Replacing Hard Drive With Cloned Copy Of Windows 8.1
May 16, 2014
I am running Windows 8.1 and it appears that my hard drive needs to be replaced. When the machine is turned on, frequently there is a slight screech and I feel it's best to replace the hard drive.
How do I make an exact bootable copy of the hard drive on a new hard drive and simply replace the drive with the new drive without having to reinstall Windows 8.1 or other programs and without affecting any of the files currently on the machine? If cloning software is required, are there any free programs I can download?
My hard disk was always full (itunes/picasa filling it with multiple backups etc); so decided to upgrade to a whopping 1tb. I bought the HDD and a cradle; and have created a clone of all my files and settings onto the new monster using an application. I want to copy all my settings across - Virtual DJ takes best part of a day to configure for example.
Downside is, the new disk is not bootable; and I cannot make it bootable however I try.
I have made the partition active using "diskmanger"
I have gone to the drive and typed in admin mode in command prompt:
g: cd/boot bootsect g:
I have also tried:
Bcdedit /import C:BootBCD.
This hasn't worked, so tried this:
Bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=G:
TBH - don't really understand the commends, just trying everything I can!
I have just upgraded to 8 using my 7 settings on a couple of my machines. Is it possible to put back the original 7 SSD drive - clone it to a spare drive and then create the VM set up on that cloned drive using the upgraded drive? I would of course remove the original 7 drive and just use the clone.
I'll just get an OEM 8 to install if what I have cannot be done.
I have 2 identical HP i5 desktops running 8.1 which was updated from 8. I want to put a cloned drive from computer A in the other computer B so they will appear identical with all the apps etc. I am told that I will get a configuration error in computer B because the product key in BIOS won't match. Will the computer even run with this error to allow me to fix it? I am told to get a toolkit called the Microsoft toolkit which allows extraction and insertion of keys. I think that approach would let me make computer B product key be the same as A. But in doing this I would lose the valid key in computer B. I would like to change the product key in the cloned drive to be correct for computer B.
have Acronis 2013 Plus. What I am trying to do is image the disk of a Windows 7 machine (source) to a machine that had Windows 8 pre-installed (target - Gateway SX2110G).
I connected the Windows 7 drive to the new machine (USB data cable), disabled Secure Boot, and enabled Legacy. Booted to True Image and started the cloning of the drive. Everything seemed to go ok, but as soon as it starts to boot Windows 7, it gives a 7D BSOD. (the same BSOD it gives when I simply plug the source hard drive into the target and try to boot from it).
The source HDD (win 7) boots fine in its original machine.
*I tried the startup repair that's included with the image.. does it matter if I use the one from a disc instead?
I have attached the Windows 8 hard disk from my broken laptop to my external usb hard disk device and windows 8 say format the disk as it does not recognise the file system how do I get around this.
It always fails to Clone/copy my current hard that has bad sectors, to a new hard disk. My present HDD is a 320GB and its health is really bad. I bought a new 500 hard disk and tried to clone and copy the whole HDD. I tried Paragon HDD Manager, O&O disk image and other two Software. All of them failed to clone or copy my old hard disk to new one.
What is the best solution. Paragon, copied data partially and gave an error at 80%. I tried few times and the same thing happened
1 is 55gb kingston ssd where i run my windows 2 is 1tb hitachi where i keep my games and other junk 3 is seagates 250gb laptop hdd.
The main problem was that sometimes when opening or just clicking some folders freezes the file explorer and it crashes after it, so i tought to format the second hdd to make it work better now it seems work ok except for moving files from hdd to another.
When copying the copy speed just at random point drops to 0% and leaves the hdd 3 to hang 100% and the hdd 2 is dropping to 0%. What i have tried:
I ran hdd regenerator and 18 bad sectors were fixed Also tried to change sata ports That's not much but can't figure anythin else for now and i am starting to suspect that my hdd is gone bad :/ also when downloading ~100mb file from internet it makes same thing but i don't know is it same problem...
I have an ASUS RT-AC68U router with 9 DBI dual band antennas. I need a program that allows me to copy and paste files to the external hard drives which are connected to the router's USB ports. An example of the application I am seeking is called "Silex Virtual Link", I need one like this, I used to use this 1 on my old D-Link DIR-825 router but it is not working with my new ASUS router and ASUS tech support couldn't solve anything.
I found that my two Windows 8.1 laptops will not copy the entire contents of any folder to my Iomega network drive. Only the folder alone is copied and none of the sub-folders or individual files. I can copy individual files separately, but not the whole folder sub-folder, and files together. I have no problem doing this with my Windows 7 desktop PCs. My network drive is connected directly to my Apple Airport Base Station router.
