[SOLVED] Cloned image does not boot - why not?

[Mr.Mike]

Hi all,

I'm moving into a 2 Tb drive but I don't seem to be having much luck with cloning software or (I'll admit) it could be pilot error. I've read a lot of the posts here about cloning problems but nothing like this.

I used Easeus ToDo backup 6.1 to clone a WDC 250 Gb drive to a new WDC 2 Tb drive. When I select the cloned drive for booting, all I get is a black screen with a curser on the top-left. There is a third drive (Seagate 250Gb) I have been using for backup.

Inspection of the cloned drive shows all necessary boot device files are there. Disk Management shows that the cloned drive has no boot in its description.

ST Disk 0 - X: 232.88 GB Healthy (System,Active,Primary Partition) 9Mb unallocated

WDC Disk 1 -C: 232.88 GB Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

WDC Disk 2 - E: 1863.0 GB Healthy (Primary Partition) 1630.13 Unallocated

Am I missing something regarding the RAID array or other issue besides the cloning software?

Thank you in advance to those who respond.

 

[tek9]

If you want disk E: to boot you need to set it as active in Diskpart.

 

[Mr.Mike]

That's it? Well, it's now marked as active. We'll see what happens. Thanks tek9.

If you want disk E: to boot you need to set it as active in Diskpart.

EDIT: I marked it as active and still got nowhere. Anyone else?

 

[mikeroq]

What operating system is on that drive? XP? Vista? 7? 8?

 

[Mr.Mike]

Win 7 cloned from C:

What operating system is on that drive? XP? Vista? 7? 8?

 

[Markverhyden]

OEM machine?

UEFI?

Was the original drive working properly before imaging?

For grins have you tried imaging using Clonezilla?

Are you trying to boot the newly cloned drive on the same machine it had been running on prior to cloning?

 

[JustInspired]

The BIOS supports that size of drive?
If so have you tried booting from the Windows 7 DVD and running Startup Repair?

 

[Mr.Mike]

OEM machine?

UEFI?

Was the original drive working properly before imaging?

For grins have you tried imaging using Clonezilla?

Are you trying to boot the newly cloned drive on the same machine it had been running on prior to cloning?

Hi Mark. Thanks for your input.

Not OEM. Drive was working properly. I've tried Clonzilla and can't seem to get it to work for me . I even downloaded a new copy recently and it still didn't work. Yes, I'm trying to boot the newly cloned drive on the same machine. I'm booting to the option screen to change the boot drive.

 

[Boston Pro Comp Serv LLC]

Are you cloning the partition and not the entire drive? I realize you are not using Acronis, and I don't use clonzilla or easeus, much if at all. In acronis you can clone a partition or the entire drive, maybe that's where your problem lies?

 

[Mr.Mike]

The BIOS supports that size of drive?
If so have you tried booting from the Windows 7 DVD and running Startup Repair?

BIOS is: Nvidia - 42302e31 Phoenix - Award BIOS vC.00PGI (11/11/07) I know that XP can't handle it but I'll have to check it out for my system. I'm not sure why I would need to boot from the Win 7 DVD as my c: drive boots fine.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

You are attempting to boot from the 2TB? Idea is to unplug the 250gb, run startup repair from Windows 7 disc to let it fix the mbr file for you.

Worth a shot anyway.

 

[tek9]

Try disconnecting the old drives from the system.
Boot to a WinPE disc and run bcdboot, bootrec, and diskpart. See if anything changes.

 

[Markverhyden]

Try disconnecting the old drives from the system.
Boot to a WinPE disc and run bcdboot, bootrec, and diskpart. See if anything changes.

^^^^ Beat me too it. Many times I've seen if there are 2 W7 bootable drives on a system it will hang at a black screen or just get into a reboot/repair windows loop. Only one drive at a time. It's not like OS X/Linux where you could have several bootable drives/partitions and happily run which ever one you want.

 

[Mr.Mike]

Are you cloning the partition and not the entire drive? I realize you are not using Acronis, and I don't use clonzilla or easeus, much if at all. In acronis you can clone a partition or the entire drive, maybe that's where your problem lies?

Cloning the entire volume of C: to E: Both formated NTFS.

 

[Boston Pro Comp Serv LLC]

Than I'd tend to go with the other, your not disconnecting the original drive before booting?

 

[Mr.Mike]

Try disconnecting the old drives from the system.
Boot to a WinPE disc and run bcdboot, bootrec, and diskpart. See if anything changes.

I will do that sir! I'll be back with results.

 

[Mr.Mike]

Than I'd tend to go with the other, your not disconnecting the original drive before booting?

Right. Not disconnecting. I'll try it disconnected first, then try the WinPE route also mentioned. Thanks.

 

[tek9]

Cloning the entire volume of C: to E: Both formated NTFS.

Usually Win7 systems have a system partition which is the boot partition, usually around 100MB. Do you have that partition on the new drive?

 

[Mr.Mike]

You are attempting to boot from the 2TB? Idea is to unplug the 250gb, run startup repair from Windows 7 disc to let it fix the mbr file for you.

Worth a shot anyway.

Gotcha. I'm going to try just disconnecting the other drive, then try a reboot to see if the clone works. If not, It's been suggested I run a Win PE disk and throw in some dos commands to find out more. Thank you.

 

[Mr.Mike]

Usually Win7 systems have a system partition which is the boot partition, usually around 100MB. Do you have that partition on the new drive?

No boot partition on any of the drives. I did find out that with the c: drive connected, the system asks for a Win 7 repair disk. It seems the c: and X: drives are in RAID Level 1. That would explain why it wouldn't boot from the cloned E: drive.

I'm thinking I need to go to a RAID Level 0 for the C: drive, repair windows, set aside the X: drive and then format the E: drive and try cloning C: to E: again.

How does that sound?