Is it possible to clone two different 200Gb drives onto one 1.5Tb drive (Windows/PC)?
- Thread starter roccod
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WyomingKnott
Legenda in Aeternum
- Aug 29, 2006
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My best answer is "No." You can't clone two drives to one because you will only get the boot sector from one, and one will overwrite the other.
If one of the drives is bootable and the other is not, you can clone the bootable one to the new drive and copy the non-bootable somewhere else on the drive. Can you provide more detail on what's on the source drives and how you want to use it on the target drive? It could be as simple as copying files.
If one of the drives is bootable and the other is not, you can clone the bootable one to the new drive and copy the non-bootable somewhere else on the drive. Can you provide more detail on what's on the source drives and how you want to use it on the target drive? It could be as simple as copying files.
Thanks,
I have two boot-able laptop drives that I want to clone, I thought it was possible to partition the new Tb drive and clone the two old ones, one on each partition. Guess my best bet is spring for a second new external drive? I want clones, not just the files.
Related question- let's say I am running Matlab on the old drive, will it run on the cloned drive?
I have two boot-able laptop drives that I want to clone, I thought it was possible to partition the new Tb drive and clone the two old ones, one on each partition. Guess my best bet is spring for a second new external drive? I want clones, not just the files.
Related question- let's say I am running Matlab on the old drive, will it run on the cloned drive?
Thanks Wolf,
That's kind of where I was going with this. I'm not tech-y enough to know better, but I would think you could partition a Tb into two virtual volumes, and clone to them independently. WK' seems to disagree. It does sound too easy!
Rocco
That's kind of where I was going with this. I'm not tech-y enough to know better, but I would think you could partition a Tb into two virtual volumes, and clone to them independently. WK' seems to disagree. It does sound too easy!
Rocco
skit75
Splendid
- Oct 7, 2008
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It is possible to clone both of those on one drive. Acronis can most certainly do that. Like WyomingKnott said though, only one will be bootable. Acronis will let you create and even re-size existing partitions to use the rest of a bigger volume and has compression backup utilities. Acronis is not the only software that can manipulate drive partitions.
WyomingKnott
Legenda in Aeternum
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What OS is on each of the two drives? You can clone the drive with the most recent version of Windows, copy the other drive to a new partition, and edit the boot table (depends on Windows version) to give you a choice of which OS to boot.
You start with two boot segments and two corresponding OS partitions. You end up with one boot segment, two OS partitions, and a boot menu to pick which OS instance you want to run. Sharing files between the two OS instances is tricky because neither one can read the other's security information unless you make everything full control to everyone.
You start with two boot segments and two corresponding OS partitions. You end up with one boot segment, two OS partitions, and a boot menu to pick which OS instance you want to run. Sharing files between the two OS instances is tricky because neither one can read the other's security information unless you make everything full control to everyone.
One is XP, the other is 7. When you say "copy the other drive to a new partition" do you mean clone the other drive to a new partition, or copy it to one large (image) file?
I think I follow the rest. If I do what you outlined, when I boot up, the boot menu will prompt me which OS('drive') to boot from , just as if you left a bootable disk in the drive on accident. Correct?
I think I follow the rest. If I do what you outlined, when I boot up, the boot menu will prompt me which OS('drive') to boot from , just as if you left a bootable disk in the drive on accident. Correct?
WyomingKnott, et al.,
I did some more digging, the answer is in this thread but there is some debate:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/293747-32-clone-backup-multiple-computers-hard-drives-single-external
I used Macrium Reflect Free to *clone* one of the drives successfully. Now I have 1tb left on the drive with the clone on it.
Is there a way to clone another drive to the Tb drive without overwriting the 1st clone?
I did some more digging, the answer is in this thread but there is some debate:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/293747-32-clone-backup-multiple-computers-hard-drives-single-external
I used Macrium Reflect Free to *clone* one of the drives successfully. Now I have 1tb left on the drive with the clone on it.
Is there a way to clone another drive to the Tb drive without overwriting the 1st clone?
WyomingKnott
Legenda in Aeternum
- Aug 29, 2006
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Nope. But the only difference is the boot sector. I would
1) Wipe the target drive. Decide how you want to allocate the space on it: X GB for your Windows 7 clone, allowing for future growth, Y GB for the XP clone, and possibly Z GB for a third partition for data only.
2) Clone the Windows 7 drive to the target drive. If the clone process allows you to size the target partition, adjust it now. If not, do this after the fact with the drive manager. We can provide help.
3) Make partitions Y and potentially Z, using the drive manager in your now-bootable Windows 7 instance.
4) Copy the XP drive to partition Y. This should probably be done via an image backup, so that the file permissions will stay stable. If you just copy using your booted Win7 instance, I'm not sure what will happen to file permissions.
5) Use EasyBCD or BCDEdit to edit the boot table for Windows 7. Add your XP instance to the menu. You will now have a boot menu that will allow you to boot Windows 7 or XP from the big drive.
6) Put the old drives in a drawer for backup. If you leave them attached to the machine, it may try to boot from them - all three drives are bootable.
Thassit. The big issue is that one copy has to be a DISK clone, to get the boot sector. The second had to clone only the PARTITION, and leave the non-partition parts of the target disk, like the boot sector, alone. Then patch the BCD data and you will be able to boot either OS.
I have used this technique to dual-boot Win7 and DOS.
1) Wipe the target drive. Decide how you want to allocate the space on it: X GB for your Windows 7 clone, allowing for future growth, Y GB for the XP clone, and possibly Z GB for a third partition for data only.
2) Clone the Windows 7 drive to the target drive. If the clone process allows you to size the target partition, adjust it now. If not, do this after the fact with the drive manager. We can provide help.
3) Make partitions Y and potentially Z, using the drive manager in your now-bootable Windows 7 instance.
4) Copy the XP drive to partition Y. This should probably be done via an image backup, so that the file permissions will stay stable. If you just copy using your booted Win7 instance, I'm not sure what will happen to file permissions.
5) Use EasyBCD or BCDEdit to edit the boot table for Windows 7. Add your XP instance to the menu. You will now have a boot menu that will allow you to boot Windows 7 or XP from the big drive.
6) Put the old drives in a drawer for backup. If you leave them attached to the machine, it may try to boot from them - all three drives are bootable.
Thassit. The big issue is that one copy has to be a DISK clone, to get the boot sector. The second had to clone only the PARTITION, and leave the non-partition parts of the target disk, like the boot sector, alone. Then patch the BCD data and you will be able to boot either OS.
I have used this technique to dual-boot Win7 and DOS.
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