Cloning\Migrating my system to a new hard disk
Hello everyone.
I'm hoping someone can help me out. My problem is a little complicated so please take the time to read through the description i'm putting up. I've been rattling my brain for quite a bit and can't seem to figure it out.
My computer has a 200GB HDD in it.
When i first got the system. I partitioned the drive into three seperate segments:
C: (50GB)
D: (50GB)
E: (100GB)
At the time, I was running XP and so, i installed it on to drive C and started using my machine.
After a while, Windows Vista was released, and i decided to upgrade to it. Knowing very well that windows always increases in size, i decided to install the OS on to the 100GB hard disk (drive E:) to ensure that it has enough space to work with. At the time of installation, i wasnt aware that windows vista would rename partition E: to C:. So when i installed vista the following became my drive structure:
C: (100GB)
D: (50GB). (this would be the drive that had the old windows on it)
E: (50GB).
I have now installed a brand new 1.5TB HDD into my computer and want to migrate my system to that hard disk as my 200GB is old and i'm afraid that it might crash. (its abt 4 years old now).
I've got Acronis True Image Home 2009.
On the new hard disk i want there to be only two partitions. I would like one partition to be 360GB (for my system i.e. Vista) and the other 1TB to be storage space that I can partition and use as I want.
Looking through the specs. of my 200GB, my computer is telling me that drive D: has the system volume information on it (i'm guessing its like this because it was the drive on which i originally installed windows xp). When i try to clone the 200GB Acronis does not let me only create two partitions (of the sizes i want). Please keep in mind that when i go through the process there is a green star next to drive D: (i'm guessing this indicates that it has the system volume information on it).
If i delete Drive E:, Acronis lets me create only 2 partitions (with some unallocated space left over). I cannot delete drive D: as my computer won't let me.
heres what i'm trying to acheive:
I want my current vista to migrate to the new hard disk and i want the new drive C: (which will be 360GB) to contain all necessary data regarding system vol. information, etc. so that in the future, if i wish to partition the remaining 1TB i can do so at will.
Can anyone help me with instructions on how to do this?
ok. So i went thru all the guides and that doesnt solve my problem.
My system volume and my actual system are on different drives. I dont want to create 3 partitions on the new hard disk i want only 2!
I am also no confused abt MBR and track 0!!! Help me Scott!!!!!!!!!! :(
*i am also now confused...
crap... i'm making such a mess of my own thread.. i'm sorry.. im new to using forums! didnt realize i shud click reply reply.
(please read other posts)
It sounds like you cloned and then booted up with both the original and the clone drive present. If you do that, win accepts only one as a system drive and only one as a boot drive. It might mark one as system and one as boot, which as you seem to have found, is very messy.
Did you make a safety backup of the original harddisk before you started cloning? If you, then I'd restore the original harddisk, without the clone present and using the ATI bootCD. Then I'd give all the volumes names. Then I'd start over with backiking up And instead of using the lcone function, jsut use the Backup My Computer function. Restore manually and you should be able to specify size when you restore a partition to a new drive -- you should be able to find that in the Grover guides.
If you didn't make a safety backup before cloning and the rest that you have done, then I'm not sure how to undo the situation -- maybe Mudcrab, if he's reading and has the time can help. I think you have to remove one of the drives and then do a windows repair on the other to make it a goo system/boot drive again. Then start over from the top but use backing up instead of cloning.
There is a System Voume information (SVI) folder in the root of each partition and I don't think the info for a given drive is placed in another drive's SVI. I'm not sure of this but I don't think there will be a big loss other than indexing info and Restore Points if you do not have it. Encrypting file system does use it for logs if you use EFS.
Since you have the old disk as a backup you are pretty safe trying things.
I would image your partition you want as the OS and then restore the partition to the new drive as the active partition. You may have trouble restoring the MBR because it may be pointing to the third partition. Some people have posted that a plain MBR is automatically written if one is need but I don't know if that is correct. If you have a MBR problem you will have to fix it by doing a repair.
Alternative method that takes more time (but not always) is to boot up the OS installation CD or other partitioning program with the new drive in place. Partition the drive and set the active partition for the OS and fromat the partition. You can do the remainder in Windows Disk Management later. When the install procedure starts copying the install files cancel out.
Now restore the image of the OS to the partition.