Moving Vista to a new drive via "Complete PC Restore"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Al Degutis
  • Start date Start date
A

Al Degutis

I'm trying to move one of my Vista installs to a new, larger disk
drive. The older disk utilities I have (Partition Magic 7 and Ghost
v??) complain about errors in the Vista partition.

So, I figured I'd try using the "Complete PC Backup" and "Complete PC
Restore" functions. I created a complete backup to an external USB
drive. When I booted via the DVD and chose Repair, then Complete
Restore it wouldn't recognize the USB drive. I probably need to find
drivers to be able to do this.

Next, I pulled the drive from the external case and put it inside the
PC, and tried to restore but it gave me the following error:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Complete PC Restore operation failed.

Error details: There are too few disks on this computer or one or more
of the disks is too small. Add or change disks so they match the disks
in the backup and try the restore again. (0x80042401)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since the new drive was unpartitioned, I tried creating a partition
(larger than the old drive) then tried the restore again. Same error.

Okay, maybe the problem is that it's not finding a copy of Vista
already on the new drive. I did a quick partial install (up to the
point of the first reboot of copying files) on the new drive and then
tried a restore. The new install shows on the repair screen as one of
the version on tghe system, but it still won't restore ithe backup on
to the new drive (exact same error).

Now I wonder how reliable Complete PC Restore is, and how I can move
the existing install to a larger drive without reinstalling everyting
from scratch.

Al
 
I think you may be finding that the included "Complete PC Restore" function
within Vista is only intended to restore an exact duplicate to the exact
same hard drive. If you try to restore to a different size drive, it may not
work--as far as the backup is concerned, the numbers don't match--sectors,
etc (perhaps even the ID of the drive itself), and the backup cannot resize
on the fly (as Acronis and others can do).
 
Hi Max,

Yeah, I kinda figured that it was only going to allow a restore to the
same size drive. I tried to trick it by creating an identical
partition on the new drive, but it must be looking at more that just
the partition size. Guess I need to look at 3rd party tools, or
install from scratch.

Al
 
If you go the 3rd party route, seriously consider Acronis Home 10.
It works flawlessly, has far more options, and has none of the limitations
you have come to see.
 
Drive Copy and Acronis Migrate Easy is another. Your should make your copy,
then shut down the computer and change drive priority to have the new drive
the first in boot priority BEFORE starting up the copy as your new system.
There are a number of free copy programs available from the drive
manufacturers, so you may want to use one of those.
 
Max said:
I think you may be finding that the included "Complete PC Restore"
function within Vista is only intended to restore an exact duplicate to
the exact same hard drive. If you try to restore to a different size
drive, it may not work--as far as the backup is concerned, the numbers
don't match--sectors, etc (perhaps even the ID of the drive itself), and
the backup cannot resize on the fly (as Acronis and others can do).
Click to expand...

No, it is designed to restore to any disk which is the scenario faced
when the disk fails.
The problem is that their usb disk isn't recognised, why that is I don't
know as mine recognise ok when doing a recovery.
 
Al said:
I'm trying to move one of my Vista installs to a new, larger disk
drive. The older disk utilities I have (Partition Magic 7 and Ghost
v??) complain about errors in the Vista partition.

So, I figured I'd try using the "Complete PC Backup" and "Complete PC
Restore" functions. I created a complete backup to an external USB
drive. When I booted via the DVD and chose Repair, then Complete
Restore it wouldn't recognize the USB drive. I probably need to find
drivers to be able to do this.

Next, I pulled the drive from the external case and put it inside the
PC, and tried to restore but it gave me the following error:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Complete PC Restore operation failed.

Error details: There are too few disks on this computer or one or more
of the disks is too small. Add or change disks so they match the disks
in the backup and try the restore again. (0x80042401)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since the new drive was unpartitioned, I tried creating a partition
(larger than the old drive) then tried the restore again. Same error.

Okay, maybe the problem is that it's not finding a copy of Vista
already on the new drive. I did a quick partial install (up to the
point of the first reboot of copying files) on the new drive and then
tried a restore. The new install shows on the repair screen as one of
the version on tghe system, but it still won't restore ithe backup on
to the new drive (exact same error).

