How do I make partition active?

[Brett]

I have an IDE drive that started failing. It has since given no system
errors and runs without problems. Maxtor sent a replacement drive. I want
to copy everything from the old to new drive. I'm using Norton Ghost but
get a read error during the copy. This shuts down Ghost.

Each drive has two partitions. One for booting and holding system files,
the other for data files. I have copied from the data partition of the old
drive to the data partition of the new drive successfully while in Windows.
What should I do for copying the system partition over to the new system
partition?

Thanks,
Brett

 

[Willard]

If you install Ghost on a boot floppy and then from the command prompt
run A:\Ghost\Ghost -ir ; the "-ir" switch will duplicate sector by
sector, including the boot sector and all partitions, from the old HDD
to your new HDD (an exact duplicate)..
Ghost usually has a GDISK program that will Activate
or de-Activate a partition if desired...
Be sure to exchange and de-Activate or remove the old HDD before
rebooting to Windows with the new HDD..

Willard

 

[Eric]

You probably can do the job easier by simply using the software that is supplied with most new retail drives.

If you didn't receive any software with the replacement drive, you can get a free transfer utility program from the hard drive mfg.

MAXTOR:
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

If they didn't supply a replacement procedure, got to their website and look for it in the tech support section.

The normal method would be to install the new drive as the master and the old drive the slave and then bootup using the floppy disc utility. All partitioning, formatting, and transferring is done with this utility. A few restarts are required in order to get the ducks in a row (drive letter assignments).

 

[Brett]

I tried this but as usual, Windows screws up everything. Now when I try to
log into Windows on my old drive, it starts to go in but then the login
screen appears again. I can't get into Windows.

I needed my system up and running, so as always, I had to start with a fresh
install of Windows. It takes so long to install the drivers and all other
software. Never an easy way to do this.

Brett

You probably can do the job easier by simply using the software that is
supplied with most new retail drives.

If you didn't receive any software with the replacement drive, you can get a
free transfer utility program from the hard drive mfg.

MAXTOR:
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

If they didn't supply a replacement procedure, got to their website and look
for it in the tech support section.

The normal method would be to install the new drive as the master and the
old drive the slave and then bootup using the floppy disc utility. All
partitioning, formatting, and transferring is done with this utility. A few
restarts are required in order to get the ducks in a row (drive letter
assignments).