how to copy a partition to a new drive and make bootable ?

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by airmouse, Oct 24, 2013.

  1. airmouse

    airmouse MDL Novice

    Oct 15, 2013
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    Hi,
    I have a dual boot PC with 2 partitions
    C:\ win 7 64
    D:\ win 7 32

    There is no System reserved partition so I think the "windows boot loader"
    is on the first partition (win 7 64)

    I want to copy the win 7 32 partition to a new hard drive with acronis boot CD
    but I suspect this will not be bootable ?

    Is there a way to copy just the win 7 32 bit partition to a new drive and make
    the PC boot from this ?

    Thanks
     
  2. PhaseDoubt

    PhaseDoubt MDL Expert

    Dec 24, 2011
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    #2 PhaseDoubt, Oct 24, 2013
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2013
    The times I've used Acronis True Image Home 2010 (bootable CD) to image a drive, it's always worked. Why not just try it and see? You can always wipe the new drive and get back to a blank slate if it doesn't do what you want.

    It's been a while since I used ATIH but I think you can choose the partitions you want to image. If you have to activate the new installation, that's a no-brainer.
     
  3. peternow

    peternow MDL Novice

    Oct 24, 2013
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    I think you have to make an image first with a GParted live CD.
    Then install the partition with Acronis to make it work on your new PC and/or disk.

    Hope this helps ^^
     
  4. PhaseDoubt

    PhaseDoubt MDL Expert

    Dec 24, 2011
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    #4 PhaseDoubt, Oct 24, 2013
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2013
    GPartEd will create partitions on a drive. That's what it is: Gnome Partition Editor. Once you create the partition with GPartEd, you can restore an image made with imaging software. Acronis True Image is one such software package; there are others including the one built into Windows Vista, 7 and 8.

    Later versions of GPartEd may include imaging software. I haven't kept up with its development for several years.
     
  5. airmouse

    airmouse MDL Novice

    Oct 15, 2013
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    Ok here's a summary of what I've done so far

    1. Grab YUMI from pendrivelinux
    2. Install YUMI to my usb and "try unlisted ISO" : browse to acronis-2013-16-6514.iso
    3. Boot PC, press F12, select USB to boot acronis
    4. Do backup of win 7 32 bit 30GB partition to usb drive

    Results: 30GB partition (of which 15 GB was used) backed up to a nicely compressed
    4.7GB .tib file

    Impressed with the speed: just 2 minutes 4 seconds (count 'em!)
    for acronis to do its thing :smokecowboy:!

    Next step is to try and get that backup onto a new drive and boot it.
     
  6. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    if it dont boot.. its easy litteraly easybcd 2.2 from neosmart.net
    add second and done. (might have to select drive)

    altho win7 repair startup should detect second windows drive
     
  7. Mr Jinje

    Mr Jinje MDL Expert

    Aug 19, 2009
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    #7 Mr Jinje, Oct 25, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
  8. airmouse

    airmouse MDL Novice

    Oct 15, 2013
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    Can't get the thing to boot:(

    Here's what I did:

    Put new drive in PC (removed original for safety)
    Booted into acronis then:
    add new disk
    create active partition
    recover disk
    ticked just the NTFS partition (not MBR and track 0)
    select my new disk as partition location

    reboot and get error:
    "MBR Error 3"

    so booted back into acronis and tried recover disk again but this time
    ticked "NTFS partition" and "MBR and track 0"

    reboot and get error:
    "Bootmgr is missing"

    boot from win 7 DVD, and let it do a startup repair, finds probs and fixes them
    but on reboot same error "Bootmgr is missing"

    boot from win 7 DVD and enter those 3 commands Mr Jinje above
    same error "Bootmgr is missing"

    boot from win 7 DVD and enter all 4 commands Mr Jinje above
    the all say success

    reboot but still get error:
    "Bootmgr is missing"

    not sure what I've done wrong ? :mad:
     
  9. empireum

    empireum MDL Junior Member

    Oct 25, 2013
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    Try some programs, like GParted.
     
  10. LatinMcG

    LatinMcG Bios Borker

    Feb 27, 2011
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    primary sata port 0 disk is the boot (folder)
    rest just boot from that so if youre trying to fix the bootsector of another hdd
    whats the point.. main disk boots those second disks.

    is the disk 4k sectors ? might have advanced format
     
  11. airmouse

    airmouse MDL Novice

    Oct 15, 2013
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    Ok so I did a bit of reading about all this boot stuff. Here's what I found out:
    Windows 7 uses a "BCD store" to boot from. Often this is located on a small 100MB hidden partition which is always the first on the disk.
    In my case I did not have this partition: my first partition had win 7 64 and my second partition had win 7 32.
    For me the
    bootmgr hidden file and the boot folder which contains the BCD file were on the first partition.
    I backed up the second partition and restored this to a new disk so my new disk did not get the BCD store.
    I would have hoped acronis would have sorted this out but obviously not. So the fix must be to recreate the BCD store


    Useful sites I came across include
    MS kb 927392
    pcsupport.about.com "How To Fix BOOTMGR is Missing Errors"
    pcsupport.about.com "Master Boot Record (MBR)"
    www pagestart com "How to Dual Boot Windows 7 32-Bit with Windows 7 64-Bit"

    Also on the acronis forums people have had success with the command
    bcdboot.exe C:\Windows /s C:

    Was going to try using bcdedit and/or bcdboot but thought I'd let windows do one
    last "system repair" first.

    And what do you know it booted up ok! There are quite a few posts with people
    saying "system repair" needs to be run 3 times!!!

    Hope this helps someone else :)