How to Clone multiple Hard Drives into one

MintJulip · Mar 6, 2015

To all the Tech Savvy Guru on this site:
I have 3 separate internal HDD with 3 different Windows OS on my old HP desktop that is starting to fail. It has clicking sounds, high reallocated sector count, and hard to boot sometimes. One HDD totally failed.

I was able to successfully clone the 3 separate internal HDD with 3 separate OS and combine them into a new and single external HDD with 3 separate partitions. I was able to save all my data including the OS.

I then cloned the one external HDD with 3 separate OS into one internal HDD of the same size. I renamed the drive letters to match the old ones from the old HDD.

The problem is: when I plug the new internal HDD, the computer does not recognize it. However, when I plug it with one of my old HDD and press F9, the computer recognize the old disk and will launch from there. I can then open and browse the newly cloned HDD with 3 partitions and 3 OS with all the data.

Question: How can I make the computer recognize the newly created single Disk with 3 OS in 3 partitions? My friend suggested that I probably need to change the MBR, but I don’t even know what that is and where it is located. Please HELP.

Moonstick2 · Mar 6, 2015

The MBR is the Master Boot Record and basically holds the information the computer needs to boot from a hard disk. It sits in just 512 bytes outside of the partitions, so although you've cloned the OS and data, you've missed out the half-kilobyte that enables the PC to boot.

Have a read through of this. What I believe you'd need to do, from what you've described, is use Windows to reformat the new hard disk into three bootable (primary) partitions, one for each of the OS clones. Then when you've done that, you can clone each partition across from the external HDD, and then you should be able to boot from the internal HDD.

If you still run into problems, post up your system (including hard disks), the three OSs you're trying to clone, and what you're using to clone.

ArtPog · Mar 6, 2015

1. First of all we've got to assume that the internally-connected HDD containing the three OSs each in a separate partition are (potentially) bootable/functional OSs. Disk (partition)-cloning operations go awry from time-to-time so it's always conceivable that for one reason or another the cloned data may be dysfunctional. But we'll assume there's no problem there.

2. Connect that HDD as a secondary disk and access Disk Management. Ensure that the OS you desire to boot to has been selected by invoking the option "Mark Partition as Active".

3. Shut down the PC and (temporarily) disconnect the "old disk". Ensure that the HDD containing the three operating systems is connected to the first SATA connector on the motherboard (designated either SATA 0 or SATA 1).

4. Boot the system. Hopefully you should be able to boot to the OS that you marked as "Active". When you desire to boot to a different OS contained on that multi-partitioned HDD you will need to mark that partition "Active".

5. If all goes well you can subsequently connect the "old disk" as a secondary drive.

Moonstick2 · Mar 6, 2015

No no no - don't do the above!

Don't mark a partition as active if it doesn't contain the loader for an operating system. Doing so will cause your computer to stop working.

When you use the Windows Disk Management snap-in tool to mark your primary partition as active, the computer may not start up if the partition marked as active does not contain the Windows boot files (or boot files for another operating system)

ArtPog :

'Assuming' they're bootable when MintJulep can't boot from them and marking any of them as the active system partition is foolhardy, to say the least.

If the new HDD doesn't have primary partitions and an MBR, marking any of those partitions as the active system one isn't going to make the partition bootable.

ArtPog · Mar 6, 2015

Moonstick2 :

No no no - don't do the above!

Don't mark a partition as active if it doesn't contain the loader for an operating system. Doing so will cause your computer to stop working.

When you use the Windows Disk Management snap-in tool to mark your primary partition as active, the computer may not start up if the partition marked as active does not contain the Windows boot files (or boot files for another operating system)

MintJulip had indicated that he/she had been experiencing problems with (apparently) three separate HDDs - each one containing an OS. He referred to problems that seemed to relate to a possible defective HDD. His description of these problems is somewhat unclear since he refers to "it" as the disk having problems rather than all three of his drives.

First of all what I suggested to MintJulip was a possible solution to the problem he/she was experiencing based upon the assumption (call it a "possibility") that the three OSs cloned to the three separate partitions on the internally-connected HDD were indeed bootable and functional. I fully recognize this might not be the case but I thought my suggestion was worth a try in the event they are such. At this point there's no hard evidence to the contrary. It may well be that something else is awry here, including your surmise that the MBR has been corrupted. And a dozen other things besides!

Thus my suggestion that the user check the disk in DM to determine if one of the cloned OSs on the drive was marked Active and if not, so mark it. You might be interested to learn that we have run into this situation before with multiple OSs that have been cloned to a destination disk. For reasons still not clear to us none of the OSs were marked Active and the system balked at the boot. (As best as we could tell there had been no user intervention that caused an unmarking of Active).

In any event the actual time & effort the user would expend to follow this suggestion is miniscule and if it doesn't work to resolve the problem - because either one of the OSs has been marked Active or even if one is so marked the system will still not boot - so be it. No permanent harm will have been done other than wasting a trifling amount of time by MintJulep.

ArtPog :

'Assuming' they're bootable when MintJulep can't boot from them and marking any of them as the active system partition is foolhardy, to say the least.

If the new HDD doesn't have primary partitions and an MBR, marking any of those partitions as the active system one isn't going to make the partition bootable.

MintJulip · Mar 8, 2015

Thank you for the expert advice, and I really appreciate them, but computer still down.
Here is what I did in following ArtPog’s advice:
1.) Plug the New HDD (3OS with 3 separate partitions) into SATA-0 and plug the Old Disk with 1 OS into SATA-3. I then unplug the 2 other Old Disk.
2.) When the computer started there was a black screen with a message that Windows Failed to Start and the instruction was for me to insert installation disk, that the OS could not be loaded because of missing file. I restarted and activated the Old Disk OS by pressing Esc key for the Boot Menu.
3.) I opened DM and noticed that the New HDD with 3OS are all labeled “Logical Drive”. The Old Disk however is labeled (C

Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition).
4.) I right click one of the 3OS from the New HDD and selected “Mark Partition as Active”.
5.) I closed all, unplugged SATA-3 cable from the Old Disk and restarted. The black screen came up again labeled Windows Boot Manager, Windows failed to start, Insert installation disk and go to “repair computer”, 0xc000000f.“ The Boot Configuration Data is missing.”

Any ideas how I can proceed from here? Again, all suggestions are appreciated.

Moonstick2 · Mar 8, 2015

MintJulip :

That's because the old disk is a primary (and thus bootable) partition, and all the partitions on the new HDD are logical (and thus non-bootable).

MintJulip :

That's because all the partitions on the the new HDD are logical (and thus non-bootable), and marking any of them as Active doesn't help.

You can try a partition manager such as Easeus that says it can convert logical partitions to primary, and hopefully puts in the MBR as well.

SortNVF · Mar 8, 2015

You prolly need to run a windows repair disc on a clone (well if its windows anyways) before itll boot. This is common.
If that doesnt do it, well back to what they guys are saying.

MintJulip · Mar 8, 2015

SortNVF :

MintJulip · Mar 8, 2015

SortNVF has the best answer of putting a repair disk on a cloned partition with OS. It solved my problem right away. I am retired military with disability and you have made life easier for me (and others too). I salute you, and may you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.

Search

How to Clone multiple Hard Drives into one

MintJulip

Reputable

SortNVF

Moonstick2

Distinguished

ArtPog

Admirable

Moonstick2

Distinguished

ArtPog

Admirable

MintJulip

Reputable

Moonstick2

Distinguished

SortNVF

Reputable

MintJulip

Reputable

MintJulip

Reputable

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page