-----Original Message-----
Before a drive can be formatted it first needs to be partitioned. With a
brand new drive XP will take you to partitioning first off. There you can
decide the size of partition(s) you wish to create. If you choose to have
one partition then just accept the default which will create one partition
that is the entire size of your hard drive. Following the creation of the
partition, which takes only a moment, you will be asked to Format. You can
choose either NTFS or FAT. Most people prefer to use the NTFS format with
XP. You can read more about it here
http://aumha.org/a/ntfs.htm
However because you wish to load a Ghost Image to the partition you do not
have to format it. Ghost will take care of that because the image load will
be an exact duplicate of the partition it was created from (except for the
size). You only need to have a partition that is large enough for the Ghost
Image to be loaded into. If your Image was of a partition that held 5GB of
data then you will need to have a partition that is of adequate size to hold
the data. Remember that this refers to uncompressed data and not just the
size of the image file. At max compression Ghost does around 50% compression
so take that into account. If the partition is too small then the image load
will be unsuccessful.
With a brand new drive now is the time to decide if you want to have more
than one partition. Some people like to have a small partition to house only
the OS and installed apps. Depending on your needs a partition of 5 to 10
GB is generally sufficient to run XP and a lot of applications out of. You
can create more partitions in the unallocated space if you want. Additional
partitioning can be done on the unallocated space from Windows using the
Computer Management Console. Many people will advise you to stick with using
just one partition but because you have Ghost you might want to setup a
partition for making backups to. If you decide to do this you should format
the Backup partition as FAT32. Ghost can not see a NTFS partition to save
individual files to if you run it from the DOS diskette. It can if you run
it from Windows but in the event of a system failure you might not be able
to get into Windows to run Ghost and therefore have to use the DOS version.
--
Harry Ohrn - MS MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp
Thanks for the quick response. So, with a fresh new
(unformatted, unpartitioned) drive, do I use Recovery
Console to first format the whole unpartitioned drive to
NTFS, then do I use Recovery Console to make a primary
partition, or the other way around (partition first, then
format)? Sorry for my ignorance.
-----Original Message-----
Use the Recovery Console form the XP CD. Boot with the CD
and choose to
"Repair using the Recovery Console" You can partition as
you wish and
format. Then remove the XP CD and type EXIT to restart.
You can then use
GHOST. Check here for info on How To Partition and How To
Format
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
Simply swapping out a Hard Drive should not cause WPA to
trigger but if it
does all you have to do is Activate.
--
Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell\\User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp
message
Howdy,
I just purchased a new hard drive (my Western Digital 30
GB just died). I had previously used Norton Ghost to
make
a system back-up image (good to go here). What I want
to
do is just to create a partition and format the new hard
drive to NTFS, WITHOUT installing a fresh copy of
Windows
XP Home (from the WXP CD boot). I can then do the
restore
of my previously saved system image using the floppy
load
DOS version of Ghost. How can I do this without a fresh
install of Windows XP (just need a primary partition and
format to NTFS only). Any help here?
Also, with the new hard drive, and then the former
system
image restore with Ghost, will I have a problem with
Windows Product Activation (WPA) having just a new hard
drive formatted and changed from the old drive where WPA
originally was performed? Please advise. Thanks!
.
.
