Cloning my C Drive onto D...

[trevormidgley]

My computer runs Win2K Professional. I have two hard drives, C & D. The
OS is installed on C.

Both HDs are quite small, and I'm in the process of replacing both.
As a first stage, because D was only 2GB(!), I've recently installed
a larger HD in its place (jumpered as "slave"). I've cloned the
existing C onto the new D (completely successfully), adjusted the BIOS
to boot up from IDE2 (my D drive), and everything works fine -
almost...

The problem is, if I disconnect the C drive from the system (both
physically and through the BIOS), I get a "boot failure" message
from the BIOS when trying to start up, even though the BIOS is
configured to boot from IDE2.

Reconnect the C drive, and boot up from IDE2 goes ahead as normal. (I
know it is IDE2 - the D drive - that's booting by the way,
because at 7200rpm, boot up is considerably faster than from the old C
drive which runs at 5400.)

The C drive partition shows up as "active" in My Computer
management, the D partition as "system".

I would mention one other little snag, which I guess is probably
symptomatic of the main problem.

Even after a successful boot from the D drive, I'm unable to access
Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. All I get is the message,
"mshta.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You
will need to restart the program. An error log is being created."

However, if I reboot from the C drive, Add/Remove Programs in Control
Panel reappears.

Can anyone offer some advice as to what I'm doing wrong? Once I have
a properly working OS on the new D drive, I'd like to remove the old
C, replace that, and transfer the my OS back. Or isn't this the best
way to go about it?

Any thoughts gratefully appreciated.

 

[Dave Patrick]

You can't arbitrarily change the operating system drive letter. Best (and
easiest) to back up your data and perform a clean install after the new
drives are in place.

To do a clean install, either boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom or setup
disks. The set of four install disks can be created from your Windows 2000
CD-Rom; change to the \bootdisk directory on the CD-Rom and execute
makeboot.exe (from dos) or makebt32.exe (from 32 bit) and follow the
prompts.

When you get to the point, delete the existing NTFS and or other partitions
found. After you delete the partition(s) abort the install, then again
restart the pc booting the CD-Rom or setup disks to avoid unexpected drive
letter assignments with your new install.

Be sure to apply these to your new install before connecting to any network.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| My computer runs Win2K Professional. I have two hard drives, C & D. The
| OS is installed on C.
|
| Both HDs are quite small, and I'm in the process of replacing both.
| As a first stage, because D was only 2GB(!), I've recently installed
| a larger HD in its place (jumpered as "slave"). I've cloned the
| existing C onto the new D (completely successfully), adjusted the BIOS
| to boot up from IDE2 (my D drive), and everything works fine -
| almost...
|
| The problem is, if I disconnect the C drive from the system (both
| physically and through the BIOS), I get a "boot failure" message
| from the BIOS when trying to start up, even though the BIOS is
| configured to boot from IDE2.
|
| Reconnect the C drive, and boot up from IDE2 goes ahead as normal. (I
| know it is IDE2 - the D drive - that's booting by the way,
| because at 7200rpm, boot up is considerably faster than from the old C
| drive which runs at 5400.)
|
| The C drive partition shows up as "active" in My Computer
| management, the D partition as "system".
|
| I would mention one other little snag, which I guess is probably
| symptomatic of the main problem.
|
| Even after a successful boot from the D drive, I'm unable to access
| Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. All I get is the message,
| "mshta.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You
| will need to restart the program. An error log is being created."
|
| However, if I reboot from the C drive, Add/Remove Programs in Control
| Panel reappears.
|
| Can anyone offer some advice as to what I'm doing wrong? Once I have
| a properly working OS on the new D drive, I'd like to remove the old
| C, replace that, and transfer the my OS back. Or isn't this the best
| way to go about it?
|
| Any thoughts gratefully appreciated.
|

 

[trevormidgley]

Thanks Dave -

Problem is, I don't have and Win2K CD-ROM or setup disks - I bought
this box second (or maybe third!) hand.

In the absence of these, is there any way I can clone C onto another HD
and have the new one as my OS drive.

