Errors after cloning.

[glennd]

Win 10. Business client. CANNOT WIPE and Reload! They have obscure software that they cannot reinstall
I imaged and fabs'd a 3 TB Seagate drive that is showing errors on the drive.
I have cloned the drive, which completed without error, but after 2 cloning attempts I get the same error:

"Your PC needs to be repaired.
A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed."
Error code: 0xc000000e

I've booted from a Win 10 USB to run bootrec.exe.
Running bootrec /fixmbr is successful, but I get an "access is denied" error trying to run bootrec.exe /fixboot.

bootrec /rebuildbcd finds 1 Windows installation but if I type "y" it errors with "the requested system device cannot be found".

iv'e run diskpart with:
sel disk 0
list vol
sel vol 0
assign letter = C
exit

cd /d :\EFI\Microsoft\Boot returns error "the system cannot find the path specified"

bootrec /fixboot give Access denied error again

It's a GPT partitioning scheme with C, (Windows RE) D (Windows) E, (unassigned) F, (Recovery Im), System (unasigned), G (Unasigned hidden) H, Unasigned.

Any help appreciated.

Check the BIOS hasn't changed, particularly AHCI mode. Look for other hardware related settings. UEFI may have switched off.

 

[sapphirescales]

Just for the record, a clone is a perfect sector-by-sector copy of a drive. If the source drive has a billion sectors, it is impossible to make an exact clone to another drive that doesn't also have at least a billion sectors. Software that downsizes is actually automating the process of creating new partitions and copying files from one drive to the other, relying on a healthy file table and bitmap to identify the sectors to be copied. If there are file system issues on the source drive, it stands to reason that those issues are going to result in the same issues and possibly more issues due to sectors with data that were left behind.

In the case of the OP, the drive has a file system issue. So, it would make more sense to get a full sector-by-sector copy of the drive, to ensure that no data is left behind. If you are just migrating a known healthy file system from a healthy spinner to a smaller SSD, it is then that it makes sense to use a program like Acronis.

THIS! Take a 4TB or larger drive and do a 1:1 image. You can't always resize the partitions on a damaged drive reliably. If you want to clone the CLONE of the original drive and resize to fit on a smaller one (once you verify that the clone is working), that's fine. But when cloning a damaged drive, you ALWAYS do a 1:1 image without resizing anything, then clone it again if you want to resize the partitions. Price accordingly when you get a drive in like this because it's like double the work.

 

[GTP]

when you know what you're doing.

.....he said sneeringly as he overwrote the source with the target!....

Check the BIOS hasn't changed, particularly AHCI mode. Look for other hardware related settings. UEFI may have switched off.

Yeah, thanks but I checked all that.


@Diggs thank you for the suggestion about Macrium.

It worked perfectly and I now have working system to deliver back to the client in about a half hour!

Thank you all for assistance.

For those interested, this was a clone from a 3tb Seagate to a 3 tb WD Black drive.
It has 2.43TB of data on it + Windows and progs.

It is for a design studio and they use some custom software that is no longer available.


BTW, I have been doing many "clone" conversions to SSD, mainly Crucial 250G's from 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB spinner drives.
I use AOEMI Backupper, Acronis True image HD and EaseUS with no issues in "downsizing."

 

[sapphirescales]

BTW, I have been doing many "clone" conversions to SSD, mainly Crucial 250G's from 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB spinner drives.
I use AOEMI Backupper, Acronis True image HD and EaseUS with no issues in "downsizing."

It doesn't usually cause an issue to resize a partition. The exception is when there's damage to the drive itself. Macrium worked because Macrium does NOT resize partitions automatically. It's a 1:1 image of the drive. I ALWAYS use Macrium when cloning a drive with bad sectors (so long as the drive itself isn't physically failing of course!). I use HD Clone Professional for cloning to different size drives, and for imaging fresh Windows installs. HD Clone Professional works similarly (though in my opinion, it clones much more efficiently) to AOEMI, Acronis, and EaseUS. I use HD Clone Professional because it's so much faster than any other program (they have their own proprietary copy engine) and the clone failure rate is VERY low. But when dealing with damaged drives, Macrium stands the best chance.

 

[Diggs]

...
BTW, I have been doing many "clone" conversions to SSD, mainly Crucial 250G's from 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB spinner drives.
...

That's just it. The PC makers keep building in bigger and bigger HDDs (1TB, 2TB, etc.) as a selling point. Consumer think bigger must be better, right? But people's stuff isn't getting much bigger. They are shocked at the price when they bring their failed 1TB drive in for data recovery to find their tax returns and a few family pictures. Then they realize they are paying for 1 TB of recovery, not the 3 GB of "stuff" they lost. Almost every residential PC I touch gets downsized. Cloning down (especially to SSD) is huge.

