cloned hard drive won't boot 2

[jsaad]

I have a Windows NT voicemail system and I made a clone of the good working drive. The good drive is 8.6gb and the clone is a 60gb hard drive. All of the data has been transferred successfully to the cloned drive however it will not boot.

I don't know how to fix this.

I use a DiskJockey to make the copy and I put the drive as a slave and verified that the copy process took place.

Could it be the MBR, or something else. What can I do to get this drive to boot? Is it too large?

 

[kjv1611]

1. When you made the copy, did you verify it would boot at that time?
2. How long has the clone been sitting since it was made? If it sat too long (years), then it could be hardware failure
3. Same idea as #2 - what sort of environment was it stored in? Dust/Humidity levels (not numbers, just the general idea)...
4. Have you had any hardware changes in the system since the clone?
5. When you say a Windows NT voicemail system, is it one that is installed on top of NT, or did it somehow encapsulate NT, and cannot be installed without NT? Reason I ask this is that only in the latter case would I think the size of the drive would matter... unless the next case..
6. How old is the motherboard? Is it possible the board is so old that it won't recognize anything if it's over say 20GB (just picking a number on this one)?
7. Why are you replacing the drive at all? Did anything happen to make you think the problem was the drive itself?
8. Have you tried swapping the hard drive data cable?
9. Have you tried a different data connection on the motherboard?
10. Have you tried a different power connector - verified you are getting juice to the new hard drive?
11. Have you tried an MBR repair tool just in case it could be the MBR as you already suggested?

Anyway, those are just some of the thoughts I've come up with in what I'd do to troubleshoot..

 

[jsaad]

yes the original boots.
the clone is newly made
drive has been stored in a clean dry cabinet
no hardware changes
voicemail runs on top of WinNt
Motherboard / PC is about 10 years old. I suppose it may not recognize anything over 20gb (or 10gb perhaps)
the original drive failed
i did not try swapping any cables or power connectors
I don't know how/what to use MBR tool

I just popped this cloned drive (the one in question) in a 6 year old computer and it booted up. so perhaps the older PC / bios just won't recognize it?

Is there a way to make a partition of a certain size and then copy the data over using DOS/Winnt/Xcopy? and make it bootable?

 

[BadBigBen]

what drive are you using? some have jumper settings that limit the GB size hardware wise... then clone to the HDD, some clone software also allow you to preserve the size of the CLONE...

now, unless the OLD PC recognizes the NEW HDD, then resizing will not matter at all...

you also could look into a bootable PCI IDE adapter, which would/could bypass the BIOS, and possible allow the PC to boot from the NEW HDD... but that would also be a bit problematic, due to driver injection etc...




Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[FredWagner]

Suggest you contact the vendor of the Voicemail software for guidance. If the 60GB drive boots in a newer PC, you may be able to transfer the voicemail hardware to the newer PC where the drive will boot.

Fred Wagner

 

[kjv1611]

I just popped this cloned drive (the one in question) in a 6 year old computer and it booted up. so perhaps the older PC / bios just won't recognize it?

Was it recognized in the BIOS at all?

Have you since tried swapping the cables/connectors?

Have you checked the old PC for bad/leaking/failing capacitors?

Have you since checked the jumper settings as suggested by BadBigBen?

Did you find any of them to be the solution, or are you still troubleshooting? Please give an update.

 

[jsaad]

i believe the PC / Motherboard won't recognize a hdd bigger than 10gb. The cloned drive of 60GB has been verified good in a different machine.

I am going to get a smaller drive ~8.6gb and see if that will work.

thank you all for your advice and shared knowledge, it is much appreciated!