Need help with cloning my hdd?

[Mr Slabi]

Hi guys...Need help on this one.
I have used WD's data lifeguard tools to make a copy of my maxtor 60g ide drive and put it on to my new WD 200g sata drive. The copy went fine, the sata is recognized fine, but when trying to boot into windows it hangs just before loading up the desktop?

Could there be something silly I'm overlooking? I did not install any sata drivers as the disk was already being recognized from withing windows before.

If it is a sata driver issue, is there any way to install them now...after the copy is made. I do not want to have to re-install windows and all my software again. I want the 200g as my main hd.

I hope someone has done this before?

[el]

did you F8 into safe mode? Did anything else change in the setup? FAT ot NTFS or something like that?

[Avg]

I've done it before using the same tool and it also didn't boot, I just gave up and did a fresh install. Are you able to see the logo screen, do you get a warning message?

[PopRichie]

My best guess is you partitioned the new drive then booted into windows before you did the copy process. Windows reconized the new drive and gave it drive letters and paths to the newly asigned drive letters, that are asending above your original drive letter or letters. The new drive primary partition letter that windows gave the new drive becomes permanent. Then you did the copy process. When you go to boot the new drive, the drive letter is different form the old drive, this is the reason it won't boot. Also the Western Digital Data Life Gaurd Tools will not work now because the drive is already set up and contains a master boot record. I just went thru several days trying to copy a dual boot hard drive for a little different reason and I can give you a solution that will work. I won't explain how to do it unless you post back and want the information. If you post back tell me how many partitions are on the old drive.
PopRichie

[Avg]

Even if he had installed windows and it had assiigned the new driver a letter it wouldn't matter because to the bios the only driver that matters is the one set in the bios, no matter what windows has it assigned, and WD data life guard would just write right over any previous installation on the destination drive, but go ahead and post what you did, even if he doesn't answer it might help someone else searching for a answer later one.

[PopRichie]

Just went back and reread your post and from what you said you did boot into windows first and saw that the new drive was reconized, there is where the wrong drive letter was given the new drive. All partitioning and cloneing has to be done in dos with the Western Digital Data Life Guard Tools before windows has a look at the new drive, only Bios can be left recognize a blank drive, if you want to clone and have it boot. If the drive is for storage only, it doesn't matter.
PopRichie

[PopRichie]

AVG
In answer to your post it does matter that windows doesn't see the drive before the copy process, that is, if you want the new drive to boot. Why did you give up and do a new install if it doesn't matter?
PopRichie

[Avg]

Cause I don't have any patience, it doesn't matter because the WD utility is supposed to copy all data in the source drive to the new drive, this includes MBR and all the boot files, and as long as you have the driver with that you want to boot from set correctly in the bios it doesn't matter what windows has assigned, windows doesn't even know that it has been copied to a different drive.

[PopRichie]

In reply to the original post here is briefly how it is done. These instructions are for Cloning one hard drive to another when the destination drive has previously had an OS installed on it or the computer has been booted into windows with the already partitioned new hard drive attached or it was partition from with in windows, if any of these conditions have been done, hard drive manufacture tools may, in most cases won't, complete the copy process, if it does complete but then the copy won't boot. Here is how to do it, so it will boot and I am going to say this only once DO NOT LET THE 2 HARD DRIVES SEE EACH OTHER FROM WITH IN WINDOWS, NEVER.... Put the original or the source drive aside and don't connect it to the computer at any time with the destination drive untill the source drive is ready for the clone process. If you have a large hard drive and are going to clone Windows XP, with the NTFS file system, then you can use the new F disk to created the partition or partitions, if you are going to use the FAT 32 file system, and one of the partitions is going to be over 32 gig, which is the max for F disk, you will have to use another utility for the partitioning and formating. There are several free ones that can be downloaded, your choice. OK, assuming that you have gotten this done and I hope you have an OS install disk, install a fresh copy of the OS, when it is completed it will automaticly boot in to windows. The purpose of doing this is to setup the Master Boot Record correctly, all partition tables will now be correct, the correct drive letter or letters will be written into the drive and all paths will be correct. All this assumes that the drive to be copied starts with C: NOW you have a bootable drive and you are ready for the clone process. This can be done with a number of copy utilities but not the hard drive tool from the manufacture. You chose your utility. Do the clone or copy from DOS only. I used Norton Ghost, because I had it and it has an easy to understand graphics interface, anyone that has used Ghost knows that since 2003 it can be started from within windows, DO NOT DO THIS for copying. Only do this to create a DOS boot floppy or CD. Remember do not let the 2 hard drives see each other from within windows from either hard drive. OK assuming you have a DOS boot copy utility, and your computer will boot from a floppy or the CD ROM before the hard drive, if not change this in BIOS first. If it is a CD insert it now and shut down the computer, if it is a floppy it can be put in anytime before the computer is turned on. Pull the power cord now, attach the original or source hard drive, either as slave or master just be sure to have one of each. The cord is pulled so that no power is entering the computed, if the cord is not pulled BIOS may not reconize both hard drives, insert the floppy or be sure the CD is in the CD ROM. OK plug it back in and turn it on, BIOS will reconize both hard drives and the computer will boot from the floppy or CD, at this point I don't know which copy utility you are using so follow it's instructions be careful to select the source and destination drive correctly and the correct partition, a wrong choice is data destrutive. IF you have more than one partition copy each one seperately starting with the original OS boot partition it will over write the new copy that you installed, that is what you want to do, the purpose of putting a fresh copy on first was so that the new drive would be set up correctly. Continue untill all copying is complete. Exit the copy utility, this will usually shut off the computer but if it doesn't turn it off. OK, now pull the plug again and remove the original, source hard drive. Connect the newly cloned one as the master. Plug back in and if you done everything correctly it will boot. I read on another site to never connect the 2 hard drives to the computer at the same time or if you do Windows sees a exact copy of the registry and it will mess one up so that it is no longer bootable. I don't know if this is true or not and I am not going to test it either. I copied a dual boot hard drive 20 gig to a 80gig with 3 FAT 32 partitions, one with ME C: 3 gig, one with XP D: 10 gig and a shared partition E: which is over 60 gig. I done this by the above method, which was given to me by a WD support Teck, he outline the method and I used the utilities that I had at hand to do it and IT DOES WORK.
I will be glad to help any one with questions about the above instructions if I can, I can not help with utilities that I am not familliar with. You use this guide at your own risk