Mirroring Window XP

G

Guest

I have WinXP Professional on a 40 GB hard drive. I just purchased a 160 GB
hard drive and I will be partitioning it to 3 separate drives. So get a good
understanding what I am doing here, the drives are as follows:

c: 40 GB (old hard drive) bootable WinXP
d: 60 GB (partition 1 of new hard drive) data only
e: 60 GB (partition 2 of new hard drive) data only
f: 40 GB (partition 3 of new hard drive) duplicte copy of drive c:

My question is...

Can I mirror the 40 GB hard drive over to one of the newly partitioned
(drive f:) 160 GB hard drive without a hitch so that if my 40 GB hard drive
were to ever fail, I can boot up to my new partitioned (drive f:) 160 GB hard
drive?

Is this possible?
 
C

Carey Frisch [MVP]

Windows XP does not have a native software-based mirror
option. In order to configure a mirror, you'll need to setup a
RAID configuration. This requires two identical hard
drives, a motherboard with RAID or a RAID controller
card. Then you must install Windows XP from scratch.

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I have WinXP Professional on a 40 GB hard drive. I just purchased a 160 GB
| hard drive and I will be partitioning it to 3 separate drives. So get a good
| understanding what I am doing here, the drives are as follows:
|
| c: 40 GB (old hard drive) bootable WinXP
| d: 60 GB (partition 1 of new hard drive) data only
| e: 60 GB (partition 2 of new hard drive) data only
| f: 40 GB (partition 3 of new hard drive) duplicte copy of drive c:
|
| My question is...
|
| Can I mirror the 40 GB hard drive over to one of the newly partitioned
| (drive f:) 160 GB hard drive without a hitch so that if my 40 GB hard drive
| were to ever fail, I can boot up to my new partitioned (drive f:) 160 GB hard
| drive?
|
| Is this possible?
 
T

Timothy Daniels

Eddie said:
I have WinXP Professional on a 40 GB hard drive. I just
purchased a 160 GB hard drive and I will be partitioning
it to 3 separate drives. So get a good understanding
what I am doing here, the drives are as follows:

c: 40 GB (old hard drive) bootable WinXP
d: 60 GB (partition 1 of new hard drive) data only
e: 60 GB (partition 2 of new hard drive) data only
f: 40 GB (partition 3 of new hard drive) duplicte copy of drive c:

My question is...

Can I mirror the 40 GB hard drive over to one of the
newly partitioned (drive f:) 160 GB hard drive without
a hitch so that if my 40 GB hard drive were to ever fail,
I can boot up to my new partitioned (drive f:) 160 GB hard
drive?

Is this possible?

What I believe you want to do is to make a "clone"
of the 40GB C: partition which contains the OS such
that you could boot it up as a backup OS. If so,
this is how you can do it:

Get yourself a copy of Norton Ghost or Casper XP.
The latter is cheaper, *and* you can download a free
trial copy from www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp/ .

With the 1st HD as Master, connect the 2nd HD on the
same IDE cable and jumper it as Slave. This keeps the
1st HD at the head of the BIOS's HD boot order (i.e. it
will boot rather than the 2nd HD). This could be done in
many other ways, but this way takes advantage of defaults
and keeps the procedure conceptually simple.

Partition the 2nd HD so that you leave 41GB of unallo-
cated space on the drive for the 3rd partition. With
your copy utility, copy C: to the unallocated space on
the 2nd HD. Since you left 41GB of free space, the
C: partition will fit there. (An alternative would be to
use Partition Magic to shrink the C: partition down by
1 or 2GB.)

If the clone will reside in the 3rd partition, add a 2nd
entry to the boot.ini file in the 1st HD (at C:boot.ini)
under the "[operating systems]" heading that is like
the 1st entry except that "partition(1)" is changed to
"partition(3)". This is so that the clone will be found
in the 3rd partition when the 2nd HD is booted up.
If you make the clone reside in the 1st partition, nothing
has to be done to boot.ini at this point because the
single entry already there in the "parent's" boot.ini
already points to partition 1.

Then do the copying (i.e. "cloning"). If you're using
Ghost, tell it to copy the 1st HD's MBR as well and
to make the new partition a primary partition and to
mark it "active". Casper XP will do that stuff auto-
matically for you. The copying can take anywhere from
8 to 40 minutes for 40GB

Then "remove" the 1st HD by disconnecting its data
cable, and then start up the system. The 2nd HD will
automatically move to the head of the BIOS's HD boot
order and it will boot up and come to life thinking that
it's in the "Local Disk C:" partition. Do some stuff to
convince yourself that it works just like its "parent" OS.
It is important that the new clone does not "see" its
"parent" OS during its 1st startup, but thereafter, it can
be started with its "parent" visible to it.

