1st, you should know that their forum is in German... sure there's a little English here and there, but..
So I have an IDE and 2 SATAs I boot from the IDE for XP and from the 2nd SATA for Win7.
The IDE is full, only 9GB open. I tried ALL the different ways to copy and it either failed or created a new copy with only 9GB free, even on the freshly formatted 500GB SATA 1. I also get a cross-linked error message when I try to adjust the partition, but when I try to run a chkdsk on it, it says it can't do it until I reboot, and I reboot and it NEVER runs, no matter which OS I choose.
So if anyone has any ideas, inside or outside of this paragon partition manager, I'm all ears.
The idea was to GAIN space, not to copy the cramped space!
paragon issue, sort of
(8 posts) (5 voices)-
promytius1
MemberPosted 12 years ago # -
ChrisS
AdministratorAre you asking "how do I clone my XP installation to a larger SATA drive"?
If so, the simplest solution is to boot to your Win7 installation, image the XP installation to either the Win7 disk or an external drive, then restore the image to the 2nd SATA drive. Then boot to the 2nd SATA drive and all should be good. In case you need imagining software, Macrium Reflect FREE Edition.
A note of caution... if your SATA controller is set to RAID or AHCI and you didn't load the additional drivers when you installed XP then you may be SOL as there's no easy way to add them later. If you get a BSOD when you boot to XP then try resetting the SATA controller to IDE in the BIOS. Hopefully that will fix the XP installation but it might cause the Win7 installation to fail.
Posted 12 years ago # -
promytius1
MemberTHANK YOU for your replies:
Here's how I resolved it. K.I.S.S.
I removed everything but the SATA which had the cross-linked files. That way, there was no confusion as to who was controlling the boot sequence (even though it still listed the Win7 system as an option, that didn't function) I was able to then schedule a dskchk /f on the next reboot. That worked. Then I could re-size the partition from its 250 with 9 left to a full 500GB (well, you know, almost 500).
Then I put the rest of the devices back in, except for the IDE, which I decided to keep as a backup for the XP side of the system! So the answer was that Paragon and M$'s OS were confused by the dual-boot and the cross-linked files kept the system from handling them properly with a dual-boot in place; so simplify and persevere, I guess is the answer.
Paragon's software, while powerful is frustrating to use, especially the pop-up notices with a check me box to NOT pop them up again - I cannot get my mouse to the box in time to check it before it disappears! I even tried to ambush it, it's too fast.
Also, I do not like the 'virtual' working; I'd rather be asked twice to perform an operation instead of running a process, finishing it, and then have to remember to do it for real, and then wait for a reboot, etc. etc. Once you load Paragon, it controls your computer, slows the boot to a crawl, and takes its own sweet time running itself. That said, it DID what I wanted, even if it was like wrestling a 2 ton gorilla to the ground!
Thanks again for your interest!Posted 12 years ago # -
mikiem2
ModeratorI've installed the Paragon Boot Manager which allows me to boot from either of my TWO Harddisks at will.
Every OS has a boot loader, & a boot mgr. points to different boot loaders &/or other boot mgr.s. But something has to start the very 1st boot mgr. or loader [in case of just one OS]. That 1st mgr. or loader is started by code in the very 1st, hidden disk track. Every hard disk I think has that track, though normally only the first disk has boot code in it. You can add boot code to things like CD/DVD discs & USB devices -- setting the boot order in the Bios or using a Bios boot menu tells your PC/laptop where to look first, & assuming it finds working code it needs, it won't look further. It can [but I don't think always will] work the same way if you have multiple hard drives, each with it's own boot code, but that's Not recommended, about the only way you can achieve that is installing something after unplugging drives, if/when you use that sort of setup you cannot always use a boot mgr., & you'll have problems when Windows or software writes to the first track of the disk where it lives rather than the one you booted from. I don't think every Bios will let you choose the hard drive to check 1st either, making a mistake while in the Bios can screw your system up [badly], & not every Bios gives you a separate boot menu you can use without going into the Bios setup proper.
