WD Drive-to-Drive not copying all files

[fugsco]

Hello. I'm a newbie so if I am repeating an old posted question, sorry!
I'm adding a RAID1 SATA pair of drives to my machine. My hope is to copy everything from my existing IDE boot drive (currently C: ) and running Windows and evrything else from the new set. If all goes well, I would reformat the old drive and switch drive letters, booting to the RAID array (future C: ) and using the old IDE drive (future D: ) for extra space- or something.

I've used software that came with the drives- Western Digital's Data LifeGuard Drive-to-Drive copy utility to copy the entire contents of C: to D: When running Drive-to-Drive in Windows, there are over 1000 files not copied, mostly registry-looking stuff. So I figure those must be in use and unreadable or something so I tried again, this time booting to the CD drive and running the Drive-to-Drive utility from there. After several hours of copying, all seems to be well. There are no messages about uncopied files- no messages at all, really. But booting to the new array (still D: ) gives error messages:

"Generic Host Process of Win32 Services" stopped or something like that. Windows still runs OK. I tried unplugging IDE and Power from old IDE drive in order to assign the drive letter, and the system hangs on Windows boot screen. Plug IDE/Power back in, restart- still booting to new RAID array, OK. But I'm unable to change drive letters because(?) Windows page file is still on (old) C: I removed page file from (old) C: and change drive letter (to X: ), same hang on Windows boot screen. Have to reboot to old IDE C:, and thats where it sits now.

So it seems that Drive-to-Drive is not copying everything, and as result I just have only a very redundant triple copy of (almost) everything on my C: Help! Any experience with this software or suggestions for a better solution for my goal would be most welcomed.

Thanks!

[dcc]

You should either install the OS on one of the new drives and then transfer your files, or use a utility like Synmantec Ghost or Acronis True Image to make a mirror image of you existing drive and transfer that to one of the new drives.

[DimaYasny]

Acronis is the better choice, because symantec's software has some problems with many sata controllers

[fugsco]

Well I tried using Ghost to do the same copy from C: to D: but with the same results. I still have a few error messages but everything seems to work OK. I'm using an older copy of Ghost (from System Works 2003- cuz that's what I have) and did not re-format the D: array before I started. Could these be a problem? I actually don't know how to go about formatting the RAID array prior to starting the copy process. When I run the WD Data Lifeurad tools, the only option similar to format is set-up, and the program asks if I want the new drive to be set up for extra storage or as a boot drive. If I choose boot drive it forces a size limit of 137GB (the drives are 250BG) and threatens to copy some information from C:, which I fear will screw up the Ghost copy, so I went for extra storage. What ever the "set-up" was took far too little time to have actually erased anything. Will this effect me?

[fugsco]

Ps I don't have access to Acronis...

[fry]

what do you mean you don't have access to acronis?

to clone your old drive to the new one it's better to use migrate easy, if you don't plan to buy true image, coz true image has a 15 day full working version.

[fersail]

I had the same problem Fugsco had, all the same conditions and ended up purchasing an updated BIOS and I am a happy camper now! My Bios now sees the SATA controller, I used the WD Data life guard software to create the image of my old IDE drive, left the jumper in the Cable Select position and flipped the cable hook up to slave, now my BIOS boots of the SATA and I left the old IDE for storage after a nice format. got my bios off esupport.com, easy instructions and now my HP runs like a dream. The only problem I never shared with Fugsco was the 137 GB limit, but that is also covered by a new BIOS.
Good luck.

what do you mean you don't have access to acronis?

to clone your old drive to the new one it's better to use migrate easy, if you don't plan to buy true image, coz true image has a 15 day full working version.