Mirroring the OS partition

[Rotwang]

I have windows 7 installed on a 60gig SSD drive.

I have a new, 1TB drive, empty.

I want to mirror the OS drive so that I can boot from the 1TB drive instead in case the 60gig drive dies.

When I right-click on the 1tb volume in Disk Management and chose "New Mirrored Volume", the OS drive isn't among the options I can chose.

When I right-click on either of the OS drive's two partitions (the 100MB NTFS System Reserved volume, or the 59 gig C partition), and chose "Add Mirror", I get:

"The operation you selected will convert the selected basic disk(s) to dynamic disk(s).
If you convert the disk(s) to dynamic, you will not be able to start installed operating systems from any volume on the disk(s) (except the current boot volume). Are you sure you want to continue?"

I don't understand what that means. If I do that, does that mean I won't be able to boot from either drive?

(Also, fyi, I've tried using both MBR and GUID on the 1tb drive, and get the same warning.)

thanks

 

[Nibiru2012]

Hi Rotwang! Welcome to the Windows 7 Forums website! (Interesting user name you have there... LOL! )

Download the free version of Partition Wizard, it will allow you to do this with no problems.

There is a feature on it called:

Copy Disk Wizard: Copy the entire hard disk to another without having to reinstall Windows.

Go to this link to download Partition Wizard Free: http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html

I recommend downloading both the software and the bootable CD Image. Be sure to read and understand everything be attempting your transfer. If you click the "Copy Disk Wizard" link above, it will show you a short tutorial on how to do it.

Keep us posted on how it worked for you!
~Nibs

 

[Rotwang]

The name Rotwang is from a 1929 silent film, Metropolis, here is the Rotwang introduction scene:

[ame="[MEDIA=youtube]bjfyI7-Cq_w[/MEDIA]"]YouTube - Metropolis Rescore - Rotwang / Futura's Creation - 9 of 25[/ame]

I'll try your suggestion of Partition Wizard. But, as I understand it, that only copies the OS partition instead of mirroring it, right? I'd rather mirror, so that the OS on the 1TB drive is always up to date and identical to the ssd drive. In case of a crash, I would be able to just switch effortlessly. Can Partition Wizard mirror instead?

 

[Rotwang]

Well, that was a total faiilure. I downloaded it, did the Copy Disk Wizard, and after it copied, I restarted to the 1TB disk (changed the bios).

My black screen said "j" with that flashing cursor next to it. That's it. just "j".

As if that wasn't bad enough, when I tried booting back into the SSD drive, windows couldn't start. I had though this process wouldn't modify my C: drive at all (it's just coping it), but apparently it did, so I had to have win7 go back to a restore point to get this running again.

Partition Wizard sucks.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Love Fritz Lang's Metropolis! One of the 100 Best All-Time Movies ever made!

Sorry I didn't get the connection...

So you're wanting to make an image or a clone of you're existing hard drive to another? Have you tried a disk imaging program such as Macrium Reflect Free or Acronis True Image Home?

Or try this one: EASEUS Todo Backup (this is free too).

Go here to download a copy: http://www.todo-backup.com/download/




Also Acronis True Image is a very good program for this purpose.

 

[SoManyMemberships]

Mirror my SSD for OS back-up

I'm looking to buy a new laptop and am trying to do something similar to what Rotwang describedhttps://www.w7forums.com/mirroring-os-partition-t9549.html#post127935, i.e. to keep a relatively up-to-date (daily) image of the O/S partition on the (240GB) SSD drive on the (1TB) HDD; however, I'm not sure that RAID mirroring is exactly what I should be using.

I seem to remember long ago, when hard drives were less reliable, that there were utilities that allowed you to mirror your drive to a network location in a background process so that you would have a real-time backup of your O/S & data. Haven't seen any of these lately, does anyone know of them?

I guess I have 2 questions:

1) Do SSD drives typically fail across a power-off/on cycle, or do they simply get corrupted while in use?

2) since it's been 1.5 years since the original post, has anyone come up with a better solution to Rotwang's problem?

It would also be interesting to know if Rotwang has ever tested or had to use his backup.

 

[GappT]

Same here. I believe that's the thing to do. Prior imaging I was into using EASEUS Partition Master Pro for copying hdd's but ran into booting issues also. Copying is logical drives not for booting. But if you prefer it see bottom.

Use Macrium Reflect Free or Acronis True Image Home freeware versions for Western Digital and Seagate drives. Paragon software also can do the job for you.

Acronis True Image Western Digital Edition

Seagate DiscWizard

Using Discwizard on ANY drive Solution:

When the “No Seagate/Maxtor drive detected error” screen appears, press and hold the “Alt” key, then type the two letters “to” (for tech override), then click the “OK” button. Then DiskWizard opens fine these directions are direct from the Seagate tech support forum. This also works with my Hitachi external drive.

Not required but it is a safe practice to create the optional rescue "bootable CD" so you have another bootable CD recovery option. Supposedly the CD is a much better way to restore a drive image although I have used both ways without issue. Bonus is you can restore mount the created image file which then shows up as another drive, then copy files/folders without having to restore the entire image.

LINK

[ame="[MEDIA=youtube]s6oYzpeXR7k[/MEDIA]"]DiscWizard cloning 1[/ame]

DiscWizard cloning 2

Macrium Reflect Free

Replacing a hard drive_using Macrium Free to clone to new drive

Paragon Backup and Recovery 2010 Free

Paragon Backup & Recovery 2012 Free

If you fancy EASEUS Partition Master Pro then visit link below. The download link at the bottom of the post is "still working". That's the Pro version for free!

HERE

Cloning a hard disc

 

[TrainableMan]

I had thought SoMany's post justified a new thread but now I see another post here so I have merged his post back in. Everyone please read over the thread, including the prior two posts and see if there is more to say or ask.

 

[jychan28]

1. Laptop or Desktop machine?
2. 60G SSD 2.5" removable or build-in laptop.

If 2nd case, backup an image of the drive and hope your SSD will last for some time (a few months? before you need to bang your head against a wall) and that is the best you can do, in my opinion.

That is one reason I don't want to buy a laptop with fixed SSD on motherboard and this Apple Air that I am using is the only exception. So I bought a 3 years Apple Care for about $400 bucks and at 6 months time, I already took it back to Apple Store and they gave me a new one and I lost a few days to put back the data and installed back the software.

In case 1, use a disk duplication software duplicate the partition out. Swap the drive, if you can boot the 1T drive, you are set. Don't try to boot the 1T drive without removing the SSD and putting 1T inside the machine. Microsoft will hire you and pay you to know how to boot the 1T drive outside the machine successfully.