Copy drive with hidden boot partition to new ssd

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1

I have a Lenovo W520 laptop. 512 GB existing drive 512GB ssd WIndows 7-64 bit Ghost 15. The Lenovo has a hidden boot and a C: drive. I have looked around the internet and downloaded the manual. It is not clear to me how to copy the drive. do I copy the boot drive first, that is what I tried on the attached image but if I then try to copy the C: drive it seem like it will just overwrite the bootable new drive plus it wont give me the option to call it C:.

I did try booting from the CD and copying the drive that way but when I try that it will not see the new drive on the usb cable.

I don't care about the Q drive as it is usless after one use

Thanks

2

Hi alanbredbury,

When you run Ghost if you tick the box "show hidden drives" Ghost will see the hidden partitions

If you select a "One Time Backup" that is a manual backup without any confusing settings.

All you need do then is click (highlight) all the partitions or drives you want to backup and Ghost will do the rest.

I normally direct my backups into a folder on the external destination drive and all the necessary .v2i files will be there.

Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Deric

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Ok, there are too many ways to do things in the program, I had not tried that.

Should the target drive be formated? drive letter assigned?

Thanks

4

Yes, Ghost needs to "see" the destination drive, usually a USB connected external drive, the drive is usually ready for use and when you connect it Windows will allocate a drive letter.

Create a folder, say "backup1" on the drive and direct the backup/recovery point into that folder.

 

Deric

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Ok this created a disk image on my new drive, not what I want. I want to create a bootable copy of my existing drive structured as my current drive is.

Thanks

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The first thing you need to do is create a recovery point/image of your existing drive.

Best to run a "One Time Backup".

That image needs to be transfered onto the external drive.

That action will create the image to transfer onto your new drive a "clone" of the origional.

 

Put more simply, backup your computer as it stands onto the external drive.

Restore that image to your new drive.

 

Deric

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Alan, 

 

We need a bit more info. You have posted a portion of Disk Management. Can you post the section showing the rectangles? Which is the SSD?

 

Edit... Can you also repost your first screenshot to show all the text in the Status fields?

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I think I may have figured out how it should work.

There are two partitions on the old drive I need one is SYSTEM_ DRV (hidden) and this is I believe the boot partiton. The other is Windows7_SYS

I created two partitions on the new drive and did not give them drive letters. I sized the SYSTEM_DRV the same at 1.46 GB and the other partition is the rest of the drive.

I used the copy my hard drive to copy the SYSTEM_DRV to the appropriate partiton on the new drive.

When I get home I will initiate copying the Windows7_SYS from the old drive to the large partition on the new drive using the same tool.

My remaining concern is assigning the C:\ drive letter to the new Windows7_SYS partition as there does not seem to be a way to accomplish this that I can find. the disk management and the Ghost tool both do not allow me to assign this letter as it is already an active drive in the system.

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Alan,

 

It's up to you but I'm trying to help you from wasting your time.

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Ok, hang on

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Alan,

 

Can you also post a partinfo?

 

Partinfo.exe is located in C:\Program Files\Norton Ghost\Utility. Run partinfo.exe. This will create a file called partinfo.txt in the same directory. Please attach to this thread by clicking on the Add Attachments link at the bottom.

 

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Here is what I have attached.

I understand I could use disk images but then I have to have yet another drive to create them on?

It seems like I should be able to just copy exactly?

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Partinfo

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Alan,

 

What you have looks good. Can you remove the HD from your laptop and install the SSD. Power on. What happens?

15

Silly me. Forget that. Stand by.

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You have already copied the System partition. Good. Your Win7 partition on the SSD doesn't have a drive letter. Good. It must not.

 

Run Copy Drive and copy the Win7 partition to the partition on the SSD. Use these options...

 

Check source for file system errors
Check destination for file system errors
DON'T SELECT Disable SmartSector copying
DON'T SELECT Ignore bad sectors during copy
Destination partition type : Primary
Drive letter : None

 

When finished remove the HD and install the SSD. Success?

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Guess we will find out in a few hours.

Thanks

18

Nope, the new disk system drive is not a system drive so it won't boot.

I formatted the system partition again and retransfered it making sure the MBR and make bootable was checked but nothing changed.

This experience has so far been horrible. I bought a crucial drive, the premiere drive copy software (After the easy transfer kit didn't work) and two days later I still can't use the drive.

Is there another path?

Make a bootable cd and use the transfer utility that way, the problem with that when I tried was the machine wont recognize the USB drive when booted from the Ghost CD. I think I saw a way to create a more specific bootable cd in the manual?

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It doesn't show as the system drive because in that configuration it isn't.  Your using the first drive.

 

What happens when you boot the second drive by itself?

Don't try to have both connected, attach the second drive to the same plug the old one was using and boot.

 

Dave

 

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Autocheck not found skipping
Blue screen of death then to repair windows using windows disk which I do not have though I did order it for 59 dollars blackmail money from Lenovo, it has not arrived yet.