Need clone partitions SATA to ATA not with ghost...so how ?

[DBenz]

Hi,
Need clone partitions SATA to ATA not with ghost...so how ?

What software would allow me a stable method of cloning a partition to a partition, SATA as source and ATA as destination ?
It seems Norton Ghost 10 can be problematic on some PCs when dealing with SATA hardrives. My engineer screwed up my rebuild trying to use it to ghost to DVD. It didnt even start the transfer, he had to rebuild entire PC again as it wouldnt boot, ghost created its own boot drive. I am nervous to try it HD to HD as I always ghost..even having now bought Ghost12. Not sure if 12 allows creation of floppy, assumed it did but better not use it if wish for refund.
I have always used Ghost on a floppy and cloned in DOS, I dont like cloning windows when windows is running, purists say the only true safe way is in DOS and I have done so for years without any problems.
The net is full of advice to steer clear of Ghost 10. What can I use to clone via DOS using a floppy ?
Have downloaded Acronis but think that only works in windows and does entire disk, not just a partition. Cannot see anything about floppy in all the talk. I have dual boot and wish to clone the winXP SP2partition only.

DBenz

 

[donkey42]

Acronis

Acronis product are great, which program did you download, Acronis Disk Director 10 includes Partition Expert, PE allows you to create a bootable CD (earlier versions did let you create a set of floppies) then yo can manipulate all partition on any storage device (i think)

after booting the CD you can then copy, move, delete & resize partitions, including copy a partition from one HDD to another

it is not an issue, transferring data too or from SATA, SATA2 & PATA

 

[DBenz]

Hi,
I downloaded Acronis True Image 11, which backs up disks or apparently partition to partition. D'ld a Trial 15 days. Created a boot CD, booted ok, chose the partitions, no compression and it said this is a trial and it is not possible to do this. :doh:
I had no choice but to select the top right corner X, rebotPc and then found it wouldnt boot to my win2K drive if using arrow keys, just hope in a while when I try again it will, else another rebuild by my engineer, that makes 4 in a week, This shouldnt happen to what is and was a rock steady PC especially with just OS's on it at the mo and nothing else. Latest BIOS etc.

I can but trial the director suite and try again.

Prior to that I dl'd Maxtor(Seagate now) MaxBlaster which is basically Acronis, but the boot CD gave an error and wouldnt continue to the interface.

I was uneasy though over the fact that it asked for a file name for the backup. Ghost simply carried the entire partition contents over to another partition, if that was an active partition, one could boot from it. ..and obviously as one would want, dumping this backup over to a corrupted OS bootable drive allows the PC to work again. I can but assume that this win2K_01.tib file I was expecting to be made would transfer back to my boot drive without being still a file but as one normally sees the contents of a boot drive.

Partition Magic I have and use for partition creation and merging etc, it has a copy partition tool but anything clone wise for partitions that operates whilst windows is running is not for me.

otherwise I shall have to risk Ghost unless there is another prog that will do this without windows running.

DBenz

 

[DavidNW]

I can only suggest that you try and get hold of a copy of Acronis True Image. You should be able to pick up an early version (say, version 8) for just a few pounds on eBay. I think it would do the job. I have used it for ages and it's a great disk-imaging program.

 

[donkey42]

...I found out about Acronis True Image 11, which backs up disks or apparently partition to partition. D'ld a Trial 15 days. Created a boot CD, booted ok, chose the partitions, no compression and it said this is a trial and it is not possible to do this.

Disk Director was better than True Image, for me but it depends on your needs

BTW: it's quite a while since i used PartitionExpert but i do still have a .iso of the CD

I was uneasy

that perfectly natural, just use the software & you'll soon become confident

Partition Magic I have and uise for partition creation and merging etc, it has a copy partition tool but anything clone wise for partitions that operates whilst windows is running is not for me.

PM has killed a lot of data for many people on HWF (me included) although i now use linux, but i did use PM when i used XP (about 2 years ago) i would not recommend PM as PowerQuest were taken over by Symantec, & Symantec think they know best & usually re-engineer any Software they acquire and "make it better" (but it's usually worse)

otherwise I shall have to risk Ghost unless there is another prog that will do this without windows running

try google with [google]partition management[/google]

athough you may have luck with Cute Partition Manager

BTW: Cute Partition Manager is freeware

 

[DBenz]

Well I seem to have worked my way through all the progs offering to copy partition to partition. Disk manager takes the source and tries to create a new partition for it on the destination HD, not quite what I wanted, the recipient partition is already there empty and waiting.
Then I bought Bessoft EasyClone Standard 2008, burned a boot CD, booted and it got stuck at 'Uncompressing Linux...ok, booting the kernel '
um? Linux, is that not another OS to my winXP, there was no choice, it was an XP prog I downloaded. so that prog no use.
Then I installed Ghost2003, made a boot diskette, booted and got a blank blue interface with an hourglass just as I did with the diskette made under win2K and ghost2003. sod !...guess its not seeing the SATAs. I install ghost12 and see no option to make a boot diskette or CD, so my beloved Ghost has betrayed me :(
I am now dying to see an option in dos for partition to partition.
I try terabyte Unlimited Image for DOS.
All is well, boot from floppy, select source partition, then destination, but then it wants me to choose *.img or recycler or system~1, unable to arrow to img I try for recycler then system, options here expand out to series of dots and <dir> and unable to get any to initiate a clone so hit escape.
Now stuck !
Thats the entire day gone and I have got nowhere :x:
Just want to DOS clone my partition to partition hopefully without it becoming a single file, oh I liked ghost 2003 and ATAs, whats happened with the ability to do that with SATAs ?
Down in the dumps.:stars: :dispoint:
Cant believe this. thought after an entire day I would have probably two options, not zero, unless purchased Acronis does it, but it makes a file which is not my #1 choice.
DBenz

