Drive Swap

[WoofWoof]

I have win2k set up on a system with 2 HD's ... a 13G primary boot
drive (single ntfs partition with the OS on it) and a 40G secondary
with two ntfs partitions.

I would like to replace the primary 13G drive with a 40G model. what's
the easiest way to transfer the OS and files from the 13G?

I have Partition Magic 8 and was considering temporarily connecting
the new drive in place of the secondary then cloning the partition
from the boot drive. Is that enough or do I need a further step to fix
up the mbr?

Alternatively I have Norton Ghost available and could backup to the
existing secondary then swap boot drives and restore. Again, is that
all that's necessary or is there another required step?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

PQMagic 8 should do the trick. After cloning, make sure that
you never boot the machine with both disks installed. If you
do then you might wreck both installations, as your drive letters
could get very confused.

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi,

I have those same two programs. I'd suggest you use Ghost to clone your
13 drive to your 40, no need to switch their places. When you're
finished with that, disconnect the drives and change their jumpers to
where the drives will be switched to. Now you can just boot normally.

Don't fool with the drive letters! If you assign one you're meddling in
where ghost doesn't need your help.

I've never had to fool with Partition Magic to assign drive letters to
clone, just let Ghost have it's way with things. Ghost will even create
the correct partitions if you leave it alone.

I use Ghost to keep a current clone of my hard drive as a backup. I've
tested it by plugging my backup into the master position and booting
normally.
--

---==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

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi,

........After cloning, make sure that you never boot the machine with
both disks installed.

Ghost actually reboots after the clone operation and things are just
fine with both drives in there. You also need to boot with both drives
installed in order to do a clone of the drive in the first place. Even
after you have two identical drives running things boot fine, probably
because one of them is a slave and it's not trying to boot.

---==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

 

[WoofWoof]

This talk of the second drive is confusing me a bit .... I assume you
mean don't have both the old and new boot drives installed at the same
time? There are currently two drives in the system and I want to end
up that way so I'd still have a "second drive"

To clarify a little more, here's what I visualise doing (logistics
such as drive jumper settings powering down between hardware changes
etc are assumed):

1. If I use Partition Magic

- remove the current drive-2 (non-boot) and replace it with the new
drive.
- use PM to make a clone of the boot partition from drive-1 to the new
drive.
- replace drive-1 with the new drive and re-connect orginal drive-2


2. If I use Ghost

- with the original drive 1 and 2 configuration, make a backup of the
drive-1 boot partition on drive-2 (I believe I can make room for
that).
- replace drive-1 with the new drive
- use ghost to restore the partition image from drive-2


It occurs to me that there might be a third possibility (which
wouldn't need as much space) ... would this work? :

3. Using Ghost

- with the original drive 1&2 configuration make a *file* backup from
the drive-1 boot partition to drive-2
- replace drive-1 with the new drive and create a new ntfs partition
(PM?)
- use ghost to restore the files from drive 2
- anything else? MBR?

 

[WoofWoof]

Hi,

see my response to Pegasus. There are actually to 40G drives involved.
The existing system has:

- Drive-1 (boot) ... 13G
- Drive-2 (data) ... 40G

I want to replace Drive-1 with a second 40G

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I think that this statement is abundantly clear: "After cloning, make
sure that you never boot the machine with both disks installed."

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi again,

.........I would like to replace the primary 13G drive with a 40G model.
what's the easiest way to transfer the OS and files from the 13G?

Take out your old 40 G drive and set it aside. Put in your new 40G drive
as a slave. Use Ghost to clone the 13 drive to the 40. Don't make an
image file of anything, use the clone option! You want an EXACT bootable
copy of your hard drive, not an image or file or anything like that.

Now take to 40 clone you just made and install it in place of the 13 and
add your old 40 as a slave.

Pegasus wrote: ..........I think that this statement is abundantly
clear: "After cloning, make sure that you never boot the machine with
both disks installed."

Sorry, but that's just not true. Maybe your thinking of a different
software or something. I boot with both the drives installed every time
I want to remake the clone, usually every friday night. I don't "hot
swap" with W2000 as it's not supported in this OS.

I have two 80 g drives, the master is three partitions. These three
partitions are C, D and E. My CD player is F. When Norton Ghost makes a
clone onto my slave drive, it gives the drive, temporarily, the letters
G,H and I.

