.

3. Shut down and install both new cards, but don't attach anything to them.

4. Boot into Windows and install any drivers that came with the cards. Confirm that both card show in Device Manager with no problems. Now you know Windows 7 will support the new cards.

5. Make a Full Disk backup of the Windows 7 drive to your external USB drive from within Windows.

6. Shut down and remove the original Windows drive and attach the new SSD to the SATA II port where the Windows drive came from. You want it here to be sure the recovery media will see it.

7. Boot the recovery media in Legacy mode and do a Full Disk recovery to the new SSD.

8. After the restore is complete, shut down and move the new SSD to the SATA III card.

9. Start the computer and enter BIOS setup mode. Set the boot order to select the new SSD as the first boot option and try to boot into Windows. It should work because you previously added the drivers for the SATA III card.

I found a good link for the HP BIOS information. http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/bph07110

Use it to determine if you have a version 6 or 7 BIOS. Then I will know what you see when you enter BIOS setup mode.

It also seems the Esc key will bring up the Startup menu if you have a version 7 BIOS.

What BIOS version do you have?

It turns out that I had "CHI_7.11.bin v 7.11 which now reads, (since I updated it,) CHI_7.15.ROM v.7.15. The Revision is from December 2011.

Thanks Mustang.

CotS

My plan is to replace a 5 year old internal HDD (C) drive, that had the OS and data and programs all together on it, and put the OS mostly (we're talking OEM here,) on the Samsung SSD.

On the WD 2TB Internal, I'm looking to put everything else. Data, Programs, etc. etc.

And I bought the WD Passport to act as my exclusive backup drive.

Additionally, I also bought a 2 port SATA3.0 card for the SSD, so it can operate at close to full speed.

And bringing up the rear, but no less important, is my 4 port USB 3.0 card that I bought for my new external drive.

The good news is all cards and drives mounted and were seen by a) the Device Manager and b) Windows Explorer.

In all fairness to HP, if they say they are PATA devices, then I'm sure they are.

I think the important thing to focus on herei is, that there is a free SATA2 port available so that I can add my WD 2TB HD.

Thanks again,

CotS

So have you had a chance to get back to original setup and test the old hard drive booting again and then verify legacy boot of the UsB recovery media to restore to the SSD again and continue from there yet? 

CotS wrote:

My plan is to replace a 5 year old internal HDD (C) drive, that had the OS and data and programs all together on it, and put the OS mostly (we're talking OEM here,) on the Samsung SSD.

Please understand that Acronis software cannot be used to migrate Programs separately to your OS - this is something you would need to do yourself, i.e. uninstall the programs on the old HDD and then reinstall these on the new drive where you intend to place them while your OS is on the SSD.

Again, this is a new factor being introduced to this scenario, and one that you should resolve before attempting this migration unless you intend to do the uninstall after migrating everything to the SSD.

See KB document: 19296: Acronis Products Cannot Be Used to Transfer Applications to Different System or Upgrade OS for the official statement on this area of program usage.

I'm glad to hear the cards and drives got installed in Windows 7. That's a great first step.

The only part of your plan I disagree with is moving your programs from the OS drive to another drive. That's a bad idea. It comes from the early days of Windows before programs were dependent on the Windows registry. Now it's much better to keep all your programs on the OS drive and just move data to another drive. As Steve said, TI won't help you at all in that regard.

I need to hear from you on the subject of booting the recovery media in Legacy mode. Since you have determined you have a version 7 BIOS, the Esc key should bring up the Startup menu. As you boot with the recovery media keep tapping the Esc key rapidly and see what happens. Do you get an on screen menu?

That's half right.

The original drive is back in place but the two cards, and SSD are out of the case.

I was saying when they were connected, everything was recognized by a) the device manager, and b) Windows explorer.

CotS

Steve Smith wrote:

CotS wrote:

My plan is to replace a 5 year old internal HDD (C) drive, that had the OS and data and programs all together on it, and put the OS mostly (we're talking OEM here,) on the Samsung SSD.