Thanks again -


TM.

 

[Dave Patrick]

You can use something like this.

http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Thanks Dave -
|
| Problem is, I don't have and Win2K CD-ROM or setup disks - I bought
| this box second (or maybe third!) hand.
|
| In the absence of these, is there any way I can clone C onto another HD
| and have the new one as my OS drive.
|
| Thanks again -
|
|
| TM.
|

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My computer runs Win2K Professional. I have two hard drives, C & D. The
OS is installed on C.

Both HDs are quite small, and I'm in the process of replacing both.
As a first stage, because D was only 2GB(!), I've recently installed
a larger HD in its place (jumpered as "slave"). I've cloned the
existing C onto the new D (completely successfully), adjusted the BIOS
to boot up from IDE2 (my D drive), and everything works fine -
almost...

The problem is, if I disconnect the C drive from the system (both
physically and through the BIOS), I get a "boot failure" message
from the BIOS when trying to start up, even though the BIOS is
configured to boot from IDE2.

Reconnect the C drive, and boot up from IDE2 goes ahead as normal. (I
know it is IDE2 - the D drive - that's booting by the way,
because at 7200rpm, boot up is considerably faster than from the old C
drive which runs at 5400.)

The C drive partition shows up as "active" in My Computer
management, the D partition as "system".

I would mention one other little snag, which I guess is probably
symptomatic of the main problem.

Even after a successful boot from the D drive, I'm unable to access
Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. All I get is the message,
"mshta.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You
will need to restart the program. An error log is being created."

However, if I reboot from the C drive, Add/Remove Programs in Control
Panel reappears.

Can anyone offer some advice as to what I'm doing wrong? Once I have
a properly working OS on the new D drive, I'd like to remove the old
C, replace that, and transfer the my OS back. Or isn't this the best
way to go about it?

Any thoughts gratefully appreciated.

You write "I've cloned the existing C onto the new D (completely
successfully)" but you don't say how exactly you performed the
cloning process. Depending on how you did it, your cloning may
only be partitial.

You have several options to clone a hard disk:
a) By using a commercial disk imaging program such as the one
suggested by Dave Patrick.
b) By using the cloning program downloadable from the home
site of your disk manufacturer (perhaps).
c) By Booting the machine with a Bart PE disk (www.bootdisk.com),
then using xcopy.exe to clone the disk.
d) By temporarily installing both disks as slave disks in another
Win2000/XP machine, the using xcopy.exe.

Option c) and d) are somewhat laborious in that you will have
to restore the Win2000 boot environment.

It is important that you do NOT boot the machine with
both disks inserted after cloning.

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi,

You didn't say how you went about cloning your drive. If you use the
Ghost programs clone option it'll make a bootable copy of your drive.
Don't fool around with changing your bios to boot from the clone, move
the drive physically to where the old drive was.

.......It is important that you do NOT boot the machine with
both disks inserted after cloning.

That's not true. I clone my drive weekly and it's never been a problem
having two identical drives in the system.

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)
Technical Counselor

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If you boot the machine with both disks inserted then
you run the risk of Windows re-assigning its drive letters.
You won't notice it while both disks are inserted but
you certainly will when you remove one of them.

It does not happen on each machine but it ***can***.

 

[Andy]

My computer runs Win2K Professional. I have two hard drives, C & D. The
OS is installed on C.

Both HDs are quite small, and I'm in the process of replacing both.
As a first stage, because D was only 2GB(!), I've recently installed
a larger HD in its place (jumpered as "slave"). I've cloned the
existing C onto the new D (completely successfully), adjusted the BIOS
to boot up from IDE2 (my D drive), and everything works fine -
almost...

The problem is, if I disconnect the C drive from the system (both
physically and through the BIOS), I get a "boot failure" message
from the BIOS when trying to start up, even though the BIOS is
configured to boot from IDE2.

The reason this happens is because you "adjusted the BIOS
to boot up from IDE2 (my D drive), and everything works fine -
almost..." When you boot up with two "identical" (meaning having the
same disk signatures) disks, the startup program (probably
ntdetect.com) changes the disk signature of the second disk. Once this
happens the second disk will not boot.