When I take this clone and change its jumpers to be the master for an
integrity check, my system gives the three partitions that were before
lettered G, H and I, are now shown as C, D and E and the computer boots
just fine. Actually it's as though I didn't even swap the drives even
though the original is now un-docked in a removable tray. The tray
doesn't add any function, just makes swapping slaves a lot easier.

There's no problem booting with two identical drives installed, Windows
doesn't give them the same C drive designation, so there's no conflict
or trying to boot from different places either.

As I wrote before, Ghost reboots after doing its job with both drives
installed even though they each contain the exact same information, and
each can be booted from depending on your cable position. Whichever
drive is cabled as master gets the C designation.



---==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

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi,

I may have misread what Pegasus was writing about. His suggestion about
not booting with two drives may be corrrect if your're using Partition
Magic for anything here.

Using Ghost to do the job doesn't involve PM for anything, and that may
be where things go stupid. If you use PM to assign drive letters rather
than letting Ghost do it, Windoze may fall on its ass when it tries to
boot as some program has assigned a letter that isn't easily worked around.

I think Ghost is just assigning letters temporily, like just for each
boot, nothing written to the disk assigning it a position.


---==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

 

[WoofWoof]

Well ... as I have pointed out, there are a total of three drives
involved and there will always be two of those connected at the same
time so the statement '"both" disks installed ' is ambiguous to me.

In any event you have chosen to repeat your earlier statement (which
I already said I didn't understand) rather than respond in the terms
that I explained my difficulty which appears (to me) a little
chauvenistic. I hadn't come across that from MVP's here before. Thanks
anyway for trying to help.

 

[WoofWoof]

Hi again,

........I would like to replace the primary 13G drive with a 40G model.
what's the easiest way to transfer the OS and files from the 13G?

Take out your old 40 G drive and set it aside. Put in your new 40G drive
as a slave. Use Ghost to clone the 13 drive to the 40. Don't make an
image file of anything, use the clone option! You want an EXACT bootable
copy of your hard drive, not an image or file or anything like that.

Now take to 40 clone you just made and install it in place of the 13 and
add your old 40 as a slave.

Thanks, Jim, that sounds like the way to go. I appreciate your help!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The point I was trying to make is that you should not allow the
cloned disk to be connected at the same time as the original
disk, because you might end up with confused drive letters.
Win2000 has a tendency to sniff out all Win2000 installations
present in a system; if they are clones of each other then Windows
might change some references in its registry from drive C: to drive
E: (for example). This could damage both installation permanently.

If you have any data disks in your system then they are irrelevant
within this particular issue.

As to being "chauvenistic": I confess that I do no know what you
mean. My dictionary defines "chauvinistic" as "aggressive or fanatical
patriotism; enthusiastic devotion to a cause; smug irrational belief in
the superiority of one's own race". This thread does not and will not
deal in patriotism, pet causes or race issues. If you felt that my reply
was "condescending" then I apologise - the reply was meant to
encourage you to re-read what I had written previously.

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi again,

You're welcome!

Partition Magic is a fine tool for fooling around with creating, merging
deleting, formatting partitions etc. but I haven't found it as useful of
a backup utility as Ghost.

I should have mentioned earlier that Ghost will do the partitioning etc.
all by itself.

Don't forget to have some fun too!

---==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

 

[Leythos]

I should have mentioned earlier that Ghost will do the partitioning etc.
all by itself.

Ghost is the best tool I've ever used for Workstations and Servers. The
one thing that PM has over Ghost is the ability to resize a partition
without using a second drive. Ghost requires a second drive (or a ghost
image file) to increase partition sizes by cloning and resizing at the
same time.

Ghost has even worked for me when cloning R5 arrays, Mirrors, etc...

 

[Willard]

Hi,

I may have misread what Pegasus was writing about. His suggestion about
not booting with two drives may be corrrect if your're using Partition
Magic for anything here.

Using Ghost to do the job doesn't involve PM for anything, and that may
be where things go stupid. If you use PM to assign drive letters rather
than letting Ghost do it, Windoze may fall on its ass when it tries to
boot as some program has assigned a letter that isn't easily worked around.

I think Ghost is just assigning letters temporily, like just for each
boot, nothing written to the disk assigning it a position.


---==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

If the cloned drive is left in place during a reboot;
it should not have an active partition, nor a pagefile..

I use an MS-DOS "gdisk /-act" & "attrib -h" & "delete pagefile.sys"..

The necessity depends on what program is used to clone..

Willard