Then shut the system down and reconnect the 1st HD,
and start the system again. The OS in the 1st HD will
boot, calling its partition "Local Disk C:" and the new
clone's partition some other letter. You can drag/drop
and cut/paste files between the two partitions as you
wish.

If the 1st HD should fail, just disconnect it and restart
the system - the OS in the 2nd HD will bootup.

If you want to start the clone OS from time to time to,
say update its anti-virus or Windows files, you can do
it in either of 2 ways:

1) Shut down, restart and enter the BIOS and re-arrange
the BIOS's HD boot order so the 2nd HD is at the
head of the boot order list, then restart again. The
OS in the 2nd HD will bootup.

2) Using Notepad, add a 2nd entry in the C:boot.ini
file in the 1st HD under the heading "[operating systems]"
with "rdisk(0)" changed to "rdisk(1)" and "partition(1)"
changed to "partition(3)". This 2nd entry will point to
the clone OS's location for the loader. Make the default
timeout value something like 10 seconds to give yourself
time to agonize over your choice of OSes to load.
During the boot process, a menu derived from these
2 entries will allow you to boot either OS in a procedure
called "dual booting" or "multi-booting". You just indicate
via keyboard input which OS should be loaded.

If you want to maintain several clones, each a version taken
from a different point in time, you can. You just have to under-
stand the Boot.ini syntax well, understand what an "active"
partition implies, and understand the difference between a
"system" partition and a "boot" partition. (Google my name,
Timothy Daniels, for 2005 to see more posts on the subject
than you'll want to read.)

*TimDaniels*
 
G

Guest

Tim,

I found your info most helpful. Although I have not put it to use yet, I
actually do understand much of what you are explaining here. I guess my main
problem is those 'first time jitters'. Anyway, I could not find any
additional info by doing a Google search for your name that is related to
what you are talking about.

Also, CasperXP seems simple enough that I child can do it? Is it that easy?
And do I still need to modify the boot.ini file as instructed just to get it
to boot correctly the first time regardless if I create a boot menu or not?
 
T

Timothy Daniels

Eddie said:
Tim,

I found your info most helpful. Although I have not put it to use yet,
I actually do understand much of what you are explaining here.
I guess my main problem is those 'first time jitters'. Anyway,
I could not find any additional info by doing a Google search for
your name that is related to what you are talking about.


Search Groups.Google.com, and put in "Timothy Daniels"
as the author and whatever you want as subject keywords.
You're bound to get a torrent of hits. :)

Also, CasperXP seems simple enough that I child can do it?
Is it that easy?


Yes, *I* can do it, and I have been told many times to
"grow up!".


And do I still need to modify the boot.ini file as instructed just
to get it to boot correctly the first time regardless if I create
a boot menu or not?


I'm not sure just what you said, there. The boot menu as
presented on the screen by ntldr is derived from the
boot.ini file entries. Just remember that the clone includes
a copy of the "parent's" boot.ini file, and that file has an
entry that points to the partition that the "parent" was in on
the source HD, presumably the #1 partition. If the clone is put
into a different partition, say #3, the entry for it in the boot.ini
file must indicate that via a "partition(3)" argument in the
entry instead of "partition(1)". If the clone is put into the #1
partition (presumably the same partition as the "parent's"
partition on the source HD), its entry in the boot.ini file that
it "inherits" from its "parent" will continue to be valid when
the clone boots up. If it isn't, and the partition no. will change
for the clone, that can be anticipated before the copying is
done by adding the new entry in boot.ini, or that can be
added directly to the clone after the copying, but BEFORE
the clone is booted up for its first time, i.e before the clone
is loaded and run for the first time. Note that this complication
only arises if the clone is put into a partition numbered
differently on the destination HD than on the source HD.
If the parition no. on both HDs will be the same, there is
no need to change the entry in the clone's boot.ini file.

For dual-booting using the "parent's" boot.ini file, an entry
will have to be added, of course, that points to the clone's
location. That location will be on what is probably the 2nd
HD in the BIOS's HD boot order which has relative position
1 (since relative positions start with 0). This is indicated in
the boot.ini entries as "rdisk(1)". Partition locations on the
HD are given by the partition no., and those start with 1.
So part of the boot.ini entry for the 1st partition on the HD
that is 2nd in the BIOS's HD boot order includes
"rdisk(1)partition(1)".

*TimDaniels*
 
G

Guest

So the correct procedure is...

