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Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 24th 15, 03:38 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
(PeteCresswell)
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Posts: 1,933
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

Got a new SSD for my system, partitioned it into K: (System) and J:
(Data).

Took an image of the existing system, then restored it to K: (System) on
the new SSD.

My plan is to:

- Shut down the PC,

- Replace the old SSD with the new SSD,

- Turn on the PC

- Bring up the BIOS' Boot menu

- Tell it to boot from the new SSD

- Wait for Windows to come up

- Change drive K: to C:


Does anybody see a problem here?

I'm thinking about whatever pointers Windows has to C:\Whatever causing
some sort of problem(s) before I can get to the drive letter change.
--
Pete Cresswell
Ads
  #2  
Old November 24th 15, 03:47 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Big Al[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,588
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

(PeteCresswell) wrote on 11/23/2015 9:38 PM:
Got a new SSD for my system, partitioned it into K: (System) and J:
(Data).

Took an image of the existing system, then restored it to K: (System) on
the new SSD.

My plan is to:

- Shut down the PC,

- Replace the old SSD with the new SSD,

- Turn on the PC

- Bring up the BIOS' Boot menu

- Tell it to boot from the new SSD

- Wait for Windows to come up

- Change drive K: to C:


Does anybody see a problem here?

I'm thinking about whatever pointers Windows has to C:\Whatever causing
some sort of problem(s) before I can get to the drive letter change.

Clone software should clone C: to K:
Then you shutdown and remove C: and place K: in where C: was
The cloned drive itself should boot and change the drive letter to C: automatically
Don't put the old C: in, just boot with the K in place like C was.

Once it's booted you can install the 2nd ssd if you wish as some other letter of course.

  #3  
Old November 24th 15, 04:33 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
David E. Ross[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,035
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

On 11/23/2015 6:38 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Got a new SSD for my system, partitioned it into K: (System) and J:
(Data).

Took an image of the existing system, then restored it to K: (System) on
the new SSD.

My plan is to:

- Shut down the PC,

- Replace the old SSD with the new SSD,

- Turn on the PC

- Bring up the BIOS' Boot menu

- Tell it to boot from the new SSD

- Wait for Windows to come up

- Change drive K: to C:


Does anybody see a problem here?

I'm thinking about whatever pointers Windows has to C:\Whatever causing
some sort of problem(s) before I can get to the drive letter change.


That is basically how my PC was setup. It came with one hard drive, a
spinner designated as the C drive. My PC guru installed a SSD drive as
D, cloned C to D, shut down my PC, swapped C and D, restarted the PC,
and then reformatted what was then D.

--
David E. Ross

Pharmaceutical companies claim their drug prices are
so high because they have to recover the costs of developing
those drugs. Two questions:

1. Why is the U.S. paying the entire cost of development while
prices for the same drugs in other nations are much lower?

2. Manufacturers of generic drugs did not have those
development costs. Why are they charging so much for generics?
  #4  
Old November 24th 15, 05:58 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,275
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Got a new SSD for my system, partitioned it into K: (System) and J:
(Data).

Took an image of the existing system, then restored it to K: (System) on
the new SSD.

My plan is to:

- Shut down the PC,

- Replace the old SSD with the new SSD,

- Turn on the PC

- Bring up the BIOS' Boot menu

- Tell it to boot from the new SSD

- Wait for Windows to come up

- Change drive K: to C:


Does anybody see a problem here?

I'm thinking about whatever pointers Windows has to C:\Whatever causing
some sort of problem(s) before I can get to the drive letter change.


From a percentage point of view, the odds are "extremely good",
that when you clone C:, then boot from the new clone, it
will be C: as well. There will be no need to do anything drastic.

Paul
  #5  
Old November 24th 15, 05:04 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
David E. Ross[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,035
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

On 11/23/2015 8:58 PM, Paul wrote:
(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Got a new SSD for my system, partitioned it into K: (System) and J:
(Data).

Took an image of the existing system, then restored it to K: (System) on
the new SSD.

My plan is to:

- Shut down the PC,

- Replace the old SSD with the new SSD,

- Turn on the PC

- Bring up the BIOS' Boot menu

- Tell it to boot from the new SSD

- Wait for Windows to come up

- Change drive K: to C:


Does anybody see a problem here?

I'm thinking about whatever pointers Windows has to C:\Whatever causing
some sort of problem(s) before I can get to the drive letter change.


From a percentage point of view, the odds are "extremely good",
that when you clone C:, then boot from the new clone, it
will be C: as well. There will be no need to do anything drastic.

Paul


In my PC, the assignment of drive letters at bootup seems to be
determined by where the physical drives are installed.

--
David E. Ross

Pharmaceutical companies claim their drug prices are
so high because they have to recover the costs of developing
those drugs. Two questions:

1. Why is the U.S. paying the entire cost of development while
prices for the same drugs in other nations are much lower?

