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[Solved] XXClone drive copying data

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Best answer from jitpublisher.

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compdude61   10-30-2009 at 11:56:33 AM

Morning to you all.
I thought i'd ask some of you about a procedure i'm trying to attemt & having no sucess at doing so.
I have a Emachine W3080 where a long while back I used XXClone to copy WXP Home to a XXCllone existing drive & it was a 80 gb Seagate Barrcuda 7200.7 drive.
The one in it now is the XXClone bootable drive.
I took the XXClone Target drive out for the time being to keep for safe keeping in case the system went down.
Now for the last week & a half my wife complained that the WXP was running rather slow so I went & cleaned the c: drive & partictioned it.
I then opened it up & it was real dirty inside so I cleaned it.
Now heres the catch:
When I went to boot it back up it would not boot to WXP.
Said something like C: drive not found. (something to that effect). No BSOD
I then took it & plugged it into my external USB transfer powered cable on my other Emachine & it found the C: Partition & I could see all her docs & settings.
Stupid me! I didn't go ahead & copy all her stuff to a file on my system.
Just wanted to see if I could merely boot it with the USB cable.
I went ahead & unlpugged it & set it aside for the time being.
The problem i'm having now is when I went to plug it back in to her Emachine it would not recognize it from the system tray with the external powered USB cable.
The harddrive is the XXClone bootable drive & not the Target drive.
The drive makes some small clicking sounds but not all the time & it bumps a bit & the lite on the adaptor flickers & stays on at times.
I'm thinking the drive is ok but has something to do with the XXClone software not letting me access it.
I did some searching & found I might have to use some sort of software to try to get her files back but I am at a standstill for now.
It was the freeware XXClone version so I cannot get any support from them.
Thought maybe someone here might have run into this type of problem before & help me out.
Please ask me anything you like if i've left anything out about explaining my problem.
My wife needs her data back real bad.
I did try the freezer effect but did not help.
I do believe the drive is a problem with the XXClone & not a mechanical problem with the drive.
Thanks for any support you might give me.
David

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Best answer from jitpublisher
I did not read all of this, but let me toss this out and see if it helps any at all.
When you clone a drive, you cannot make both the drives bootable. It does not work that way. You must specify if you are cloning or mirroring the image to another drive to be used as a boot drive, or a backup. Very basically, the mirroring software will only put the boot sector of the drive on 1 disk or the other. Not both.
That would give you 2 individual fully functional independant working copies of the same software (Windows) which is illegal.
Now, if you have both disks in the machine, either one will boot as the motherboard will find the boot sector, (as long as both drives actually work and do not have physical problem) and the boot sector does not have to necessarily be on the same drive you are booting too! If you take the drive out of the system that has the boot sector on it, the other drive will not boot. You will get the no bootable device error.
Many people try to do this, make an exact mirror of their OS drive, take it out and set it aside thinking if their drive fails, they can just stick the mirrored one in an presto.....back to normal.
Don't know if this is your malady, or even close, but it does sound like this is what you have tried to do....it won't work quite like you may have thought it would

But you should be able to do a repair install.
Insert the XP disk, boot to it and start a new install.
When it asks if you want the recovery console or new install, choose new install.
Windows setup will start, and will find your drive with your current install of Windows on it.
It will ask you again if you want to do a new install, or repair the current XP installation.
Now choose repair.
It will run just as if it is doing a complete reinstall, but all your programs and files will remain intact and untouched.
This procdure will wipe out all your installed secondary hardware drivers, like your video card and motherboard drivers, so you will have to reinstall them as well. It will also wipe out your entire history of security updates from the Windows update site, so all of that will start downloading and have to reinstall.
But it will leave everything else just as it is.
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shadow703793   10-31-2009 at 01:21:36 AM

1. Do you have back ups of the data?

2. Does it still work on your PC? (As in can you access the USB drive on your PC? )

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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3553/3818083596_1a772f7162_o.gif
 Reply to shadow703793
compdude61   10-31-2009 at 11:13:17 AM