 

[lcoughey]

That's just it. The PC makers keep building in bigger and bigger HDDs (1TB, 2TB, etc.) as a selling point. Consumer think bigger must be better, right? But people's stuff isn't getting much bigger. They are shocked at the price when they bring their failed 1TB drive in for data recovery to find their tax returns and a few family pictures. Then they realize they are paying for 1 TB of recovery, not the 3 GB of "stuff" they lost. Almost every residential PC I touch gets downsized. Cloning down (especially to SSD) is huge.

Whether they have 3GB of data on a 20GB drive or a 1.5TB of data on a 2TB drive, the price should be the same or close. If they think a 1TB drive is expensive for data recovery, wait until they see SSD data recovery prices. I just had to quote a client $9000 for a 480GB SSD recovery becaue I have to outsource it to the only lab I have ever found capable of recovering most SSDs I can't. That is a huge jump from my typical $900 for a physical SSD recover.

 

[Diggs]

Whether they have 3GB of data on a 20GB drive or a 1.5TB of data on a 2TB drive, the price should be the same or close....

Gillware has it's home here and is the predominant player. They charge by the size of the drive, not what is on it. They don't know where or how much data is on it so they recover the whole drive and charge accordingly. (That's their story and they are sticking to it.) I can private mail their rates if you would like @lcoughey (Luke Filewalker - heh).

 

[lcoughey]

Gillware has it's home here and is the predominant player. They charge by the size of the drive, not what is on it. They don't know where or how much data is on it so they recover the whole drive and charge accordingly. (That's their story and they are sticking to it.) I can private mail their rates if you would like @lcoughey (Luke Filewalker - heh).

For all professional labs, assuming that they follow best protocol, we will always shoot to get a full clone of the patient drive. So, if you come in with a 8 TB drive with 100GB of data, we still clone 8TB. Our lab does increase the price after 4TB because it does take a lot longer to handle the larger drives, but our increase in price is only $100/TB over 4TB which is not proportional to the extra amount of time needed. That said, the extra time needed is only machine time. That is why we are constantly investing in more data recovery imagers.

I'd love to see their rates, if you are willing to share.

 

[DataMedics]

Our prices are all the same up to 2Tb. Beyond that, it's an extra $50/Tb based on the drive size, not the amount of data.

We drew the line at 2Tb because most things up to that size can be cloned within a day after the hardware repairs are made. Over 2Tb, it's generally tying equipment up for two or more days so it's now interfering with being able to work on other cases the next day.

I'd love to see their rates, if you are willing to share.

I think Gillware is pretty expensive. Of the bigger labs, I think they're one of the more respectable companies, but all the bigger companies charge high prices.

 

[phaZed]

Here are all of my paid cases with Gillware (actual paid customer cases) since 2013 to 2017:
1TB 2.5" - $1400 - Dropped while on, stuck/damaged heads and surface damage.
1TB External USB 2.5" - $1407.39 - Dropped 1ft while on.. includes 1TB replacement drive with cust. data + shipping.
2TB 2.5" - $620.98 - PCB exposed to liquid/bad corrosion - Assume donor PCB was used for data recovery.

8GB Flash Drive - $1528.97 - Laterally sheered from USB port- pulled traces off and cracked multi-layer board in two - off-chip recovery.
8GB Flash Drive - $2101.10 - controller failure - presumed off-chip recovery or donor controller chip - includes 500GB drive w/data + shipping

1TB External - $805.98 - Bad sector/old age recovery, software recovery no-go - includes replacement 1TB + shipping.
320GB External - $990 - Bad sector/old age recovery, software recovery no-go - includes replacement 320GB + shipping.
640GB 3.5" - $514.38 - Bad sector/old age recovery, software recovery no-go

1TB External - $1210 - Stuck spindle/head crash - includes 1TB replacement drive

320GB External - $729.95 - No data bus response/firmware? - $729.95 - includes 1TB drive and shipping

1TB 3.5" - $950 - Bad sector/old age recovery, software recovery no-go

Hope that can help @lcoughey.

 

[Altster]

1 word : CLONEZILLA! Save the drive as an image - if you can.

 

[lcoughey]

Here are all of my paid cases with Gillware (actual paid customer cases) since 2013 to 2017:
1TB 2.5" - $1400 - Dropped while on, stuck/damaged heads and surface damage.
1TB External USB 2.5" - $1407.39 - Dropped 1ft while on.. includes 1TB replacement drive with cust. data + shipping.

