How to work with cloned hard drives

[sofasurfer]

I have PCI Clone Maxx, hard drive cloning program. I am unable to find
documenation for it that explains anything about how to use it. This is
my first attempt at cloning so I don't know a lot about it.

My primary drive is a Maxtor 38 gig. My secondary is a Maxtor 160 gig.
I cloned the 38 gig onto the 160 gig. At least thats what was the goal.

After cloning I removed the boot disk and rebooted. I got freeze ups
and safe mode screens. So I went into BIOS and uninstalled the
secondary drive and then rebooted to the primary. So far so good.
Next I went to BIOS and uninstalled the primary and installed the
secondary. Rebooted and pc started ok.

Now I am booted to the secondary drive which is 160 gig. But MY
COMPUTER shows it as drive C: and the same size as the primary, which
was the original drive C:

So, these are my questions...

1. After cloning, is uninstalling the clone is BIOS the proper
proceedure, or does it need to be physically disconnected?

2. Can I disconnect the primary and run my pc off the secondary with no
problems?

3. If I wiped out my 38 gig primary and wanted to restore it from my
160 gig secondary, would the software compensate for the differant
drive sizes?

4. If you have any other advice please tell me.

Thanks...

 

[Rod Speed]

I have PCI Clone Maxx, hard drive cloning program. I am unable
to find documenation for it that explains anything about how to use it.
This is my first attempt at cloning so I don't know a lot about it.

My primary drive is a Maxtor 38 gig. My secondary is a Maxtor 160 gig.
I cloned the 38 gig onto the 160 gig. At least thats what was the goal.

After cloning I removed the boot disk and rebooted. I got freeze ups
and safe mode screens. So I went into BIOS and uninstalled the
secondary drive and then rebooted to the primary. So far so good.
Next I went to BIOS and uninstalled the primary and installed the
secondary. Rebooted and pc started ok.

Now I am booted to the secondary drive which is 160 gig.
But MY COMPUTER shows it as drive C: and the same
size as the primary, which was the original drive C:

So, these are my questions...

1. After cloning, is uninstalling the clone is BIOS the proper
proceedure, or does it need to be physically disconnected?

No, it needs to be physically disconnected, essentially because Win
does its own scan for drives, quite apart from what is listed in the bios.

2. Can I disconnect the primary and run
my pc off the secondary with no problems?

You should be able to if you do the cloning properly, particularly with
what drives are visible on the first boot after the clone has been.

You dont appear to have done that correctly because the
primary drive was still visible on the first boot of the clone.

3. If I wiped out my 38 gig primary and wanted to
restore it from my 160 gig secondary, would the
software compensate for the differant drive sizes?

A proper cloner can do that, as long as the contents
of the 160G drive will actually fit on the 38G drive.
Obviously if the contents wont fit, no cloner can do that.

4. If you have any other advice please tell me.

Use True Image instead, its a much more bulletproof cloner
and has adequate documentation as well and is currently
the best backup app available in most situations as well.

 

[Arno Wagner]

I have PCI Clone Maxx, hard drive cloning program. I am unable to find
documenation for it that explains anything about how to use it.

Well, I wonder why that is.....

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Did it take you long to make that question as ambiguous as it is?

No, it needs to be physically disconnected,

Not if you can disable the channel that it's on in BIOS setup temporarily.

essentially because Win does its own scan for
drives, quite apart from what is listed in the bios.

Not if the channel has been disabled in BIOS setup.