Cannot transfer system to new hard drive - Help!

[Guest]

Hi, for several weeks now I have tried to transfer my Win XPhome partition on
a 60 GB IBMdeskstar to a 200 GB Maxtor with absolutely no success. The Bios
recognizes the new Maxtor at 203 GB. The Computer is a Dell 8250 (2003), 512
RDram. The utility that came with the Maxtor drive will not work on this
computer after reinstalling, downloading from Mfg. website and again
reinstalling several times over. However, the same utility does work
correctly on one of my other computers. Maybe this signifies a problem with
my system. I have used Norton Ghost 9 at least 5 times to copy the partition
to the new drive with the options of setting the new drive active and copying
the MBR. I have also used Recovery Console to "fixboot" and "fixmbr". Each
and every time, after swapping the new drive over to the master position and
leaving the old drive disconnected, the new drive will not boot. It only
goes to the Dell splash screen and stops. I have partitioned with the WinXP
disk management tool, with Partition Magic 8 and then copied with Ghost 9 and
Partition Magic. Same result. Just before trying any of these procedures, I
did a reinstall of WinXP to correct any problems.
I am very frustrated at this point. I am looking forward to the capacity
and speed of the new Maxtor. I would appreciate any suggestions. I don't
know what else to do. Thanks so much.
Just a note: I contacted Maxtor Customer Service about this problem and
they were not able to help. Hope someone here can.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi, for several weeks now I have tried to transfer my Win XPhome partition on
a 60 GB IBMdeskstar to a 200 GB Maxtor with absolutely no success. The Bios
recognizes the new Maxtor at 203 GB. The Computer is a Dell 8250 (2003), 512
RDram. The utility that came with the Maxtor drive will not work on this
computer after reinstalling, downloading from Mfg. website and again
reinstalling several times over. However, the same utility does work
correctly on one of my other computers. Maybe this signifies a problem with
my system. I have used Norton Ghost 9 at least 5 times to copy the partition
to the new drive with the options of setting the new drive active and copying
the MBR. I have also used Recovery Console to "fixboot" and "fixmbr". Each
and every time, after swapping the new drive over to the master position and
leaving the old drive disconnected, the new drive will not boot. It only
goes to the Dell splash screen and stops. I have partitioned with the WinXP
disk management tool, with Partition Magic 8 and then copied with Ghost 9 and
Partition Magic. Same result. Just before trying any of these procedures, I
did a reinstall of WinXP to correct any problems.
I am very frustrated at this point. I am looking forward to the capacity
and speed of the new Maxtor. I would appreciate any suggestions. I don't
know what else to do. Thanks so much.
Just a note: I contacted Maxtor Customer Service about this problem and
they were not able to help. Hope someone here can.

When you write "It goes to the Dell splash screen" then I assume that
you're talking about the screen generated by the BIOS, before WinXP
starts. If so then you could try this as a first step:

- Format a floppy disk on some other WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work. And don't
create a boot disk - just format a disk!
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

What do you get?

 

[AJMW]

Hi, for several weeks now I have tried to transfer my Win XPhome partition on
a 60 GB IBMdeskstar to a 200 GB Maxtor with absolutely no success. The Bios
recognizes the new Maxtor at 203 GB. The Computer is a Dell 8250 (2003), 512
RDram. The utility that came with the Maxtor drive will not work on this
computer after reinstalling, downloading from Mfg. website and again
reinstalling several times over. However, the same utility does work

correctly on one of my other computers. Maybe this signifies a problem with
my system. I have used Norton Ghost 9 at least 5 times to copy the partition
to the new drive with the options of setting the new drive active and copying
the MBR. I have also used Recovery Console to "fixboot" and "fixmbr". Each
and every time, after swapping the new drive over to the master position and
leaving the old drive disconnected, the new drive will not boot. It only
goes to the Dell splash screen and stops. I have partitioned with the WinXP
disk management tool, with Partition Magic 8 and then copied with Ghost 9 and
Partition Magic. Same result. Just before trying any of these procedures, I
did a reinstall of WinXP to correct any problems.
I am very frustrated at this point. I am looking forward to the capacity
and speed of the new Maxtor. I would appreciate any suggestions. I don't
know what else to do. Thanks so much.
Just a note: I contacted Maxtor Customer Service about this problem and
they were not able to help. Hope someone here can.

