Hard disk cloning question

[packman 0]

The setup is basically a Win2KSP4 machine, with Ghost 2003 as the backup application. Normally, just one 80GB HDD is installed (HDD0), but I now wish to clone that to an identical HDD (HDD1), which will then be removed and put into safekeeping as a backup drive.

 

Is it feasible to do this with both drives on the same (Primary) IDE channel, ie. HDD0 set to master and HDD1 set to slave? For the cloning process, can both drives operate at UDMA (as opposed to PIO)?

 

At present, Windows recognises both drives, HDD1 being an 'unallocated' single space. But Ghost 2003 doesn't recognise this second drive at all.

 

Ghost 2003 is supposed to be capable of formatting, partitioning and cloning a drive, all in one operation.

 

I've done all the obvious things, like jumpering the drives accordingly, setting up Device 0 and Device 1 in Device Manager, and reconfiguring the system BIOS but when I start the clone process in Ghost, only HDD0 and its partitions show. Thus, I can't set a destination drive and proceed. My Ghost 2003 is also completely up to date, I having downloaded the latest updates a few weeks ago.

[packman 0]

Hmm, well I've been looking into this further but still not found the answer. Symantec articles that I've downloaded state emphatically that Ghost 2003 can clone to a hard disk that's a bare one; it doesn't require pre-formatting, as Ghost does it as part of the cloning operation.

 

What I HAVE noticed, however, is a Microsoft "Write Signature and Upgrade Disk Wizard" that pops up when I look in Disk Management. Since that seems to relate to the use of dynamic disks, I've not bothered with it. But maybe I do have to partly use it, for the disk to be recognised by applications?

 

What d'ya think? Anyone know what 'writing a disk signature' actually does?

[American Zombie 0]

Maybe you can find your answer at this site.

 

http://ghost.radified.com/

[packman 0]

Looks useful but unfortunately doesn't discuss this problem.

 

But it doesn't matter, as I've discovered the cause and have now corrected it. Under Win2KSP3 and Win2KSP4, Microsoft have recently introduced a new feature when additional disk drives are added. This is known as the "Write Signature and Upgrade Disk" wizard and it pops up in Disk Management, if you physically add a new, unformatted disk drive. This feature is principally for turning basic disks into dynamic disks, something that the majority of users would NOT want. However, in order for the new disk to be recognised by any application, it's now necessary to at least partly run this wizard and to set the write signature for the new disk. Unfortunately, the wizard is poorly designed and it's all too easy to opt for "upgrading" the disk instead. "Upgrading" is a Microsoft euphomism for making the disk into a dynamic type and is NOT reversible. So, when setting the write signature, you must do it with great care and then bypass the upgrade stage. Once that's done, the wizard completes and you then find that Ghost recognises the new (still unformatted, unpartitioned) disk. You can then proceed with the cloning. Ghost 2003 does all the partitioning and formatting for you, besides copying across all the files, partition tables, MBR, etc.

 

I believe that, instead of using the wizard, you can just right-click on the unallocated band in Disk Managemment and then choose Set Disk Signature from the menu.