Ok, I'm up the wall on this, I'm trying to get a copy of Windows to install on a flash drive and boot from BIOS, but there's almost now way of doing so.
I remembered that Windows 8 7850 build had or has a feature called Portable Workspace where Windows will install onto a flash drive so you can take it to any puter you please. That's great and all, but where in the blue hell is it?! :stomp: It's like it's not there. Do I need something special to do something to it or what?
I just cloned my HDD which had windows 8 pre installed on it to a new HDD. The cloning process went great the only problem i am having is that the newly cloned HDD can not boot on its own. I would like to know If there is anything I can do to change the new HDD to be the boot drive.
I'm booting off my SSD which is drive C: and I have games and programs on an extra hard drive which was origanally drive H: but after a restart it switched to I: and when I go into Disk Management to change it Drive H: isn't there.
I have a 2TB Western Digital My Book Essentials, it's filled with tons of old photos, movies, docs, games, and I'm scared to think of what else. The SATA to USB connector broke on it, so I took the drive apart and put it inside my computer. I opened up device manager because it wasn't showing up automatically and the 2TB is showing up as unallocated, I'm freaking out now because I'm scared the data was somehow deleted.What do I do?
edit: I realize also this isn't directly related to Windows 8 (besides the fact it's the OS I'm on), but I don't know where else to post it. I'd also like to say that I had a really deep feeling the drive was going to break continually for about two weeks before it happened, so if you have a similar feeling about something, don't ignore it!
Got Win8 Pro Retail genuine installed and have a multi partitioned PC.
I am Administrator, and I have UIC set to its lowest possible setting.
I cannot copy any files to the C: Drive (root)... every time I get an error message and it will not let me do anything with the root.
So, I ran gpedit.msc and did these steps..
1. Run gpedit.msc, navigate and browse to Computer Configuration--Windows Settings--Security Settings--Local Policies--Security Options 2. Set policy User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators - Elevate without prompting 3. Set policy User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation - Disabled 4. Set policy User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode - Disabled
OK, now perfect - I have full control of the root drive again... But this sparked another major issue with the 'modern apps' (metro)...
All modern/metro apps will now NOT RUN because they want UIC turned on (as in change those settings back I just tweaked).....
As soon as I turn UIC back on.... metro apps work - and I am blocked from my root drive again.
I know there is good software out there to clone/image my hard drive and restore it to a new SSD drive. I'm just wondering though, since my laptop is brand new, I made a full recovery to a USB drive and included the OEM recovery partition.
Couldn't I just swap out the old HDD with the new SSD and boot with the recovery stick and do a full recovery back to the new SSD?
Also, however I do this, recover or image backup/restore, do I need to do some type of SSD alignment? I can't find a clear answer on that.
I need to replace a file in windowssystem32en-us and it gives me a deny file to be copied how can I do this so I can copy a file or replace a file. how to gain access.
When booting, the PC instantly moves into 'preparing automatic recover', then 'diagnosing your PC', then a 3rd line flashes briefly (it's so fast that I can't read it). After that, the PC reboots and goes through the same 3 steps, over and over and over.
I attempted to get the PC to boot from a LiveCD, just to see if I could get *anything* to work. The PC refuses to load it (I've tested 2 different distros on another, working PC -- they work just fine). I tried unplugging the HDD and booting from the CD. The PC just tells me to replace the boot media and try again. Yes, I've changed the PC boot options in the BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD drive first. I've enabled the boot menu -- the only option available is to boot from the hard drive.
I don't have much experience with Windows 8, and I'm at a complete loss of what to try next. I've spent quite a bit of time searching for a solution, and most people have my (or similar) symptoms, but nobody has a solution except to boot from the Windows 8 CD and repair. Unfortunately, the recovery CDs were never created. Sadly, he bought it from walmart, and didn't buy an extended warranty. Apparently the base warrenty is a pathetic 14 days (seriously? 14 days? complete BS).
I created the system backup (bit copy) in my Win 8.1 Pro and saved it to my internal HDD.
It is possible to move it now to another drive (e.g. to NAS)?
I try to do this manually, but even though I can open the folder "WindowsImageBackup" and I see several saved files in included folders I cannot manipulate with them.
It's about the ASUS Transformer AIO. It runs in Desktop-Mode with Windows, in Remote Desktop-Mode with Windows and in Tablet-Mode with Android. Is it somehow possible on the tablet (32 GB eMMC flash memory) to delete Android and install Windows?
