Author: Bulldog Tech

How to Mirror Boot Hard Drive on Windows 10 (Legacy or UEFI)

Posted on by

From wintips.org This tutorial contains instructions on how to mirror boot hard drive on Windows 10, on a legacy or an UEFI based systems. The bellow procedure will help you to boot from the secondary mirrored drive if your primary boot drive fails to boot or becomes damaged. 

I always suggests my customers to frequently take a backup of their important files and data, to an external storage device, to avoid data loss after a hardware failure and to keep this storage device (with the backup) offline, in order to avoid data construction after a ransomware (virus) attack.

In a company environment, except the above precautions, IT Administrators must also take precautions to avoid any complications in company’s work, after a hard drive failure. Commonly, for this purpose companies prefer to use the hardware based RAID [Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks] technology, that combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for redundancy, performance improvement, or both, by using a physical RAID controller which is integrated on the motherboard or as an extra add-in card.

One of the most known RAID implementations, is the “RAID 1” level, which offers Hard Drive Mirroring. In RAID-1, the data are written identically to two (or more) drives at the same time. This means that if the one drive fails, all your data will be completely safe on the other drive. RAID-1, is commonly used, to mirror the boot disk on the system, in order to avoid work downtime and data loss.

 

In this post you ‘ll learn how to mirror the boot drive on Windows, with LOW cost (without using a physical RAID controller).* The article’s instructions applies to Windows 10, 8 or 7 OS.

* Suggestion: The Hardware Based RAID implementation, (by using a physical RAID controller), is the most reliable and safest choice to protect your data and to avoid boot problems from the secondary mirror boot drive, if the primary boot drive fails.

How to Create a Mirrored Boot Drive on Windows 10 OS.

Requirements: In order to create a mirror of the Boot Drive or of any other volume, you ‘ll need a secondary physical drive with at least the same size as the drive that you want to mirror. So, prefer to use two identical physical hard disks (same model).

Important Note: The way to mirror the Boot Volume(s) on Windows 10, is different for the MBR Partition style and for the GPT Partition Style. If you have a Legacy based system, then the Partition Style is MBR and if you own a UEFI based system then the partition type is GPT. So before you continue below, proceed and find out if you own a Legacy or a UEFI based system.

To find out if you have a Legacy (MBR) or a UEFI (GPT) based system:

1. Press the “Windows” image  + “R” keys to load the Run dialog box.
2. Type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.

disk management

 

3. Right click on Disk 0 and select Properties.

disk properties

3. At Volumes tab, note the Partition Style of the volume.

  • If the Partition Style says “Master Partition Record (MBR)”, then you own a Legacy based system. At this case, follow the instructions at Case A below to create a mirror of the boot drive.
  • If the Partition Style says “GUID Partition Table (GPT)”, then you own a UEFI based system. At this case, follow the instructions at Case B below to create a mirror of the boot drive.
 

disk properties mbr gpt

2. Before you continue to mirror the boot drive, proceed and disable the Hibernation on your system, because hibernation, may fail after the failure of a mirrored boot volume.

To disable hibernation on your system:

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
2. In command prompt type the following command and press Enter:

  • powercfg.exe /h off
Case A. How to Create a Mirrored Boot Volume on Legacy Based Systems (MBR)
 
Case B. How to Create a Mirrored Boot Volume on UEFI Based Systems (GPT)

Case A. How to Mirror Windows 10 Boot Drive on Legacy Based Systems (MBR).

To mirror an MBR Boot drive with Windows 10 OS:

1. Press the “Windows” image  + “R” keys to load the Run dialog box.
2. Type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.

disk management

3. Right click on the primary disk (the boot disk: Disk 0) and select Convert to Dynamic Disk.

convert to dynamic disk

 

4. Click OK, then click Convert & Yes to finish the conversion.
5. Then right click on the secondary disk (the empty disk: Disk 1) and select Convert to Dynamic Disk.

convert disk to dynamic

6. Now Right click at System Reserved volume and select Add Mirror.

add mirror windows

 

7. Select the Disk 1 and click Add Mirror.

how to add mirror windows 10

8. Wait until the “System Reserved” volume synchronization is complete.
9. Then right click at “C:” volume and select Add Mirror. *

* Note: If the “Add Mirror” option is greyed out, that means that the unallocated space on the secondary drive is smaller than the size of “C:” volume on the primary drive. To bypass this problem, shrink the size of the volume C:, to a size that is equal or smaller of the unallocated size on the secondary drive. (Right click on the C: drive and choose Shrink Volume).

Mirror Boot Hard Drive

 

10. Select the Disk 1 and click Add Mirror.
11. Wait again, until the synchronization of the C: drive is complete.

mirror boot drive windows 10

12. You ‘re done! From now on, you will always have an exact copy (mirror) of your main drive on the secondary drive. If the first hard disk fails, just disconnect it from your system and boot from the secondary drive. If the secondary boot drive fails to boot, then apply the steps in Method 2 in this tutorial.