2. Manufacturers of generic drugs did not have those
development costs. Why are they charging so much for generics?
  #6  
Old November 24th 15, 06:21 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,275
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

F. Edwin Felty wrote:
On Mon, 23 Nov 2015 23:58:03 -0500, Paul wrote:

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Got a new SSD for my system, partitioned it into K: (System) and J:
(Data).

Took an image of the existing system, then restored it to K: (System) on
the new SSD.

My plan is to:

- Shut down the PC,

- Replace the old SSD with the new SSD,

- Turn on the PC

- Bring up the BIOS' Boot menu

- Tell it to boot from the new SSD

- Wait for Windows to come up

- Change drive K: to C:


Does anybody see a problem here?

I'm thinking about whatever pointers Windows has to C:\Whatever causing
some sort of problem(s) before I can get to the drive letter change.

From a percentage point of view, the odds are "extremely good",
that when you clone C:, then boot from the new clone, it
will be C: as well. There will be no need to do anything drastic.

Paul



FWIW...many moons ago, I think it was Windows 2000, I found that it could
not be installed on any drive beyond G:. Maybe that is still the case...


There aren't really any good articles on the topic
(and I already spotted two errors in the Wikipedia
article on drive lettering).

This is one topic, where you just keep installing
OSes and watching what factors affect lettering,
until you achieve the degree of control you want.

Paul
  #7  
Old November 24th 15, 07:37 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
(PeteCresswell)
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,933
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

Per Paul:
From a percentage point of view, the odds are "extremely good",
that when you clone C:, then boot from the new clone, it
will be C: as well. There will be no need to do anything drastic.


I like the "percentage" way of thinking.... -)

FWIW, it didn't go too badly, spent a little time dealing with BOOTMGR
missing and a couple other things... but it was all good after about an
hour.

Now, with that nice shiny-new SDD in there, we'll see if the dreaded
"BOOTMGR MISSING" pops again over the next week or so.
--
Pete Cresswell
  #8  
Old November 24th 15, 07:39 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,275
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

F. Edwin Felty wrote:

FWIW...many moons ago, I think it was Windows 2000, I found that it could
not be installed on any drive beyond G:. Maybe that is still the case...

--
Eddie in Loveland

"Auto-correct is my worst enema."


The C: partition (active primary) contains boot.ini. Disk Management labels this "System"
The I: partition ("WIN2KA") is the OS partition. Disk Management labels this "Boot"

I don't know if that's what you had in mind or not.

http://i64.tinypic.com/2qw05g3.gif

When you install a second copy of Win2K, it can be placed
in a logical.

All that was done in VirtualBox. I notice they
fixed the Win2K bug (the CPU isn't railed any more).

Paul
  #9  
Old November 25th 15, 03:00 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Mark Lloyd[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,756
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

On 11/24/2015 12:37 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

[snip]

Now, with that nice shiny-new SDD in there, we'll see if the dreaded
"BOOTMGR MISSING" pops again over the next week or so.


Windows used to be very fragile that way.

--
31 days until the winter celebration (Friday December 25, 2015 12:00:00
AM for 1 day).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"... when people begin to philosophize they seem to think it necessary
to make themselves artificially stupid." [Bertrand Russell in "Theory of
Knowledge"]
  #10  
Old November 25th 15, 03:06 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
(PeteCresswell)
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,933
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

Per Mark Lloyd:
Now, with that nice shiny-new SDD in there, we'll see if the dreaded
"BOOTMGR MISSING" pops again over the next week or so.


Windows used to be very fragile that way.


Can anybody shed some light on what's going on in that situation?

i.e. Is it usually the same single cause and, if so, what is the cause ?
--
Pete Cresswell
  #11  
Old November 25th 15, 06:10 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,275
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Mark Lloyd:
Now, with that nice shiny-new SDD in there, we'll see if the dreaded
"BOOTMGR MISSING" pops again over the next week or so.


Windows used to be very fragile that way.


Can anybody shed some light on what's going on in that situation?

i.e. Is it usually the same single cause and, if so, what is the cause ?


A typical tutorial here.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ssing-fix.html

1) Use recovery CD and Repair thingy or...

2) At the C:\ prompt, type cd boot and press Enter.

At the C:\Boot prompt, type the following commands
and press Enter after each command.

bootrec /FixMbr --- puts boot code in MBR (446 bytes)
bootrec /FixBoot --- puts boot code in a boot partition (a sector or two maybe?)
bootrec /RebuildBcd --- rebuilds the BCD file

And another thread suggests, that if the boot flag (0x80) is
removed from the partition table entry for the partition
that helps boot the system, then you'll also get your message.

I think DiskPart has an option to make a partition active
(toggle the boot flag for you). From a recovery CD, you could
use DiskPart to put a boot flag back. I found the interface
particularly annoying, and I had trouble verifying where
the boot flag went. It's supposed to be an asterisk next
to one of the partitions.

