DiscWizard and MaxBlast

[funkycornwall]

I am using Seagate DiskWizard currently with Windows XP and having no problems with the program. However I am planning purchase a new computer shortly and this will be Windows 7. Do you know if Seagate will by then offer a new version of Diskwizard which is compatible with Windows 7 or is the current version OK. According to Acronis their latest version Acronis True Image 2010 is the only one which works with Windows 7 and this means you would have to purchase that version. But they would say that wouldn't they? It would be great if Seagate offered a basic free edition.

[Bob Vance]

I would also like to know this.  Anyone have any idea?

[servoscanman]

Today, I downloaded Seagate DiscWizard Version 11.0 and installed it on my Windows 7 Desktop machine.  I cloned my primary 1TB Western Digital drive via hard drive dock using the eSATA cable to a Seagate 1TB Barracuda drive.  It only took 70 minutes from start to finish to clone the drive.  I removed the Western Digital drive and installed the freshly cloned Seagate.  

The only problem I have is having to use the boot manager thru the BIOS to get the machine to run Windows 7.  On a reboot the machine will splash the Intel/BIOS screen and then the next screen is:

Disk error

Press any key to restart

Other than that, everything else worked flawlessly.  I tried two other disk cloning freeware packages and they both took over 3 hours to complete.

If I can find out to boot without the error screen, I will be totally happy with the software. 

[electroplater]

Used DiskWizard to clone a WD to a Seagate drive.  DiskWizard 11 took 70 minutes to clone a 

1 TB drive to another 1 TB drive. No reactivation issues for Windows 7 64 bit. No boot issues either.

Still scored a 5.9 on the Windows Experience Index going from a 5400 RPM to a 7200 RPM drive.

[Bald Eagle]

useing W 7 I have tried 4 times to clone.  It reports in the event log that "user aborted" with the time I gather it aborted after the reboot, however discwizard shows up and goes through an hour or so of coping files over like it should.

Then when its all over the computer goes to sleep, as I am never able to see 100% complete and option to shut down as in manual.

So then I tried assuming its all good, change drive up and boot, and nada, same error :  no bootable disc found or such.

I need to know if its because I am running a dual boot system.  I have one Sata Vista drive and one IDE W. 7 drive.  I am trying to clone the IDE  W 7 drive to a Sata 1TB barracuda.

I was hoping the cloning would copy the dual boot info needed, but since others are having the same problem without the dual boot, It might not be the dual boot setup.

When I change the drives up after the "cloning" no matter what I do in BIOS, I get a blinking cursor.  All of my cloning has been from within W 7 so far.  I made a DiscWizard cd and will try that next.

When I reboot back into original configuaration :  DiscWizard complete does show up on boot, but always the new drive shows empty, unallocated after the process.

Help please.  Any ideas welcome.

[Frank_N]

I have downloaded Discwizard today on my Windows 7 PC and did a clone with absolutely no problems.  Just follow the instructions and everything should work.

[RobCr]

Perhaps it would be a good idea to share exactly what you did ?
Who knows, what you did might work for others, if only they had done what you did.

Did you use the DiscWizard via it's bootable CD ?
Did you send the image to an external USB drive ?
   How was that drive formatted - Older NTFS, or Win7's newer NTFS ?
Did you clone one partition ?
Did you clone all partitions and MBR (Clone the lot) ?
Or, did you do a 'Full Metal' image ?

[timsamson]

Hi All,

I found this forum very helpful and just thought I'd share my own experience and give something back.  I successfully (so far :-) ) upgraded my Lenovo Thinkpad T61 hard disk from a Western Digital 160Gb, 5400rpm to a Seagate 500Gb, 7200rpm model (ST9500420AS).  I'm running Win7 Pro and I used DiscWizard version 11.0 (build 8,326).  This being the first time I've ever done this, I just followed the instructions on the DW manual.  I connected the new drive to my USB port using an external SATA to USB housing.  My laptop has a weird configuration and you have to use a USB port which supplies enough voltage to external devices.  If you don't see the SATA/USB's housing LED light up or if Windows doesn't activate the drive at first, try switching USB ports.  I installed DiscWizard and chose the Clone option.  I tried resizing the hidden Restore partition which Lenovo pegged at 6Gb just to save space since I upgraded form Vista to Win7 and thought I wouldn't need it anymore.  After setting the parameters on DIscWizard, I clicked Restart and it rebooted to what looked like DOS and proceeded to image my original disc to the new one.  Resizing however didn't seem to work and the process would terminate without success.  So I just used the Automatic default setting and let DiscWizard do it's thing and to heck with the wasted 21Gb.  It went through but my laptop fell asleep in the middle of imaging and shaking the mouse woke it up but I lost my screen display so I had no idea what was happening.  I just left it alone thinking that the hard disk LEDs were flashing so something must be going on.  After this happened again and since it was getting late in the evening, I decided to interrupt the process by turning off my laptop since nothing else would stop DiscWizard.  I changed my Power Settings to Always On and started over again and went to bed.  What a joy to see the confirmation in the morning that the process completed.  Pressed the Any key :-) to shut down and I just swapped the disks and started it up and lo and behold it booted properly.  Windows just recognized the new disk and had to install some driver to support it and restarted again.  My only regret is I overlooked the fact that Seagate Momentus drives have an ASG model with Free Fall Protection.  The model I got doesn't have this so maybe my laptop's Shock Detection doesn;t work anymore.  I shook it and saw the icon in the toolbar change so maybe it still works.  As for performance, well it wasn;t as dramatic as when I changed ny desktop's old 120Gb and 80Gb Seagate SATAs to a 1Tb 7200 drive with the 32Mb cache.  That really improved my old Core2Duo rig and gave it new life.  I'll try out all my other apps and see if everything is functioning properly to verify the migration and keep you posted.

[jkgillett]

I had the same problem...

Disk error

Press any key to restart

...under W7 after finally recovering a drive that refused to be formatted or have anything done to it at all (nothing to do with DW). I had completely lost boot access to the main drive. The fix for me was to reboot from the W7 install DVD. My intent was to try the repair option. However, I didn't even get that far. As soon as I had answered the language/timezone screen, the installer came back with a message that there was a problem with the bootmgr, and asked if I would like it fixed. Answered yes, and after a quick fix and reboot to the HD, I was rewarded with my boot selection screen.

Amazing!

HTH...

John

[doobre]

I have used Seagate DW for many years on 32 bit machines windows.

I bought a new HP 64bit workstation including Windows7.

The software is fine and works as usual...  except the bootable disk created will not 'boot' the windows 7, so there is not recovery in case of emergency... so I am looking elsewhere.. no reply from forums or manufacturer..

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