1. Install the NEW hard drive with the jumper setting to Slave

2. Partition the NEW hard drive via Windows XP (or can Casper XP do that?)
In my case, 3 new drives will be partitioned (partition #3, #4 and #5)

3. Using Casper XP, copy OLD hard drive onto the NEW hard drive partition #3

4. Disconnect OLD hard drive

5. Boot up computer....the NEW cloned hard drive will boot up thus making it
independent of the OLD hard drive.

6. Shut down and reconnect the OLD hard drive.

7 Boot up computer...the OLD hard drive will boot up thus making the NEW
cloned hard drive become partition #3 or drive letter E:/


If I want to do a mult-boot, then I will need to edit the OLD hard drive (or
both?) BOOT.ini with a new entry.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

If I want to continue to make updates to the NEW cloned hard drive so that
it will match the OLD hard drive, should I use Casper XP the same way as I
did in step 2 except that I don't need to transfer the MBR? Boot.ini?

Thanks.
Eddie
 
T

Timothy Daniels

Eddie said:
So the correct procedure is...

1. Install the NEW hard drive with the jumper setting to Slave.


That's the easiest thing to do, assuming that the
old HD is jumpered Master and you are using the
BIOS's default HD boot order. With these conditions,
the old HD will be chosen for booting when both HDs
are connected at the same time.

2. Partition the NEW hard drive via Windows XP (or can
Casper XP do that?) In my case, 3 new drives will be
partitioned (partition #3, #4 and #5)


You can leave the empty space as unformatted unallocated
space, and Casper XP will make the new partitions as
each is needed. Just tell the Casper XP wizard to do that.

As for partition numbering, that is on a per-HD basis,
so on the new HD (designated by "rdis(1)" in the boot.ini
entries), there will be partitions #1, #2, and #3.

3. Using Casper XP, copy OLD hard drive onto the NEW
hard drive partition #3


Yes, as I recall your partition arrangement puts the
clone in the last of 3 partitions on the HD.

It might be easier, though, to make the OSes both
reside in the same partition so that the entries in
the boot.ini files of both OSes can be the same.
That would put the clone in partition #1 on the new HD.
But if you have shortcuts that point to drives called
"D:" and "E:", it would be easier to keep them as
partitions #1 and #2 to keep their drive letters the
same regardless of which OS is running. It's your call,
and it may take some experimentation. I, personally,
have no experience with multiple OSes linked to multiple
data partitions.

4. Disconnect OLD hard drive

Yes.


5. Boot up computer....the NEW cloned hard drive will
boot up thus making it independent of the OLD hard drive.

Yes.


6. Shut down and reconnect the OLD hard drive.

Yes.


7. Boot up computer...the OLD hard drive will boot up
thus making the NEW cloned hard drive become
partition #3 or drive letter E:/


Maybe - depending on its location on the new HD
(see my comment on step 3 above). The partition
no. will depend on the relative positions among
the other partitions on the new HD, and the drive letter
will depend on what other drives you have in the
system.

If I want to do a mult-boot, then I will need to edit the OLD
hard drive (or both?) BOOT.ini with a new entry.


If you always want to use the old HD in the dual-boot
scenario, you need only add the entry to the boot.ini
file in the old HD. Remember to set the timeout value
to some reasonable value.

If you want to dual-boot using the clone from time to time,
you'll have to make the same entries in the clone's
boot.ini file. To bring up the new HD's boot files, though,
you'll have to change the BIOS's HD boot order, or you
can instead reverse the HDs' Master/Slave jumpering,
or, if you're using Cable Select, exchanging their
positions on the IDE cable will accomplish that.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


To make it easier to recognize which entry is for the
clone when the menu is displayed, you can add the word
"clone" between the quotes on the 2nd entry in the old HD's
boot.ini, and "original" between the quotes on the 2nd entry

BTW, you'll find that it's hard to tell which OS is running - the
original or the clone. An easy way to tell them apart is to put
a folder on the Desktop of each that has as its name "Original"
or "Clone".

If I want to continue to make updates to the NEW cloned hard drive
so that it will match the OLD hard drive, should I use Casper XP the
same way as I did in step 2 except that I don't need to transfer the
MBR?


Yes, assuming that the new clone will REPLACE the old clone
and not sit along side it. If you want to archive several clones
on the 2nd HD, you'd better be prepared for a boot.ini
learning curve.

Boot.ini?


If you replace the old clone with a new clone, the same boot.ini
entries will apply for the new clone as they did for the old clone.
If you want to archive several clones on the 2nd HD, be prepared
for The Boot.ini Challenge.

*TimDaniels*
 

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