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Number   :  5507
Date     :  2003-09-10
Author   :  Dan Anderson
Subject  :  Re: XXCLONE - some observations
Size(KB) :  4



Kan Yabumoto wrote Wednesday, September 10, 2003 2:58 AM


> Our concern here was whether XXCLONE successfully detected
> *ALL* partitions present in Dan's computer. We are
> especially worried about a case where XXCLONE may not
> recognize partition structure. That's because Microsoft's
> documentation on the extended partition structure does
> not seem to fit the reality that we observed in extended
> partitions with more than three volumes inside.
>
> Since Dan did not mention anything unusual, I assume
> XXCLONE is showing all partitions in Dan's computer.

I'm not sure if all the partitions will be shown correctly but did note that
xxclone seems to automatically detect the non-hidden xp system partitions
correctly when identifying the alternative source targets.

> Then, there is the activity-tracing feature in XXCLONE.
> The following switch enables XXCLONE to save all
> disk access operations.
>
> XXCLONE /debug
>

Could the debug log file be created automatically when the gui job is run
(at least for beta testing)? Currently there seems to be a need to specify
this switch through a DOS command.

>
> If you use the QBD option, it not only creates the
> boot disk for later use (which is convenient), but
> also preserves the original copy of BOOT.INI file.
> It is a big headache for any program to modify
> the BOOT.INI file to add the required changes and
> also to keep the remaining options all intact
> (the NTLDR program utilizes only the first 10 or so
> lines).
>

When I tried to include the QBD option along with xxclone option #2, I
inserted a blank diskette and it did write the boot.ini file on the blank
diskette but then gave a message that the 1.44 floppy was not recognized
(and did not create a bootable diskette). The process continued and on
reboot it asked for the diskette and then finished with the final reboot
back to the source volume. After the final reboot however I was left with a
message that the system configuration utility had been altered (on both
source and destination volumes) and was prompted to manually change it back
to 'normal run'.

I haven't figured out yet how to create the bootable diskette.


> > 11. One of the yahoo group emails noted that the
> > fifth option is like fixmbr. Is it correct to assume
> > that nothing in XXCLONE will affect the master boot record?
>
> Wrong. In order for XXCLONE to make the target volume
> bootable, the proper initialization of the MBR is the
> most essential requirement of the whole sequence. So,
> XXCLONE always reinitializes the MBR, the boot sector,
> etc. (We may add a special option to disable
> re-initialization of the MBR and boot sector in
> the future. But, under normal circumstances,
> we don't see much value for such an option.

Is there a distinction between a hard drive's MBR, and the MBR containing
both the MBR installation code (in the first part of the record) as well as
the partition table for the primary partitions?

If XXCLONE was simply writing over the hard drive's MBR then it would seem
that there would be problems with individuals using bootmagic and partition
magic (I didn't encounter problems in that regard), and especially for
individuals using EZbios on their hard drives (fortunately I recently
extricated myself from using EZbios). I'm also confused somewhat by the
distinction between each hard drive's MBR and the boot sectors that are
contained on each primary partition, including the extended primary
partition. My ignorance shows, but does each logical drive have a boot
sector or is that contained at the start of the extended partition, or is it
somewhere else in the hard drive's master boot record?
_________

Kan, any thoughts on the 8th item?

8. I tried to run the third option (back up only the critical windows files
and make the new partition bootable) with an empty target partition, but
near the end of the first step there was a pop-up error message referring to
XXCLONE.ERR which I was unable to locate. ... Where would I find the error
file, and any thoughts why using an empty target partition would result in
an aborted xxclone run?


Dan



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