FWIW installing Paragon's Boot Mgr. will *go 1st* before existing Windows boot mgr.s.
Posted 12 years ago # -
mikiem2
ModeratorIf it helps at all, promytius1, & I don't know that it will since you've got your project completed...
You might have some hardware-based IDE vs. SATA issues. Booting to a IDE HDD on most motherboards made in at least the last 5 years or so is rarely done, so rarely tested much. Reason I mention it is those issues may come to your attention again later. Reason I think you might have issues is you posted:
I removed everything but the SATA which had the cross-linked files. That way, there was no confusion as to who was controlling the boot sequence (even though it still listed the Win7 system as an option, that didn't function) I was able to then schedule a dskchk /f on the next reboot.
In the standard, default setup your boot files would all be on the IDE drive with XP, so without it you would have no boot menu. Likewise, as hotdoge3 pointed out, you should only have one boot drive/partition activated -- having 2 would indicate a partition problem from the start.
I Think there are 2 file or disk check apps in win7, plus those from the hard drive maker. All need exclusive use of the disk/partition, which is why the re-boot. If/when you suspect problems with the drive itself, use the manufacturer's software -- using Windows, parts of the drive can be marked bad & that info recorded in the NTFS file tables [if you're using NTFS], & that is Very difficult to get rid of. At any rate, the way it should work is you tell win7 to perform the disk check on the system drive/partition next boot, then during boot select win7 in the win7 boot mgr., & then the win7 process should start. In XP you do the same thing, but when you select XP in the win7 boot mgr. you may have to additionally select XP in the XP boot mgr, if you've configured it to come up. You can do a disk check of the win7 disk/partition in XP without reboot, & you can check the XP drive/partition in win7 without reboot as well.
Paragon & EASEUS apps check the partition before they will do anything to it - think of it as a sort of sanity check, since copying a bad partition is going to give you a bad partition as a result. If you have to have a bad partition copied, backed up, cloned or whatever, you *might* be able to do it checking the option to use every cluster, not just the one's with data, & you might have to try several apps, including from their boot discs -- you might want that sort of thing for forensics where you can't alter the original, so maybe Google/Bing for more info.
So the answer was that Paragon and M$'s OS were confused by the dual-boot and the cross-linked files kept the system from handling them properly with a dual-boot in place
Actually neither Microsoft nor Paragon nor EASEUS nor GParted have problems with multi-boot systems if they're set up properly. The problem as noted earlier is working with bad disks/partitions when it's assumed you don't want the results to be broken too.
Paragon's software, while powerful is frustrating to use, especially the pop-up notices with a check me box to NOT pop them up again - I cannot get my mouse to the box in time to check it before it disappears! I even tried to ambush it, it's too fast.
You can set the default behavior in the program's options, including whether to use virtual operations -- virtual operations On means you can set everything up, then run later, rather than sitting & waiting for one operation to complete, then setting up another task. It's both the most popular & default way to do things with partition apps -- not just Paragon's. OTOH I wonder how much bother the message boxes can be if they go away before you can reach them? :-)
Once you load Paragon, it controls your computer, slows the boot to a crawl, and takes its own sweet time running itself.
I **Think** what you're talking about is that when you have Paragon Partition Mgr., or EASEUS Partition Master etc., do something that cannot be done inside running Windows, they have no choice but to perform that operation during a re-boot. That DOS-like environment can be slow when you're moving a lot of data, which does take time anyway. TO get around that you can try to figure out how to do whatever operation while in Windows -- you can minimize the work that has to be done during re-boot [e.g. move whatever data around in Windows, then just do the partition size without a data move on re-boot] -- you can boot to something like WinPE where data moving is faster -- you can see if an Acronis app/boot disc will do what you need [Acronis boot discs are faster than most of the competition] -- you can check out a GParted Live disc [a full version of *nix can move data faster like Windows].
Posted 12 years ago #
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