XP cloning & activation

[U. Cortez]

How can I clone an NTFS partition with Win XP Pro to a new harddrive
without having to reinstall Windows?

Here's my situation: I currently am dual-booting XP and 98se on
separate hard drives, but purchased a new hard drive and partitioned it
to contain both. I cloned the drives without problem using Ghost.
First there were some problems with the dual-boot, but I resolved the
problem by recopying the ntldr and ntdetect.com files to the new drive,
in addition to configuring a new boot.ini file.

However, now the XP drive will boot up but after login it says "A
problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the liscence for
this computer" and logs me back out. All the workarounds that I've
found involve reinstalling Windows. I don' want to go through that
process again -- that's why I want to clone the drive, so I don't have
to go and reinstall and reconfigure all my applications.

Little help?

 

[Kerry Brown]

How can I clone an NTFS partition with Win XP Pro to a new harddrive
without having to reinstall Windows?

Here's my situation: I currently am dual-booting XP and 98se on
separate hard drives, but purchased a new hard drive and partitioned
it to contain both. I cloned the drives without problem using Ghost.
First there were some problems with the dual-boot, but I resolved the
problem by recopying the ntldr and ntdetect.com files to the new
drive, in addition to configuring a new boot.ini file.

However, now the XP drive will boot up but after login it says "A
problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the liscence
for this computer" and logs me back out. All the workarounds that
I've found involve reinstalling Windows. I don' want to go through
that process again -- that's why I want to clone the drive, so I
don't have to go and reinstall and reconfigure all my applications.

Little help?

Which of the separate drives is the boot drive? XP or 98? If it's XP then
you could clone the XP drive to the new drive but leave some room for 98.
Create a FAT32 partition in the free space and use xcopy to copy the 98
drive to the new drive. If the 98 drive is the boot drive I think you're out
of luck. Maybe someone else will have a solution for that scenario.

Kerry

 

[U. Cortez]

The boot isn't a problem. 98 was the original boot drive, but I've
fixed it so that the new drive has a primary NTFS partition of the XP
drive, and an extended FAT32 of 98 and switched it so the primary can
boot. That's not a problem.

On the other hand, once I boot, I get the activation error:
"A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the liscence
for this computer"

I know that you can install XP all over again, but that defeats the
purpose of cloning the drive for me.

 

[jimbo]

How can I clone an NTFS partition with Win XP Pro to a new harddrive
without having to reinstall Windows?

Here's my situation: I currently am dual-booting XP and 98se on
separate hard drives, but purchased a new hard drive and partitioned it
to contain both. I cloned the drives without problem using Ghost.
First there were some problems with the dual-boot, but I resolved the
problem by recopying the ntldr and ntdetect.com files to the new drive,
in addition to configuring a new boot.ini file.

However, now the XP drive will boot up but after login it says "A
problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the liscence for
this computer" and logs me back out. All the workarounds that I've
found involve reinstalling Windows. I don' want to go through that
process again -- that's why I want to clone the drive, so I don't have
to go and reinstall and reconfigure all my applications.

Little help?

Not sure what you mean by "I cloned the drives without problem...". If
I understand, you had two hard drives, one with WinXP, the other with
Win98se. And you have a new hard drive that you want for WinXP and
Win98se.

What I would do is clone WinXP to the new drive. Use the Ghost clone
switch, -szeE to keep the partitions the same size on your new drive
as on the old drive. That should leave you with the new hard drive
with a WinXP partition and unused space. Then clone the Win98se
PARTITION to the new hard drive.

You will need to reconfigure your dual boot setup, but you should end
up with a new hard drive with WinXP and Win98se installed.

Good luck, jimbo

 

[gg]

If what U. Cortez prescribe doe snot work for you (it should), as last
resort, you can try windows repair/ update.
Yes, you will have to activate, No you don't have to re-install anything.