how to change hard drives with windows vista.

[Guest]

I have a laptop that was originally preinstalled with XP. I bought windows
vista home premium upgrade, and I have been using vista without any problems
for the past few months.

Unfortunately, it appears that my hard drive is starting to failue (at least
that is what vista is telling me), and so, I am trying to figure out how to
do that.

I tried using norton ghost version 12.0 (vista compatible). What I did is I
bought a new hard drive and a usb adapter. I used Norton ghost to copy the C
drive over to this drive (MBR and everything). I then took out my old C
Drive and then put in my new hard drive.

Unfortunately, while the new hard drive appears to boot initially, I get to
the welcome screen, then a message saying "preparing your desktop", and then
a blank blue screen w/o any error messages. Okay, what's weird is if I plug
in my old C drive via tje USB ADAPTER, then vista will see that USB drive and
boot normally. I can't count on this as a solution this drive appears to be
failing.

So, I went back to the drawing board. My laptop has two hard drives. I
took out my old D drive, and placed in my new hard drive. I then asked Vista
to do a clean install on this hard drive. Everything appears to go well.
Okay I swap out my old failing c Drive and place in my newly installed vista
installation. Now it says Boot manager is missing.

If I plop in my old C drive all my problems go away.

It seems that vista is married to this drive, and there does not appear to
be a way to unmarry it.

any ideas, as my hard drive i'm sure will die soon.

thanks

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello,

First scenario almost sounds like the drive letter is not correct for this
installation
|>I tried using norton ghost version 12.0 (vista compatible). What I did
is I
|>bought a new hard drive and a usb adapter. I used Norton ghost to copy
the C
|>drive over to this drive (MBR and everything). I then took out my old C
|>Drive and then put in my new hard drive.
|>
|>Unfortunately, while the new hard drive appears to boot initially, I get
to
|>the welcome screen, then a message saying "preparing your desktop", and
then
|>a blank blue screen w/o any error messages. Okay, what's weird is if I
plug
|>in my old C drive via tje USB ADAPTER, then vista will see that USB drive
and
|>boot normally. I can't count on this as a solution this drive appears to
be
|>failing.
Does the Ghost process you used reset the HKLM\System|mounteddevices?
DosdevicesC: needs to point to the GUID of your new drive to be able to
load properly. inside the registry we identify the drive with e GUID, each
GUID is assigned a drive letter. removing the first drive doesn't reset teh
guids. Now Ghost may do this, but I am not sure whether it does or not.
We can start the boot process if the drive letter is incorrect, but some
files are loaded from the registry and they are pointed using an explicit
path (for example: C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe),if the drive letter is
not the same then the file cannot load, With the second disk in the
machine the drive lettering is the same.

Second Scenario needs the boot files and for the first Primary partition on
the second drive to be set to active
|>So, I went back to the drawing board. My laptop has two hard drives. I
|>took out my old D drive, and placed in my new hard drive. I then asked
Vista
|>to do a clean install on this hard drive. Everything appears to go well.

|>Okay I swap out my old failing c Drive and place in my newly installed
vista
|>installation. Now it says Boot manager is missing.
|>
|>If I plop in my old C drive all my problems go away.
With just the second drive in the machine, try booting to the DVD and
running repair.
This should attempt to rebuild the boot files and set the bootsector.
Also make sure the first volume on that disk is now set to active.

You boot from the active partition which is the first drive, which then
loads the boot files, which are also on the first drive.



Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
|>Thread-Topic: how to change hard drives with windows vista.
|>thread-index: AceYEkL27ao0snPRQOKb/npzBZunKA==
|>X-WBNR-Posting-Host: 66.31.44.148
|>From: =?Utf-8?B?YnNhbnRhbnU=?= <[email protected]>
|>Subject: how to change hard drives with windows vista.
|>Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 16:31:00 -0700
|>Lines: 34
|>Message-ID: <[email protected]>
|>MIME-Version: 1.0
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|>Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance
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microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance:6562
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|>X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance
|>
|> I have a laptop that was originally preinstalled with XP. I bought
windows
|>vista home premium upgrade, and I have been using vista without any
problems
|>for the past few months.
|>
|>Unfortunately, it appears that my hard drive is starting to failue (at
least
|>that is what vista is telling me), and so, I am trying to figure out how
to
|>do that.
|>
|>I tried using norton ghost version 12.0 (vista compatible). What I did
is I
|>bought a new hard drive and a usb adapter. I used Norton ghost to copy
the C
|>drive over to this drive (MBR and everything). I then took out my old C
|>Drive and then put in my new hard drive.
|>
|>Unfortunately, while the new hard drive appears to boot initially, I get
to
|>the welcome screen, then a message saying "preparing your desktop", and
then
|>a blank blue screen w/o any error messages. Okay, what's weird is if I
plug
|>in my old C drive via tje USB ADAPTER, then vista will see that USB drive
and
|>boot normally. I can't count on this as a solution this drive appears to
be
|>failing.
|>
|>So, I went back to the drawing board. My laptop has two hard drives. I
|>took out my old D drive, and placed in my new hard drive. I then asked
Vista
|>to do a clean install on this hard drive. Everything appears to go well.

