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From: Flasherly on 4 Jan 2010 14:18
On Jan 3, 5:03 pm, Father Justin <jus...(a)nobecauseihatespam.com>
wrote:
> I have two 250GB Seagate SATA drives set up in a RAID 1 - mirrored
> volume. Is there a free utility I can use to copy everything to two
> brand new 750 GB drives, also sata?
> The machine is running Windows 7 Pro. I really don't want to reinstall
> the OS and all the software - I have way too much junk on there, from
> Accounting software to Rosette Stone.
>
> --http://www.vatican.va

I use CDCheck for closest absolute binary, sector-to-sector matching
(primarily w/ DVDs). Hash tables if required, though haven't taken it
that far, yet. Good freeware for integrity.

Think what you're doing is a binary sector transfer, though, or
cloning. GHOST -early DOS version- is commonly known, bit of curve to
it. Pretty hard to do without getting the nuts&bolts of a command
line build. Anyway, I got a "free" Ghost w/ a MB purchase. There's
also others intended to get away, and simplify, the administrate and
networking complications Ghost provides. Ghost is a good program if
understood, though.

Basically, it's making a binary image of the OS's partition (provided
a perfunctory understanding of how to build partitions - primary and
logical). Nice thing, then, is that the Ghost sector-to-sector
rewrite can be adjusted for another entirely differently formatted
drive and partition's sector sizing, so to speak, "on the fly".

Planning. You don't want to throw a curveball to Windows7 (haven't
personally worked with it, XP here), so the drives should be named and
laid out the way Windows last "sees" them. Changes to drive mapping
should be accounted into the Ghost image prior to these types of
manipulations. Again, there's others, OS-type transfer programs which
attempt to rewrite Windows for drive assignment changes. Haven't
experience with them, though -- I do the drive assigning manually.

On a regular bases, Ghosting for backup or testing purposes. Good
idea to plan on that, by keeping the bulk of program installs on
another drive, and the core Windows and what ancillary binaries to
that core, some installs exact (not all programs come in USB
flashstick standalone variants), consequently as small as possible.

My XP OS backups (reinstalls, if you prefer) transpire in 1 minute 45
seconds under a OS arbitrator through DOS;- though somewhat "cob-
webbed", at over 5 years old, through various changes and hardware
updates, nevertheless remain mostly functional. Gets pretty bad, like
old dragons that rely on certain conditions, and get ornery if faced
with unwarranted updates touted out under suspicion of planned
obsolesce. Starting from a fresh install, tweaking in every Windows
preference, every installed program's settings into the registry, can
be approached through a variety of tactics. None, that I'm aware, are
painless or avoid what literally can take days.

On the other hand, the disadvantage of that old of a Ghost, is that
it's best to painstaking insure tested programs don't bite the hand
feeding them further on down the road. A quirky computer is no less a
pain after several programs installs, by now solidified into a few
Ghosting generations, should one or a combination indirectly surface
to cause an errant condition.
From: Dave on 4 Jan 2010 17:25
On Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:28:06 -0500, Father Justin wrote:

> On 1/3/10 8:04 PM, Johnw wrote:
>> Father Justin laid this down on his screen :
>>> I have two 250GB Seagate SATA drives set up in a RAID 1 - mirrored
>>> volume. Is there a free utility I can use to copy everything to two
>>> brand new 750 GB drives, also sata?
>>> The machine is running Windows 7 Pro. I really don't want to reinstall
>>> the OS and all the software - I have way too much junk on there, from
>>> Accounting software to Rosette Stone.
>>
>> I also use XXCLONE.
>>
>>
>>
> I can't - my version of Windows 7 is 64 bit.

Try CopyWipe,runs from a self booting cd or diskette,or as a BartPE
plugin,lots of options for resizing,etc.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php

Dave


--
Registered Linux user # 444770

From: mike on 4 Jan 2010 19:15
Father Justin wrote:

>
> Also, why is there a 100 Meg partition there that doesn't seem to do
> anything? Does it have something to do with the RAID?
>

I know zero about RAID.

When you install windows7, it "automagicically" creates a 100MB partition
at the beginning of the drive. They organize the partitions in a manner
that BREAKS all the low-level disk utilities that I have tried. I was
unable
to get Acronis TrueImage10 to restore a boot partition that would boot.
One indispensable feature of Acronis is the ability to restore a partition
image to another of larger or smaller size.

My solution was to use GPARTED to partition the drive before installing
windows7. Win7 will install without the extra partition if you don't
let it mess with the partitions.
That restored normal functionality to my disk utilities/image backup
programs. But I was still unable to restore an image from the system
with the 100MB partition. Didn't try too hard, just started
over and reinstalled everything
from scratch. From then on, the utilities worked fine. Wasn't a big
problem, because disk imaging is the first thing I verify before I
install anything on a new OS. If I can't back it up easily, it don't
get installed.

I'd like to know if there's some "switch" that lets Win7 create
partitions without
adding that extra partition. Would save a step. A tool that would
completely remove the partition and fixup all the stuff that thinks
it's there would be useful. It's not the lost space as much as it
is the loss of ability to manage the system with third-party tools.

I recall reading that removing the extra partition removes the ability
to have some bitlocker encryption features for external drives??? Don't
need that
and have had no problems. I'd like to have info on anything else that's
likely to bite me in the A$$.

I'd try reinstalling windows7 to
set it all up properly. Then restore the image that has all the other
stuff on it. Then reboot the install disk and try repairing the
installation to make it boot. IF that doesn't work, you'll need something
akin to a crack to fix up all the anti-piracy roadblocks that M$
has installed for your benefit.
Higher versions of win7 have something called "system image backup"
Not sure how it works, I NEVER use any M$ program when there's a freeware
alternative, but I'd guess it won't let you transfer the sw
to another system...cause we're all pirates. But it might let you
restore to a virgin new install on the new disk. Different disk size
might be an issue.