Case B. How to Mirror Windows 10 Boot Drive on UEFI Based Systems (GPT).

To mirror a GPT Boot drive with Windows 10 OS, you have to:

1. Mirror the Recovery Partition.

 

2. Mirror the EFI System Partition.

3. Mirror the Operating System Partition.

Part 1: How to Mirror the Recovery Partition on Windows 10.

Step-1. Open command prompt as administrator. To do that:

1. In the Search box type: cmd or command prompt
2. Right click on the command prompt (result) and select Run as Administrator.

command prompt administrator

 

Step-2. In command prompt type: diskpart and press enter.

Step-3. View the details of the Recovery Partition on the Primary Disk, by typing the following commands in order:

1. select disk 0

2. select partition 1

3. detail partition

Step-4: Note the Type ID of the recovery partition and its Size.

e.g. As you can see at the screen below the partition’s size is “499” MB and the type ID is: “de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac”

mirror boot drive windows 10 uefi

 

Step-5. Convert the Secondary disk (DISK 1) to GPT and then create a Recovery Partition.

1. select disk 1

2. convert gpt

3. select partition 1

4. delete partition override

5. create partition primary size=499    *

* Note: Specify the same size you noted from the details at step-4 above.

mirror gpt boot drive windows 10 uefi

 

7. format fs=ntfs quick label=Recovery

8. select partition 1

9. set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac       *

* Note: Specify the same type ID you noted from the details at step-4 above.

mirror recovery partition windows 10

Step-6. Assign drive letters to the recovery partitions on both disks.

1. select disk 0

2. select partition 1

3. assign letter=q

4. select disk 1

5. select partition 1

6. assign letter=r

7. exit

mirror gpt boot drive diskpart

 

Step-7. Copy the contents of the primary recovery partition of Disk 0, to the primary recovery partition on the secondary disk (Disk 1), by typing the following command in command prompt: *

  • robocopy.exe q:\ r:\ * /e /copyall /dcopy:t /xd “System Volume Information”

* Note: Type exit to close the DISKPART tool first.

diskpart mirror recovery partition

Step-8. Continue to Part-2 below, to mirror the SYSTEM volume.

Part 2: How to Mirror the EFI System Partition on Windows 10

The next steps will help you to mirror the EFI System Partition, using the DISKPART tool and command prompt:

Step-1: In DISKPART, type the following commands in order:

1. select disk 0

2. list partition

Step-2: Note the size in megabytes of “System” & “Reserved” Partitions on the boot disk (DISK 0). *

* e.g. As you can see at the screenshot below, the size of the “System” (EFI ) Partition is “99” MB and the size of “Reserved” (MSR) partition is 16MB.

diskpart mirror efi system partition

Step-3. Create the System and Reserved partition(s) and assign a drive letter to the EFI partition, on the secondary disk (DISK 1):

1. select disk 1

2. create partition efi size=99      *

3. format fs=fat32 quick

4. assign letter=t

5. create partition msr size=16     *

* Note: Specify the same size you noted at step-2 above for the EFI & MSR partitions.

add mirror efi system partition

Step 4. Assign a drive letter to the System partition on the primary disk (DISK 0) and exit DISKPART.

1. select disk 0

2. select partition 2

3. assign letter=s

4. exit

add mirror efi partition

Step 5. Copy the contents of the primary EFI System partition of Disk 0, to the primary EFI System partition on the secondary – mirrored –  disk (Disk 1), by typing the following command in command prompt: *

  • robocopy.exe s:\ t:\ * /e /copyall /dcopy:t /xf BCD.* /xd “System Volume Information”

* Note: Type exit to close the DISKPART tool first.

mirror efi partition windows 10

Step 6. Close Command Prompt and continue to Part-3 below to mirror the OS volume.

Part 3. How to Mirror the Operating System Partition on Windows 10.

The final step, is to mirror the Operating System Volume (C:)

1. Press the “Windows” image  + “R” keys to load the Run dialog box.
2. Type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.

disk management

3. Right click on the primary disk (the boot disk: Disk 0) and select Convert to Dynamic Disk.

mirror operating system partition

4. Click OK, then click Convert & Yes to finish the conversion.
5. Then right click on the secondary disk (the empty disk: Disk 1) and select Convert to Dynamic Disk.
7. Finally right click at “C:” volume and select Add Mirror. *

* Note: If the “Add Mirror” option is greyed out, that means that the unallocated space on the secondary drive is smaller than the size of “C:” volume on the primary drive. To bypass this problem, shrink the size of the volume C:, to a size that is equal or smaller of the unallocated size on the secondary drive. (Right click on the C: drive and choose Shrink Volume.).

mirror operating system partition windows 10

8. Select the Disk 1 and click Add Mirror.

mirror disk uefi windows 10

9. Wait, until the synchronization of the C: drive is complete. From now on, you will always have an exact copy (mirror) of your data from your main drive to the secondary drive. If the primary boot drive fails, then you can disconnect it and boot from the secondary drive. *

* Note: If the primary drive fails and you cannot boot from the secondary boot drive, then you must break the mirror and to repair the BCD on the 2nd boot drive using the recovery environment. Detailed instructions to do that, can be found in this tutorial.

