Move Windows to HDD temporarily

[Manmeyco]

I have a (supposedly) failing SSD (Corsair Force MP500), and Corsair is sending me a new one. Problem is, they want me to send the defective one in first, which is a small issue, as it's my boot drive. I have extra hard drives I can temporarily put Windows onto. My plan is to move windows onto my hard drive, and then move it to the new SSD when it comes, but how should I do it? I want to make sure all my programs, settings, etc. stay exactly as they were throughout the whole process. I have heard of some migrating tools, but I'm worried for when Windows is under the knife... Any recommended options? Or is there a better way? And while Windows is on the hard drive, can I boot from that and use it as normal, or is it better not to touch it? Or should I try asking Corsair if I can send in the old after I get the new, so I can do a direct migration (I'll need an M.2 PCIe adapter then - I only got one M.2 slot).

[Radium_Angel]

43 minutes ago, Manmeyco said:

boot drive

You'll want disc cloning software. I use Norton GHOST 2003 and it works great, never an issue, but there are other (free) options out there.

It'll clone to any drive you have, same size or larger, then you swap out drives and use it as normal.

[Manmeyco]

Any free one in particular?

[zer0signal]

Clonezilla

https://clonezilla.org/

 

You can use that free software above to actually move your boot drive data, onto any drive you have installed in your system "Spare Drive"

Just flash the Clonezilla on to a USB drive, and use drive to drive cloning option in it.

[Manmeyco]

Should I use the Debian or Ubuntu version?

 

[Radium_Angel]

54 minutes ago, Manmeyco said:

Should I use the Debian or Ubuntu version?

 

Whichever looks easiest for you. They are two sides of the same coin

[Manmeyco]

Going to try it now. Hope it works

[Manmeyco]

So, I've tried it a few times, both the Ubuntu and Debian versions, and every time, I'm getting an error (see attached pictures). I suspect it may be Bitlocker causing problems (I have it on the drive I'm trying to clone, I've tried "suspending protection", but have not tried removing Bitlocker entirely yet. Also, when I view the drives in Minitool Partition Wizard, it shows the drive I was cloning to as being the same size as the other one, but one time when I booted up, I saw the drive (labeled as D), and it contained a lot less than my source drive contained. All the other times I've booted up, the destination drive is invisible to File Explorer.

EDIT: I've taken a better look at my own pictures and noticed Clonezilla is catching my drive's corruption (which is the reason why I'm going through all this in the first place), should I go through with clonezilla's recovery? How do I even do it - is it that option, to scan the drive or not, when it's about to start the cloning (I've always skipped it)?

And I've looked for that partclone.log file, can't find it.

Or is it something else entirely?

[Manmeyco]

So I ran Clonezilla again, this time in Expert mode, and added the -Rescue flag (I figured it out!), and everything went smooth, no errors. Still doesn't show up in File Explorer, but does in Minitool, so I guess it's time for the field test? I'm going to take out the SSD, see if it still boots.... As of now I'm still booting off the SSD, for some reason I don't have any option otherwise.

[Manmeyco]

Nope. Didn't work, Windows went into recovery mode, but even that didn't work (I hit any key, it either just flashed or rebooted back to the same screen).

Pop SSD back in, back to normal.

I tried Corsair's SSD toolbox as well, but it just throws an error "Partitions is not resizable".

Now I'm really out of ideas. Maybe I'll just contact Corsair and ask them what they think I should do.

[kirashi]

9 minutes ago, Manmeyco said:

Nope. Didn't work, Windows went into recovery mode, but even that didn't work (I hit any key, it either just flashed or rebooted back to the same screen).

Pop SSD back in, back to normal.

I tried Corsair's SSD toolbox as well, but it just throws an error "Partitions is not resizable".

Now I'm really out of ideas. Maybe I'll just contact Corsair and ask them what they think I should do.

That means your boot drive is corrupted / damaged beyond repair / recovery at least at the consumer level, as Clonezilla's --rescue option is one of the best ways to try to salvage the data from a dying drive without professional grade recovery software, or a clean lab room to take the drive apart. At this point, Corsair isn't going to have much more ideas aside from paying for professional data recovery, so I'd just be restoring your boot drive from the disc image you made as party of your regular backup schedule. (If you don't have one of those... time to install Windows from scratch, then implement such a schedule.)

[homeap5]

Use Macrium Reflect, not mindless cloning soft. And image your system instead of cloning, then you'll be able to restore that image to another drive faster and you'll have backup. And use search function on this forum - LOT of posts about that.

[Manmeyco]

8 hours ago, kirashi said:

That means your boot drive is corrupted / damaged beyond repair / recovery at least at the consumer level, as Clonezilla's --rescue option is one of the best ways to try to salvage the data from a dying drive without professional grade recovery software, or a clean lab room to take the drive apart. At this point, Corsair isn't going to have much more ideas aside from paying for professional data recovery, so I'd just be restoring your boot drive from the disc image you made as party of your regular backup schedule. (If you don't have one of those... time to install Windows from scratch, then implement such a schedule.)