RAID adds another bit of complexity that may make it a lot more
difficult to do what you want without a full reinstall. If there's a way
to convert to RAID "in place", you might try making a single disk system
work then convert to RAID.

While I've got your attention, I'll make a partitioning pitch.
Always make your boot partition as SMALL as you can live with.
It will dramatically improve your backup process.
Most people have a HUGE boot partition with their DVD collection
on it. Makes for a backup nightmare.



From: Franklin on 5 Jan 2010 17:58
hummingbird wrote:

> 'Father Justin' wrote thus:
>
>>On 1/3/10 7:51 PM, hummingbird wrote:
>>> 'Father Justin' wrote thus:
>>>
>>>> I have two 250GB Seagate SATA drives set up in a RAID 1 - mirrored
>>>> volume. Is there a free utility I can use to copy everything to two
>>>> brand new 750 GB drives, also sata? The machine is running Windows 7
>>>> Pro. I really don't want to reinstall the OS and all the software -
>>>> I have way too much junk on there, from Accounting software to
>>>> Rosette Stone.
>>>
>>>
>>> I have done that a dozen times using my payware file manager but free
>>> ones can do it too. Alternatively, use xxcopy or xxclone.
>
>
>> What do you think of Diskcopy by Easus?
>
> Never used it.
>
>> http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/1018/dsc00344p.jpg
>>
>> Also, why is there a 100 Meg partition there that doesn't seem to do
>> anything? Does it have something to do with the RAID?
>
> Almost certainly. That image appears to show two identical HDD (0 and
> 1), each with a 100MB block defined as "Active Primary", which is the
> correct setting for a boot partition but it doesn't show if drive
> letters are assigned to those 100MB blocks.

The poster's display wouldn't show drive letters because they are assigned by
the OS.

Windows uses an unused part of the MBR to store a Sig for drive lettering by
the OS. (The Sig ties in with the Mounted Devices reg key).

> You can normally only have
> one Active Primary partition on a system, but I guess that since you
> have RAID configured that's how the disks are setup to support it.


From: H-Man on 6 Jan 2010 14:26
On Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:15:06 -0800, mike wrote:

> Father Justin wrote:
>
>>
>> Also, why is there a 100 Meg partition there that doesn't seem to do
>> anything? Does it have something to do with the RAID?
>>
>
> I know zero about RAID.
>
> When you install windows7, it "automagicically" creates a 100MB partition
> at the beginning of the drive. They organize the partitions in a manner
> that BREAKS all the low-level disk utilities that I have tried. I was
> unable
> to get Acronis TrueImage10 to restore a boot partition that would boot.
> One indispensable feature of Acronis is the ability to restore a partition
> image to another of larger or smaller size.
>
> My solution was to use GPARTED to partition the drive before installing
> windows7. Win7 will install without the extra partition if you don't
> let it mess with the partitions.
> That restored normal functionality to my disk utilities/image backup
> programs. But I was still unable to restore an image from the system
> with the 100MB partition. Didn't try too hard, just started
> over and reinstalled everything
> from scratch. From then on, the utilities worked fine. Wasn't a big
> problem, because disk imaging is the first thing I verify before I
> install anything on a new OS. If I can't back it up easily, it don't
> get installed.
>
> I'd like to know if there's some "switch" that lets Win7 create
> partitions without
> adding that extra partition. Would save a step. A tool that would
> completely remove the partition and fixup all the stuff that thinks
> it's there would be useful. It's not the lost space as much as it
> is the loss of ability to manage the system with third-party tools.
>
> I recall reading that removing the extra partition removes the ability
> to have some bitlocker encryption features for external drives??? Don't
> need that
> and have had no problems. I'd like to have info on anything else that's
> likely to bite me in the A$$.
>
> I'd try reinstalling windows7 to
> set it all up properly. Then restore the image that has all the other
> stuff on it. Then reboot the install disk and try repairing the
> installation to make it boot. IF that doesn't work, you'll need something
> akin to a crack to fix up all the anti-piracy roadblocks that M$
> has installed for your benefit.
> Higher versions of win7 have something called "system image backup"
> Not sure how it works, I NEVER use any M$ program when there's a freeware
> alternative, but I'd guess it won't let you transfer the sw
> to another system...cause we're all pirates. But it might let you
> restore to a virgin new install on the new disk. Different disk size
> might be an issue.
>
> RAID adds another bit of complexity that may make it a lot more
> difficult to do what you want without a full reinstall. If there's a way
> to convert to RAID "in place", you might try making a single disk system
> work then convert to RAID.
>
> While I've got your attention, I'll make a partitioning pitch.
> Always make your boot partition as SMALL as you can live with.
> It will dramatically improve your backup process.
> Most people have a HUGE boot partition with their DVD collection
> on it. Makes for a backup nightmare.

Thanks for the heads up on this. This is a bit of a mess that MS has
created IMHO. Looks like this will break an awful lot of backup and imaging
programs. I had previously done a couple of Win7 installs but never
bothered to look at the partitions afterwards, what a mess indeed.

RAID does really throw a loop into the mess. In the past I used BARTPE with
XP to do the image restore as it will allow me to load the RAID drivers to
do a proper restore. If the partitions are properly allocated, I can't see
why imaging both partitions and then restoring both partitions wouldn't
work even using BARTPE, but that would assume that MS hasn't hidden
something. It is entirely possible that the 100MB will store additional
partition information and if the system partition changes it may refuse to
boot. I haven't had to do it yet, but would doing a repair install after
the restore not work to make the drive (RAID set) bootable?

--
HK
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