Copying system to a new drive

[Colin Bearfield]

I run Windows XP pro on a 8Gb partition of a 40Gb drive. It's getting
tight.

I plan to buy an 80Gb drive and I hope to use Norton Ghost 2001 to
copy the partition to the new drive and finish up in bootable order.

Is it possible? Has anyone done it? Norton is a kosher copy, but the
booklet seems so contradictory.

Colin

 

[bearman]

I run Windows XP pro on a 8Gb partition of a 40Gb drive. It's getting
tight.

I plan to buy an 80Gb drive and I hope to use Norton Ghost 2001 to
copy the partition to the new drive and finish up in bootable order.

Is it possible? Has anyone done it? Norton is a kosher copy, but the
booklet seems so contradictory.

Colin

I bought a Western Digital 80GB drive and it came with a CD called Data
lifeguard that copied everything from my old drive to my new drive and made
it bootable. I think Maxtor has a similar program. And probably Seagate
does too. Check it out.

Bearman

 

[Jan Alter]

Hi,

If your current Win XP pro drive is currently partitioned as NTFS then
Norton Ghost won't even see that file system partition.. It was only with
Systemworks 2003 that Ghost began to handle that kind of file system.
However, both Data Lifeguard and whatever Maxtor has sound promising for
copying your file system to the new proposed drive.

 

[Michael Culley]

Hi,

If your current Win XP pro drive is currently partitioned as NTFS then
Norton Ghost won't even see that file system partition.. It was only with
Systemworks 2003 that Ghost began to handle that kind of file system.
However, both Data Lifeguard and whatever Maxtor has sound promising for
copying your file system to the new proposed drive.

That's not true, we've been using Ghost with XP since XP was released.

 

[Jan Alter]

My mistake then. I had read another posting previously that indicated that
limitation of Ghost up to the 2002 version. If this is true it teaches me
not to trust others information without trying it out for myself. What
version of Ghost are you using?

 

[Colin Bearfield]

Interesting stuff, but the NTFS option is academic in my case - all my
partitions on all my computers are FAT32.

Can anyone actually confirm that the "Lifeguard" utility comes with
other brands of HD? My usual supplier, Dabs in UK, only has Western
Digital at minimum of 120Gb and at much higher price. Hitachi/IBM are
the cheapest 80Gb by a margin just now. If Hitachi/IBM did this
utility I'd buy theirs.

Thanks

Colin

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

Interesting stuff, but the NTFS option is academic in my case - all my
partitions on all my computers are FAT32.

Can anyone actually confirm that the "Lifeguard" utility comes with
other brands of HD? My usual supplier, Dabs in UK, only has Western
Digital at minimum of 120Gb and at much higher price. Hitachi/IBM are
the cheapest 80Gb by a margin just now. If Hitachi/IBM did this
utility I'd buy theirs.

Just curious what sort of pricing you are seeing. I recently bought a
200Gb Seagate for $99 after rebate. I also bought a 120G WD for $69 (also
after a rebate). Bought both of those drives at big retail stores (CompUSA
for the Seagate and Best Buy for the WD) not off of the internet. Is UK
pricing really so much higher than US that you feel you need to buy a tiny
80G drive?

 

[Michael Culley]

I'm not sure, we are probably using the latest version now. I remember we had a problem when xp first came out but we didn't have to
wait until 2003 to solve it. Usually they keep fairly close behind the file system changes. We use ghost to test installations of
our software on a fresh copy of the OS. It works very well, you can restore a fresh copy of win95 in 40 seconds. XP takes a few
minutes.

--
Michael Culley

My mistake then. I had read another posting previously that indicated that
limitation of Ghost up to the 2002 version. If this is true it teaches me
not to trust others information without trying it out for myself. What
version of Ghost are you using?

 

[kony]

Interesting stuff, but the NTFS option is academic in my case - all my
partitions on all my computers are FAT32.