You may find that your attempts have resulted in data being written to
the Maxtor drive which is impeding your later attempts to solve your
problems. I have had the same thing. One can download from the Maxtor
website a utility called "powermax" which, when run, creates a file
onto a floppy which is bootable and from which you can return the
Maxtor drive to factory condition.

 

[Guest]

Hi, for several weeks now I have tried to transfer my Win XPhome partition on
a 60 GB IBMdeskstar to a 200 GB Maxtor with absolutely no success. The Bios
recognizes the new Maxtor at 203 GB. The Computer is a Dell 8250 (2003), 512
RDram. The utility that came with the Maxtor drive will not work on this
computer after reinstalling, downloading from Mfg. website and again
reinstalling several times over. However, the same utility does work
correctly on one of my other computers. Maybe this signifies a problem with
my system. I have used Norton Ghost 9 at least 5 times to copy the partition
to the new drive with the options of setting the new drive active and copying
the MBR. I have also used Recovery Console to "fixboot" and "fixmbr". Each
and every time, after swapping the new drive over to the master position and
leaving the old drive disconnected, the new drive will not boot. It only
goes to the Dell splash screen and stops. I have partitioned with the WinXP
disk management tool, with Partition Magic 8 and then copied with Ghost 9 and
Partition Magic. Same result. Just before trying any of these procedures, I
did a reinstall of WinXP to correct any problems.
I am very frustrated at this point. I am looking forward to the capacity
and speed of the new Maxtor. I would appreciate any suggestions. I don't
know what else to do. Thanks so much.
Just a note: I contacted Maxtor Customer Service about this problem and
they were not able to help. Hope someone here can.

When you write "It goes to the Dell splash screen" then I assume that
you're talking about the screen generated by the BIOS, before WinXP
starts. If so then you could try this as a first step:

- Format a floppy disk on some other WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work. And don't
create a boot disk - just format a disk!
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

What do you get?

Hi, thanks for posting. I have 2 other computers, a desktop running winMe and a laptop with XP Pro, but no A drive. All are networked and I tried to format from the laptop onto the Dell, but "cannot format a network drive". So, I had to format from the Dell and then continued to follow your instructions. Same thing happened. It just got to the Bios Splash screen and stopped. Note: The Maxtor, after the copy partition process, does show up as my F: drive and can be written to, copied, etc. Another note: I get the message on windows loading: Access denied: Drive F. I assume that's because it is marked as "active". Also, on the original Dell hard drive (IBM) there is a 39 MB partition in front of the C: partition. It is unallocated and therefore will not copy over to the new drive. Do you see that as a problem? I did not want to format it for fear of not being able to boot up. Trying to give you as much info as I can. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

You may find that your attempts have resulted in data being written to
the Maxtor drive which is impeding your later attempts to solve your
problems. I have had the same thing. One can download from the Maxtor
website a utility called "powermax" which, when run, creates a file
onto a floppy which is bootable and from which you can return the
Maxtor drive to factory condition.

Hi, I appreciate your post. If other methods don't solve this problem, I will use the PowerMax and let you know what happens. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Hi again, because of the A: drive not being available on another XP machine,
I've been thinking of what else may work. Do you think if I followed your
instructions and applied it to a CD and started the computer from the CD, it
would work? I'll try it and let you know.

Hi, for several weeks now I have tried to transfer my Win XPhome partition on
a 60 GB IBMdeskstar to a 200 GB Maxtor with absolutely no success. The Bios
recognizes the new Maxtor at 203 GB. The Computer is a Dell 8250 (2003), 512
RDram. The utility that came with the Maxtor drive will not work on this
computer after reinstalling, downloading from Mfg. website and again
reinstalling several times over. However, the same utility does work
correctly on one of my other computers. Maybe this signifies a problem with
my system. I have used Norton Ghost 9 at least 5 times to copy the partition
to the new drive with the options of setting the new drive active and copying
the MBR. I have also used Recovery Console to "fixboot" and "fixmbr". Each
and every time, after swapping the new drive over to the master position and
leaving the old drive disconnected, the new drive will not boot. It only
goes to the Dell splash screen and stops. I have partitioned with the WinXP
disk management tool, with Partition Magic 8 and then copied with Ghost 9 and
Partition Magic. Same result. Just before trying any of these procedures, I
did a reinstall of WinXP to correct any problems.
I am very frustrated at this point. I am looking forward to the capacity
and speed of the new Maxtor. I would appreciate any suggestions. I don't
know what else to do. Thanks so much.
Just a note: I contacted Maxtor Customer Service about this problem and
they were not able to help. Hope someone here can.

