Clone C Drive

Greetings all,

I have 3 almost identical HDDs and I thought to copy one (HDD1 as C drive
Master) to another (HDD2 as D drive Slave) - so that if HDD1 fails or is
infected I can rapidly put HDD2 in its place. Normally HDD3 is the D drive
Slave.
BIOS and HDD jumpers are set as appropriate.

Copying seemed to be no problem although is was necessary to work in DOS to
copy the Swap File.

Sadly when I boot up with the HDD2 in drive C place (shorting link set to
Master) the process fails at the 'Verifying DMI Pool Data' stage, with the
report 'NTLDR missing'.

Obviously the HDDs have different serial numbers.

Is what I am attempting doomed to failure or is there a quick fix ?

(of course I could install Windows 98SE and everything else on the 'spare'
HDD2 but that will take all day)

Rednelle

From: "rednelle31"

| Greetings all,
|
| I have 3 almost identical HDDs and I thought to copy one (HDD1 as C drive
| Master) to another (HDD2 as D drive Slave) - so that if HDD1 fails or is
| infected I can rapidly put HDD2 in its place. Normally HDD3 is the D drive
| Slave.
| BIOS and HDD jumpers are set as appropriate.
|
| Copying seemed to be no problem although is was necessary to work in DOS to
| copy the Swap File.
|
| Sadly when I boot up with the HDD2 in drive C place (shorting link set to
| Master) the process fails at the 'Verifying DMI Pool Data' stage, with the
| report 'NTLDR missing'.
|
| Obviously the HDDs have different serial numbers.
|
| Is what I am attempting doomed to failure or is there a quick fix ?
|
| (of course I could install Windows 98SE and everything else on the 'spare'
| HDD2 but that will take all day)
|
| Rednelle
|

'NTLDR missing' will be gebnerated by a NT based OS. Win98 is NOT NT based.

You need to look at what you are doing in your "cloning" process.

You may need to redefine the process as not cloning but as imaging.

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

This program is suppose to let you do what you want. You clone your C drive
to your D or other drive even external. If your C drive goes out you simply
remove it or change the jumpers to slave and change the jumpers on the
second drive to master and boot up.

If you are using an external to clone you simply move the drive out of the
portable case into the computer and move the computer drive back to the
external case.

Check it out.
http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/
"rednelle31" wrote in message
...
Greetings all,

I have 3 almost identical HDDs and I thought to copy one (HDD1 as C drive
Master) to another (HDD2 as D drive Slave) - so that if HDD1 fails or is
infected I can rapidly put HDD2 in its place. Normally HDD3 is the D drive
Slave.
BIOS and HDD jumpers are set as appropriate.

Copying seemed to be no problem although is was necessary to work in DOS
to
copy the Swap File.

Sadly when I boot up with the HDD2 in drive C place (shorting link set to
Master) the process fails at the 'Verifying DMI Pool Data' stage, with the
report 'NTLDR missing'.

Obviously the HDDs have different serial numbers.

Is what I am attempting doomed to failure or is there a quick fix ?

(of course I could install Windows 98SE and everything else on the 'spare'
HDD2 but that will take all day)

Rednelle

rednelle31 wrote:
Greetings all,

I have 3 almost identical HDDs and I thought to copy one (HDD1 as C
drive Master) to another (HDD2 as D drive Slave) - so that if HDD1
fails or is infected I can rapidly put HDD2 in its place. Normally
HDD3 is the D drive Slave.
BIOS and HDD jumpers are set as appropriate.

Copying seemed to be no problem although is was necessary to work in
DOS to copy the Swap File.

Sadly when I boot up with the HDD2 in drive C place (shorting link
set to Master) the process fails at the 'Verifying DMI Pool Data'
stage, with the report 'NTLDR missing'.

Obviously the HDDs have different serial numbers.

Is what I am attempting doomed to failure or is there a quick fix ?

You have to make sure that the backup drive is bootable. Did you make
it so? Once it is, it is just a matter of getting all on C: to the
backup drive. I use Karen's Replicator...fast, easy; doesn't copy the
swap file, you don't need it.

To restore, swap drive cables, make sure drives are jumpered
appropriately and boot; once booted from the backup drive (now C, you
can just use Karen's to copy it back to the messed up drive.



--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

I've never seen it, but this article applies to Win98 too...

http://support.microsoft.com/default...92&Product=w98
Error Message When You Start Your Computer with a Non-System Disk
(812492) - When you start your computer, you may receive any of the
following error messages: Non-system disk or disk error Replace and
strike any key when ready NTLDR is missing Press any key to restart
Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"David H. Lipman" wrote in message ...
| From: "rednelle31"
|
| | Greetings all,
| |
| | I have 3 almost identical HDDs and I thought to copy one (HDD1 as C drive
| | Master) to another (HDD2 as D drive Slave) - so that if HDD1 fails or is
| | infected I can rapidly put HDD2 in its place. Normally HDD3 is the D drive
| | Slave.
| | BIOS and HDD jumpers are set as appropriate.
| |
| | Copying seemed to be no problem although is was necessary to work in DOS to
| | copy the Swap File.
| |
| | Sadly when I boot up with the HDD2 in drive C place (shorting link set to
| | Master) the process fails at the 'Verifying DMI Pool Data' stage, with the
| | report 'NTLDR missing'.
| |
| | Obviously the HDDs have different serial numbers.
| |
| | Is what I am attempting doomed to failure or is there a quick fix ?
| |
| | (of course I could install Windows 98SE and everything else on the 'spare'
| | HDD2 but that will take all day)
| |
| | Rednelle
| |
|
| 'NTLDR missing' will be gebnerated by a NT based OS. Win98 is NOT NT based.
|
| You need to look at what you are doing in your "cloning" process.
|
| You may need to redefine the process as not cloning but as imaging.
|
| --
| Dave
| http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
| http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm
|
|