Assuming that these drives actually needed a head change (sometimes they don't), my lab would charge

$900 + cost of parts (~ $690 + ~$200 for the parts in USD)

2TB 2.5" - $620.98 - PCB exposed to liquid/bad corrosion - Assume donor PCB was used for data recovery.

$350 (~ $265 USD)

8GB Flash Drive - $1528.97 - Laterally sheered from USB port- pulled traces off and cracked multi-layer board in two - off-chip recovery.
8GB Flash Drive - $2101.10 - controller failure - presumed off-chip recovery or donor controller chip - includes 500GB drive w/data + shipping

Chip-off recoveries for us are

$900 (~690 USD)

1TB External - $805.98 - Bad sector/old age recovery, software recovery no-go - includes replacement 1TB + shipping.
320GB External - $990 - Bad sector/old age recovery, software recovery no-go - includes replacement 320GB + shipping.
640GB 3.5" - $514.38 - Bad sector/old age recovery, software recovery no-go

Definitely minor recoveries:

$350 (~ $265 USD)

1TB External - $1210 - Stuck spindle/head crash - includes 1TB replacement drive

If heads needed to be changed:

$900 + cost of parts (~ $690 + ~$200 for the parts in USD)

If patients heads are still working enough to recover the data

$350 (~ $265 USD)

320GB External - $729.95 - No data bus response/firmware? - $729.95 - includes 1TB drive and shipping

1TB 3.5" - $950 - Bad sector/old age recovery, software recovery no-go

$350 (~ $265 USD)

There is also a 20% discount for resellers. We don't offer free shipping and destination media because we all know that they are never free and are just jacked into the price. Many resellers have a few destination drives that they just re-use when sending projects our way. I just don't think it is fair for me to embed the price of shipping and a drive into everyone's recovery, even if they supply a drive and are walking in our front door.

That said, Gillware is a reputable lab and very good at what they do. I'm just trying to provide a professional lab experience where you, the resellers, are able to provide your clients with the most affordable data recovery options without sacrificing professional service.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Win 10. Business client. CANNOT WIPE and Reload! They have obscure software that they cannot reinstall

A lot of obscure software can simply be moved over as long as you find the proper appdata, registry, etc entries but some anti piracy protections can cause some real problems.

 

[Your PCMD]

I never clone, I image with Macrium.

This ^. And Reflect is a god send for me, even those times when I just needed to "clone". Never had an issue using it. Aomei Backupper is as good as its name, backup.

I now have working system to deliver back to the client in about a half hour!

And I hope you try to sell them on a backup solution.

 

[GTP]

A lot of obscure software can simply be moved over as long as you find the proper appdata, registry, etc entries but some anti piracy protections can cause some real problems.

Yeah, I've had mixed success doing that at times but this was a huge program that they said was originally on 4 CD's? DVD's? that have since been lost. It is custom software called Design Table Studio by a company called TechCraft. They were local software designers? Not 100% sure.
Anyway all's well that ends well.

 

[GTP]

And I hope you try to sell them on a backup solution.

I'm working on a technology review to overhaul their whole setup.
All the workstations are pushing 3 years old and were from a local IT supplier, so they aren't very good quality.
I would like to get them laptops, but I think they are pushing toward MacBooks/iMacs/iPads.

There is no server ( I don't think they really need one) or NAS backup, they just use OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive.

For email they're using gmail, Outlook 2013 and outlook.com.

Their office printer is an old Canon that's slow as heck, won't print sometimes, continually has problems etc.

The one thing I don't particularly like is the fact that they share their internet connection with 2 other offices!
One of the other offices owns it and they share it. Not sure exactly because I got told to leave it alone!

 

[Diggs]

The one thing I don't particularly like is the fact that they share their internet connection with 2 other offices!
One of the other offices owns it and they share it. Not sure exactly because I got told to leave it alone!

Can you/they Vlan your net connection? Each office should have their own Vlan at the very least. As a security issue for all involved this should be an easy no-brainer for them.

 

[Your PCMD]

I got told to leave it alone!

Sounds familiar

 

[GTP]

Can you/they Vlan your net connection? Each office should have their own Vlan at the very least. As a security issue for all involved this should be an easy no-brainer for them.

I cant do anything, as I don't have access to the hardware. When I took this client on I asked about "internet connections" and was told the modem is in one of the other offices. If anything goes wrong with it they (the owners of the other offices) have their own service dept.
Hopefully whoever is in charge of it has done it properly.
Have not had any issues so far.