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Old June 5th 21, 06:56 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default O.T. Missing Folder/files

Robert in CA wrote:
I was thinking the external Mrimg hd works because it
was created before I changed the battery and the
present external hd' s don't work because they were
created after I installed the battery although I still can't
believe that would cause all this. If so, Dell must have
known this would happen and is a serious design flaw.
Is Windows not genuine still an issue? If so we may need
to follow the directions step by step in the link you gave.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...genuine-issues


If the disk behaves in an even-less-satisfactory manner (instead
of Not Genuine, it freezes), then it might have to be cloned again.
There's no reason to panic just yet. The administrator "slui"
experiment awaits...


As it stands I have the 1TB hd working and #3hd was also
working. So I have at least (1) backup hd for the 8500. I
haven't tested the 780 clones other than booting them after
cloning until the desktop appeared. So I'm assuming they are OK.

The 3rd picture is the 1TB hd in the 8500 with the 2TB Western
Digital external hd connected to it via USB cord with the 8500
Mrimgs on it. I don't know whether they are GPT disks or not
but there's not a thing wrong with either of these two hd's.


I'm just looking at the declaration of Active, and where the
Active is on the original disk. If you're not trying to boot
from the drive, you might not notice.


Speaking of folder/files I expected the partitions to copy exactly
and that I wouldn't have to resize them. That's why I didn't do it.
So I'm wondering if the 780 clones also have the 900GB of unused
space and I wonder if that could be somehow related to its not
connecting?


No, whether the C: is resized or is left at original size,
does not affect connecting.


Before we start any procedure just which hd are we talking about
doing this to? #4 ? which didn't even finish the Rescue CD because
there was no OS and it wouldn't let me enter one and I had to
emergency power off ? I don't like messing around with the 8500
and doing these emergency power off's when I have no other way
to shut it off. Its not worth the risk of permanent damage to the
8500. One of these times I won't be able to get it back.


If the bottom item is #4, then the "strictly off-putting response"
of Macrium, must be answered somehow. And my recommendation, if the
bottom item is #4, is to move the Active. But when I do stuff like
this, repair disks, I also inspect the contents, and it's a lot
harder for me to write up procedures for this. There is a tool called
TestDisk. that can display content even on "hidden" 0x27 partitions
and can also display the content of the ESP partition on a GPT disk.
But the GUI interface is quite annoying.

And I don't really have a good inventory application either. That's
on my TODO list, is re-inventory all my disk drives, and I can't do that
until I get a suitably automated program to help out.


So lets be clear on which hd your speaking of and I want a way to
shut it down without me having to press the power button or powering
off the surge protector because I'm in a loop or there no other way
to turn it off.

Robert


It could be #4.

Remember, what I'm doing here, is putting symptoms and observations
together. The report is "Macrium is asking me all sorts of stupid
questions, as if it can't read anything properly" (as seen in your
pictures). And I'm telling you the Active flag is on the wrong partition,
and the symptoms that result, would be "Macrium goes nuts, doesn't
work the Boot Repair". That's because Macrium uses the Active flag
as a "hint", and the "hint" tells it to look in a particular place,
and the data structure is not there, so Macrium throws up its hands
and asks you is this Windows 8 or something. The reason it is bananas
while boot repairing, is the Active flag being in the wrong
position, throws it off.

Paul
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