The following scenario shows what happens:
1. Make the clone.
2. Save the MBR of the clone drive using the DOS version of MBRWizard
<http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/BootToolsRefs.htm#TOOLS>.
3. Boot from the old disk with the clone drive attached.
4. Save the MBR of the clone drive again, and compare the Disk
Signatures
<http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/Win2kmbr.htm>.
The Disk Signature of the clone has been changed, because Windows
cannot operate with two identical drives.
5. Boot from the clone with the old disk attached, and run Disk
Management to see where the Page File is located. The old disk remains
as drive C:, and the Page File is on the old disk, because the
registry points to drive C:.
6. Remove the old disk and boot from the clone. You may get a "cannot
create Page File" error, or it just won't boot, because the Disk
Signature in the MBR does not match the ones in the registry.
7. Using the DOS version of MBRWizard restore the original MBR to the
clone disk, and boot from the clone disk without the old disk
attached. It boots okay and runs as C:.

 

[Rob]

You can actually use EXPLORER or similar utility to copy all EXCEPT
PAGEFILE.SYS to another drive...... ROOT C: to ROOT D: and then
use your CD/BootDisks and run SETUP - REPAIR after you have
swapped the drives so that the copy is now C:............

I do this often with PowerDesk, a free version is available from :

http://www.v-com.com/download/download_free.html


I use it because PD allows Side by Side panels. The PRO version
even has SYNC.

http://www.v-com.com/product/PowerDesk_Pro_Home.html

 

[trevormidgley]

Hi Pegasus.

I've cloned my C drive onto D twice, both with equal success (or
failure, depending on how you look at it!).

First time was with HDClone, second time with DrvClonerXP. I tried the
second program - having deleted all files from my D drive first - after
the clone with HDClone produced the effects I've described. But
DrvClonerXP produced just the same result.

Maybe it's a lost cause, but I'm looking for a simple solution if there
is one; or at least a step-by-step guide on how to get my Win2K Pro OS
from C to D in such a way that D will be able to be redesignated Master
HD.

Thanks for your input -


TM.


***********************

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I am not familiar with HDClone or DrvConerXP. I only know
DriveImage (PowerQuest), TrueImage (Acronis) and Ghost
(Norton). Are these commercial or freeware programs?

If you are reluctant to purchase one of the above programs
(I would select TrueImage) then you could use options c)
or d) (see my previous reply). Option c) requires another
Win2000/XP desktop PC. Option d) requires a CD burner
and a loan of a WinXP Professional CD (but no licence
number).

What's your preference?

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi Pegasus,

..........If you boot the machine with both disks inserted then you run
the risk of Windows re-assigning its drive letters. You won't notice it
while both disks are inserted but you certainly will when you remove one
of them.


When you run Norton Ghost it stops Windows, restarts the computer, does
its thing, then reboots and restarts into Windows. The program makes the
choice to boot with both disks installed, it's not a user option to pull
one during the cloning process or trying to do it before Ghost reboots
into Windoze.

I think as long as the cloned too disk is jumpered as a slave or set to
cable select there won't be any problems with Windoze being too stupid
to figure which one contains the operating system.

When the clone copy disk is used to write back/clone back, to the
primary disk, Ghost asks if you really want to overwrite the Windoze
operating system. Between Norton Ghost and Windoze I think they have the
situation well under control and worring about booting with a cloned
copy in there too is a no brainer for the user. Ghost is the only
software I've used so what you've said about being careful is probably
good advice with some programs, however Ghost 2003 hasn't been a problem
in the computers I've installed it in.

My primary/master disk is C, D and E. My CD/DVD if F. When I run Ghost
my secondary disk is temporily assigned drive letters G,H and I. When I
take that secondary disk and change its jumper to master and install it
in place of my primary/master HD it's assigned the letters C, D and F
just as the original disk had. It really is a clone, an exact copy of
the original.

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)
Technical Counselor