Apologies for this question being asked again. I could not find it.

Raw Copy Tool says it cannot lock a drive and close any open programs.

How do I check for this since I do not see any open programs even in the tray?

windows has many "programs" open in the background. maybe try instantly after a reboot. Or use a cloning tool that boots from a USB, so there is no open programs at all

or try in safe mode

... or try LockHunter, to show you what's locking the drive and to unlock it easily (unless it's a Windows process that can't be ended without grief, in which case just restart Windows and try again).

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One thing that the Raw Copy program told me on the detail screen was that there
is a password on there-- which would have had to be from a previous user.

The drive is not new nor bought new. It took a format and the OS ok.

I've read about password headaches on HDD Guru previous usually with the word help and an exclamation point.

Safe mode sounds like a good method to get around the problem.

What do you want to do ?

If the drive have a password you can't access to it's data to start with unless you know the password or is ste by the BIOS and unlocked at boot.

If you do have access to the data on the drive then you should be able to clone it.

Try with MHDD. Does it reports the drive is locked by ATA password ?

If not clone it with ddrescue instead.

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I have not used a rescue program. The HD in question normally takes my backup from a program called Norton Ghost which I have used for a long time.

Ghost however does not recognize the HD when attached to a PCI SATA card. Raw Copy sees the drive but gives the error stated. I have exchanged one problem for another.

In truth I did not not try the start frrm Safe Mode yet. I loaded MHDD's text style screen but after not having used it for a long time it's like looking at something completely new again.

What commands get me going to find what's needed in MHDD?

I don't understand what you want to do.

Check the drive with MHDD. If it detects the drive type EID and see if it states that the drive is password protected/locked.

If you just want to clone one drive to the other use ddrescue or prosoft media tools instead.

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I will check out the two alternatives you suggest.

Just now I went to Safe mode and once again attempted to load Raw Copy Tool from the CD. Again the lock error occured. Could this not be solved by having a bootable CD/ ISO image and can HDD Guru provide Raw Copy Tool as a bootable ISO for download?

I know of no other method to get rid of this locking error which, as stated, does not occur when using the old Norton Ghost. The only prep that is needed is to run chkdsk /f.

If you really care about how exact the clone will be you shouldn't be cloning a drive that is in use by windows.

You should either use something like hardware assisted cloning tool or forensic tool and lacking those your best chance is to load from DOS and run something to clone/image the drive like savepart or image for dos or prosoft media tools, whatever.

If your drive have bad sectors and you get errors while copy/image your best choice will be ddrescue,

Read here :

http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=1160

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Also you can try to run the Raw Copy Tool from mini-windows on Hirens boot cd.

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_Trying_ to run backups is a bad idea. I need something that is -- well I know the gang doesn't like this-- foolproof. That is what the old Ghost always has been.

I'm not a coder.

I don't speak Linux though for a period I tried to migrate to it. I think Clonezilla was one that loaded a CD version of Linux and ran but it must have failed because I have the Live CD but don't use it.

What remains is Hirens. I don't know the method that a Hirens ISO uses to get to the Raw Copy program.

Perhaps I should give Acronis another try.

The question remains: If loading Raw Copy from an HD where the program is on CD, why not have a RAW Copy bootable disk? And would that solve a problem that has not existed under Ghost until I began using the PCI board? The reason for this is I'm looking for a solution when my last IDE port motherboard and DVD drive go to their final reward.

The quick answer is an upgrade.

What happen if you run a Hirens boot cd mini windows or any other portable windows (CD/DVD based) and then you insert a pen drive with the raw copy tool on it and use it ?

If you don't load the drivers for the PCI board where you have the drive plugged to there is a chance that the raw copy tool will not work as expected as well ....

But you can allways try.

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We may be just going on about something that is incompatible in the PCI device.
Still, the drive appears under the Raw Copy program. It just finds the device locked internally as if some programs were running.

I will load Acronis in this configuration I have and see what that reports.

I think I have a printout of MHDD instructions someplace yet.

Today I loaded my old (2013) Live CD of Clonezilla. I will get a newer one from Sourceforege.

The program is running, saw the two drives and is doing the transfer.

In all of these progs, the selectio of "image" vs direct transfer confuses me in using
something like Clonezilla and confounds me in Acronis Pro whose options I didn't understand.

