Andy G.

Hi all, I'm back... with good news: I was finally able to solve my pen drive problem using the link below please read my posting below: Re: cloned a 80G HDD to a 128G USB Flash stick Nov 29, 2014 this link helped me: http://www.techspot.com/community/to...4/#post-875300 Andy ----- Original Message ----- From: Andy Sent: Friday, November 28, 2014 6:16 PM Subject: cloned a 80G HDD to a 128G USB Flash stick hi all, happy holidays, etc. this is an old issue, yet i am still working on it in July 2013; I cloned my 80G HDD onto a 128G USB Flash stick in Sept. 2013; I had a data loss... so, I thought to recover my data using this 128G clone... I put this 128G Flash stick into my computer, and it showed up as a Local drive, yet was inaccessible and with its LED flashing incessantly... {this was after, I treated this 128G USB flash stick as if it were a whole computer, and I then attempted to use/misused Win Vista's EasyTransfer program in a failed attempt to restore my lost data } I later ran CHKDSK /f /r on it, and Chkdsk repaired and/or deleted about 7 "attributes" files after which, this 128G Flash, only shows up as a Removable Storage(not Local) drive.. and remains locked/data inaccessible yet without the flashing LED the USB drive, when I clicked on it in My Computer, would give the/an error message "Insert drive into H: drive"... Insert? a drive? into my tiny USB drive? which isn't even a CD or DVD drive? ... I tried all the free home remedy data recovery tools that I could find... then I snail-mailed this thumb drive to my computer whiz baby brother... finally, I purchased {for $99.}, and downloaded Seagate's data recovery tool, and had my brother return the drive... this was when I found the link above and it's freeware DriveCleanUp program, and this solved my issue ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ what I think was/still is "the problem"/locked drive issue... is that the clone looks for the same C:\ assignation as my HDD{which, btw, I had been able to upgrade to 320G} the problem now, I guess, is where can I find an old XP or Vista computer, to fool around with changing the C:\ drive letter?? [as I'm afraid to experiment on this my only one of my two working <Vista> machines] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ^^^^^^ this wasn't the problem... my issue was caused by left-over USB Flash storage and other USB drivers which once installed were never removed the freeware DriveCleanUp program, linked in the link, and properly installed{please study the instructions in the link} should help you with this issue... it helped me... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- any thoughts appreciated, Andy (I did use my 7 System Recovery CDs in Jan. 2014 to reset my machine to its factory default settings... my computer was then "like new" yet I lost even more of my old data) will advise further regarding further restoration attempts of my old data

Yes Alan, Thank-you for this detailed explanation. I think this explanation really explains what is going on accurately. I guess that I had a unrealistic picture of what 2012 large flash drive technology was/is capable of. I purchased these two flash drives in July 2012. They are both labeled "Fantom Drives" by? "Databank" {one 128GB and one 64GB}. My computer is a WinVista computer, and I had no difficulty, making an, again, truly wonderful Macrium, Reflect, clone of, it, and its 1 1/2 year old 70GB 2.5" HDD... using the 128GB drive. But I had great trouble making a clone of my landlord's WinXP 8 year old 40GB 3.5" HDD on the 64GB flash drive. I was directed to, and had to repeatedly go into Disk Management and reformat repeatedly, this flash drive, after/when Macrium Reflect, and another cloning program both returned multiple error messages when I attempted to clone this 8 year old 40GB HDD. Ultimately this 8 year old 40GB HDD soon crashed, with all its data, maybe now gone, after the CHKDSK program crashed, and/so I truncated it(CHKDSK). I -will- make an -Image- of C:\ using the/my 64GB flash drive and then a WinPE Boot Rescue CD{I'll look up on the web how to do this} to try/an "MBR Repair" Thanks again, Andy

Alan, here are more screenshots:

sorry if you're upset regarding previous quoted post as i haven't mastered this posting system yet

Alan; I'm not above Copy and Pasting my photos/docs/emails back onto my C:\ or if still on my C:\ to my current user name directories.. i.e.; they don't all have to fall into place, so to speak, the way they necessarily were.. such a magic outcome might now be impossible anyway since i changed user names a bit etc. Andy

here are my treeview screenshots:

Dear Alan, I don't quite understand your post... I have F:\ ; a removable flash drive, not an SSD drive.. i think it is marked "basic" because i did a clone, not an image of C:\ ; my HDD I am afraid now to take this: "Make an Exact copy ... " step... because i don't want to lose any prior saved data.. i will try to download the treeview program tomorrow and post a screen shot of that... are you saying that perhaps all my old data is lost? I have a 64GB flash drive in which might fit another clone, so this might be good for an imaging? yet please let me know... please remember i am hoping for a data recovery and/or restoration{so i don't want to overwrite and hence erase anything... further?} sorry it took so long for me to respond as i am an old guy with alot of nothing to do ... Please remember that i am interested in restoring my MS Outlook 2007 e-mail that disappeared, first when i deleted my four log-in profile registry entries, and then further when i attempted to restore it using the clone.. I don't know how to work with Outlook Profiles, Outlook Default Profiles and/or restore the Outlook.pst file especially if varied from different instances or back-ups I also wish to recover my photos, Documents, internet settings {my 'new' copy of IE won't allow me now to open a menu "send web page/link via e-mail" option linked to my 'new' instance of MS Outlook!!} [[this issue has been resolved by enabling/restoring: the menu and status and command bars [using the IE home tab]]] I will wait for your go-ahead for me to copy and paste, if necessary, these items, from i guess my clone, where i think they still are, to my HDD all of these files and system and program files, including a few >250, that, before we had talked, I used AVG Undelete to restore; sit somewhere, if Disk Management is to be believed, on both drives[the HDD and its clone].. its just that my Windows Vista Home Basic doesn't see them Also, I now am unable to update my AVG AntiVirus 2013 Free Edition to AVG 2014 because of a Firewall issue and I am also now not able to turn on my Firewall or even my old copy of AVG 2013... Even if AVG wanted me to purchase their pay product.. I am afraid that it too, like AVG 2014 Free, would also not work Warm Regards, Andy

Dear Alan, here are my screen shots... Disk Manager and the Green/blue favorites folders... i will try to get the tree program downloaded and running.... Regards, Andy

Alan and Dennis, Yes, I did, -clone-, not image, my 70GB HDD to my 128GB flash drive; And Yes the drives did get their identities mixed up I finally opened Macrium, a few days ago, and looked at the Restore command... but settled for a victory, when I found{sensed} my-, missing since my 2 or 3 instances of Windows Vista Easy Transfer And numerous System Restores, -personal data{e-mails, favorites, documents...} the Macrium side menu asked me to pick a file to Restore... but i was afraid to experiment with this.. mostly because i was thinking that Macrium Restore would only work if using the purchased product{not the free edition} My problem now seems to be how do i navigate, this clone on a flash, in order to Copy my old Outlook.pst file, and then Paste it, somewhere on this, my still usable 70GB HDD machine, and then somehow set up a new MS Outlook profile to hopefully point to this copy.. which then, hopefully, might restore all of my recently old e-mail then navigate to/find, my other items; e.g. photos, documents, and then Copy and Paste them over too. my main problem seems to be: how do i navigate/distinguish between and into my Windows Vista Primary visual green-colored folders that contain my/these files.. any more thoughts on this issue will be greatly appreciated Thank You All Much for the great help so far!!! Andy p.s. Yes Dennis, I did mean 128GB re: my flash drive {not MB} and yes, the title change of my post was/is good and thanks for moving to up to the top of the discussion and Alan, I always wanted to -clone- my drive as that i thought then it would be a "true" back up i had thought -imaging- was something incomplete and somehow not as good as cloning thanks again, Andy

CAN ANYONE HELP!?!?!? Hi All, I was able to clone my laptop 70GB HDD to my 128MB flash drive without a problem using wonderful Macrium Reflect Free Edition. Not long after putting a password on my HP Compaq Presario C552US Notebook PC; i wasn't able to log-on. At this point I was directed by MS to edit my registry profile IDs. But instead of merely only deleting the last (offending) one; I deleted all four of my/the profile IDs in my registry. My Vista OS then went kaput. After numerous System Restores... some giving me hope that all might be well. But despite this/these; I wanted to tweak until everything with my Vista Home Basic edition was like it had been before.. e.g. with the same wallpaper, restored Outlook Mail Folders. So since I had a Macrium Reflect Free edition clone copy of my HDD made only last month 8-15-13; I thought to use this clone copy in combination with my HDD's -Vista Easy Transfer- program, in order to attempt to use this method to restore my missing or hard-to-find/access data(e-mails, documents, pictures/photos, favorites and other settings). this/these action/s ended up erasing all of these from my HDD, and it seemed, until a few hours ago, also from my Macrium Reflect clone copy... but now it may be that this 8GB of data and maybe more got shunted to a subfolder on the/my clone copy... Do You recommend restarting my Macrium Reflect program to see if I can access this data then manually copy/transfer it back to my fixed Vista and HDD???{and, if so, how should I proceed within Macrium?} or should I use/return to attempting to usse Windows Explorer to attempt to access this data??? Thanks in advance for any help rendered, Andy