Cloning to an External Hard Drive?

Question

I recently attempted to clone my Windows 7 OS with a program called "EaseUS Todo" to my WD passport external USB 2.0 hard drive. Everything completed successfully on the cloning process, however when I disconnected my original SATA drive and attempted to load windows with the cloned external drive, it hung up on the loading screen. Even after startup repair completed, it would not work. I have read that there has been issues loading from an external drive via USB and was wondering if there is any software that can achieve this or if I just need to buy a cheap SATA internal drive and clone to that.

Answer 1

Hi...



I have cloned drives and currently am running one.....

For a total system back up it is best to create a boot CD after all how are you going to restore your computer if your hard drive fails , you will have "No" operating system and "You can't boot from the external drive"....



If you can spare your external drive for the "only purpose" of keeping a cloned copy of the current drive then make a copy application boot CD disc , EaseUS have other free software for this purpose (I have and use this ).

http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/



Cloned drives can't be connected to your computer when booted normally. or the drive letter will change from the original to one allocated by your computer , that why if you commit the external drive

as back up for your system image then that is all it could be used for ...



After you have created a total back up image of the current drive with the disc copy boot CD to the external drive NEVER connect this drive to the computer again , "When windows is booted"..



In the event your currently installed hard drive failed and having no operating system.

After purchasing a replacement internal hard drive for your computer you boot from the copy disc CD and have the external connected then clone the image to the replacement drive....



The replacement drive will now be a copy of the original , retaining the C drive allocation and boot able as the original.



Hope i have been of help..



PS Have gone from 80GB to 320GB to 750GB ...all cloned !

Answer 2

Clone Hard Drive To External

Answer 3

There is no easy way to boot a Windows installation from an external drive, but I've seen people discussing that it can be done. Usually it boils down to some custom boot-loader that tricks the Windows OS into seeing that it was loaded from a standard HDD when it actually was not.



Windows was not designed to be loaded from an external USB.



I have never used EaseUS Todo, but if it is anything like EaseUS DiskCopy then you should end up with a perfect copy of the original disk and be able to copy the contents of the external backup onto a new internal drive in the event of a failure.

Answer 4

Of course it won't. It's not the C drive. The pc is looking for files on the c drive. Yes you need an internal SATA drive but be forewarned, you can't dual boot it. There will be conflicts. The only purpose of cloning it would be to disconnect it when done and only use it to replace the original drive if it fails. Explain what you are trying to accomplish.

EDIT: Exactly my point. When you CLONE a drive, it's a mirror image of the drive. That drive MUST be installed on the same sata or pata connector period. You CANNOT boot it from a USB port. You can save a backup to a USB drive. You can also use it to store a recovery and reinstall from it but you CAN'T boot from it. You may however clone it back to an internal drive providing the cloning software has the option.

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

Cloning to an External Hard Drive?

I recently attempted to clone my Windows 7 OS with a program called "EaseUS Todo" to my WD passport external USB 2.0 hard drive. Everything completed successfully on the cloning process, however when I disconnected my original SATA drive and attempted to load windows with the cloned...

Answer 6

Yes, you can restore from the time machine backup as long as it is complete and up to date. But there is a better way; along with the SSD, buy an external enclosure (about $18). Put the SSD in the external enclosure. Use CarbonCopyCloner to clone the internal to the SSD (assuming you have pared doe n the files on it to < the capacity of the SSD). Then install the SSd in the machine. done. I trust CCC way more than TM.

Answer 7

you may be able to configure your CMOS SETUP may be able to allow booting from a USB device.

Answer 8

That is why you should always set to verify.