Re: Which backup programs will do this?
- From: David Maynard <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 15:21:45 -0600
AL D wrote:
On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 19:55:59 GMT, wmth2581@xxxxxxx (AL D) wrote:
On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 13:22:27 +0000 (UTC), "Henry" <Hugenstasen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Acronis trueimage will do exactly what you want i.e. clone your disk directly to another disk
I have hit an apprent problem doing this. Acronis tells me that if I clone my system disc, I will then have to remove the old disc! Anyone know why?
I gather that is because after it has cloned the disc, I will end up with two C: drives - at least that is what the GUI "before and after" graphic is indication in the wizard. I'm stumped. Anyone help?
What I want is to clone my C: drive onto my D: drive, but have the D: drive remain as a D: drive, unless I physically swap it with my C: drive.
Thanks
Al D
I'm not familiar enough with Acronis to give exact instructions but look in their docs for information on disk/partition signatures and what each of their copy/clone modes/switches do with them.
Old Windows 9x scans the IDE ports on each boot to assign drive letters so whatever drive is plugged into the Primary IDE port as master will be 'C' and the next hard drive will be 'D', etc. Windows 2000/XP doesn't work that way.
In Windows 2000/XP a 'signature' is written to the disks MBR when it is first detected and a signature is written to each partition when they are created/detected. Those signatures are also stored in the system registry with what the letter assignments so no matter where or what the drives, and the partitions, are plugged into their 'identity' moves with them. 'C' is 'C' no matter where it is and 'D' is 'D'. Windows 'knows'.
The 'clone' option you picked is apparently copying the drive and partition signatures to the new drive so it looks IDENTICAL to the other, which is going to confuse Windows and, frankly, I'm not sure exactly what it'll do. Might decide the first one found is 'it' and then re-signature the others.
It reminds me, though, that this is one of the problems with trying to have a 'live copy' of the system partition on a second hard drive. The copy will have the same registry information as the first (saying that drive 1 is C and drive 2 is D) but when you try to boot from the second drive, after the primary dies, the disk and partition signatures will be wrong since it's signature will be 'D' (or whatever it was when the copy was made) and when the O.S. tries to find 'C' (where the registry says the system is located) it won't be there because that's the one that's dead and gone. You get a blue halt screen with "unable to mount system device" message.
Worse yet, if you test it with the old drive still in the system it'll appear to work because it'll find the original as 'C', just like it's signature says it is, and everything will look just fine except the system will be booting from 'D' (you told it to) but running off of 'C' (the registry tells it to).
I know the hard way to fix it, rewrite the MBR before booting off the backup drive as the new primary so it clears the signature and windows redectects them, but I'm not sure how to make it automatic with a backup when you want to leave the drive in the system. Backup with it clearing the drive signature but it's going to write a new signature as soon as the primary sees it again... but if it doesn't match what was in the registry when copied.... hmm. That might work.
.
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- Which backup programs will do this?
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