Installing new boot drive in laptop. Help please?

[Bobby C]

I'm attempting to upgrade the hard drive in my laptop from 100gb to 160gb
(running Windows XP Pro SP2 with all updates applied). This is my main
development machine and I require more space for active project files. I
have regular backups and the current 100gb drive is not in any danger. A
year ago I split the 100gb into 60/40 using Partition Magic because my
development environment works best with two drives. I now want to create a
new boot drive that is partitioned 110/50.

I have used Ghost 10 to create copies for the C: and D: drive and have tried
several times to get the resulting new drive to boot. I get the Windows
logo (little blue one) and it hangs. I've read through a ton of material
but I'm coming to the conclusion that Partition Magic is the culprit when I
copy the drives using Ghost.

What should the proper steps to create a bootable copy of a drive that has
been partitioned in this manner? TIA

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

Did you make the copies for C and D separately or in a single step from
Ghost ? The new boot partition must be set correctly as a primary
partition and active in the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the new drive;
however, if you make these step separately and don't know your stuff, it is
possible that the MBR for the new drive has not been set correctly.

If possible, you should try cloning the whole first physical hard drive onto
the new one in a single step: Ghost will write both partitions and make sure
that the MBR is written correctly. If you create the MBR yourself, Ghost
will only copy information inside each partition and won't touch the MBR in
any way; thus leaving with an unbootable system if the MBR is not set
correctly.

This information come from my personal experience with Ghost 8.0. For Ghost
10.0, I cannot be sure as I don't have it.

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

Also, you can try using the WinXP original DVD in repair mode but this might
get a little complicated. Personally, I never had to make a repair of a
WinXP installation so I cannot help your anymore on this either.

 

[Bobby C]

I made the copies in several steps, which are:

1) Create new partition for the "new" drive C, formatted.
2) Create new partition for the "new" drive D, formatted.
3) Copy original drive D: to "new" drive D: via Ghost.
4) Copy original drive C: to "new" drive C: via Ghost using the settings to
make it active and copy the MBR.

So your suggestion is to do steps 1 and 4 first. I assume then that I can
use Partition Magic to chop the "new" drive into two partitions and then
copy the contents. Is that about right?

 

[Bobby C]

I only ran a few steps from the Recovery Console (fixboot and fixmbr) to no
avail. I have also tried different combinations without success.

 

[David Vair]

The best way is to copy the whole old drive to the new drive with Ghost, you can adjust the
partition sizes when setting up the job.

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

Not exactly, my suggestion is to copy the whole hard drive in a single step
with Ghost; even if the two hard drives are not of the same size. Ghost
will partition the new C and D drives (dividing the space proportionally to
the previous installation) and make sure that the MBR is written correctly.

Of course, you can make the partition yourself but if you make an error,
Windows will be unable to complete its booting procedure.

Another possibility is that your Bios is not able to cope with the full size
of the new hard drive.

 

[Bobby C]

I didn't see an option Ghost 10 to handle the disk copy the way you were
suggesting but on a whim I picked up a copy of Acronis True Image. It
worked like a champ the very first time!!!! I used the automatic option and
it did the rest. All I had to do is swap the old drive for the new and hook
it up. Thanks for having me think about a different method of backing up
the drive!

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

My own copy of Ghost is version 8 instead 10. My understanding is that the
version 10 should have more capabilities than the version 8.

However, the version 8 is DOS based instead of beeing Windows based; so
maybe this capability has been lost when going from the version 8 to the
version 10.

Glad to know that you have solved your problem with Acronis True Image.