Now I wonder how reliable Complete PC Restore is, and how I can move
the existing install to a larger drive without reinstalling everyting
from scratch.
Click to expand...

The problem is that the usb drive isn't being recognised.
I can't answer why that is as I use several different ones here & they
are all detected.
I tend to leave the drive unplugged until I reach the point to choose
"repair" after booting from the DVD, then I plug in the drive.
It will restore to an unformatted disk.
The disk you restore to can be different to the one the image was made on.
We need to find out why it isn't seeing your usb disk as I assume it did
when you made the image?
Not much help to you, but I have done what you are attempting several times.
 
I've wondered about possible limitations in using Complete PC Restore,
too. I regularly make Complete PC Backups burned straight to DVDs, and I
have used various sets of these DVD backups to restore my C drive quite
a few times now with no issues at all.

HOWEVER, I once tried restoring a Complete PC Backup (from an 80 GB
partition) to a 60GB partition on a different drive, and the process
failed. (I don't remember the details.) This led me to worry that a
Complete PC Backup cannot be restored to a different drive and will
prove to be entirely worthless if one's drive fails. Hopefully, that is
not really the case, but I would sure like to find some detailed
explanation regarding under what circumstances one can or cannot restore.
 
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, Al. I would sure like to see
further information on how to restore a Complete PC Backup to a new hard
drive, which is an important use of such a backup, and which, as you
noticed, is problematic here. I might point out that, if the backup is
on DVD(s), replacing a failed HD with a new HD should not involve
running into the drive letter problem that you noted. But then, if HD
similarity is also an issue here (and I have run into this myself trying
to restore a backup from a SATA drive to an IDE drive), an important
question is: Exactly how similar/identical does the replacement HD
actually have to be to guarantee a successful restore? And *why* does it
matter?
 
I also experienced this error:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Complete PC Restore operation failed.

Error details: There are too few disks on this computer or one or more
of the disks is too small. Add or change disks so they match the disks
in the backup and try the restore again. (0x80042401)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

After trying many many many times and techniques, I booted a Linux disk (PC
Linux OS) and found there was a "Ontrack" hidden partition on the drive!
Funny, since Vista was just on this drive. I must have accidentally screwed
it up with Seagate's software. Surprised it was there as I zeroed the drive
with the Seagate software! Buggy, I see they are in the process of updating
it.

Linux to the rescue! After deleting the partition, restore went fine, from
external USB HD.
Just my adventure, it may not apply to you.
Duck3
 
I also experienced this error:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Complete PC Restore operation failed.

Error details: There are too few disks on this computer or one or more
of the disks is too small. Add or change disks so they match the disks
in the backup and try the restore again. (0x80042401)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

After trying many many many times and techniques, I booted a Linux disk (PC
Linux OS) and found there was a "Ontrack" hidden partition on the drive!
Funny, since Vista was just on this drive. I must have accidentally screwed
it up with Seagate's software. Surprised it was there as I zeroed the drive
with the Seagate software! Buggy, I see they are in the process of updating
it.

Linux to the rescue! After deleting the partition, restore went fine, from
external USB HD.
Just my adventure, it may not apply to you.
Duck3






- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

I think this Al Degutis guy is really proud of himself, I've seen him
post that same crap link on like 10 message boards. In case anyone
is wondering his "solution" is bogus and fraudelent. This issue as
far as I can gather has something to do with the drive order/letter
etc... I have 6 IDENTICAL (same model, size sectors, etc...) 80 gig
scsi drives that are recognized by Vista for install as well as in the
command prompt with diskpart when doing a repair. My system one died,
and I had been running scheduled backups so I figured I was covered.
However, I get that same wrong size/number of drive errors no matter
how many different configurations I have tried. I have yet to see a
plausible solution.
 
Ontrack is usually used in older systems that the BIOS would not recognize
larger drives.
By using the disk that came with the HDD, you should be able to remove
Ontrack.
I'm no great Vista Fan, but the solution was as simple as using the HDD
Manufacturer's software as intended.
 
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