I got an HP laptop last year pre-installed with Windows 8 and I want to install a new HDD. How do I go about doing this and not losing any files? So far all I know to do is to create a system disc from the recovery manager, and then a recovery file on an external drive. Does this cover personal files or do I need to back those up separately?
I am new to Windows 8, and first time with a laptop. I have 1tb hard drive (minus a few gb) in c drive. d drive is being used as recovery
This is how it was setup. What I would like to do is to partition the amount of space i have from c drive into another drive.
Can manage to partition some hard drive space over to another driver letter, if i do a fresh install of windows, will this new drive be formatted too?
(Just asking this because when I owned a desktop computer, I had two drives. A c-drive and a d-drive. When I re-installed windows 7 on the desktop, all my files were still available on the d-drive, hence asking the above last question).
A few months ago my laptop broke and it needed repairs. The HDD was replaced and i got my laptop back with one new HDD inside and one "broke" HDD in a bag. Later the "Repaired" Laptop crashed again so i bought a new one and took the HDD out of the old laptop. I bought a HDD case with USB connection and both of the HDD's where intact. The oldest HDD contained windows 7 and the replaced contained windows 8. Now i want to sell the Windows 8 HDD so i want it to be clean of personal files but i want it to keep windows 8. I thought the solution was to run the windows 8 on the HDD so i can use the program deletation program of that windows 8. The problem is i dont know how to run windows 8 of a hard drive. I have searched the internet but with no success.
My wife just got a new PC running Windows 8.1 Pro and she wants to re-connect her external hard drive that has all her game files on it to the new PC.
While the new PC recognizes the drive it states that it needs to be initialized , doing so would wipe the data currently on the drive which would be unacceptable. How to get the new PC to recognize this drive and its data?
I started a thread a while ago and You Fellas diagnosed the problem was the faulty RAM. So I bought and replaced using 2 other slot of memory that wasn't used before (i have 4 slots). It took some time, but sadly it started crashing again. 4 dmps and routine stuff attached. It happens usually in games but it happens sometimes in desktop so its random for me. What component or anything else is corrupted.
I have just tried to Refresh my Windows 8.1 installation, but when running the refresh Windows 8.1 came up with an error I have not seen before, let alone do the refresh.
It displayed a message saying "The Drive is Locked, you will have to unlock the drive to continue" so HOW do you unlock a Hard Drive?
How to do this before I either pull my hair out, or start from scratch and re-format the drive and do a complete new install of Windows 8.1
One thing I have done about a week ago which may be causing this problem is I converted the Drive from MBR to GPT and if this has locked the drive.
I have just bought a 4TB external USB 3.0 hard drive. The plan is to copy all of the data from my current internal 2TB drive to the 4TB, then I'm going to crack the case of the external hard drive open, take the drive out, and put it in my PC to replace the 2TB drive that's in there now (which I know will void the warranty). This isn't going to be a boot drive as I have an SSD for that.
I had read that Windows does not support large drives of this size and that it would show up as 2 partitions, so I was prepared to convert the drive to GPT in order to have 1 large partition. However, I connected the drive up to my Windows 8.1 machine and it shows as 1 large partition of 3.63TB, which is about what I expected.
Does this mean I don't have to convert the drive after all? Can I do what I'm planning to do and everything will work fine? Or do I need to convert it to GPT before I copy all of my data over and if so, how do I do that exactly?
My pc got stuck on a black screen after i restart it one time. When it finally lets me log in after turning the computer on and off manually, all of my programs were deleted, i couldn't access my computer's hard drive(?)(c:windows) , and i couldn't access system restore (or msconfig / any of the advance system tools). Any other way to do a full system restore without any of the pre mentioned options?
I have recently purchased and new computer with Windows 8. It's running smoothly, however I am encountering one particular problem.
My primary boot device is a 128GB SSD and obviously I want that space for the operating system install and some essential programs (photoshop, fireworks etc.).
My secondary device is a standard 1TB HDD. This is what I want to be my storage space for files, documents and non-essential programs.
The problem - Whenever I try to install a program to my second drive it comes up with the following error
"Error Writing to D:lahblahlahlah.xml. Verify that you have access to that directory"
I have check my permissions in the security tab and made sure that all the right check boxes are clicked. I have made sure to run the program as administrator and I've check to make sure that the directory is not set to 'read only'.
I successfully managed to create a virtual hard drive on my external drive to try boot windows 8 off it. I managed to boot it up and the login screen also appears as normal. I have a successful login, But on the second time login I am faced with black screen and the cursor. I'm aware that Microsoft has released a fix for this. I have attached the executable in the zip. I tried running this fix but it didn't work . After the black screen appears, even in safe mode I cannot run explorer.exe or open any folder to try running any executable files
