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[DStain]

Brian, Dave, Red,

Here are a couple of pics for you to have a look at before I start the next phase.

Disk 0 being my primary drive and disk 1 being my secondary drive,disk 2 being the resized "Clone" source drive

As you can see I have reduced the source (Clone) to 111.6GB so that I can transfer the .v2i files onto the target 120 GB drive with out resizing.

The next step is to run a backup of the resized partitions onto my external drive (got a new replacement 1TB drive for this to try out courtesy of Seagate).

Then I will try a Image /Restore onto the 120 GB target drive and I should if all goes well be able to report in about 3 hours (tea time now).

When I shut down the three Disks 0 1and 2  will be disconnected and the target 120 GB drive connected to start the process.

Deric

[DaveH]

If disk 2 is going to be the source, it's not going to work with all those gaps of unallocated space between the partitions.

What is in J, K, L, and O?

If you have operating systems in there that don't boot, your going to end up with a clone that also doesn't boot.

Dave

[DStain]

Dave,

All has changed now because the "clone" and the target drive were messed up and wouldn't boot so I had no alternative but to re do the "Clone" again with Ghost 12.

I now have a new clone (160 gig) which works ok and I have backed that up with Ghost 12, also I couldn't think of any other way of shrinking the drive so that I could transfer onto the smaller 120 gig target drive.

What is the best way to do a image/restore onto a smaller drive? I could free up a 250 GB drive and transfer the 160 gig onto that and have a load of unallocated space.

That drive has stuff on it that I will have to copy off and that will take some time, the 120 gig drive is the easiest option for me.

I can't see a way of consolidating that unallocated space.

It would be handy if Red could send me a PM with instructions how to use the SRD to copy files off because I am not sure how to do that.

J is XP, K is Vista, L is Win7 (1) and O is Win 7 (2), like I said I have redone that now and shrank the partitions but I can easily reverse that, no problem now I have backed it up with G12.

Deric

[Brian_K]

Deric,

I'm totally lost as I don't use the Microsoft boot manager and I don't let OS see each other. In your above screenshot you have 9 visible OS. So your setup frightens me as to its reliability.  But here is a simple way to copy the Boot folder.

In a setup where only two OS are booting (the other two fail to boot) create a folder in C: drive called dericboot. You should be in WinXP.

Find the .v2i image of WinXP that allows all 4 OS to boot. So  that image contains a good BCD. Double click the WinXP .v2i and Image Browser opens. Right click the Boot folder in the right hand pane and click Recover. Browse to C:\dericboot and click Recover.

Open a Command Prompt and enter these lines. You can copy and paste each line.  Press Enter after each line.

reg unload HKLM\BCD00000000

robocopy C:\dericboot\Boot C:\Boot /mir

Close the Command Prompt and reboot. Do all 4 OS boot now?

[DStain]

Brian, Dave, Red,

Gentlemen I have Cracked it,

Here are a couple of pics for you to have a look at.

This is how I did it, The 160 gig drive was "cloned" again with the basic O/Ss on it (XP, Vista, Win7(1) and Win7(2) and then I ran a backup of it onto the GoFlex external drive.

Next I resized the drive similar to the pic in message 31 and finished up with unallocated spaces in between the partitions containing the O/Ss.

The next step was to backup the resized drive onto the external GoFlex drive meaning Ghost only backed up the newly sized partitions.

Next was to prepare the 120 gig drive creating all unallocated space and transfer the second image containing the new sized partitions onto the 120 gig drive.

Rebooted and as before there were 3 extra entries in the boot menu that had to be renamed and the others deleted (used Easy BCD to do this) and Bingo I have a fully working down sized "Clone".

This of course was created using my tried and tested copy of Ghost 12 (a life saver).

Next I intend to do the same exercise using Ghost 15 but will create a backup of this drive (120 gig) onto the external drive creating the necessary images for transfer onto the 160 gig now spare drive.

It will be far easier to transfer the image onto the larger drive and have about 40 gig spare on the end.

Then I may have to use Brian's method to get the new 160gig "clone" to boot up.

I do hate to keep harping on about how effective G12 is to do this exercise, I do hope the team take note of this thread and incorporate G12s ability to "clone" in the next version of ghost to be released.

Deric

[Brian_K]

Deric,

The first line "reg unload HKLM\BCD00000000" isn't needed as you are doing this in WinXP. Just use the second line.

[DStain]

I have just logged in to tell you the first line is an incorrect perameter.

Deric

[DStain]

The second line is not recognised as an internal or external operable command or batch file.

Both Win XP and Win Vista boot ok but both Win7s get stuck on preparing your desktop

If we can sort that out then G15 will also clone a drive.

I used Image / Restore again.

Deric

[Brian_K]

Deric,

I just realised you probably don't have robocopy installed in your WinXP. I'll send you email about this.

[Brian_K]

Robocopy probably won't fix "Preparing your desktop". That is a drive letter issue. But try Robocopy and let us know.

Has "Preparing your desktop" ever happened before or just with your new method?