WD HD Failing...

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The W7 rescue boot optical disk I made isn't able to locate the external USB HD either! It sees the WXP HD and the DVD optical drive.

Well this is interesting...and frustrating. I thought I was set by creating both of these disks soon after receiving this machine! Evidently not.

I could remove the DVD drive, and plug in the W7 HD there, but then how do I boot into Acronis them? Further, it's my understanding that you can't clone a disk where the OS is "on-line", as in "in-use".

Now I'm puzzled...just how am I to do this using Acronis on an Optiplex 790 SFF machine that only holds a single SATA drive & a single optical drive? I didn't think about this issue when I bought the SFF version.

Any advice???
 
Is your destination drive the same volume as the host? If not you'll either have to shrink or extend the volumes on one of the drives to work.
Failing that, change to a different usb port type.
Failing that try restarts with and without changes.
Failing that download Macrium reflect or easyus free and try cloning from there.

Also, try turning the OS drive to online from off line
 
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Finally figured this out.....

Read the tech-spec pdf on the Optiplex SFF machine. Though it will only hold one HD and one LT sized DVD drive, the MB contains 3 SATA ports, 0, 1 & 2. SATA 1 isn't being used.

So I decided as a first step I'd remove the W7HD from the external USB drive, open the optiplex case and plug it into SATA1. As the OEM PS went Tango Uniform last year, I'm using a large external PS from my old WXP machine and just running the power cables in through where the OEM PS used to be.

Point is powering an extra HD isn't an issue as it would be with the OEM PS.

With the Acronis TI 11 CD in the drive, I booted...acronis splash screen...clone option....BINGO...both HD's now appear! I carefully go through the options as I don't want to make any changes to the W7 HD. Just clone it to the WXP HD. Good think I went back and checked as Acronis' definition of "old" and "new" is backwards from mine. I triple checked everything as I changed some partition sizes, then let Acronis do its stuff.

I'm typing this on the Alien LT while watching progress...wow...it's already finished! Took about 12 minutes total. I'll stop here a few minutes, remove the 2nd HD and close up the case and reboot.....

SUCCESS! Yes!

That's a load off my mind. I'll disconnect the former W7 HD, label and put on the shelf as a backup for now. Then pull another HD from the old WXP machine, hook up via the USB box, run WD diagnostics, chkdsk and such to verify it's OK and begin using it for regular backups.

Good to know the Optiplex SFF machine has a spare MB SATA port that can be used for just this purpose. Still puzzled why USB didn't work even with the W7 recovery disk I made. Unless....I need to make a new one with the external USB drive ON and visible in Windows Explorer. Would that make a difference?

As for Acronis....well it did work eventually. Somethings FUBAR though...I noted in my notes that at the bottom of the splash screen it indicated "Acronis TI Home includes drivers for USB/PC-card/SCSI hard disks". NOT!

Here's hoping the new C:\ will put an end to all of the EventViewer errors and odd behavior I experienced.

Perhaps now I'll have better luck with Win Media Center.....
 
Glad things worked out. Given the small form factor and your expressed drive optical dilemma I assumed you only had 2 sata ports available on your mobo; I should have asked you to check. As far as a failed boot from your usb you were probably missing the bootloader to handshake the hardware to the OS. There's software out there that's required to make a bootable USB drive.

Time for bed I need my beauty sleep.

P.S. boobs away (aka uniform tango). Gotta remember that...ha, ha!
 
I would connect the enclosure to the "new" setup to see if Windows sees it. It may have nothing to do with Acronis and everything to do with the enclosure or selection of USB ports. It may have a non-standard USB controller, or one for a couple of the ports, which won't show up without special drivers.
 
Originally Posted By: SHOZ
The Hirens 15.2 Boot Cd can see the USB drives and clone. Easy peasy.
Thanks. I'll be giving that a look.

I've used Acronis for ages now. However, I've always owned larger computer case sizes that allowed multiple HD's to be connected internally. Thus, I didn't need to use any external USB drive. The SFF Optiplex has changed that. Obviously Acronis fails here, even though it says "...USB drivers included" per above.

The LAST thing I want is to make this HARDER and waste precious time on it. It has indeed been a learning lesson. One I've thoroughly documented so I'll have a guide when it happens again.
 
Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Originally Posted By: SHOZ
The Hirens 15.2 Boot Cd can see the USB drives and clone. Easy peasy.
Thanks. I'll be giving that a look.

I've used Acronis for ages now. However, I've always owned larger computer case sizes that allowed multiple HD's to be connected internally. Thus, I didn't need to use any external USB drive. The SFF Optiplex has changed that. Obviously Acronis fails here, even though it says "...USB drivers included" per above.

The LAST thing I want is to make this HARDER and waste precious time on it. It has indeed been a learning lesson. One I've thoroughly documented so I'll have a guide when it happens again.
just let it boot up. Partinfo is the program I think. It's at the top of the menu
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
I would connect the enclosure to the "new" setup to see if Windows sees it. It may have nothing to do with Acronis and everything to do with the enclosure or selection of USB ports. It may have a non-standard USB controller, or one for a couple of the ports, which won't show up without special drivers.

The external USB drive is indeed "seen" from W7, as before. It stays off most of the time as it's used for backup.

Who knows why it didn't work at boot? Too many variables.
 
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