You don't need the swap file, as DadiOH said. That is reinitialized at each boot & resized if necessary every 5 minutes. I think, as he also said, you have not made the new HDD & partition to be bootable...

(1) Make sure the jumpers are set correctly.

If you've moved it to be Master, for instance, set it to be a Master (if wasn't already). If it has a Slave, then the jumper may need to be set "Master with Slave", especially if it's a Western Digital.

(2) At DOS, enter... "FDISK /MBR".

That will put boot code on the HDD.
But, if it isn't HDD0, then... well...

"FDISK /cmbr 2"... for HDD1,
"FDISK /cmbr 3"... for HDD2, etc.

That's right, there's a "c" in it, & that's right, 2 for HDD1.

(3) At DOS, enter... "SYS C:"

That also is required to put the partition into the Bootstrap.
But, if it isn't C:, then... "SYS D:"... if it's D:, instead.


Don't blame me! It's Blanton who's responsible for all that!


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"rednelle31" wrote in message ...
| Greetings all,
|
| I have 3 almost identical HDDs and I thought to copy one (HDD1 as C drive
| Master) to another (HDD2 as D drive Slave) - so that if HDD1 fails or is
| infected I can rapidly put HDD2 in its place. Normally HDD3 is the D drive
| Slave.
| BIOS and HDD jumpers are set as appropriate.
|
| Copying seemed to be no problem although is was necessary to work in DOS to
| copy the Swap File.
|
| Sadly when I boot up with the HDD2 in drive C place (shorting link set to
| Master) the process fails at the 'Verifying DMI Pool Data' stage, with the
| report 'NTLDR missing'.
|
| Obviously the HDDs have different serial numbers.
|
| Is what I am attempting doomed to failure or is there a quick fix ?
|
| (of course I could install Windows 98SE and everything else on the 'spare'
| HDD2 but that will take all day)
|
| Rednelle
|
|

"rednelle31" wrote in message ...
Greetings all,

I have 3 almost identical HDDs and I thought to copy one (HDD1 as C drive
Master) to another (HDD2 as D drive Slave) - so that if HDD1 fails or is
infected I can rapidly put HDD2 in its place. Normally HDD3 is the D drive
Slave.
BIOS and HDD jumpers are set as appropriate.

Copying seemed to be no problem although is was necessary to work in DOS to
copy the Swap File.

Sadly when I boot up with the HDD2 in drive C place (shorting link set to
Master) the process fails at the 'Verifying DMI Pool Data' stage,

That's a BIOS error. Check and recheck the jumpers, cables and connections.
Also check that the drive is being recognized properly by the BIOS.

with the
report 'NTLDR missing'.

That's odd, unless you've been working with NT/2000/XP. That's a message
generated by the NT boot sector code when it fails to find the loader.


Is what I am attempting doomed to failure or is there a quick fix ?

Arnold It's not a tumor... /Arnold

That's one of those "Fuzzy articles".

"PCR" wrote in message ...
I've never seen it, but this article applies to Win98 too...

http://support.microsoft.com/default...92&Product=w98
Error Message When You Start Your Computer with a Non-System Disk
(812492) - When you start your computer, you may receive any of the
following error messages: Non-system disk or disk error Replace and
strike any key when ready NTLDR is missing Press any key to restart
Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart.

"David H. Lipman" wrote in message ...

| 'NTLDR missing' will be gebnerated by a NT based OS. Win98 is NOT NT based.

Don't blame me! It's Blanton who's responsible for all that!

Yeah PCR, Bill Blanton saved me with a quick -| fdisk /cmbr 2 |- to remove a drive overlay that wasn't agreeing with Drive Image, thanks again Bill !!

--
B-)
Pebble in Boulder

"Bill Blanton" wrote in message
...
| That's one of those "Fuzzy articles".

A second reading of it proves you are right. I guess it is possible for
so much to be missing w/o an MBR that NTLDR can mistakenly be requested.
But /MBR or variant & SYS should get it going.

| "PCR" wrote in message
...
| I've never seen it, but this article applies to Win98 too...
|
|
http://support.microsoft.com/default...92&Product=w98
| Error Message When You Start Your Computer with a Non-System Disk
| (812492) - When you start your computer, you may receive any of the
| following error messages: Non-system disk or disk error Replace and
| strike any key when ready NTLDR is missing Press any key to restart
| Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart.
|
| "David H. Lipman" wrote in message
...
|
| | 'NTLDR missing' will be gebnerated by a NT based OS. Win98 is NOT
NT based.
|
|