Cloning MS-DOS
Cloning MS-DOS
Hey there, I've been attempting to clone an HDD with MS-DOS installed on it but haven't succeeded. So far, I've used Clonezilla and tried cloning a 250GB IDE drive to a 250GB SATA drive. The disks look identical, yet the space usage seems off by just a few MB at most. I've experimented with different settings in Clonezilla without any luck. Could there be an issue on my end? Here are some details: - My motherboard supports both IDE and SATA ports, allowing me to connect both drives - The original drive boots up MS-DOS fine - I also tried cloning to a bigger HDD of the same size, but it didn't work I've noticed some boot files might not be copied perfectly, or Clonezilla could be formatting the new drive incorrectly. The exact bit-level copy should match the space difference, which seems normal. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot, YoshiHDify
Have you checked if your drive loads in DOSBox? Why would you clone a large drive for DOS when a smaller one would suffice? You might try shrinking the partition to its minimum size, then clone it onto the new drive and expand it fully. This process can be done using a Linux live USB and GParted. It could also relate to a driver problem—ensure you have compatible drivers for running DOS on a SATA device. There are third-party options available online.
Acronis TrueImage has been my go-to solution for converting old HDDs.
You're choosing between cloning the partition or the drive itself. If you go with the partition, it's normal since it doesn't indicate how to start. For the drive, ensure the boot partition is present; otherwise, you'll need a recovery disk to fix the boot sector. I can't recall the exact commands right now, but I recommend using HIREN's boot CD and Ghost for a sector-based image, then restoring it to the new drive. Also, verify the SATA ports are enabled in the BIOS and confirm the motherboard is set to boot from SATA first.