No! As a matter of fact!
Even when I plug to usb & reboot, the system hangs untill I unplug the usb & then it goes ahead & boots.
The same way if the systems already up & running.
It hangs up when trying to run apps & such.
That's why I know Window's is trying to recognize the XXClone drive but can't because of a conflict with the drive's & it's operating system.
It's just all so confusing when I try to reconsile the behavior of it & read about things that go wrong with a cloned drives & cannot get the data back.
My wife does not have alot of valuble data on it cause she is on Yahoo 360 Multiply all the time & does not save much.
Just her favorites.
They all consist of her friends she saved so she wouldn't forget them.
I have all the pics & such saved but only ones from a while back.
Don't do a regular scheduled backup on hers cause she's always on it day & nite.
I've read things on the net about software that can retrieve data from a cloned corrupt drive.
Like I mentioned earlier, the system would not boot with the drive on the master inside the pc.
Only hdd in the system.
Have the other target hdd put up somewhere.
Kinda confused though about target & bootable drives in XXClone.
I may have it backwards.
I assume the bootable drive is the one thats in the system now.
Or at least was before.
Now I'm just trying to figure out why it can't be recognized it in Disk Management.
I will stick with it till the end, no matter what.
I've had drives before that just went south from mechanical failure & know what they can sound like.
The drive is definately spinning up but bumps at times & clicks very little.
The system hanging with it hooked up is what's got me.
When I just have the 4 pin plugged in it just spins normally.
It's when I plug it into the sytem inside or to a usb is when it starts acting up.
I was using the bootable floppy disk too with the computer it belonged in.
Maybe I need to install XXClone on my other system & see what happens.
I know I have to be careful & not lose my data hdd on my master side.
I repair systems mostly but never run into trying to figure out a cloned drive & what they can do when something goes wrong.
I'm through now.
Sorry for all the mumbo jumbo.
I'll bet theres not too many out there that run into this type of problem & can't fix it.
Thanks!
David

Reply to compdude61
jitpublisher   10-31-2009 at 03:52:01 PM
Best answer

I did not read all of this, but let me toss this out and see if it helps any at all.
When you clone a drive, you cannot make both the drives bootable. It does not work that way. You must specify if you are cloning or mirroring the image to another drive to be used as a boot drive, or a backup. Very basically, the mirroring software will only put the boot sector of the drive on 1 disk or the other. Not both.
That would give you 2 individual fully functional independant working copies of the same software (Windows) which is illegal.
Now, if you have both disks in the machine, either one will boot as the motherboard will find the boot sector, (as long as both drives actually work and do not have physical problem) and the boot sector does not have to necessarily be on the same drive you are booting too! If you take the drive out of the system that has the boot sector on it, the other drive will not boot. You will get the no bootable device error.
Many people try to do this, make an exact mirror of their OS drive, take it out and set it aside thinking if their drive fails, they can just stick the mirrored one in an presto.....back to normal.
Don't know if this is your malady, or even close, but it does sound like this is what you have tried to do....it won't work quite like you may have thought it would

But you should be able to do a repair install.
Insert the XP disk, boot to it and start a new install.
When it asks if you want the recovery console or new install, choose new install.
Windows setup will start, and will find your drive with your current install of Windows on it.
It will ask you again if you want to do a new install, or repair the current XP installation.
Now choose repair.
It will run just as if it is doing a complete reinstall, but all your programs and files will remain intact and untouched.
This procdure will wipe out all your installed secondary hardware drivers, like your video card and motherboard drivers, so you will have to reinstall them as well. It will also wipe out your entire history of security updates from the Windows update site, so all of that will start downloading and have to reinstall.
But it will leave everything else just as it is.


Message edited by jitpublisher on 10-31-2009 at 04:10:12 PM
Reply to jitpublisher
compdude61   10-31-2009 at 04:12:59 PM

Thanks for that reply!
I did some digging on XXClone site & found which may work is to make a bootable floopy from the XXClone software I created on my other machine for now & plug in the hdd (making it external) from my wifes machine & reboot & go into the bio's at the bootable drive options & see if that will work.
It says something to that nature in the bootable section of XXClone tips.
Like I mentioned, I will keep digging till I get it up so I can transfer docs & favorites to my hdd.
My first time doing this.
Both WXP copies are Genuine.
One which was in her machine is WXP Home SP3 & mine is WXPPro SP3.
I'll spend all weekend trying to get it to work or else just Format it & reinstall.
Thaks again!
David

Reply to compdude61
compdude61   11-01-2009 at 02:44:55 PM

I think I found my problem.
When I inserted the blank floppy & tried to do a MSDOS startup disk it made WXP Pro lock up.
When I did a cold boot which that was my only alternative it still was a little unstable.
Apps seem to go alittle slower than usual.
The floppy drive showed ok in Device Manager, so I knew that was not my problem.
Did a system restore but that did not help.
Used my Advanced System Care software & performed all the tools & it seemed to help.
It also had 5 Malware detections on it & used my Avira scan to delete it.
It had something to do with the XXCloned hdd from my wifes computer, had messed up the registry on my system somehow.
XXClone when installed copys the bio's to her machine & caused it to lock up on mine since it did not see the correct bio's configurations.
All I wanted to do is try to copy all her docs & settings to my system.
You would think there was some sort of software out there that would perform my tasks so I could copy it.
I'll never use that XXClone software again.
Unless I purchase the Pro Version.
You can't get support for the Freeware version.
Did some Googling & that helped me find what I needed to get it right.
Thanks!
David


Message edited by compdude61 on 11-01-2009 at 02:49:09 PM
Reply to compdude61
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