Far as I can tell they are both Linux based and load a live cd-- one with a lot more 'screen handling' than the other.

Normally :

IMAGE - Copy of source drive to a IMAGE FILE that can be bit by bit or compressed, in propriatary format, etc ... Idea is that you create a FILE stored on a destination disk that contains a IMAGE of the source and that can be used to restore the source later or to run recovery software on it, assuming it's not on propriatary format or compressed by the imaging software/hardware.

CLONE - Pick one source and CLONE it to the destination drive. The DESTINATION will be a bit-by-bit CLONE or exact copy of the source. Meaning if you have Source A of 500 gb and destination B of 1TB then the first 500 gb of B will be an exact copy of A.

While you can store several images of several drives as long as you have space for it on the destination drive, if you CLONE you will end up with an exact copy of the source and you can clone only ONE drive to the source, unless you clone starting at the LBA when the last cloned drive finishes, but that it's not practical neither have any benifict.

Examples of HARDWARE BASED CLONING/IMAGING :

http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=1410

http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1183

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This is a good discussion.
I will have larger HD's soon across my small homenet.

But if one selects image, then if you have 500Gb of data used, your target device has to have minimum of 1Tb. Yes or no? Or if you wanted to load up your computer,
put on a third HD just to store the image. I'm asking all this as a novice with these subjects.

I've had one successful clone using the older Clonezilla (2013) just now. I have not tested the target disk however.

That program seems to have some options to do repair on the fly or I'm reading it incorrectly?

There's a newer unstable version which I will experiment with using on some older sacrifice HD's.

Also will find what tutorials I can until it becomes familiar.

If you select IMAGE your TARGET drive needs to have ENOUGHT space to fit the image, and that depends on what you use for image. If you do a bite-by-bite image then the space needed for the image file is exactly the same as the one of the source but some imaging software like "terabyte image for dos" can compress the image file in a way that it will take way less space then a bite-for-bite image would take, that is because empty space on the source will compress to almost nothing and even the used space will be compressed. Also some imagining software like savepart (and the image for dos) can IGNOR pagination files and hibernation files and temporary files on the initial source drive, assuming you are using a known file system and windows, saving space on the source image file.

If you image a 500 GB drive with something like HRT-DRE or any other hardware based cloning tool like PC-3000 DE and you select a bite-by-bite image file so that you can run logic recovery software on it then you will need 500 GB available on the destination drive + some space for the MAP file. MAP file can be stored on another drive as well, but the image will take exactly the same space as the entire source drive.

Only if you compress the image or use something like propriatary image format on PC-3000 DE or any other image software like image for dos it will take less space but then logic recovery software as r-studio or getdataback will not understand the image file format and will not open it. Same will aplly to RESTORE the image to another drive.

If you have a bit-by-bit image format then you can restore it using any software or hardware/software based tool. But if you use a propriatary image format you can only open the image with the software/hardware tool that created it.

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You can use savepart on hirens boot as well, as long as the drive doesn't have errors it should work just fine.
That was the tool that i used on the past, you can just COPY the element and it will do a clone or you can SAVE element and it will image. Also you can do partial clone/image based on the partitions you want to save.

Another tool that i used in the past was Terabyte Image for dos, but you have to pay for a license (not freeware as savepart). I used that on my onl windows 98 machine to backup the entire maxtor drive on a compressed image format on my samsung drive. That way i could recover the OS drive with the image file on the backup drive. On that time IMAGE For DOS would backup to DVDs as well, so when i was on IT business i would install/repair a windows machine and i could do an image of the drive to CD/DVDs and that image is bootble, meaning you would provide the clients with a "restore disk" done with terabyte image for dos and if they were to have any problem with the machine they would just put the DVD on the drive, it would boot from it and restore the image to the HDD making the HDD to be at the exact same state it was when i finish the job of fixing the computer.

Very usefull for people that kept getting virus. On that time people wouldn't use stuff like sandboxie or VMWare....

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I do have a Clonezilla on my bootable USB pen (+ hirens, custom MHDD with scripts, HDDL, mini win 98 with HDD.EXE, etc) but i never used that so i can't advice on what the options are. I don't mind to open it up to take a look but i'm sure my version is way older then yours ...

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