Windows 7 copied to new disk, does not start any longer

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Last response: January 17, 2013 1:11 PM in Windows 7

pinguin74

January 17, 2013 11:56:30 AM

Hello,

I copied my Windows 7 system to a new harddrive with the Linux dd command.

Now Windows 7 does not start from the new drive, I get "a disk read error occurred".

Then I bootet from a Windows 7 rescue CD and used these commands without success:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot

I even recovered the BCD with these commands:

Bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
Bootrec /rebuildbcd

I have no clue what else I could do now. The partition is marked active. The Windows 7 partition is readable from within Linux, I can see everything there. I ran chkdsk from the rescue CD with no success.

Do you have any hint for me?
Thanx

More about : windows copied disk start longer

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groundrat

January 17, 2013 12:15:10 PM

I assume you attempted to copy Win 7 to avoid paying for a new license.

We call that software piracy.

Reformat the hard drive and install Win 7 on the new disk, using a valid license code. MS goes to great lengths to keep people from doing what you attempted to do.

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mi1ez

Windows 7 Expert

January 17, 2013 12:30:50 PM

You need to properly image the whole disk rather than use dd. Close, but not good enough.

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getochkn

January 17, 2013 12:40:50 PM

@groundrat: That's a big, silly assumption to make. I just cloned my drive, because it was dying, to a new drive? Does that make me a pirate and forcing me to buy a new copy of windows, to clone a dying windows drive?

@mi1ez: you're correct, dd doesn't really do it for this purpose.

Go download EaseUS Home Backup software. It's free and will let you image a drive to another drive, even while you're in Windows. I plugged in my 2nd drive, ran the software, hour later it was done, shut down, took out my old drive, plugged the new drive into the old drives SATA cable and it booted.

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groundrat

January 17, 2013 12:47:51 PM

Standing down.

Thats not how we mass image drives and I 'm not a s good at linux as I should be.

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pinguin74

January 17, 2013 12:53:44 PM

groundrat said:

I assume you attempted to copy Win 7 to avoid paying for a new license.

We call that software piracy.

Bullshit, I installed a new, bigger harddrive and moved the system to it.

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Reply to pinguin74

pinguin74

January 17, 2013 12:55:51 PM

getochkn said:

@mi1ez: you're correct, dd doesn't really do it for this purpose.

What is wrong with using dd? It perfectly copies every bit on the drive...

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Reply to pinguin74

johnbl

January 17, 2013 1:11:01 PM

The read error is coming from the new drive anyway. Sounds like you dropped your data onto a bad/weak sector on your new drive. boot on another windows image and do a repair of the image on the new drive. (you might want to do a full format of the drive to remark all bad sectors to prevent problems in the future)