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Thread ID: 125799 2012-07-20 02:53:00 Lost HDD? B.M. (505) Press F1
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1289606 2012-07-20 02:53:00 Ok, I was given a 160gig WD1600 SATA drive.

So I thought I’d use it to replace my 80gig “C” drive which gets a bit crammed at times.

I plug in the new drive and yep it’s recognised. It has some stuff on it so I format it.

I then start up Paragon Drive Copy 11 and proceed to copy my “C” Drive to my new “F” drive. An hour or so later Paragon advises the job is complete. Great, I then restart the computer and the new drive can’t be seen anywhere. However, during the POST it’s there ok. So I figure I may have to reset the BIOS Boot order but booting from my new drive isn’t an option, it isn’t there.

I then think right I’ll disconnect my old “C” drive and maybe when she looks for an OS it’ll be found. No such luck, we just sit with a little white light blinking in the top left hand of screen.

Ok, I’ll hook my original ATA IDE Drive back up and see if the install new hardware facility will help. Find the drive here OK even though Windows Explorer and My Computer can’t see it. Click install only to be advised it is already working properly!

Now I’ve used Paragon Drive Copy 11 previously without a hitch but at the end of the day it has become a drive recognition problem now.

Why does the POST see it but then it just disappears?

Anyone any thoughts? XP-SP2 – Asus P4S800-MX SE MB – WD1600 SATA HDD 		B.M. (505)
1289607 2012-07-20 03:57:00 I haven't used Paragon Drive Copy, but I had great success with shareware "HD clone". It creates a bootable DVD, so you'll need a DVD writer and blank disk.

It once worked when a well-known number of other enterprise products didn't.

www.miray.de

I guess you're upsizing your partition sizes, so you'll need at least the basic version, which is not free.

(I'm not associated with the company in any way) 		kingdragonfly (309)
1289608 2012-07-20 05:30:00 Does it show up in disk management? Right click my computer and chose manage, scroll down to the disk management section.
If the partition is hidden or something is wrong with it it won't show up in my computer but will still appear in disk management.
Depending on how paragon works you may have to mark the partition as active also to make it bootable, but this might cause issues with both drives attached and set as active.

None of this explains why it's not in the BIOS but might help windows to see it.

Another free program that should work is the WD version of acronis available from the WD website. The only requirement is that you have a WD drive attached for it to work. With any imaging or cloning software running off a bootable CD or USB drive to use the software is a more dependable option than running from within windows which can sometimes have issues (although it usually works fine). 		dugimodo (138)
1289609 2012-07-20 05:40:00 I haven't used Paragon Drive Copy, but I had great success with shareware "HD clone" . It creates a bootable DVD, so you'll need a DVD writer and blank disk .

It once worked when a well-known number of other enterprise products didn't .

. miray . de/products/sat . hdclone . html" target="_blank">www . miray . de

I guess you're upsizing your partition sizes, so you'll need at least the basic version, which is not free .

(I'm not associated with the company in any way)

Yes thanks for that kingdragonfly, but I can’t for the life of me think why it could be seen to start with but not now .

The POST acknowledges it & the CMOS setup doesn’t . :confused:

Then Windows on the original HDD can’t see it with Windows Explorer but then tells me it’s working fine in Install New Hardware . :confused:

What was or wasn’t copied to the new drive remains to be seen as we can’t even find the drive at the moment .

These things were sent to try us . :D 		B.M. (505)
1289610 2012-07-20 05:48:00 Does it show up in disk management? Right click my computer and chose manage, scroll down to the disk management section .
If the partition is hidden or something is wrong with it it won't show up in my computer but will still appear in disk management .
Depending on how paragon works you may have to mark the partition as active also to make it bootable, but this might cause issues with both drives attached and set as active .

None of this explains why it's not in the BIOS but might help windows to see it .

Another free program that should work is the WD version of acronis available from the WD website . The only requirement is that you have a WD drive attached for it to work . With any imaging or cloning software running off a bootable CD or USB drive to use the software is a more dependable option than running from within windows which can sometimes have issues (although it usually works fine) .

Thanks for that dugimodo .

I've never been there before but the short answer is it ain't there . :crying 		B.M. (505)
1289611 2012-07-20 09:08:00 Maybe I'm misunderstanding the problem, but it could be "disk signature collision"

blogs.technet.com

Most disk cloning software is smart enough to fix the signature automatically, on a NTFS disk.

I've used diskpart command to fix this very problem, as mentioned in the article. Just pick a random number. 		kingdragonfly (309)
1289612 2012-07-21 06:37:00 For those interested she’s fixed :clap but what a hassle.

I had a brainwave and thought if I disconnected all the other drives leaving just the WD1600 maybe the BIOS would recognise it and show it in the boot order section.

Sure enough it did, so I put it in after the DVD drive and lo and behold it looks good but chokes trying to load the Operating System. Fine I thought, I’ll boot from a Hierens or Universal Boot Disk and rewrite the tables with fixboot or fixmbr. Oh no I won’t, fixboot and fixmbr are only available from the XP Disk repair section. Ok no problem I have my disk so in she goes only to be told no drives can be found. Grrrr.

So I have think and hook my old C drive up again leaving the new drive. Windows still can’t see the new drive even though the POST – BIOS – CMOS can now.

So I fire up Paragon Partition Manager to see what it recons. It can see everything fine including a small partition at the end of the drive where I suspect a back-up OS used to reside. Ok I’ll drag the primary partition right out to the end and then Mr Paragon will have to rewrite all the tables and see what happens then.

Rejoice, I reboot the machine with the original drive disconnected and you wouldn’t know I’d swapped from a 80gig ATA Drive to a 160gig SATA Drive and there’s not so much as an icon out of place. :thumbs:

So you get my vote Mr Paragon because you transferred the date exactly (as far as I can see so far) between different size and type of drives and managed to see and fix a problem that had beaten other programmes.

But for what its worth, I’ve got a gut feeling there is something different with WD disks because I’ve noticed before that some of the Disk Utilities don’t like WD. No idea why, does someone know? :confused: 		B.M. (505)
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