And I don't think, even if I gave you the recipe for
converting Win7 from a two partition install (SYSTEM RESERVED, C
to a one partition install ( C: ) that this problem would
stop. Doing such a transition just saves you one primary
partition. Running with ( C: ) only as your configuration,
where the boot flag is on C: as well, isn't compatible
with BitLocker in an OS like Win7 Ultimate, and that's
about the only reason to have the two partitions. If
you don't use BitLocker for full disk encryption,
you could switch to one partition.

I switched to one partition on my laptop. I did a backup
first. And I got the recipe right on the first try (which
is unusual for one of my experiments).

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409

All the same failures could happen if you have it set up
that way. Nothing really changes. It's just during
cloning, it's a tiny bit harder to leave something
behind.

*******

Always review the Disk Management labels, especially
if you have multiple disks!

The labels System, Boot, Active, help warn you whether
something nasty has caused your setup to be split
between two disks. When cloning such a mess, you
only clone half of it, leading to "problemo". Make
absolutely sure what you see in Disk Management makes
sense, while the computer is still running.

*******

If you type "bcdedit" in a Command Prompt window,
it'll show you the contents of the BCD file. The
disk identifiers in there, could be damaged with
not a lot of work, such as cloning a disk, only
doing half a job, and now the BCD no longer points
to the (cloned) C: .

The last post here addresses "generalize" the BCD for
cloning purposes.

http://www.sevenforums.com/installat...ed-drives.html

"You could generalise the running bcd store first.

bcdedit /set {current} osdevice boot
bcdedit /set {current} device boot
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot

optional:
bcdedit /set {memdiag} device boot

Then you will be fine to clone to your heart's content.

***

If you have done the cloning, then you can do the same,
but point at the clone bcd store, e.g. if clone is on drive D:

bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {default} osdevice boot
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {default} device boot
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} device boot
bcdedit /store D:\boot\bcd /set {memdiag} device boot

The other ( easier ) way is to use a program which will
update all bcd stores automatically.

Paragon products which include a cloning function will do that.
"

And while watching a Macrium 6 run the other day, I noticed
a message (multiple lines) in the console where it seemed to
be fixing something up. So yes, some cloning tools actually
do this stuff for you (so you're not learning anything).

Paul
  #12  
Old November 25th 15, 09:43 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
(PeteCresswell)
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,933
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

Per Paul:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ssing-fix.html

1) Use recovery CD and Repair thingy or...

2) At the C:\ prompt, type cd boot and press Enter.

At the C:\Boot prompt, type the following commands
and press Enter after each command.

bootrec /FixMbr --- puts boot code in MBR (446 bytes)
bootrec /FixBoot --- puts boot code in a boot partition (a sector or two maybe?)
bootrec /RebuildBcd --- rebuilds the BCD file


I've been doing it two different ways:

- Boot from the Windows 7 Install CD, choose
the "Repair" option...

- Restore an image using ShadowProtect - which discovers
that the Boot process is messed up and queues a job
to fix it after the image has been written.

Sounds to me like, if I start seeing this again, the path of least
resistance is going to be to create a bootable USB stick
that boots into DOS or Windows 7 CommandLine and then
runs a .BAT or .CMD file that runs FixMbr, FixBoot,
and RebuildBcd automagically.
--
Pete Cresswell
  #13  
Old November 25th 15, 11:38 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,275
Default Migrating to New System Drive: Drive Letter ?

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Paul:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ssing-fix.html

1) Use recovery CD and Repair thingy or...

2) At the C:\ prompt, type cd boot and press Enter.

At the C:\Boot prompt, type the following commands
and press Enter after each command.

bootrec /FixMbr --- puts boot code in MBR (446 bytes)
bootrec /FixBoot --- puts boot code in a boot partition (a sector or two maybe?)
bootrec /RebuildBcd --- rebuilds the BCD file


I've been doing it two different ways:

- Boot from the Windows 7 Install CD, choose
the "Repair" option...

- Restore an image using ShadowProtect - which discovers
that the Boot process is messed up and queues a job
to fix it after the image has been written.

Sounds to me like, if I start seeing this again, the path of least
resistance is going to be to create a bootable USB stick
that boots into DOS or Windows 7 CommandLine and then
runs a .BAT or .CMD file that runs FixMbr, FixBoot,
and RebuildBcd automagically.


I would probably just use the Repair off the
recovery CD or installer DVD. Doing that
command line stuff is more geeky, so you
get that satisfaction from it.

One of the reasons I like commands in a situation
like this, is in case I learn something. Like, maybe,
why this is happening in the first place. If you
just push the big red button on some tool, to
fix it for you, you might not get any hints about
root cause.

I don't mind pushing the big red button when it's
a one-off situation. Like the time I totally trashed
Win7, i tried the Repair three times, and it failed
all three attempts (there are different actions
on each run). And I had to restore from backup. But that
was because C: file system was damaged. And the automation
wasn't likely to fix that anyway. Since I knew the
events leading up to it, I had at least a suspicion
it was serious. I mainly tried the Repair to
"see if it was magic". It wasn't. Backups are magic.

Paul
 




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