Copy a Disk to a Disk

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Attention: All previous data on the destination disk will be completely deleted

To copy an entire disk or its part to another one:

1Click Copy Disk to Disk on the Action Selection panel

R-Drive Image will start analyzing the computer disk configuration, the Progress... message showing the progress. Then the Object Selection panel will show the configuration.

More information...

Disk Configuration

Primary partition Logical disk Unallocated space Other partition type

You may select all objects on a hard drive by clicking the hard drive icon.. It will show the marked hard drive.

Note: If other low-level disk software (including Windows internal services) is running, the Error: Another partitioner is active message may appear and R-Drive Image will not go to the next panel. Stop this low-level disk software or wait until Windows services stop this low-level disk access before proceeding further.

2Select the disk object on the Source: on the Object Selection panel, select a destination, and click the Next button

You may select only one object at a time, and you need to specify the destination to proceed further.

Use the Refresh button if your computer disk configuration has been changed (when you connect a USB disk, for example).

More information...

If the destination is smaller than the selected object, R-Drive Image will show the Source is larger than Destination message and you will need to select another destination.

If you select several partitions as the destination, R-Drive Image will show the You have selected several partitions... message. If you click the OK button, all those partitions will be deleted and data will be restored on that free space.

Note: Although R-Drive Image shows unallocated space instead of the deleted partitions, the partitions and their data will be actually deleted only when R-Drive Image starts copying the data.

Selected Object and Destination

Primary partition Logical disk Unallocated space Other partition type

If you try to copy data to or from a system, or other disk locked by the system or other application, the Disk not locked message will appear.

To continue copying you may:

If you copy data to or from your system disk, select Restart computer (recommended) to continue restoring the data in the R-Drive Image startup mode. Read carefully the Disk to Disk Copy Using the Startup Disks topic before you proceed.
If you copy data to a disk locked by other low-level disk software (including Windows internal services), stop this software and select Retry to lock the disk once again.
You may also try to unlock the disk by selecting Force Windows to unlock the disk (not recommended). If Windows fails to unlock the disk, the Disk not locked message will appear again. You will need to stop the software locking the disk manually or select Restart computer (recommended) to continue copying the data in the R-Drive Image startup mode.

Note: Use this option cautiously, because it may cause unpredictable results including system crash and data loss.

You may select all objects on a hard drive by clicking the hard drive icon.. It will show the marked hard drive.

3Specify copy parameters on the Restore/Copy Parameters panel and click the Next button

Restore parameters

Restore Options

You may visually adjust the location and size of the object to be restored. All other restore options will be adjusted accordingly. Also, when you adjust one or several restore options directly, these changes will be shown visually. Green marks available space.

Minimum partition size

Minimum partition size that may be allocated for the data in the image. Depends on how much free space is in the data in the image and its file system.

Maximum partition size

Maximum partition size that may be allocated for the data in the image. Depends on the file system of the selected object.

Free space before

You may specify the size of free space that will be left on the hard drive before the beginning of the partition.

Partition size

You may specify the size of the partition to be restored. Should be between the minimum and maximum partition size.

Free space after

You may specify the size of free space that will be left on the hard drive after the end of the partition.

Partition type

Primary (Active)/ Primary/Logical

You may specify the type of the partition to be restored. Do not change this setting unless you have serious reasons to do so.

File system for the selected partitions

You may select the file system for the partition to be restored.

Drive letter for the selected partition

Select the letter that will be assigned to the partition. You may select "Do not connect" if you do not want to connect this partition to your system.

To copy data from an entire hard drive to another hard drive:

The Restore/Copy Parameters panel will be different with different sets of options:

HDD Copy Method

Raw disk copy

R-Drive Image writes sector-by-sector the data from the original drive or its image to the target one making an exact copy of the original disk regardless of its partitioning method. Can be used if other methods create a non-bootable disk due to incorrect  detection of drive's geometry or non-standard loader.

Drawback: partition sizes cannot be changed.

Copy all partitions onto original places

R-Drive Image copies all partitions to their original places. If R-Drive Image detects the drive's geometry correctly, and there is no non-standard loader, it makes the same result as during Raw disk copy.

One partition after another

If there are empty (not-used) places between the partitions, R-Drive Image copies them one after another preserving their original sizes. Otherwise it is similar to Copy all partitions onto original places.

Expand/Shrink partition to whole disk

If there are empty (not-used) places between the partitions or they occupy less or more space than the target drive, R-Drive Image proportionally expands/shrinks them to occupy the entire target drive. Otherwise it is similar to Copy all partitions onto original places.

One partition after another (Fixed active partition)

The same as One partition after another but preserving the original offset/size of the active partition (in case the loader has links to it).

Expand/Shrink partition to whole disk (Fixed active partition)

The same as Expand/Shrink partition to whole disk but preserving the original offset/size of the active partition (in case the loader has links to it).

See Support for Various Non-MBR Partition Layouts for details.

4Verify that the information on the Processing panel is correct and click the Start button

You may add other objects and copy data to several destinations in one process. Select Add another object to copy in the Next Selection on the Processing panel and click the Next button.

You may also create a script for this action. Click the Script to Clipboard button and paste the script to any text-processing utility

>R-Drive Image will start copying the data from the source to the selected destination place.

When the data is copied, the Object copied successfully message will appear.

If some other program (like a file manager) is accessing the partition on which the data is to be restored, the Cannot lock the disk message will appear. Close this program or make it stop accessing the partition.

If you copy an entire hard drive to another hard drive, two absolutely identical hard drive will appear in your system. That will confuse it and may cause unpredictable results. To prevent that, a Disk copied successfully message will appear. You may turn your system off to disconnect one of the disks, or restart it to disable one of the disk in the BIOS of your system. Under Windows 95/98/Millennium, the target disk will not appear until system restart even if you decide to click the Cancel button,.

Bad Sectors

When R-Drive Image encounters a bad sector, the IO Error message will appear. You may either cancel the current action or fill the bad sectors with zeros.

IO Error Options

Abort

Click this button to cancel the action

Retry

Click this button to try to read the bad sectors once again

Ignore

Click this button to skip this error and fill the bad sectors with zeros

Ignore All

Click this button to skip all errors and fill the bad sectors with zeros

 

The Disk Actions chapter explains basic disk actions.

The Startup Version chapter explains how to perform disk actions using the R-Drive Image Startup Version.

The Technical Information chapter gives technical information on Supported CD and DVD Recorders and List of Hardware Devices Supported in the Startup Mode and another useful technical information.

Follow this link to obtain R-Drive Image Contact Information and Technical Support