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Dell All-in-One Printer 944 Problem (Resolved)

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#121
Channeal

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Hello Phillpower2,

 

First of all, you are obviously really busy at the moment and the last thing I want to do is harrass you when you are busy,  so no need at all to even attempt to answer this message........ I am just letting you know what is happening.

 

I just tried to begin the cloning procedure, but did not get on very well...... whatever I did, the Reflect program appeared to be trying to delete everything on the external drive and I was not happy to proceed. I have had a bit of a bad week so far with lots of disasters happening and - not that I am superstitious or anything - but I do not want to add the loss of all my data to these! So.... I think I am going to have to copy all my data over to the newly formatted drive D for now. That is not in any way a problem..... I would much rather do that than risk losing all my data.

 

As I said before, no need to answer this message. I will have one more look at the Reflect program and will then be happy to continue on by myself.......

 

Bye for now,

Chris.


Edited by Channeal, 17 June 2014 - 03:33 AM.

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#122
phillpower2

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My apologies for the delay but I am unable to respond until Wednesday evening UK time due to unforeseen circumstances  :(​  


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#123
Channeal

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Hello Phillpower2,

No problem at all.... I hope nothing bad has happened though. Please do not reply until you are really able..... my computer is fine and I am happy to wait. I am going to be out the whole day tomorrow anyway.

Just a brief summary of what I have done today, so you will know what has been going on....... First of all - as stated in my last message - I copied my data files to the current drive D. I was so relieved I had done this, as I was really unable to see any way of avoiding deleting the data files during the cloning process. The problem seemed to be that when I dragged the C drive files (or rather the whole drive, including free space) into the destination box, it took up too much space to fit in alongside the data files. It only seems to be possible to resize once the files have been selected - and by then the program had got rid of my data files. (Sorry, not sure if I have explained that well).

Once the C drive files had been brought into the destination box, I was uncertain of what to do about resizing the partitions to contain them. In the end, I opted for a size of 50 MB - intended to house the 33.50 MB from Drive C, plus a little bit of space. Am thinking this may not have been ideal and that perhaps I should have opted for the maximum size.... as the remaining space is showing as 'unallocated' (although I imagine that I could create a second partition there?). Anyway, you will see the results below on the Disk Management page. I can always do it all again if necessary! :)

Unfortunately though, the bad news is that the computer does not - as far as I am aware - seem to be booting from the external hard drive. Again, I am sure you will be able to see what is going on from the following: -

 

exthdd.JPG

 

Bye for now,

Chris.


Edited by Channeal, 18 June 2014 - 02:16 AM.

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#124
phillpower2

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Hello Channeal, 

 

Sorry for the delay - I am inundated with work atm + the heat is not helping :(

 

You will note that the external HDD is no longer named Elements (L:) only as (L:) can I ask if you changed the boot sequence in the BIOS to the external (L:) drive first, CD/DVD drive second and the HDD third, the present C: drive still has XP on it and so will be booted from first by default unless the sequence is changed.


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#125
Channeal

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Hi Phillpower2,

 

Sorry to hear about the big workload and the heat; not a good combination! :(

 

I had indeed noticed that the external drive is no longer named 'Elements'.

 

Yes, I understood that the computer was going to boot from the C drive unless the boot sequence was changed so that the USB drive was first - and I can confirm that this had indeed already been done. It still seems to be booting up from C drive though! I can hear some activity on the external drive when the computer is first turned on, but it obviously does not find anything to boot up from on there.

 

One thing I did notice today...... do you remember me telling you previously that Drive 0 (Drive C) was turned on in the BIOS, but Drive 1 was turned off. I was (stupidly) assuming that Drive 1 was Drive D..... but I saw today that it isn't. Drive 2 is actually Drive D. I wish I had realised this on my previous cloning attempt...... as I would have tried turning Drive 0 off while leaving Drive 2 on. Too late now though!

 

I am out all day tomorrow and much of Friday too, but should be around at some point both evenings.

 

Bye for now,

Chris.


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#126
phillpower2

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Hello Channeal,

 

Just letting you know that I will be around later on today and will check back then, can you meanwhile see if you are able to swap the drive letters from C: to K: and if the L: drive is automatically identified as the C: drive by Windows, details here


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#127
Channeal

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Hi Phillpower2,

 

Okay.... I tried this, but just get the following message: 'Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot record'.

 

I am going to be out quite a bit for the rest of the day.

 

Thank you for the time and effort you have put into this; I am sorry that - once again - it is not proving to be as straightforward as you thought it would be. :(

 

Chris.


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#128
phillpower2

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Hello Channeal,

 

Can I ask what your boot sequence options are in the BIOS, I am thinking that you may need to temporarily disable the present C: drive in BIOS to see if the system will then boot from the external HDD, if not the procedure can be easily reversed.

 

No worries btw, I never give up on a topic while the member is still replying  ;) 


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#129
Channeal

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Hello Phillpower2,

 

Thank you for your message.

 

I assume you were talking about turning the drives off in the BIOS. I tried turning Drive C off and was told: 'NTLDR is missing'. However, I then realised that Drive D was still turned on, so I went back into the BIOS and turned this off also. I was then told: 'No boot device available. Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility.' :( Btw, details of my BIOS can be found here.

 

No, I am sure you would never give up on a topic whilst somebody is still replying. I am guessing though that this is most probably one of your longer topics? Or maybe not......

 

Chris.


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#130
phillpower2

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Hello Channeal,

 

If the USB HDD was set as the first boot device but it did not boot it means that the clone is not bootable, a guide here with a bit more information, are the steps shown the same as what you did, the type of drives used does not matter btw


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#131
Channeal

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Hello Phillpower2,

 

Yep, as far as I am aware I did everything exactly the same as in your link - apart from the fact that I resized via the 'Cloned Partition Properties'.

 

I honestly do not believe that I could have done anything wrong! :(

 

Chris.


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#132
phillpower2

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Hello Channeal,

 

I didn't doubt you for one second but suggested the link as it had more pictures, you obviously checked that the clone was successful so I am at a loss  :headscratch:

 

Have you checked the contents that were cloned to the external HDD and can you tell us what was listed.


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#133
Channeal

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Hi Phillpower2,

 

Here is a picture of the files on the external hard drive: -

 

Ldrive.JPG

 

I stumbled upon a link which seems to be saying that if you clone an XP operating system to an external hard drive, it is not likely to be bootable. Please can you read the link here and here and let me know what you think.

 

Chris.


Edited by Channeal, 23 June 2014 - 05:41 AM.

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#134
Channeal

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Sorry...... if you looked at the above message in an email, you may only have got part of it! My daughter came in and started stressing me out and I clicked 'post' by mistake!!!!!! :)

 

Chris.


Edited by Channeal, 23 June 2014 - 05:43 AM.

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#135
phillpower2

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Hello Channeal,

 

There may still be some substance to the contents at the two links but please keep in mind the following, the two threads are 9 and 10 years old respectively, cloning software has significantly improved since 2004 and 2005 + there were an awful lot of computers around in 2004 and 2005 that were not capable of booting from any USB type device.

 

I would second one piece of advice from the 2005 topic in that you clone the contents back from the external HDD and to the smaller present D: drive but only once it is confirmed that your personal data etc is secure back on the external HDD, you will need to create a new volume on the drive in order to utilise the space that is presently unallocated, a step by step guide here for how to, please excuse the name of the guide btw.

 

Once the clone is done to the present D: drive, disable the existing C: drive in the BIOS and see if the computer will then boot from the cloned drive.


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