350gb HD cloning is taking 24hrs+?

[moeburn]

I'm trying to clone my drive to a 1TB backup drive.  My drive has two partitions, a 350gb and a 70gb.  Using DriveImage XML, the 70gb partition was copied in 40mins.  

Using the same software, copying from the same drive, to the same backup drive, the only difference is the source partition is now the 350gb one, and it's been running all night for 12hrs and it's only 2% done?!  

 

Is this normal?  

[vcfan]

its copying at 160KB/S, which is way too slow. 12 hrs for only 7 gigs? you just did 70gigs in 40 mins. maybe its doing something else, not really sure.ill look into this software.

[moeburn]

its copying at 160KB/S, which is way too slow. 12 hrs for only 7 gigs? you just did 70gigs in 40 mins. maybe its doing something else, not really sure.ill look into this software.

 

The drive it is copying from DOES have a few (7, in total) bad sectors, could that be somehow slowing it down to nothing?

 

Lol 160kB/s, I'd be better off uploading my drive to a cloud.

 

Also, I should add, this is the 3rd try.  Same problem with the first 2 tries.  Also, before I tried doing a drive image, I did a standard file copy to a different backup drive, copied the same 350GB in 4hrs.

 

I'd use different software, but this is the only one I've found that will let me copy a single partition at a time.  All the other ones (Acronis, Easeus) are too packed with that "user friendly" bull****, that just makes them more confusing to use with fewer options.

[xendrome]

If it has bad sectors and the software knows that, it might be doing a sector by sector copy to skip those bad sectors, that could take awhile.

[vcfan]

by the way,the 350gb drive, is this where windows is installed? and is the application running within windows itself? or did it reboot into a special environment?

[Top Qat]

Try this software http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Make a PE v4 boot media (CD or USB stick). Boot into it and do a clone, you can edit the partition sizes when you do the clone.

I use the Pro version, it's works very well.

P.S I can help u go thru the procedure if you want (on IRC or voice chat if you want).

[+DKAngel Subscriber²]

yeah try macrium reflect i cloned this current install to another drive in no time whilst iw as in windows dont need to boot into something special as volume shadow copy works wonders

[moeburn]

by the way,the 350gb drive, is this where windows is installed? and is the application running within windows itself? or did it reboot into a special environment?

To be clear, the 350GB is a PARTITION of a 500GB drive.  It has a copy of windows 7 installed, but it is not the windows I was booted from.  The 2nd partition, the 70GB one with Windows 8 installed, is the one I actually booted to, and IT copied faster than the one that was not in use!

 

Try this software http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Make a PE v4 boot media (CD or USB stick). Boot into it and do a clone, you can edit the partition sizes when you do the clone.

I use the Pro version, it's works very well.

P.S I can help u go thru the procedure if you want (on IRC or voice chat if you want).

I'd rather not have to use a boot disk.  I'd like to be able to use my system while I copy.  And DriveImage XML tries to do a volume lock first, and then if that fails because the drive is in use, it does volume shadow copy.    But if DKAngel says it can also do it from Windows, I'll give it a shot!

 

EDIT: Do you know of any mirrors for the free version?  Macrium's site makes you download from CNET, which now forces you to use their "downloader" instead of directly linking to the file.  I'd rather not have to install a "downloader" if possible.

[Top Qat]

Yes it is true you can clone from within Windows (using VSS).

Personally I prefer to use the boot media because this means the whole system is dedicated to the clone, so you get best possible copy speed.

There will be nothing else running to interfere with, or slow down, the copy process.

The dowloader is fine, it just allows you to get the most relevent version.

[moeburn]

Yes it is true you can clone from within Windows (using VSS).

Personally I prefer to use the boot media because this means the whole system is dedicated to the clone, so you get best possible copy speed.

There will be nothing else running to interfere with, or slow down, the copy process.

The dowloader is fine, it just allows you to get the most relevent version.

 

So it should be just as fast to clone within Windows, because it isn't my system partition, so it doesn't use VSS, it locks/dismounts the partition entirely.  And since reading/writing to HDs only uses 5-10% of my CPU, it shouldn't be any slower unless I start playing games or something.

[Top Qat]

;

So it should be just as fast to clone within Windows, because it isn't my system partition, so it doesn't use VSS, it locks/dismounts the partition entirely.  And since reading/writing to HDs only uses 5-10% of my CPU, it shouldn't be any slower unless I start playing games or something.