That’s it! Let me know if this guide has helped you by leaving your comment about your experience. Please like and share this guide to help others.

Fix Internet Explorer redirecting to Microsoft Edge

Posted on by

You can disable this behavior from Edge by going to Settings > Default browser > Let Internet Explorer open sites in Microsoft Edge and setting it to “Never”. No need for disabling all add-ons or modifying the registry. You might need to restart IE after changing the setting for it to take effect.

See also: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/all/disable-automatic-redirection-to-microsoft-edge/44996cd6-b2d8-43dc-82ed-fe96c959f8fe

If it’s still unclear here’s a link that has step-by-step instructions with screenshots: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/163941-turn-off-let-internet-explorer-open-sites-microsoft-edge.html

Microsoft Outlook hit by worldwide ’email visibility issues’

Posted on by
office365

Microsoft said that Outlook is suffering “email visibility issues”, with widespread reports of text disappearing after being entered into a new message, and of existing messages having no body text at all.

IT administrators said they were rolling back a recent Office update that appears to be the root cause; both desktop and 365 users are reporting issues.

“We’re investigating an issue with email message visibility in Outlook. Outlook on the web appears to be unaffected,” Microsoft said in a brief status advisory.

Users worldwide reported a variety of text input and visibility problems. There were confirmed reports of the issues impacting Australian and New Zealand users.

“If you hit ‘new message’ and type in the body no text appears. But If you send it the text shows up for the recipient,” one user wrote.

“We have several users that cannot see the text in emails in their mailboxes,” Seth Kamins tweeted.

“If you reply you still cannot see this unless you backspace.  Very odd. 

“OWA unaffected as we have Exchange on Prem.  Same thing happens when turning off Cache.”

One user screenshotted the experience, with the body of a new email disappearing every time a new line was entered.

Administrators reported that disabling autoupdate and rolling back to a previous version worked; Outlook Web Access (OWA) and access via phone-based client also appeared to be unaffected.

“Users with access to alternate protocols like Outlook on the web or Outlook mobile can use those as a potential workaround in the interim,” Microsoft later officially advised.

However, not even some of these workarounds were foolproof.

Update, 9.18am: Microsoft advised it had “identified the root cause and are applying a fix, which will reach affected users over the next three to four hours.

“Users will need to restart the Outlook client to apply the fix after it’s received. We expect to restore service to affected users by May 12, 2021, at 3:00 AM UTC [1pm AEST].”

How ransomeware works and why you need OnGuard Remote Backup

Posted on by

Ransomware attacks can

DESTROY your business!

Attacks do not happen all in one go.

Imagine a computer network is like an enemy fortress. If you want to capture it, you do not just lob a grenade over the wall and hope the soldiers are all killed. You start by infiltrating your best guy.

You smuggle him past the defenses and leave him to sneak around inside for a while. Get the lay of the land. Draw maps for when your main forces arrive. Find out where all the good stuff is hidden. See if there are any traps to avoid.

In our case, for traps substitute ‘backups.’ Backups are kryptonite to ransomware. There is no point in locking a bunch of data if your intended victim has a clean copy. They would just laugh in your face. That is a big problem because some of these groups are in the game for prestige as much as they are for cash.

So, if they find a backup—which are usually only connected briefly to capture a snapshot of any recent changes and then get taken off-line or even off-site for safekeeping—they immediately deploy a special kind of program. A particularly sneaky kind.

We call it a trident because it does three things all at once. One, it destroys all the data that has already been backed up. It is either wiped clean or replaced with porn or taunting messages, or things like that. Two, it prevents any new backups getting saved. And three, it sends spoof signals to the organization’s management system saying that everything is working OK. That way it avoids alerting anyone to what is happening and adds to the blow when the main systems lock up and the ransom demand is posted.

If you do not protect your data and are attacked by ransomware – you will be shut down!

Onguard Remote Backup keeps your data protected and give you the ability to recover from a data disaster fast!

Can you afford to lose your documents, accounting data, spreadsheets and pictures?

Protect your business data with OnGuard Remote Backup

Your business does not need a PAUSE button.

Call us to setup our OnGuard Remote Backup and protect your business!

718-921-6159

sales@bulldogtechinc.com