cloning
I am using Win8.1 64 bit.
I am not very computer literate.
I have factory installed 2 hard drives. They are identical.
My old computer (Windows XP) had the same arrangement and I was able to clone the C drive using Norton's Ghost software.
If I had to do a restore it was a simple matter of swapping the hard drives and off I went.
I was led to believe I could do the same with my new computer using True Image 2014. I have not been successful in doing so as the second drive is grayed out when I try to clone.
Can anyone give me instructions as to how to do a true clone like I used to do?
TIA


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Interesting.... Maybe that is my problem (see my post earlier this evening)
Since I do not understand UEFI, tell me more.
Are you saying it is NOT possible to restore a fully functional Win8.1/64 image to a new drive even if that drive is to be used in the same computer ? That cannot be .... That is the entire purpose of my TIH backup. I must be able to restore a functional image to a new HD in teh event of failure.
Steve
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What I am saying is that you are not allowed under the EULA to have more than 1 installed instance of the OS per license.
One license, one installation for that license.
UEFI stores the boot configuration files for a single installation. It is possible for UEFI to operate as dual boot however, each OS would need to be of a different version, (Win 7 Win 8)). Having 2 installs of same OS version is not allowed thus the reason your second drive is greyed out.
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The solution, listed in my post 56874, ended up being very simple.
Thanks to Pat L. for pointing me in the right direction.
To restore a Win8.1/64 to a second drive,
1. Make a TIH2014 backup image of the original
2. The image should be stored on a drive other than the original source drive.
3. Power down and Disconnect the SATA cable from the source drive.
4. Boot the machine with the TIH2014 Boot Disc.
5. Restore the image to the new HD.
6. Boot to the new HD and Viola, you have a fully functional copy of the original.
I tested this about 30 minutes ago and it worked perfectly.
Steve
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The OP here has a different issue than what yours was. He is wanting to have 2 drives installed on the same machine that each contain a fully installed same version, same configuration, OS drives, on a permanent basis. This will not work as I described.
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TI is not clever enough to know there are two disks that contain the same OS product ID, so that doesn't explain why one drive is showing as greyed out.
If you tried to make a complete disk image, does TI allow you to select the other drive as a destination?
I'm not sure, but I think Microsoft do allow you to keep one copy of your system for your personal use on the PC it was installed on (but not for dual booting purposes or virtual machines) for recovery purposes.
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Hi Colin
The destination disk is grayed out, when I choose cloning.
bgnirrep
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I believe that CLONING is the issuue here. Colin is correct about the EULA allowing a user copy for restoration purposes, the question posed was not about that however.
There very well might be some other issue here other than licensing. I agree about TI not knowing the difference in product key between disks. With the OP now running Win 8.1 that most certainly contains an EFI System partition and given the fact that the manufacturers and Microsoft are collaborating on UEFI authentication, there is no reason not to think that attempts to bit for bit copy an installed disk could be disabled by default configuration of the EFI partition.
There are posts all over the net about user issues involving Win 8, UEFI, boot issues on these machines, etc..
The enthusiast community has been eerily quite in response to these issues. That tells me that there is a lot going on here and the community at this point does not know how to respond because the ways of old no longer work. The landscape has changed and only time will tell what it will look like in the future.
I would suspect that such functions as cloning will need to be done if even possible while the disks in question are not live. In other words using boot media to run a machine and then perform the clone operation from within that environment. We have already seen issues with boot media not working and even though it appears those issues can and will be overcome for now there is no guarantee for the future.
For the OP, I would recommend that if you truly desire to have a clone of your system to follow recommended procedures to do so, only do so using boot media, and then store that disk outside of a computer for use only as a swap in spare.
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@ Enchantech,
I think you assumed the OP wanted to keep the 2 disks connected to the computer, but I didn't read it that way. I have successfully cloned disks set up as GPT boot disks in UEFI configurations with the ATI recovery disks. In fact, I was able to clone one GPT Windows 8.1 boot disk to a disk I put in another identical computer (both computers have OEM Windows licenses). Upon booting the second computer, Windows correctly activated online with the product key in the BIOS and everything was normal on the Windows side.
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