absentlySocial

Okay, i have this 250gb sata drive. i think it might be starting to fail. I got a read disk error, yadda yadda(a few different installations) a few hours later, im back on it.

Is there a good program that will take everything from this drive, and put it on to the other? I have another drive that is the same, that is completly free.

I've heard of a few different programs. But im not sure what to use. this drive has windows and ubuntu on it, so i need it to be exactly the same, so as the gurb boot loader will still work.

any ideas of what i could do, or what programs i could do with it?

I know what im doing for the most part, but i might need a little bit of help.


Thanks
-Vern

leroys1000

You can go to the drive manufactures web site,download the utilities
for free,and use them to clone the old drive to the new one.

absentlySocial

They are Western Digital, i went and downloaded the program. But as far as i can tell, the disk to disk copy only works for the windows partition.

linderman

download xxclone (free 30 day tiral period) in my signature


this program is kindergarten easy !!!! when you run the program there are only two consoles to operate from within >>>> the main console you will select your SOURCE drive (drive you want to copy) and select your TARGET drive (the drive you want the info copied to) then click on the advanced button on the main console >>> from within that put the three check marks in the bootable options boxes (they will be like write MBR and bootini etc)

that's it !! and it will copy the whole drive and you can immediately change back and forth booting from either

no vodoo required >>>>> you wont even need a prayer book while cloning

absentlySocial

That still only seems to see the windows partitions. I need something that will see the whole harddrive, and copy it, Since i have windows and linux, and i use a linux boot loader.

leroys1000

You need to run the utilities from a bootable floppy.
The clone function will clone the entire drive.
You can clone the drive,then hook up the cloned drive to check.
Leave the primary drive disconnected for the test.
That way,you are sure no files are altered on the first drive.

linderman

WOW sorry fella!! I was alittle sleepy there ! I have never cloned a Linux partition my self although I know it can be done !! but xxclone does not speak of such abilities do a google search for linux cloning

I assume that your windows OS resides on a diffwerent partition than your linux partition.

please let us know how you accomplish this once you have defeated the beast.

absentlySocial

Ok this is where i might need some help. I have a few choices from WD, Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (floppy, or cd), or Data Lifeguard tools 11 for DOS. Im not sure which one i should use. Will i need to make it bootable? If so, how? heh, i never got the chance to learn that.

http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?cxml=n&pid=2&swid=30, If you need to read about them.


Thanks
-Vern

linderman

here is the utility to use to clone your linux partition

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Syste...ger-1557.shtml

absentlySocial

So it'd be easier to do each os separately?

linderman

not only easier; but from what i am understanding very necessary.



enjoy and let us know how it goes (I am willing to bet the boot loader lives in the windows side of things)

absentlySocial

Why is it Necessary? I would have assumed i could have went into DOS and done a cone of the drive.

And Grub is the bootloader i use. It "lives" On the mbr, but needs linux to do anything. I found that out the hard way awhile ago. Formatted my linux partion within windows, go to restart, couldnt boot up because a grub file was missing (it was in linux). had to reinstall linux to get it working again.

linderman

from my experience most cloning programs work while in the OS itself >>> therefore you would need to be booted into linux while cloning the linux partition ????? this I am not 100% sure about; its my gut feeling I have used 3 or 4 different imaging and cloning programs thats how they all worked.

absentlySocial

So, trying to copy the partition didnt work. Guess the drive was too bad.

Anyways, i have a weird problem. I backed up some files on a different drive. On this, my new partition, i cant see my other two drives at all! But when im on the bad(and growing worse) partition, i see them fine. Even under disk management, i dont see anything, on the new partition that is.

linderman

What cloning program did you use to clone your windows boot drive to the "other old drive" ????

I believe the problem you are experiencing is your "other" drive does not have the "partition imformation" aka File allocation info for the other drives.

you see when you have say a "C" drive existing in a computer and all is well. Then you deceide some time later to add another drive >>>>> you connect and jumper the new additional drive and then most fellas use disk managment to partition and format the drive >>>>> well you see >>>>> disk managment will write you drives partition table to the Boot drive with windows on it (C-drive)

if you pull away the C-drive and try to replace with another drive and OS >>> the new drive will NOT have the slave drives operating set-up paramters (allocation table set-up during partitioning)

this can be overcome by cloning you original Windows boot drive and running off that one ?????

Disk mangement is a handy tool especially for the average an less experienced user >>>> but there are trade offs to be considered when using it >>> it will make your hard drives(slaves) co-dependant on the master boot drive

I personally avoid that by either using the Recovery Console (booting from the Win XP disk) which has commands for partitioing and formatting
or use a third party partitioning software use as Boot It NG or many users use Partition Magic but either way I will unplug the other drives in my system while partitioning a new drive >>>> this forces them to write the partition table to the individual drive >>>>> then if you want to transplant that drive into another computer temporarily and use the data on that drive; it will perform in just such a configuration.

absentlySocial

Okay, im back up and running. sorry for the wait.

Im on a fresh install, i cant copy the other partition, all the programs give me errors (probably because of the bad disk).

I still cant see the other two drives. If i format the disk with the bad partition, will this install be able to see them fine?

linderman

[quote= If i format the disk with the bad partition, will this install be able to see them fine?[/QUOTE]


I think you would be better served to completely wipe and erase the drive with boot & nuke (free in my sig) then re-partition the drive and format the drive.

Make sure you unplug the 4-pin power plug from any drives that you dont want wiped during the boot & nuke >>> the utility has the ability to wipe multipole drives if you accidentally command such !! :(

let us know

absentlySocial

Alright, im gonna try this. But i need to know if i should try to save the data i have on the other two disks, or are you sure i'll be able to see them fine after i boot & nuke the bad disk/os?

ezraa123

Paragon drive backup will copy a whole disk or just partitions. It's a little picky once in awhile but seems to work good overall. Not sure about a download version, but there's a dos and linux version on a bootable CD. If you have trouble finding it, drop me a PM and I may be able to direct you to it. I've used the program to backup and restore partitons but it also has options to copy the whole disk.

linderman

Social:


you last question confused me a bit >>>>> I am tired = long day

but if what you are asking is / will boot & nuke wipe or erase your good drive with info on it ???? then no as long as you pull the four pin power plug from the hard drives prior to booting up with the boot & nuke floppy (never pull the drive plugs while the machine is running !!)

if you are asking / will you be able to recover your data on the bad drive that I suggested you boot & nuke = the answer is NO data will be gone = drive will be wiped just as clean as the day it was received NEW from the factory >>>. boot & nuke does not fix mechanical errors or woes but will remove and lingering trouble that got WROTE to the drive >>> such as a buggy OS crash ?????