topic Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15 in Other Norton Products

help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:53:24 GMT

Hello all. Just got a new computer and purchased a 256GB SSD that came with Norton Ghost 15. So after reading the manual and checking the cases. I realized none of the cases apply to mine (at least I think). Please tell me what options I should check in the "Advanced options menu" for each partition and in which order I should clone. I know that I have to do the system partition first (which one is my system partition anyway?). I have tried countless times and googled many times too. In the manual it says clone your system partition first then your C partition. I don't have a partition called "system," but I have a partition called "recovery" that says "system" underneath it (as can be seen in the screenshot). The only partition that I managed to clone was the OEM partition and the funny thing is that in the manual it says that Norton Ghost CAN NOT clone OEM partitions. Anyway please help me out. Thank you

I have screenshotted my "disk management" screen and attached it.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

Brian_K — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:36:05 GMT

TheElder777,

Your screenshot hasn't been approved for general viewing yet. Hopefully soon and I'll comment.

Is your computer a Dell?

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:45:45 GMT

Thank you. Yes, it is a Dell XPS 8300.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

Brian_K — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:59:05 GMT

Nice computer. Dells don't have a 100 MB SRP as there aren't enough partition slots. So Dell puts the booting files in the Recovery partition and it becomes the System partition.

Microsoft have an controversial method of partition description. The booting files aren't in the Boot partition.

Still waiting on your screenshot.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:04:34 GMT

Thank you. Interesting, I tried cloning the recovery partition first, so many times but with no success. I also forgot to mention that when I get to the "select a source" menu (after clicking show hidden partitions), there is also a "dellutility" partition that does not show up in "disk management."

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

Brian_K — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:07:07 GMT

What size is your HD and what sizes are the partitions seen in Disk Management?

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:13:17 GMT

Here is the size info and a bit more. My HDD is set as raid0. I don't know what my SSD is set to though. I went to the bios to try and change my ssd to ahci but I don't think I can do that without also changing my HDD to ahci aswell. I don't know if any of this matters though.

Total HDD space: 1TB

OEM partition: 39MB

RECOVERY partition: 13.25GB [System, Active, Primary Partition]

OS (C:) partition: 918.23GB [Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition]

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

Brian_K — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:25:27 GMT

The 39 MB partition is the Dell Utility partition. It is for diagnostics and although nice to have, it isn't essential.

Your Win7 partition will have to be resized smaller I'm afraid. Even though you might only have 50 GB of data it might be spread over the first 500 GB of the partition.

Ghost does sector based copies so if your original partition was....( * is sectors in use, - is free space)

[---**----**--]

then the target partition to copy into can not be smaller than...

[---**----**]

More later.

I don't use RAID and I'd be grateful for comments from others.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:36:30 GMT

Well, I guess I would like to clone the 39MB partition then. Are you able to see my screen shot? How did you know that my Win7 partition needs resizing? The drive is almost new, I didn't install anything other than Mathematica, Skype and Norton Ghost (and maybe a couple more, haha). Would a defragment help? I like your graphical explanation of sectors and free space, very easy to understand. In the mean time I will go about removing as much as I can. Thank you Brian.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

Brian_K — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:44:19 GMT

No need to hurry. There is a lot to understand yet. Still can't see your screenshot.

I'd be surprised if your sectors didn't spread beyond the 256 GB mark, the size of your SSD and that's why I think you will need to resize. Diskpart in Win7 can do this but it may not resize enough as it can't resize beyond the last non moveable file. Other software can. I think defragging is a waste of time (for your purpose) as it doesn't move the non moveable files.

You can certainly try a Ghost Copy prior to resizing. It just may work and if it doesn't then a resize can be performed.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

Brian_K — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:51:59 GMT

Using Perfect Disk as an example. If you did an offline defrag (to move unmoveable files) it would put your pagefile in the middle of the Win7 partition. At around the 460 GB mark. The only way to fix this is with non Microsoft software. To shrink the Win7 partition to around 200 GB.

Your SSD is 256 GB but does it show as around 238 GB in Disk Management?

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:56:02 GMT

Ok, I guess I will try to clone first, if it doesn't work then I will resort to uninstalling. I also had problems cloning the recovery partition and I'm sure that isn't a size issue. I can't believe my image isn't up yet.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

Brian_K — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:58:23 GMT

Would you like to post your screenshot on Photobucket?

Don't be concerned about Ghost. We'll get this done.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:58:32 GMT

Yes my ssd is 256GB but shows up as 238GB in disk management. If I right click on the Win7 partition, there is a shrink disk option, would that help?

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:59:57 GMT

Thanks you. I have never used photobucket but let me try.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

Brian_K — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:00:58 GMT

TheElder777 wrote:
Yes my ssd is 256GB but shows up as 238GB in disk management. If I right click on the Win7 partition, there is a shrink disk option, would that help?

Yes, but not yet.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:04:50 GMT

Alright, here is a link to my screenshot:

http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss174/creeper81/screenshot.png

Hopefuly this will work. I am new to photobucket so please excuse me if that link does not work (works with me though).

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:21:15 GMT

If you don't trust my link you can google "creeper81 photobucket," where creeper81 is my photobucket username. Or if you don't trust my links all together then we can wait for my image to be approved.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

Brian_K — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:21:37 GMT

Excellent. I made a good guess in that you have 50 GB of data in Win7 but a lot of this will be pagefile and hibernation file.

Let's try this. Any partitions you have on the SSD, delete. We'll start again. Copy the partitions in the order you see them on the HD. Copy to the unallocated space and use these options....

For the OEM and Win 7....

Check source for file system errors
Check destination for file system errors
Don't tick Resize drive to fill unallocated space
DON'T SELECT Disable SmartSector copying
DON'T SELECT Ignore bad sectors during copy
Destination partition type : Primary
Drive letter : None

For the Recovery partition...

Check source for file system errors
Check destination for file system errors
Set drive active (for booting OS)
DON'T SELECT Disable SmartSector copying
DON'T SELECT Ignore bad sectors during copy
Copy MBR
Destination partition type : Primary
Drive letter : None

Don't worry if Win7 doesn't copy. We can fix that later.

When the copies are complete you will see the partitions in Disk Management but not in My Computer as there will not be any drive letters. Let us know when the Copying has completed. Don't try to boot the SSD until we've had a discussion.

Re: help cloning HDD to SSD with NORTON GHOST 15

TheElder777 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:22:35 GMT

WOOOW. Thanks. I will try them now. I can't wait.