I did not know until now that there is a built in imaging thing in Windows - although I suspect it may have the same issues. Is it worth trying it now? Or will it just copy all the corrupted files?

I've used FreeFileSync, as it's the only one that kind-of works, but it skips a lot of the files due to errors.

What's weird is that Windows seems to work just fine, no corruption or anything, unless I try something like imaging, etc - then it throws errors. Also, whenever I boot up, the BIOS yells at me that the drive will fail. But other than that, everything works fine. Maybe the file system or something more "core" is corrupted, but the files themselves are fine?

4 hours ago, homeap5 said:

Use Macrium Reflect, not mindless cloning soft. And image your system instead of cloning, then you'll be able to restore that image to another drive faster and you'll have backup. And use search function on this forum - LOT of posts about that.

I've tried Macrium Reflect in the past, and it has the same issue - the drive is corrupted, it can't read it, etc.

 

[homeap5]

Well, if you have access to your files, you can install Windows on second drive, set the same user name and computer name as in previous installation and use third operating system for copying/overwriting all important system and user files with preserve attributes (using proper settings in Directory Opus - free for 60 days). So basically you need three drives - old ssd, old hdd and any bootable windows on 3rd drive for copying process (you cannot copy some important files like registry or user settings when you're using source or destination os).

 

Is not easy method, you should have some experience with os and configuring programs, but it's possible.

[Manmeyco]

That seems like it'll give me a fun time (I tend to be paranoid when it comes to transferring OSes).

For now I asked Corsair what they think I should do, still waiting for a response.

If no response in a few days, I'll take the plunge.

[Manmeyco]

Corsair responded, basically "Try a cloning software, but sorry no recommendations".

Guess it's time to get dirty...

[Manmeyco]

On 9/29/2019 at 2:02 PM, homeap5 said:

copying/overwriting all important system and user files with preserve attributes (using proper settings in Directory Opus - free for 60 days).

How do I do this? And just to be clear, it would make sure everything gets transferred over exactly as I left it from the old drive?

[homeap5]

1 hour ago, Manmeyco said:

How do I do this? And just to be clear, it would make sure everything gets transferred over exactly as I left it from the old drive?

Do you have third, working os (like second computer), so you can connect additional two drives to it? I already explained how to do that. It's not easy I must say.

 

"Preserve attributes" is an option in Opus configuration for copying files.

[Manmeyco]

3 hours ago, homeap5 said:

Do you have third, working os (like second computer), so you can connect additional two drives to it? I already explained how to do that. It's not easy I must say.

 

"Preserve attributes" is an option in Opus configuration for copying files.

Yes, and I have Opus open, I'm just not sure how to do the Preserve attribute

[homeap5]

2 hours ago, Manmeyco said:

Yes, and I have Opus open, I'm just not sure how to do the Preserve attribute

Preferences > File Operations > Copy Attributes. You can preserve owner, attributes, disable permission changes etc. You need to run Opus as admin.

 

Then you may copy folders like Windows, Users, Program Files etc. and if Opus asks - replace all.

 

Do not forget to show hidden files too.

 

You may also use Synchronize option to skip identical files (date different or size option) which may speed up whole process.

 

You know, it's copy anyway, so just check by yourself, you have nothing to loose. You may even delete everything on hdd and copy everything from ssd and see if it works. I made that once (just for check is it working, but that was some years ago on older system).

[Manmeyco]

12 hours ago, homeap5 said:

Preferences > File Operations > Copy Attributes. You can preserve owner, attributes, disable permission changes etc. You need to run Opus as admin.

 

Then you may copy folders like Windows, Users, Program Files etc. and if Opus asks - replace all.

 

Do not forget to show hidden files too.

 

You may also use Synchronize option to skip identical files (date different or size option) which may speed up whole process.

 

You know, it's copy anyway, so just check by yourself, you have nothing to loose. You may even delete everything on hdd and copy everything from ssd and see if it works. I made that once (just for check is it working, but that was some years ago on older system).

OK thanks, I'll try that out, I hope it works.

[Manmeyco]

I've tried Dopus again and again, but it's not getting everything, partially because of "Access is Denied" and partially because of "how dare this process be simple for you".

What about using Raid 1? Since the files themselves are good, it should mirror everything to another good drive, and then... home free? Dare I even dream?

[homeap5]

Are you sure you have Opus running as admin? Not on admin account, but as admin with elevated privileges? And you have installed windows (fresh one) before overwriting files?

 

Also - you should skip some folders (like "users/all users"). You only need overwrite some files (registry, windows, your user dir). Some files will be locked and that is nothing wrong, just skip i them (hiberfile for example).

 

I wrote that it's not simple process.

[Manmeyco]

6 hours ago, homeap5 said:

Are you sure you have Opus running as admin? Not on admin account, but as admin with elevated privileges? And you have installed windows (fresh one) before overwriting files?

Yes and yes, it just wasn't working for me.

Also I realized Minitool's Partition Wizard has a cloning option, and so I'll try that as well.