Cloning a new system disk from an old (not in use) system disk...

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  1. Posts : 353
    Windows 10 Professional
       #1

    Cloning a new system disk from an old (not in use) system disk...


    I need to create a new boot disk for a laptop I was using. I have the Windows 10 Home system disk that WAS in that laptop. I want to take the O/S OFF that disk and put it on a DIFFERENT disk....

    I plugged both disks into a different PC, fired up Easus Todo Backup and did a Clone... Copied the system partition from the old system disk to the new "going to be" system disk. Put it in the old laptop. It says 'No operating system found"

    As usual, I THOUGHT this was going to trivial, and it doesn't appear to be... SO, I formatted the new system disk, and ran diskpart and set the only partition on the disk to active. Then I ran Todo Backup AGAIN to clone the disk. Stuck it back in the laptop and it STILL says "no operating system found". It takes at LEAST an hour and a half every time I do this clone, so I'm tired of doing it over and over. I HAVE the newly cloned disk sitting here. What do I need to do make it found and boot in the laptop?
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 3,367
    W10 Pro x64/W7 Ultimate x64 dual boot main - W11 Triple Boot Pending
       #2

    Cloning is a waste of time these days when you can see a full system image made from the original and restored to the new same size or larger drive installed. A fresh copy of 10 might be a consideration as well for the new drive which will of course remove all of the OEM "Bloatwares"? and see a basic clean install of 10!

    Here on one laptop I nuked the entire drive that came with the 7 laptop after seeing a few upgrade and clean installs for the 32bit 10 to change over to the 64bit Windows as well as not being able to shrink the factory primary down any! The new primary for the clean 64bit install went very well.

    Initially for the July 29, 2015 launch date I had cloned the then 7 host/boot drive now second OS drive over to the then spare OS drive for the upgrade to 10. Due to not unplugging two storage drives however after then seeing a fresh 7 install go on and then finding out the reason 10 wasn't going on was the need to unplug those other drives besides the 7 host HD the 8hr. clone being replaced by a 20 minute plus SP1 install of 7 there saw the initial upgrade to 10.

    As for the drive already having been cloned something went missing apparently since the drive wasn't made bootable. You could try a repair install or a few runs of the Startup repair tool option and still not see working results. A full image on the other hand being restored is a snapshot of everything on the OEM drive put onto the new one. You may still end up with issues however since that is still factory partitioning being restored. A nice fresh clean install is generally the preferred option

    Want to spend only a few hours or a few days? A clean install plus program installs fresh on the new drive equals a few hours time. A full clone depending on the size of the drive and what is on it??? For seeing a full image made of a 1tb loaded with files about 34minutes on average and restoration under one hour! These are the options available.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #3

    You have to clone the entire disk, not just the OS partition in order to get the partition that contains the boot files.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 3,367
    W10 Pro x64/W7 Ultimate x64 dual boot main - W11 Triple Boot Pending
       #4

    You got that right! Besides with a brand new drive, brand new OS primary why not a brand new Windows install? You start fresh with everything rather then trying to jerry rig things and run into these types of problems.

    The full image option however will take everything and bring it over in one shot for the present OEM copy of Windows, all folders, files, programs. etc. as well as registry errors, corrupt systems files, other problems yet to be seen? But that will preserve things as is and see the new drive made bootable in the process for having transferred the boot information and boot loader as well as everything else.

    Still miss the Windows Easy Transfer tool however where your files and settings get transferred onto a fresh install.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 353
    Windows 10 Professional
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Well, there were reasons to clone the old drive... I installed it originally, so there ISN'T any bloat to be concerned about. And it generally takes between 4 and 7 days of fixing Windows 10, cleaning out all the ridiculous crap MS sticks in there and adding software to get a box working reasonably well. So, 90 minutes to clone a drive was a good tradeoff...

    Unfortunately, being unable to get what I'd hoped was a simple answer to the question asked, I dumped it and did an install. the box will most likely be available for actual work in a few days.
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 1,099
    Win 10 pro Upgraded from 8.1
       #6

    The simple answer was you have to clone the entire disk. The program you used, is known to work, for some people, Macrium Reflect works every time. Sounds like you have solved this issue regardless
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 3,367
    W10 Pro x64/W7 Ultimate x64 dual boot main - W11 Triple Boot Pending
       #7

    The simple answer is what I was saying before a full system image backup takes into account "Everything" on the first drive in one on the spot backup of the entire drive. That image is then restored onto the new drive in generally much less time then cloning. But the persistence on cloning only should see everything cloned not a partial clone you ended up with being the main issue.

    Here having tried cloning even last summer compared to seeing system images made and even restored at times over several years has made the decision here rather easier to simply image then clone.
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 1,099
    Win 10 pro Upgraded from 8.1
       #8

    Yes I agree, Image are better and faster to restore. I just find it easier to guide the less techy types to the clone method as its simpler in most cases, less steps.
      My Computers


  9. Posts : 3,367
    W10 Pro x64/W7 Ultimate x64 dual boot main - W11 Triple Boot Pending
       #9

    Well when looking at the options in the 2010 Home edition of Acronis True Image I still have running on 10 here I ran the clone option last summer for the 1tb OS drive and spent most of the day waiting in prep for the 10 upgrade the clone unfortunately wasn't to see happen when not having review the Clean Install guide first. I wanted to walk into 10 blindly like so many others would in order to see just what type of problems would appear first hand!

    As for seeing a full system image made that's something that serves not only seeing everything moved over to the new drive but also serves as a full system backup in the event something doesn't go quite right? or something else comes up later. Cloning is a one shot deal if the original drive is then tossed and found later to be needed again for some reason as well as the time saving advantage of imaging vs cloning to consider.

    It will still remain upto the pc owner to make the final decision however as you can only lead a horse to water as the expression goes. My experience with 10 so far hasn't been any "METROMARE" the 8 Customer Preview had been when MS first decided to make a dual platform OS and stick the RT tablet touchscreen gui in everyone's faces without any choices and why 8 tanked fast as you notice! 8.1 was an improvement that still saw the familiar Windows taken apart. 10 is now the MS attempt to pick up to a degree where 7 left off as far as being a "SUCCESS STORY UNFOLDED"! 6yrs. ago. MS want to regain that headliner once again with 10 despite dumping the original features and now conveniently providing free stuff in the MS store like VLC to replace WMP!
      My Computers


  10. Posts : 2,832
    Windows 10 Pro X64
       #10

    Hi,

    NavyLCDR said:
    You have to clone the entire disk, not just the OS partition in order to get the partition that contains the boot files.
    Not necessarily. You only need the partitions that matter for Windows to boot and run really.
    Cloning a drive or partitions is often a waste of time. Anyhow, I read a lot of confusing stuff because of semantics really.
    The folk at Macrium have really well documented stuff on their site about all of this, well worth a read and needless to say, what a good free program that is.

    Cheers,
      My Computers


 

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