Can anyone actually confirm that the "Lifeguard" utility comes with
other brands of HD? My usual supplier, Dabs in UK, only has Western
Digital at minimum of 120Gb and at much higher price. Hitachi/IBM are
the cheapest 80Gb by a margin just now. If Hitachi/IBM did this
utility I'd buy theirs.

Thanks

Colin

You should be able to download it from their web site if not included in
(retail) box. "Their" meaning any of the name-brands, though it's
possible your "Lifeguard" software will work with the new drive too, if
you still have a WD in the system in addition to new drive. Most
manufacturers don't call it "Lifeguard" though, that name is just a WD
invention.

 

[Colin Bearfield]

Prices have fallen markedly recently.Internet Buying:


Excelstoor 60Gb £41.5
Hitachi/IBM 80Gb £46
Hitachi/IBM 120Gb £73.5
Samsung 160Gb £80.5
Western Digital 120Gb £70

Cash & Carry:
Seagate barracuda 80Gb £46
Maxtor 80Gb £49
WD 160Gb £71
WD 200Gb £88

To convert to $ multiply by 1.8ish

Colin

 

[Colin Bearfield]

You should be able to download it from their web site if not included in
(retail) box. "Their" meaning any of the name-brands, though it's
possible your "Lifeguard" software will work with the new drive too, if
you still have a WD in the system in addition to new drive. Most
manufacturers don't call it "Lifeguard" though, that name is just a WD
invention.

Thanks, Korny, youv'e been helpful before. I have the "don't delete"
icon on your postings.

 

[Trent©]

I run Windows XP pro on a 8Gb partition of a 40Gb drive. It's getting
tight.

I plan to buy an 80Gb drive and I hope to use Norton Ghost 2001 to
copy the partition to the new drive and finish up in bootable order.

Is it possible? Has anyone done it? Norton is a kosher copy, but the
booklet seems so contradictory.

Colin

That version is too old. It'll seem to work...but it'll cause you
problems later.

Get an updated version...or use trialware like BootItNG.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!

 

[Trent©]

Hi,

If your current Win XP pro drive is currently partitioned as NTFS then
Norton Ghost won't even see that file system partition.

Ghost doesn't even NEED a partition to be able to work properly.


Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!

 

[Colin Bearfield]

I run Windows XP pro on a 8Gb partition of a 40Gb drive. It's getting
tight.

I plan to buy an 80Gb drive and I hope to use Norton Ghost 2001 to
copy the partition to the new drive and finish up in bootable order.

Is it possible? Has anyone done it? Norton is a kosher copy, but the
booklet seems so contradictory.

Colin

I finished up buying a Maxtor 80Gb 7200 rpm UDA133 for £39. It had no
software. The Maxtor web site was impetetrable but I did find a UK
phone number.

The guy on the phone was not up to speed with the software and told me
there was nothing of the so I pressed him and he checked with a
colleague. he was able to assure me that a download of maxblast3
would do the trick.

Everything seemed so straight forward. In the past I've set up a
drive using FDISK and FORMAT but this was really simple.

The problem is that the new drive won't boot. It hangs at the welcome
screen. I told the BIOS to boot from the slave drive and it didn't it
booted from my old drive. So, I disconnected the power to my old drive
and that was when the drive hung.

I thought it had gone too well!

Colin

 

[kony]

I finished up buying a Maxtor 80Gb 7200 rpm UDA133 for £39. It had no
software. The Maxtor web site was impetetrable but I did find a UK
phone number.

Under their Site Map there's a Download section which ultimately leads to

http://downloads.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/downloads/maxblast3.exe

The guy on the phone was not up to speed with the software and told me
there was nothing of the so I pressed him and he checked with a
colleague. he was able to assure me that a download of maxblast3
would do the trick.

Sometimes I have to wonder what the purpose of the level 1 techs is, as
they seem able to answer the phone but that's about it.

Everything seemed so straight forward. In the past I've set up a
drive using FDISK and FORMAT but this was really simple.

