I tried this today and the Wizard is almost identical to the Ghost 9 one, so these choices apply.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1117581957;start=

When the copy is complete the new partition isn't visible in Windows Explorer because it doesn't have a drive letter. It is visible in Disk Management however.

Now you need to shutdown the computer, physically remove the old HD and adjust jumpers (if appropriate) so that you can boot to the new HD.

I’ve just had a Ghost 10 Copy Drive failure. I’m really pleased as it was intentional.  

I used Partition Magic to create a Primary Partition (with a status of None) on my second HD. The partition was created in the Unallocated Space that I used yesterday. I had since deleted the “clone”. I rebooted and Win XP assigned a drive letter to this partition. Copy my Hard Drive (Advanced) was used to “clone” the OS to this partition using the same settings as yesterday. The only difference was that the copy was done into a partition (with a drive letter) rather than into Unallocated Space. At completion the computer was shutdown, old HD was removed and new HD set as Master. About 30 seconds into the boot process when one usually sees the Windows logo and “Windows is starting up”, I just saw the Windows logo and there was no progression. 30 minutes later it was still there. Several reboots showed the same sequence.

Using Dan’s Method #3 allowed Win XP to boot normally.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm#method3

Earlier in that same web page Dan mentions, “do not let old-XP see the new partition before cloning”.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

By doing Copy Drive into Unallocated Space you prevent the above problem. I suspect that copying into a partition is a common cause of Copy Drive failure.

Brian, first, nice research work there!


Quote:

By doing Copy Drive into Unallocated Space you prevent the above problem. I suspect that copying into a partition is a common cause of Copy Drive failure.

The Ghost 10 manual, Chapter 12 (Copying Drives) does not explicitly say that you must be copying to a new blank unformatted drive, but in my opinion that is the clear intention.  

The reason (I think) that it is not explicitly enforced is because Ghost 10 does not have a "copy-the-entire-disk" option, but instead leads you through the process of copying one partition at a time.  So when you copy your 2nd partition, the target drive will not be blank.  If the "copy-the-entire-disk" option were available, then many users might not make a fatal mistake.

Brian

Great work--looks like another thread to add to the FAQ's for Ghost 10!

Added to FAQ in Ghost  10 Topics.

I've repeated the test several times and it's reproducible.

I also tried "Clear Sig" from BootIt NG instead of using fdisk /mbr and it also allows the OS to boot. BootIt NG has a trial usage period and you can make a boot CD as well as a floppy. The CD could be useful to someone without a floppy drive who has the above problem.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/notes.htm#31

More tests. I created a primary partition again, seen by Win XP with a drive letter. From a Partition Magic boot disc (DOS) I deleted the partition and performed a partition copy. The old HD was removed and the new HD booted normally. Remember, doing this from Ghost 10 and copying into a partition produced a failure to boot.

I then tried the same test from BartPE. Using the Ghost 9 plugin and copying into a partition produced a failure to boot.

All failures booted after using fdisk /mbr.

It seems "copying" from DOS is more forgiving than copying from Windows or BartPE. Or is it Partition Magic that is smarter?

A final test, I think. Again I created a primary partition on the second HD. Then booted to BartPE and did the partition copy from the Partition Magic plugin. The "clone" failed to boot but worked after fdisk /mbr. So it's DOS that is clever rather than Partition Magic.

I'm not exactly sure what I've demonstrated except that if you want success with "Cloning", Copy Drive or whatever you want to call it, then copy into Unallocated Space.

Using Method #2 allows successful "cloning" into a partition.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm#method2

Immediately after performing a successful Copy Drive we are supposed to remove the old HD and replace it with the new HD. Is this necessary?

After a Copy Drive I left both HDs in place and rebooted several times. The new HD remained “invisible” in Windows Explorer as it didn’t have a drive letter. I then removed the old HD and replaced it with the new HD as master. This HD booted normally and the OS partition became C drive.

So in my case at least, it’s not necessary to immediately switch HDs. I see this as useful for those people who like to keep a “cloned” HD instead of a backup image. They don’t need to remove the new HD from their computer.

What happens if you swap HDs immediately after performing a Copy Drive and leave both in the computer? The new HD will be Master and the old HD will be Slave.

I did this today. The new HD booted and everything looked OK until I noticed that the OS was F drive and the original WinXP on the slave was C drive. In Disk Management the System Drive was F drive and in Partition Magic the OS on the master HD was F drive. The drive letters were the same on successive boots. The old HD kept its C drive letter ever though it wasn’t the System drive.

I then removed the old HD and left the new HD still jumpered as Master. It didn’t boot. About 30 seconds into the boot process it froze on the Windows logo. It was looking for the C drive but the C drive was on the floor. The boot error was corrected by fdisk /mbr and the OS booted as C drive.

So we shouldn’t let the new OS (on Master HD) see the old OS (on Slave HD) on the first boot.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm


PS In case this is not clear, I've haven't been using a blank HD for Copy Drive. I've been copying into Unallocated Space at the start of the HD. There were several other partitions. It would make no difference if the whole HD was blank.
I prefer copying one partition at a time. Copying the whole HD in one step wouldn't suit me at all.

I’d like to point out two ambiguous statements in the Ghost 10 userguide.

On page 118


Quote:

The new hard disk does not need to be formatted.

This could be interpreted by some as “you can use a formatted disk”. If you do, the copied OS will not boot.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1148252120;start=1#1


On page 122


Quote:

After you have copied the old hard disk to the new hard disk, do one of the following: 1 Either remove the old hard disk or keep it as a slave drive. 2 Change jumper settings to make the new hard disk the master drive before restarting the computer.

Choice 1 and 2 could be interpreted by some as making the new HD the master and the old HD the slave at the first boot. Then this will happen.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1148252120;start=10#10


I think the wording should be.

•     You must copy into Unallocated Space on the new HD.

•     On first boot, have the new HD as the master and the old HD removed from the computer.


The Ghost 9 userguide has the same statements but on different pages.

I just noticed this page.

COPY DRIVE  

My tests indicate that Step 3, para 4, would lead to failure due to "cloning" to a formatted partition.
But Step 2 should then fix the non boot problem caused by the above procedure.