|>Okay I swap out my old failing c Drive and place in my newly installed
vista
|>installation. Now it says Boot manager is missing.
|>
|>If I plop in my old C drive all my problems go away.
|>
|>It seems that vista is married to this drive, and there does not appear
to
|>be a way to unmarry it.
|>
|>any ideas, as my hard drive i'm sure will die soon.
|>
|>thanks
|>

 

[Guest]

thanks for the reply, that was educational.

Regarding the 1st scenario. I think that is exactly what is going on. I
have 3 drives ( my old failing vista drive, my d drive for data, and my new
hard drive that I just bought). It appears that no matter what physical
configuration I insert the drives. vista wants my old drive to be C, my data
drive to be d, and my new drive to be E.

For example, I can attach my old failing hard drive to the usb adapter, my
new hard drive in slot 1 (which the bios identies as the 1st hard drive by
default), and my d drive in drive 2). If I get the thing to boot up, it will
still say my old hard drive that is attached to the usb adapter is the C
drive, even though my new hard drive is the physical slot 1.

Using vista's letter change under mycomputers --> manage does not help, as i
cannot get my e drive reassigned to c. Vista says that the files are in use,
or something like that.

It appears that norton ghost 12.0 merely does a drive copy, and does not
make any registry changes. I don't seem to see an option for resetting the
HKLM\System|mounteddevices? DosdevicesC: (someone else may know whether
Norton ghost 12.0 does this or not)

Regardless, any workaround?

for the second scenario, i kind of lost you. you say,

"Second Scenario needs the boot files and for the first Primary partition on
the second drive to be set to active"

Now, i only have 1 partition on each of my 3 physical drives. I am assuming
when you say second drive above, you mean my new hard drive(the one that I
plan on making my primary hard drive). I guess i don't now how to place the
boot files on this partion after a windows install.

The windows repar trick was a good idea, unfortunately it didn't work for
me. ( i tried a few times). I'll try again, I'm right now reformatting my
new hard drive and starting from scratch.

By the way, what's the "official procedure" for this. I looked on the web
and elsewhere. I'm not finding it. Perhaps there is something obvious I'm
missing (wouldn't be the 1st time)

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Guest]

If anyone is following, I just completely reformatted my hard drive again. I
then tried to ghost my old c drive to the new hard drive.

I then took out my old c drive and put in my new hard drive. Windows boots,
but the sequence of events is thus: the black windows screen with a scrolling
bar --> welcome --> preparing your desktop --> and then a blank blue screen.
i forgot to mention, that windows then says a rundll32 file is not found.

I'm assuming as mentioned in a previous post, this has to do with how vista
is assigning drive letters; however, when I booted via the DVD and when I
entered the command prompt. I found that my new hard drive is correctly
assigned to C.

I also tried using the repair function. I remember that on previous trials,
vista thought if found something to fix, and then tried (unsuccessfully) to
fix what was wrong with the boot record or startup process or whatever.

This time; however, the repair process did not find anything at all..

confusing...

I hope this helps potential problem solvers and anyone else who has been
having simliar problems as I have been having.

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello,
So the information is stored in the registry under the mounteddevices key
HKLM\System\MountedDevices
When you boot from the DVD and open the cmd prompt, you are using the
registry on the DVD which has no prior knowledge of the local drives
drives so it reenumerates the drives, so it may be different than what is
on you local machine. Since the DVD will not change, it will always just
enumerate the drives
What you can do is now open the registry on you local C drive.
In regedit, highlight HKLM
Then from the menu choose File, then Load Hive
point to c:\windows\system32\config\system
It will prompt for a name, this is just a temp name while it loaded in this
session under HKLM ( I used Local as the name so that will be the reference
I use)
go to Local\mounted devices
You should be able to delete the dosdevices\C: and the dosdevices\D: ( this
removes the assignment of the drive to one of the guids listed above)
Then reboot to the hard drive, we will enumerate the drives reassign drive
letters. Since that is the first drive we see(make sure the old drive is
not in the system), it will get drive C: assigned to the correct Guid.