It never is a CPU bound process. It is other things using the HDD that is gonna slow things down.

The downloader doesn't actually install itself, it just enables you to get the correct version of the Macrium Reflect installer.

[moeburn]

;

It never is a CPU bound process. It is other things using the HDD that is gonna slow things down.

 

Oh right cause it is the same drive as my system pt, just different pts.  Well then why did my system partition copy so damn fast?!

 

Okay, I can see how to make an image file of a partition in Macrium, but I don't want an image file, I want a copy of the partition.  So that I can boot from it.  The help file for Macrium says that it has a "cloning" feature, but I don't see a clone button anywhere.  Is that a pro-only feature?

[Top Qat]

Ok I will amend my text:

It never is a CPU bound process. It is other things using the HDD that COULD slow things down.

If your copy is going well then that's great.

Oh right cause it is the same drive as my system pt, just different pts.  Well then why did my system partition copy so damn fast?!

Okay, I can see how to make an image file of a partition in Macrium, but I don't want an image file, I want a copy of the partition.  So that I can boot from it.  The help file for Macrium says that it has a "cloning" feature, but I don't see a clone button anywhere.  Is that a pro-only feature?

Cloning option is only avaliable from the WinPE boot disc.

[moeburn]

Ok I will amend my text:

It never is a CPU bound process. It is other things using the HDD that COULD slow things down.

If your copy is going well then that's great.

Cloning option is only avaliable from the WinPE boot disc.

 

Nevermind, I found the cloning option.  It IS available from Windows, just not on the left pane where all the tasks are listed, its only shown when you click on a partition in the main pane.  Kinda stupid layout, but okay, it is now currently cloning.

A whole bunch of options I didn't understand though.  Like why was the partition alignment set to "Windows XP CHS" if it was a Windows 7 drive?  And I'm assuming I set it to an Active partition if I want it to be bootable, but then how am I booting off my Windows 8 partition if it is only a Primary (not Active) partition?

[Top Qat]

Nevermind, I found the cloning option. It IS available from Windows,

Oops sorry don't often use the free version, I forgot that was available.

Set the alignment to Win7/8/ssd (1MB) on all partitiions.

If you installed Win8 after Win7 (looks like you did) then the active partition will still be Win7 because that's where the boot loader has been placed.

[moeburn]

Well, it's been over an hour, and it's still at 0% overall progress.  88% Loading the NTFS $MFT file.  Why the hell is it taking so long to load the MFT?  It's not that big!

[Top Qat]

I'm guessing that the HDD has some hardware issue(s) because you mentioned it has 7 bad sectors.

This has the potential to make access slow if the hardware is failing.

What make/model HDD do you have? You could try running a HDD diagnostic tool like http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/seatools/

[moeburn]

Well that was a waste of time.  Anyone have any idea what this error means?

 

[Top Qat]

You may have missed my post above yours as we posted at the same time, please read.

Thanks.

[moeburn]

You may have missed my post above yours as we posted at the same time, please read. Thanks.

 I did read.  Clearly this has nothing to do with bad sectors, or it would have interrupted DriveImage XML too.  As well as probably interrupting the image of the 2nd partition.  And the make/model of my drive is listed in the screenshot.

I have done a chkdsk /r, and all bad sectors are marked as such, and there haven't been any new ones created in a long time.  This shouldn't interfere with a drive clone.

[Top Qat]

It's "Data Lifeguard" diagnostics for WD drives, here http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?modelno=wd5000aaks&x=0&y=0

[moeburn]

Again, folks, bad sectors should not interfere with a drive cloning.  A bad/unreadable sector is still technically readable, it just doesn't return the bit that the system expects when it reads the bit.  Drive cloning shouldn't care what the bit is expected to be, and just copy it anyway, errors and all.

 

And I'm right.  Because I did a partition image instead of a partition clone, and it finished in 2 hours without any errors.  Then I restored the image to the drive, again without any errors.  Same end result as a drive clone, but with an extra step added in between.  I have no idea why Macrium is having such a hard time doing a drive clone, but it's not my drive's fault.  Even in the WinPE environment, Macrium got to 4% of cloning the partition and then said "Broken pipe" error.  

 

Oh well, I guess it just means any time I want to clone a drive, I have to image and restore it instead.