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Question

Cloned External HDD changing files on PC

by Jan 1, 2013 12:36PM PST

I have had this problem for years now and have never found a solution so thought I would ask here. Over the past few years I have had multiple system crashes. Each time I end up cloning the HDD to my external USB HDD. After I restore my laptop I start transferring files over, but wierd things happen. For instance my documents folder on my external drive mimics what I do in the same folder on my PC. I tried copying the contents over and it will tell me the files already exist even though I just restore to factory settings. When the drive is unplugged my documents folder is empty, but I plug it in and my documents folder auto links to the my documents folder on my external drive. It's very confusing and irritating after dealing with this so many times.

I am trying to do a system restore right now but I'm having problems moving files over because of this. I put two windows side by side. c:\users\Scott and F:\scott. Any changes I made to my F drive was also done to my C drive. With the drive unplugged my documents folder is c:\users\Scott\My Documents and when I plug my external hdd in the folder on my c drive changes to f:\users\scott\my documents like it is mimicking it.

I think somehow by cloning the HDD awhile ago maybe the partitions and users settings are conflicting with my current system.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I am running Toshiba Qosmio x 500-s1801, Windows 7 Pro.

Discussion is locked

5 Posts
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Clarification Request
Exactly what are you 'backing up' and 'restoring' . . the
by VAPCMD Jan 1, 2013 1:01PM PST

data only, the entire drive contents, and what software are you using to do the backup and restores ?

VAPCMD

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Reply
by Firerescue69 Jan 1, 2013 1:12PM PST

The first backup I did which seemed to cause this was due to a system crash I couldn't find anyway to fix it without restoring so I cloned the entire drive using acronis disk clone tool. I then restored the laptop and tried to copy my personal files back over to the laptop. My documents, my music, my pictures, my downloads, my videos. It was when copying those back over things started messing up. The last backup I did I just copied those same folders over and now have multiple files of everything lol.

Essentially my external and internal hard drive both act as the same when it comes to the folders in my documents. Whatever I do on external drive is also done on my main hard drive. If I move a file on the external drive, it will also move it on my laptops main drive. So to answer the question the last backup I did I just copied files over and used the same cloned external drive instead of formatting and starting over.

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There are so many way to do this ...I'm not sure where to
by VAPCMD Jan 1, 2013 1:46PM PST

start.

How many partitions does the laptop have now ? Does it still have an often hidden recovery partition ? How large in GBs is the external HDD and how much free space does it have ?

And when you started doing the backups...did you just image the laptop HDD to the external HDD (exact replication of one HDD to another)? Or did you image the laptop HDD to an image on the external HDD which would have left free space space for subsequent backups or other use ?

I've never done a restore to a drive or partition that I haven't cleared and formatted first before restoring an image and I'm not sure what problems could/would result if I tried doing a restore over a corrupt partition or partitions.

I use Acronis too and use it to create images of the drives or partitions I want to back up onto a second internal HDD. That makes backups fast and easy. I also back that up too but that's just another straight copy to an external HDD. Should it become necessary to restore a partition or entire drive I can do fairly quickly and easily....even if the main or primary drive dies completely.

VAPCMD

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by Firerescue69 Jan 1, 2013 3:39PM PST

Laptop has 3 partitions. a hidden 1.47GB, a 456.93GB, and the hidden restore partition at 10.33 GB. The external HDD is the exact same with currently 162GB free space.

No I did an exact replica of my internal HDD, partitions and all. It was my last resort in a hurry to back everything up before I lost my personal stuff.

I agree and that is what I will begin doing from this point on. After the first HDD replica clone, I just manually went thru and deleted everything on it and then when I wanted to do a restore I just drag and dropped my personal document folders on the external drive.

I was looking for maybe a quick fix to remove like user settings or something from the external HDD so when I go to copy the files back over once I restore I don't have any issues. I will completely reformat the external drive after this time and start making image backups unlike I have been doing with just copying the my document folders over.

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One more quick question...how much free space is there
by VAPCMD Jan 2, 2013 2:27AM PST

on the laptop partition that's 456GBs ?

Also ... what's the capacity of the EXTERNAL HDD ?

VAPCMD

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