Please understand that Acronis software cannot be used to migrate Programs separately to your OS - this is something you would need to do yourself, i.e. uninstall the programs on the old HDD and then reinstall these on the new drive where you intend to place them while your OS is on the SSD.

Again, this is a new factor being introduced to this scenario, and one that you should resolve before attempting this migration unless you intend to do the uninstall after migrating everything to the SSD.

See KB document: 19296: Acronis Products Cannot Be Used to Transfer Applications to Different System or Upgrade OS for the official statement on this area of program usage.

Steve Smith wrote:

Please understand that Acronis software cannot be used to migrate Programs separately to your OS - this is something you would need to do yourself, i.e. uninstall the programs on the old HDD and then reinstall these on the new drive where you intend to place them while your OS is on the SSD.

Again, this is a new factor being introduced to this scenario, and one that you should resolve before attempting this migration unless you intend to do the uninstall after migrating everything to the SSD.

Correct you are. You can't have Acronis put one part of the backup on on drive and the remaining on the other one, all in one go. That's why I pared down my c drive to basically (more or less)  my OS, drivers and programs the computer needs to run in order to run or they are stiil there b/c I didn't know what they were. Better safe than sorry... And then I'll backup and restore that to the SSD; and reinstall all my programs that have been removed from the drive, and put those on the WD 2TB internal. That way, if disaster strikes, all I've lost are my OS and my drivers and "whatnot."

CotS

Crime of the Scene wrote:

Correct you are. You can't have Acronis put one part of the backup on on drive and the remaining on the other one, all in one go. That's why I pared down my c drive to basically (more or less)  my OS, drivers and programs the computer needs to run in order to run or they are stiil there b/c I didn't know what they were. Better safe than sorry... And then I'll backup and restore that to the SSD; and reinstall all my programs that have been removed from the drive, and put those on the WD 2TB internal. That way, if disaster strikes, all I've lost are my OS and my drivers and "whatnot."

CotS

Yes and no.  If you have to restore an OS to say 2 days ago, but your apps are on a different drive - this could cause problems.  The OS has many pointers to the applications in different locations - particularly the registry.  If you have to restore the OS back a few days, but other apps have been in use since then (especially if they were upgraded and registry keys changed), you might find that restoring the OS will result in unusable or unstable apps.

I would recommend you consider the OS and apps to be integral and keep them in the same main drive PC.  Then focus streamlining the OS by moving DATA to another drive (pictures, movies, documents, etc).  There are some apps that you can use JUNCTIONS (hard links) to redirect files to another drive, I do this for my iTunes and Outlook setup since they can be quite large.  This is scope creep though and something I don't want to get into here.  Though.

I think we're waiting to hear if/when you have successfully restored to the SSD and gotten it to boot.  Once that's figured out, you can do as you please with the separation of data and/or apps.  

Mustang wrote:

I'm glad to hear the cards and drives got installed in Windows 7. That's a great first step.

The only part of your plan I disagree with is moving your programs from the OS drive to another drive. That's a bad idea. It comes from the early days of Windows before programs were dependent on the Windows registry. Now it's much better to keep all your programs on the OS drive and just move data to another drive. As Steve said, TI won't help you at all in that regard.

I need to hear from you on the subject of booting the recovery media in Legacy mode. Since you have determined you have a version 7 BIOS, the Esc key should bring up the Startup menu. As you boot with the recovery media keep tapping the Esc key rapidly and see what happens. Do you get an on screen menu.

(Reader's Digest version) :) The first version is in CyberSpace somewhere.

Both cards were installed, but now they aren't. As per the advice of one of the MVP's in this thread...The only thing installed - aside from the VC is, the C: drive.

What if I got a virus? and it locked up my .exe's, which really did happen to me on my other computer. Could I run the bootable media and restore from there?

What the guys at HP said, my Computer is so old, it doesn't have a UEFI capability. Also in the Disk Managment, none of the Volumes on C: say (EUI)  on them.   So I have to believe it is a Legacy install.

CotS