number of copied sectors differs from counted error on disk clone operation between identical SATA drives
I have a Dell XPS running Windows XP, with two identical 10,000 RPM sata drives at 150 gb each.
I'm using True Image 10 Home.
I do a "manual" disk cloning operation from my primary drive ("disk 0") to the secondary, which I want to maintain as a full image backup disk for switchover in case of drive failure, boot corruption or whatever.
There are 3 partitions on disk 0, a FAT 16 partition at 47.03MB, a NTFS partition at 146 GB, and a FAT 32 partition at 3.003 GB (as reported by True Image).
I ask for a full clone operation, and it says there will be five steps, the first some kind of prep step I think, then the small FAT 16 copy, then the big NTFS copy, then the FAT 32 copy, then an MBR copy. All sounds good.
I let it rip, the system reboots and the operation starts, the first two steps happen very quickly and successfully as far as I can see, though the report scrolls off the screen fast. Then it performs the long NTFS 146 GB copy, and it slowly counts up to 100%. When it reaches 100%, it reports the error:
Internal error: number of copied sectors differs from counted
And it never proceeds to the final two copy steps of the FAT 32 partition and the MBR. Final result: a partially cloned drive.
Again, these are IDENTICAL drives. Doing a CHKDSK on the primary drive shows no issues, no bad sectors.
I've had this failure from the first time I tried to use True Image Home 10 about 4 years ago. Now I really want to get this to work, as my computer is getting long of tooth and my risk of disk failure is obviously increasing!
Thanks for any ideas.
-Kevin
Ditto with Pat on using a disk backup (all partitions) to create a replacement possibility.
You might also try to do the cloning when booted from the TI Rescue CD. Also check the TI Backup option to see if version 10 offers any timing controls on how fast the data is copied.
It is also suggested that you check my signature below for comments about cloning.
My goal is to have my 2nd drive ready to "hot swap" in as my primary, should my primary fail or become corrupted.
If I do a "backup" of my entire primary drive, I end up with a "disk image file" somewhere. How does that help me? With that, recovery requires that I first get a system up and running again, then "restore" the backup image to the second drive. I guess I could do that immediately, that is, do a full disk backup into a backup file, then restoring from that file to the second disk. But then I've got to find 150 GB available on a third drive, which seems kind of silly to me (except as a means of working around the True Image s/w failure, assuming it would indeed work). And does such a backup/restore to a 2nd disk also copy the MBR? I want this second disk to be IDENTICAL so I can transfer it to the primary position and boot from it as if it was my working disk...before my working disk got corrupted. (I've had too many weird windows boot failures over time to trust that it won't happen.)
A full disk clone between two identical disks should be about as straightforward for this software as it gets...yet kablooie, it fails. Disturbing!
Kevin,
OK. You clearly want to do a clone :-)
Grover's right. Try to do it from the recovery CD.
Another thing to try is to do a reverse clone. Put the original as an external drive, put the new at the same spot as the original, then clone the external onto the new. Unplug the external and reboot, if it goes through.
Be aware that cloning a disk might affect the data on the original disk in some hardware failure or user error cases. You'd better have a backup anyway. And if you have a backup, why not do a restore...
With that, recovery requires that I first get a system up and running again,
No, a reinstall is not necessary. In fact, it is better if the disk is blank or unallocated. The main purpose of a TI Rescue CD is to recover a failed system. If the disk has failed, cloning is not possible and a disk backup is needed to reproduce a working disk.
The advantage to cloning is that is faster by a slight amount. The disadvantage is that your source disk is at risk and that risk is real. To offset that risk, a full disk option backup is necessary so you have a fallback plan if something goes wrong. So, as Pat has indicated, why take the risk if you already have a backup. In order to have the proper backup, you need to checkmark the disk as to what is being backed up and that backup will include all partitions and will also include the mbr/track0 and the "disk signature."
A disk restore of a disk backup will produce a duplicate as close to the original as the clone would be.
Okay guys, thank you very much for your advice. I'll take that path, a rescue CD, a full disk backup, a restore of the backup to my second drive, and then I should be ready for a quick fail-over if needed, plus I have the rescue CD and backup backing THAT up. Redundancy is good.
Still upset the Acronis s/w fails on a basic disk clone but oh well, that's commercial s/w product for consumers I guess, flaky as all get out.