True Image 2014 disk imaging freezes
I am trying to image the internal drive in a new Win8 laptop.
I'm using True Image 2014.
The laptop has a 750GB internal drive (2.5" SATA 3GB/s).
The destination disk is 3.5" SATA-II in a powered USB dock.
I boot from a USB drive (created by True Image 2014 Media Creator) and select the source (on the internal SATA bus) and the target (on an external USB interface).
The imaging begins. The source disk has 6 partitions (all part of Samsung's recovery method....in Windows Explorer you only see the c: boot partition and the d: recovery partition). The first two hidden partitions image successfully (apparently) but during the imaging of the third partition (the big c: partition) True Image 2014 apparently stops. The disk activity LED on the target disk stops flashing and the progress bar makes no further progress.
The mouse isn't frozen, and I can cancel the process (ie, the program still "works") but the imaging process simply does not proceed to finish.
I've repeated it twice, and each time it stops at what seems like the exact same place.
Any ideas?

- Log in to post comments

I have used chkdsk.....in fact I've used it before on the disk I'm trying to image, and at that time chkdsk did attempt repairs. I will try chkdsk again and then review the Event Log (that's something I have not done before). I will post what I find. Thanks for the help.
- Log in to post comments

Would a sector-by-sector image be more likely to work? IOW, even if there are problems with the source disk the imaging would proceed anyway and those problems would just be copied over to the target disk?
- Log in to post comments

Mike:
That's a good question. A sector-by-sector image is most useful when the file system is damaged and files are missing but still present somewhere on the disk, and you want to make a copy of the disk. You would then run file recovery software on the copy instead of on the original in case recovery attempts make things worse.
I don't know how TI would respond when making a sector-by-sector copy of a disk that has unreadable sectors. My guess is that it would get bogged down attempting to read data from bad sectors, because that's something under control of the disk firmware. But you could try it to find out. A sector-by-sector image is going to be very large, so you'll need ample storage space on your backup disk.
- Log in to post comments

My target disk is the same size as the source disk, so size should not be a problem.
I will try a sector-by-sector backup first. I do not want to attempt repair of the source drive -- whether with chkdsk /r or with file recovery software -- until I have a backup.
(That's one of the main reasons I want backup software in the first place, so I can clone a drive and then have two drives -- one to attempt repairs and one to be left "as is" in case the repairs make matters worse.)
- Log in to post comments