 

[donkey42]

Ghost2003

ive found some conflicting webstite as to if G2k3 works with SATA HDDs, thinking logically, i don't think it does, if you could install a SATA driver into G2k3 then it would work

Just want to DOS clone my partition to partition hopefully without it becoming a single file, oh I liked ghost 2003 and ATAs, whats happened with the ability to do that with SATAs ?

no, DOS can only access PATA disks, although you may be able to find a DOS driver for SATA disks, i have looked for one unsuccessfully if you do find a driver the filesize of the driver file may not fit on a floppy, in which case you would need the boot off PATA or a custom CD

edit: SATA drivers were not included with XP, which is why many users slipstream the SATA driver into a new XP CD

have you tried creating a new partition and xcopy the data from one partition to another, xcopy option are here

sorry for delay, i ve had to retype as i couldn't find the lost text in my browsers cache

Edit: i did try to find you a DOS driver for SATA HDDs

Edit: personally i have partition expert 2k3 and partition expert is included in the new disk director (well, i assume it is)
with partition expert (the version i have) you can copy, move & delete partitions either in Windoze or by creating a boot CD, which is also linux based, as are many of the bootable CD partition management software are (because i think linux is much more stable, secure & better)

BTW: i only use linux, so, my memory of XP is fading, however, i think i'm correct, someone please correct me if i'm wrong

 

[DBenz]

HI,
The copy I need to make is of the type ghost used to do, xcopy looks like it doesnt capture the subtle bits that make an OS work. It looks more like file transfer like copy/paste. I could in fact take the HD I ghosted to and plumb it in and it would boot from that partition. These other progs seem to stuff the files into one or a few files, so needing to put those back onto the corrupted partition to reinstate. OK if its all back there and functional so be it. I dont want compression involved though, dubious of such !

You say you have Partition expert 2003, are you saying it will transfer the OS and progs from one partition to another already existing partition vacant and made prior to the transfer ?

I see Partition Expert is now Disk Director Suite 10. I download a trial. Burned a boot CD, selected my source partition with win2K on, then at the destination partition window it wouldnt let me select my empty partition I had into which I wanted to transfer the OS clone, instead it wanted to place a new partition into that HD :doh:
I have that HD with partitions already created for the clones, so introducing another one aint going to fit without resizing those and I end up with yet more drive letters. I can see that users who had bought a new HD might find this useful as it saves them creating partititons but in my case that HD already has some ghosts on it which I wish to keep. Users of Ghost create partitions prior to the ghosting operation and just choose partition to partition.
Perhaps I could destroy those so making space for Disk Director to place one into but one cannot delete a partition in Partition Magic, combine it with another, but not create a vacant space. Now then, if I let it create a new partiton, does it ask me which partition (s) I wish to downsize so it fits in ?

Cheers
DBenz

 

[donkey42]

You say you have Partition expert 2003, are you saying it will transfer the OS and progs from one partition to another already existing partition vacant and made prior to the transfer ?

no, PX2k3 copies an existing partition to another partition that PX2k3 creates on free space, although i don't know how Disk Director works, as i've never used it, but, it has replaced PE2k3, so, i assume it is similar

I see Partition Expert is now Disk Director Suite 10. I download a trial. Burned a boot CD, selected my source partition with win2K on, then at the destination partition window it wouldnt let me select my empty partition I had into which I wanted to transfer the OS clone, instead it wanted to place a new partition into that HD

no, select free space large enough to have a partition of the size you want

ghosts

exactly what do you mean ?

Users of Ghost create partitions prior to the ghosting operation and just choose partition to partition.

sorry, i don't understand that, you can't partition a partition

Partition Magic

PM is responsible for a lot of data loss on HWF

Edit: sorry for the confusion

 

[DBenz]

HD already has some ghosts on it,

exactly what do you mean ?...

ghosts are my term for the clones ghost makes !

Originally Posted by DBenz
Users of Ghost create partitions prior to the ghosting operation and just choose partition to partition...............

sorry, i don't understand that, you can't partition a partition

Let me explain, I have always partitioned up a hard drive ready to receive the ghost copies. That recipient HD then has no unallocated space on it. When one chooses partition to partition in ghost, the process is:-
Local (local HD)
Partition....to Partition.
A window appears for selecting the source HD
that done you select the partition on the source HD you wish to clone
then another window appears for selecting destination HD
then having chosen the destination, another window appears to select the partition into which the cloned contents of the source are placed.
Hit ok and away it goes. all this in DOS mode by the way so perfect clone of an OS when its inactive.
Result is the contents when viewed in explorer are identical, and of course all the hidden system files, everything is perfectly cloned exactly as it was on the source. That destination partition is bootable by the way, unlike an image file.

PM is responsible for a lot of data loss on HWF

Oh :( ...well I have never had any problems, but there is always a first time.
Disk Director looks like PM, is it considered that DD is the weapon of choice over and above PM ?

I am now trying Farstone DriveClone 3 Pro, though it doesnt leave the windows environment, so I shall load it on win2K and clone my XP partition when XP dormant, hope that works. Something about installing it to a non system drive, and making a pseudo drive. er um losing me already. Also to try latest DiskClone2008beta. Something must work to clone partition to another existing partition.

Cheers
DBenz