Can anyone recommend a different CD bootable utility I might try to clone a hard disk drive?
I've so far failed to perform the seemingly simple task of cloning the contents from a small hard disk drive onto a larger one.
Apparently Hitachi (target) doesn't offer a bootable utility for this. But, that's okay because Western Digital (source) does!
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for DOS (CD)
But, when I boot from its CD, it immediately reports that it now doesn't have a SATA CD driver?!?
blah blah blah Virtual disk drive : C: (128 Kb, 512 bytes, 512 entries) CD-ROM Device Driver for IDE/ATAPI, Ver 1.5 rev.016 Copyright (C) 1997. All rights reserved. **Error: No CD-ROM drive found, please check power or cable. **Error: IDE CD-ROM device driver NOT installed!! Caldrea DR-DOS 7.05 Copyright (c) 1976, 1998 Caldera, Inc. All rights reserved. A:\> echo off NWCDEX.EXE Version 2.18 CD-ROM file handler. Copyright (c) 1992, 1997 Caldera, Inc. All rights reserved. Driver not found: 'generic'. A:\NWCDEX.EXE requires a Driver name to be specified. Invalid drive specified Command or filename not recognized Command or filename not recognized Command or filename not recognized Command or filename not recognized A:\>
Well, there is a floppy version:
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for DOS (Floppy)
So, I pried a floppy diskette drive from an old computer, hooked it up, created the boot disk, rebooted the PC, and it failed too!
Starting Caldera DR-DOS... Can't load BDOS kernel file: A:\IBMDOS.COM System halted.
I reformatted to try again, but then I then couldn't create the disk.
The tab was closed. I toggled it and retried several times. I even tried different diskettes. Same error each time. I guess my ancient floppy diskette drive must be broken.
Can anyone recommend a different CD bootable utility I might try to clone a hard disk drive?
Update: I've salvaged a second floppy disk drive from an old computer. It also insists that the diskette's write-protect tab is open. Windows will format it, so it's Western Digital's issue.
Update: Perhaps it's a problem with Windows Vista. I was able to create the floppy diskette with Windows XP.
Best Answer
The canonical commercial example is Ghost; good open-source alternatives include FOG or Clonezilla.
(Also useful to know is you can make a bootable DOS USB key with the HP Drive Key Boot Utility. Never touch a floppy disk again.)