How to Ghost from IDE0 master and make SATA drive C:?

[Pat Coghlan]

I'm running WinXP on the master of IDE channel 0 (C-drive).

Does anyone have a procedure for Ghosting to a SATA drive and have it
come up as drive C: after rebooting by either physically removing the
old IDE0 master or changing the BIOS configuration?

Just FYI, I have a P4P800SE motherboard.

 

[edavid3001]

Just did a W2003 server sorta like that, from IDE to SATA.

I didn't use ghost, but I did cloan the IDE drive to the SATA drive.

Plug in the imaged SATA drive, and unplug the IDE drive. Boot Windows.
If Windows doesn't boot, put in the setup CD and boot from it. Do
not select repair, select Install Windows. Windows should detect your
previous install in c:\windows and ask you what you want to do. At
this point, select repair.

At the end of this, you will be missing patches so you'll want to go to
windows update and re-install all the updates.

At this point Windows will know that the SATA Drive is C:. You should
be able to plug in your IDE drive and have it come up as D: if you
desire.

Probably several other ways to do this.

 

[Pat Coghlan]

Will I lose my installed apps if I do this?

 

[Harald Trasti]

Yes , it works. You have to ghost the boot IDE drive to an image on another
IDE/SATA hard disk or CD/DVD. Then, connect the SATA drive. Disconnect the
original boot hard disk. Use Ghost on a Floppy to restore image from the
hard disk (CD/DVD) to the newly installed SATA drive. It will turn up as
drive C, complete with all programs etc. To do this safely, I use 3 hard
disks, and preserves the original IDE drive untill all works. The procedure
does not work when IDE drives run in enhanced mode in BIOS, at least not
with GOST 2003. This is easely fixed in BIOS.
HT

 

[Pat Coghlan]

I wonder if the problem was that I used the Ghost "copy drive" function?
I don't think drive letters are stored anywhere on a drive, but I
could never get away from the SATA drive being recognized a drive F:,
even when I eventually had the original boot IDE drive disconnected. I
guess Windows must have set a registry key (DOSDEVICE?) which persisted
even when I eventually had just the SATA drive connected.

Clearly, it's important to get all the steps exactly right when doing this.

What is the rule that Windows uses to determine whether the partition
that it booted from is C: or some other letter?

-Pat

 

[edavid3001]

Windows has hidden information that is stored on the hard drive.

The key is this; after you copy the ghost from the IDE to the SATA,
remove the IDE and boot to the SATA. Windows will go through a process
that makes the SATA F: turn into C:. Then you can add the IDE back.

Make sure your boot order is SATA first, then PATA.

At least that has been my experience with ASUS & XP/2003.

 

[John]

I'm running WinXP on the master of IDE channel 0 (C-drive).

Does anyone have a procedure for Ghosting to a SATA drive and have it
come up as drive C: after rebooting by either physically removing the
old IDE0 master or changing the BIOS configuration?

Just FYI, I have a P4P800SE motherboard.

Make sure you install the drivers for the SATA controller inside WinXP
before you ghost the drive.