Windows 10: Does Macrium Free Do Disk Cloning?

I have two identical 1T seagate drives and I am trying to clone from one to the other.

One is the system disk with drives C: and E: on it - that's the source drive - and the other is a drive I've labelled 'J:' via Diskpart - that's the target drive.

Previous attempts to clone have all failed and the error message I get is that D: is inaccessible.

So I've processed the target drive through Diskpart, partitioning it, making it active, formatting it.
On repeats of this process I've even taken the time to do a slow format, that hasn't helped either.

And it still hasn't worked so I've done the Diskpart stuff again - had to, the drive was inaccessible from Explorer after the Macium abort - and run chkdsk which has reported no errors at all.

So then I've used Explorer to copy files across and it has all seemed to work fine.

So then I've tried the cloning again. And it has failed again.

Now the thing is - drive D: ? It reports drive D: as inaccessible. But why D:? There's no D: in my system.

Usually that would be the DVD writer. But not here now. My DVD drive is F:, I don't know why, but it is.

And I am trying to copy a disk that has drive letters C: and E: associated with it, only, not D:

To drive J:

But Macrium seems to get the wrong idea and then do something to screw things up so's I do have a drive D: and it is not accessible.

Is there something with Macrium that it can't handle 'out of normal order' drive letter sequences? Or does Macrium free not handle cloning?

I read the tutorial in these threads but it didn't seem to mention cloning unless I was too hurried and overlooked it.

My problem is a flaky drive C: - or that disk, meaning C: and E: - and I'd like to keep my whole system because there's much software installed.

So as a sort of second part to this question what best route for me to take in the interim if I can't get a successful clone from Macrium?


As I write it is copying the whole of the Documents folder, I'm doing it again.

:)

 

Disk Imaging

Hi, this is Rob again.

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Move Windows 10 to a different hard drive

Because Windows built-in imaging requires restoring to the exact same position on the replacement disk, many prefer using a 3rd party solution like the excellent free

Macrium Reflect is a Free and Easy To Use Backup Utility .

You can do this from the installed app although I'd still make the boot disk so you have rescue ability. It's as simple as dragging the source partition(s) to the space you've cleared on the target drive, fully automated as to moving the boot files. After
cloning/imaging just change the BIOS boot order to the new drive and it should start. Sometimes it does require booting into the Windows disk or Recovery Drive to run Startup Repair.

 

Macrium R free does support cloning: (see option bottom left)




If you run into difficulties, you can choose the forensic option via Advanced Options:




However, you say

If your source disk is failing in some way, usually attempting to create an image from it will fail with a CRC error. So I'm wondering what you mean by 'flaky'...

It is possible to have chkdsk pass yet the drive be failing.

To verify your source disk is ok, try e.g.
HDTune, Hard Disk Sentinel (trial).

Valid practice is to constantly maintain a disk image set, updated routinely, starting when the disk is good. Disk imaging is intended to protect you should your drive fail, be infected with ransomware, unexpected corruption.... not somehow allow you to image your disk usefully after the event.

 

Yes I know the option is there. That's the option I chose to begin the process that failed - numerous times.

The 'flaky' drive I have played up some time ago giving me constant errors on boot up requiring a disk check by Windows.

I have another thread on these forums where it is discussed. Someone gave me a clue on how to fix a major problem and I did that. And I was able to chkdsk and find and fix all bad sectors.

Since then it is running okay. But, of course, I do not trust it. The time is ripe to get a clone of it while it is still good.

Hence this query. What about the drive D: thing? Macrium is doing something funny or there's something funny, still, on my hard drive and I need a way to find out which and/or what.

 

Just an FYI - When cloning, its best to perform that operation while running under the Macriums Recovery Disk. If the OP is using the Recovery disk, than please dis-regard this post.

 

Aha... I am not doing that. But I did make the disk and I will try again, using it.

I did that explorer copy of 'Documents and Settings' over to this destination disk as a test. That's 180G. And it all copied fine. So it certainly looks to me like the destination drive is fine.

Thanks for the tip about DH Tune and Hard Disk Sentinel.