For the second issue, you may have to make sure the volume is set to active.
In disk management you can right click on the volume and set as active
should be one of the choices
In a CMD prompt you could run diskpart,
For one disk, one volume scenario it would be
while in diskpart.
Select disk 0
Select Partition 1
active

Then try running the repair
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
|>Thread-Topic: how to change hard drives with windows vista.
|>thread-index: AceYKyE1Jc59j76AQkiAdLOr1S9dmw==
|>X-WBNR-Posting-Host: 66.31.44.148
|>From: =?Utf-8?B?YnNhbnRhbnU=?= <[email protected]>
|>References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
|>Subject: RE: how to change hard drives with windows vista.
|>Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 19:29:01 -0700
|>Lines: 23
|>Message-ID: <[email protected]>
|>MIME-Version: 1.0
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|> charset="Utf-8"
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|>Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance
|>Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
|>Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance:6575
|>NNTP-Posting-Host: tk2msftibfm01.phx.gbl 10.40.244.149
|>X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance
|>
|>If anyone is following, I just completely reformatted my hard drive
again. I
|>then tried to ghost my old c drive to the new hard drive.
|>
|>I then took out my old c drive and put in my new hard drive. Windows
boots,
|>but the sequence of events is thus: the black windows screen with a
scrolling
|>bar --> welcome --> preparing your desktop --> and then a blank blue
screen.
|>i forgot to mention, that windows then says a rundll32 file is not found.

|>
|>I'm assuming as mentioned in a previous post, this has to do with how
vista
|>is assigning drive letters; however, when I booted via the DVD and when I
|>entered the command prompt. I found that my new hard drive is correctly
|>assigned to C.
|>
|>I also tried using the repair function. I remember that on previous
trials,
|>vista thought if found something to fix, and then tried (unsuccessfully)
to
|>fix what was wrong with the boot record or startup process or whatever.
|>
|>This time; however, the repair process did not find anything at all..
|>
|>confusing...
|>
|>I hope this helps potential problem solvers and anyone else who has been
|>having simliar problems as I have been having.
|>

 

[Guest]

thanks for your help, I finally got it working, but not the way I had
originally intended. I'll admit, there were some bone-head things on my
part, but hopefully people can learn from me.

So, I gave up on ghosting. It would have been nice if I found a way to
work. I hate having to reinstall ALL my programs again! if anyone has found
success using norton ghost 12.0 let me know.

So I just reformatted the hard drive, and installed vista onto the new hard
drive. Remember, at this point my old hard drive is committed to C, my data
drive is at d, and my new hard drive (soon to be primary hard drive) is at e.

So I swap out my old failing hard drive, and put in my new hard drive..
Guess what. the thing says bootmgr not detected!! I think Darrell Gorter
said to use the windows DVD and use the repair fxn. And I did before,
without any results. However, (and here's the bonehead thing on my part).
It says when its performing a repair, that it may have to restart and repair
more than once.

On the previous tries, I had only given the repair fxn one try before I
moved on. Okay, so I let the windows dvd repair my new hard drive two
times... take out my dvd.... reboot... and Voila. It boots correctly,
albeit without any of my programs, but thats better than a crashed hard drive!

So, i'm done right... not exactly. So, my windows drive is still set to E.
Doh! actually, i could have just left this alone, as it appeared that
everything was working fine.

However, I wanted to try the other tip... that is going into the registry
and deleting the mounted devices section. So, I did that, and rebooted.....

Okay it boots.... black screen with scrolling bar at the bottom.... welcome
screen..... preparing your desktop screen (uh oh).... and then blank blue
screen with with just the mouse cursor (i start swearing!, i could have left
it alone, but i just had to meddle).

Well, i can still access the task manager through the blue screen
(ctr+alt+del), and I run command. I see that at least vista has reset my
hard drive to C:!!! So, now I reinstalled vista over this drive, and voila,
I have my new hard drive.

I had to go through the pains of reactivating the software and reinstalling
my programs, but I did it!

So, here's what worked for me.

If vista says your hard drive is failing and you need to switch hard drives,
then here are my steps to success. I was lucky because my notebook had two
hard drive slots.

1. Your old hard drive should already be in slot 1. Place your new hard
drive in slot 2. ( I had to take out my data hard drive for this step).
2. install windows into the new hard drive. (I would have liked to do it
via USB, but vista does not allow you to do this)
3. take out the old hard drive and put the new hard drive in slot 1.
4. make the registry changes as noted above (go into HKLM via regedit and
delete dosdevices
5. reinstall windows onto the same drive.
6. reactivate, you will probably have to call vista to ask for a new key
7. reinstall your programs.

I'm sure there is an easier way. Like I said,earlier I had hoped to use
ghost so I wouldn't have had to deal with these issues. There probably is an
easier way within windows. Hopefully, this feedback will help future users,
and hopefully microsoft will develop a more straightforward way of upgrading
hard drives as hard drive failures on notebooks are way too common. (i've had
two in the past year!)

Thanks again for the help, it was educational, and at least I learned
something in the process.