When you write "It goes to the Dell splash screen" then I assume that
you're talking about the screen generated by the BIOS, before WinXP
starts. If so then you could try this as a first step:

- Format a floppy disk on some other WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work. And don't
create a boot disk - just format a disk!
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

What do you get?

Hi, thanks for posting. I have 2 other computers, a desktop running winMe and a laptop with XP Pro, but no A drive. All are networked and I tried to format from the laptop onto the Dell, but "cannot format a network drive". So, I had to format from the Dell and then continued to follow your instructions. Same thing happened. It just got to the Bios Splash screen and stopped. Note: The Maxtor, after the copy partition process, does show up as my F: drive and can be written to, copied, etc. Another note: I get the message on windows loading: Access denied: Drive F. I assume that's because it is marked as "active". Also, on the original Dell hard drive (IBM) there is a 39 MB partition in front of the C: partition. It is unallocated and therefore will not copy over to the new drive. Do you see that as a problem? I did not want to format it for fear of not being able to boot up. Trying to give you as much info as I can. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

I'm sorry, but I don't see the attached file or know how to get it onto my
computer and then I assume I would use the command you mentioned. Your help
is truly appreciated and I apologize for not knowing how to do this.

I attach the image of a Win2000 boot floppy. Use this command to transfer it
to
your floppy disk:

loaddskf.exe win2000.dsk a:

You will still have to populate it with ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini.

Hi again, because of the A: drive not being available on another XP machine,
I've been thinking of what else may work. Do you think if I followed your
instructions and applied it to a CD and started the computer from the CD, it
would work? I'll try it and let you know.

:


Hi, for several weeks now I have tried to transfer my Win XPhome partition
on
a 60 GB IBMdeskstar to a 200 GB Maxtor with absolutely no success. The
Bios
recognizes the new Maxtor at 203 GB. The Computer is a Dell 8250 (2003),
512
RDram. The utility that came with the Maxtor drive will not work on this
computer after reinstalling, downloading from Mfg. website and again
reinstalling several times over. However, the same utility does work
correctly on one of my other computers. Maybe this signifies a problem
with
my system. I have used Norton Ghost 9 at least 5 times to copy the
partition
to the new drive with the options of setting the new drive active and
copying
the MBR. I have also used Recovery Console to "fixboot" and "fixmbr".
Each
and every time, after swapping the new drive over to the master position
and
leaving the old drive disconnected, the new drive will not boot. It only
goes to the Dell splash screen and stops. I have partitioned with the
WinXP
disk management tool, with Partition Magic 8 and then copied with Ghost 9
and
Partition Magic. Same result. Just before trying any of these
procedures, I
did a reinstall of WinXP to correct any problems.
I am very frustrated at this point. I am looking forward to the
capacity
and speed of the new Maxtor. I would appreciate any suggestions. I
don't
know what else to do. Thanks so much.
Just a note: I contacted Maxtor Customer Service about this problem
and
they were not able to help. Hope someone here can.



When you write "It goes to the Dell splash screen" then I assume that
you're talking about the screen generated by the BIOS, before WinXP
starts. If so then you could try this as a first step:

- Format a floppy disk on some other WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work. And don't
create a boot disk - just format a disk!
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

What do you get?

Hi, thanks for posting. I have 2 other computers, a desktop running

winMe and a laptop with XP Pro, but no A drive. All are networked and I
tried to format from the laptop onto the Dell, but "cannot format a network
drive". So, I had to format from the Dell and then continued to follow
your instructions. Same thing happened. It just got to the Bios Splash
screen and stopped. Note: The Maxtor, after the copy partition process,
does show up as my F: drive and can be written to, copied, etc. Another
note: I get the message on windows loading: Access denied: Drive F. I
assume that's because it is marked as "active". Also, on the original Dell
hard drive (IBM) there is a 39 MB partition in front of the C: partition.
It is unallocated and therefore will not copy over to the new drive. Do you
see that as a problem? I did not want to format it for fear of not being
able to boot up. Trying to give you as much info as I can. Thanks.