Has XP boot logic changed compared to NT?

[Peter Steele]

When I was using NT, on some occasions I would take the system down, move
the hard drive to another PC as a data drive, backup the data using xcopy,
resize the partition to be larger (which includes needing a format of
course), then copy everything back and move the disk back to the original
PC. The PC was able to boot without problems, none the wiser of what had
been done to its partition.

I just recently tried the same thing with XP, taking a working system's hard
drive to another PC, backing up the data, resizing the partition, then
copying everything back. However, when I put the disk back in the original
PC, it would not boot. The BIOS ran and then just hung with no error
messages. I solved the problem by installing XP onto the drive in the normal
manner, then taking the disk back to the PC where I had the backup. Instead
of resizing the partition, I simply did a "del *.*" to erase the data, then
restored the original data I had backed up. This time when I hooked the disk
back up to the original system everything worked as expected.

So, what does formatting do to the bootability of an XP based system? I made
sure I set the partition active, and with NT this was always enough.
Apparently something has changed with XP though. Can anyone comment on this?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with XP Installed
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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| When I was using NT, on some occasions I would take the system down, move
| the hard drive to another PC as a data drive, backup the data using xcopy,
| resize the partition to be larger (which includes needing a format of
| course), then copy everything back and move the disk back to the original
| PC. The PC was able to boot without problems, none the wiser of what had
| been done to its partition.
|
| I just recently tried the same thing with XP, taking a working system's hard
| drive to another PC, backing up the data, resizing the partition, then
| copying everything back. However, when I put the disk back in the original
| PC, it would not boot. The BIOS ran and then just hung with no error
| messages. I solved the problem by installing XP onto the drive in the normal
| manner, then taking the disk back to the PC where I had the backup. Instead
| of resizing the partition, I simply did a "del *.*" to erase the data, then
| restored the original data I had backed up. This time when I hooked the disk
| back up to the original system everything worked as expected.
|
| So, what does formatting do to the bootability of an XP based system? I made
| sure I set the partition active, and with NT this was always enough.
| Apparently something has changed with XP though. Can anyone comment on this?