The problem is that the new drive won't boot. It hangs at the welcome
screen. I told the BIOS to boot from the slave drive and it didn't it
booted from my old drive. So, I disconnected the power to my old drive
and that was when the drive hung.

I thought it had gone too well!

Presuming you run Win2K or XP, the NT bootloader is looking at a line in
the "boot.ini" file to determine which drive has the Windows instlallation
on it. Whatever drive you boot from, then redirects the OS boot to the
drive and/or partition specified in the boot.ini. Easiest solution is to
move drive to same IDE channel/position as previous drive.

 

[Colin Bearfield]

I run Windows XP pro on a 8Gb partition of a 40Gb drive. It's getting
tight.

I plan to buy an 80Gb drive and I hope to use Norton Ghost 2001 to
copy the partition to the new drive and finish up in bootable order.

Is it possible? Has anyone done it? Norton is a kosher copy, but the
booklet seems so contradictory.

Colin

I hate to lay this on you and i expect you to run a mile if you read
it.

I have one of the very first Athlon's networked via a Linksys router
to my No 1 machine. My No 2 machine runs Bootit and offers XP, Win98,
Mandrake Linux, and DOS 6.22. It has been rock solid for nearly 5
years. I say this only to acknowledge to Bootit fans that it works.

When I built my No 1 machine I chose a Gigabyte GA-7VAX/7VAXP MOBO
which I love. The RAID control software was not installed because I
didn't have the hard drives.

I installed Bootit to control 3 bootable partitions all running XP.
They were called Main, CopyofMain, and Test. After a few days I
proved that Bootit always booted to Main regardless of what I
selected. Friends have checked the Bootit setup and agreed it is
perfect. We are unanimous in our opinion that it is the RAID control
that is tripping up Bootit. I have laboured like this for 18 months.

Are you still reading - I thought not.

It has been suggested that Bootit creates non-standard partitions
which all other utilities baulk at. Certainly Partition magic 8 dies
at the sight of them.

I believe that this is why Maxblast has failed.

What I really need is some means to uninstall Bootit without losing
the system setup and returning to standard partitions. I have tried
to uninstall but without Bootit the system fails.

If anyone has a solution t this I shall send them a grand piano.

Best wishes

Colin

 

[Pen]

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 19:37:37 +0100, Colin Bearfield
snipped

I installed Bootit to control 3 bootable partitions all running XP.
They were called Main, CopyofMain, and Test. After a few days I
proved that Bootit always booted to Main regardless of what I
selected. Friends have checked the Bootit setup and agreed it is
perfect. We are unanimous in our opinion that it is the RAID control
that is tripping up Bootit. I have laboured like this for 18 months.

Are you still reading - I thought not.

It has been suggested that Bootit creates non-standard partitions
which all other utilities baulk at. Certainly Partition magic 8 dies
at the sight of them.

I believe that this is why Maxblast has failed.

What I really need is some means to uninstall Bootit without losing
the system setup and returning to standard partitions. I have tried
to uninstall but without Bootit the system fails.

If anyone has a solution t this I shall send them a grand piano.

Best wishes

Colin

Not sure how helpful this is, but give it a look.
Partition issues discussed in the 11th general
question. Several others look interesting.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/faq.html

Also this one has a reference;
http://members.shaw.ca/bootitng/ng.htm

I already have a grand piano.

 

[Colin Bearfield]

Not sure how helpful this is, but give it a look.
Partition issues discussed in the 11th general
question. Several others look interesting.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/faq.html

Also this one has a reference;
http://members.shaw.ca/bootitng/ng.htm

I already have a grand piano.

This has been very helpful. Tho I am filled with despair I now have
hope to go with it. I've deleted the Test partition and moved the
space around. Now the "Limit" check box, which had been greyed out,
is available. Some time today I shall format the primary partition on
the new disk and try with Maxblast to copy an image of Main to it in
the hope that it will boot up.

Many thanks to all.

Colin