Need 'procedure' to install second hard disk and transfer data

[Dave Neve]

Hi

I have a 40 GB harddrive which is partitioned into four parts. One of the
partitions is for XP and the other is for Millenium but I no longer use it.

At first, I wanted to suppres Millenium and merge its partition into XP but
the advice seems to be to reinstall as HD is probably highly fragmented.

But as I don't want to spend weeks reinstalling all my programs and
configurations, I have another idea which I would like to check with the
group.

1 Put second hard drive into the computer (also safer in case of HD
failure)

2 Copy the XP partition to the new hard drive with programs, documents
and all.

3 Reformat the first hard drive completely (all partitions).

4 Copy back to the original HD the copied XP partition on the new HD
(therefore in case of HD failure, I'll also have a second parellel
system.

I'm interested in comments as to the procedure and potential problems.

I'll be using Partition Magic Maker and my prayer beads!!!!!

Thanks in Advance

 

[Dean]

I cant see there being a problem with this although im not
familliar with the software im sure if it is the same as
driveimage then it should be fine. for as long as it
doesnt just copy the files but makes a genuine image of
the xp hd onto the new hd as you have to copy all reg etc,
then it will be fine! one way of telling is to try it
without deleting the xp hd but removing it and then
booting with only the new hd installed with the "copy" and
see if it works!

 

[Willit]

Have you ever spent ten hours putting all your OS,
programs and settings back in and any Data files you have
created with them. If you downloaded them you will not
have a key to install or a way to get a replacement copy.

A copy is a copy. A Image is a image. A
clone/copy/backup is bootable, it has everything your
original drive has,OS, Programs, Email, Address Book,
Data and Registry. You can update it at anytime, any part
of it. Casper XP does that from the windows platform. I
have had Image files for years, the problem with them is
it's a whole file. You cannot make changes to them, you
cannot access them, you have to restore them. Some will
boot some won't. A image file cannot be written to a
smalled disk unless you can change the partition size to
fit the smaller drive. Lets say you have a 40gb main HDD
with 10 gb of data, you cannot put a image of it on a 20gb
disk. If you're up-grading to a larger drive wouldn't it
be nice to have the old drive for a back-up

I have all the backup programs made I think, Drive Image,
Ghost ( 3 versions ), Drive Wizard, Copy Commander, Drive
Back , TrueImage etc. I mentioned Casper-XP because
someone in here made a post about it , I said what the
heck, just another $39.00, I love it. It works so easy and
I have made 30 copies and they all booted, proof enough
for me.
Buy a second Hard drive $69.00 these days and a good
copy/backup program to make a clone. XP-Casper is one.

http://www.fssdev.com/products/ $ 39.00 make the clone
and then un-plug the power to the drive if you want.

Want to test drive a Demo for 30 days. It has some
features disabled.

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2248-10161152.html?
tag=lst-1-8



XP is the most stable of all the windows, but it has the
highest corruption rate i have ever seen. I have Win 3.1,
Win 95 Win98 that never been re-installed , XP machines
have been done 10 times. At some point you have to wonder
what your time is worth.

I mentioned the second drive because the backup/clone is
made at IDE speed. Change two plugs and your back running
with 5 min of down time. Just the filters on my mail
program make it worth it to me.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have a 40 GB harddrive which is partitioned into four parts. One of the
partitions is for XP and the other is for Millenium but I no longer use it.

At first, I wanted to suppres Millenium and merge its partition into XPbut
the advice seems to be to reinstall as HD is probably highly fragmented.

But as I don't want to spend weeks reinstalling all my programs and
configurations, I have another idea which I would like to check with the
group.

1 Put second hard drive into the computer (also safer in case of HD
failure)

2 Copy the XP partition to the new hard drive with programs, documents
and all.

3 Reformat the first hard drive completely (all partitions).

4 Copy back to the original HD the copied XP partition on the new HD
(therefore in case of HD failure, I'll also have a second parellel
system.

The important points here are:

The initial boot of the XP will be into the partition with the ME in it
(presuming you installed the XP from the ME and setup a dual boot).. So
you will need to copy the hidden files
ntldr
boot,ini
ntdetect.com
from the root of the ME drive to the root of the XP one before you
start.

The XP, both in that boot.ini and in its own registry has references to
the explicit location of the physical drive (OK once you have moved the
partition back, but if you want to use the second for an emergency boot
you will have to plug it into the prime location), and also for the
partition number the XP is in (If you get that wrong you will get a
'missing hall.dll' at boot). So after copying back you need to be sure
you put the partition in the same place in the partition table that it
has at present. Which can be done by putting a 'micro partition' of say
8MB onto the drive first - ie in the position where the ME now is.
Safest would be not to delete and remake partitions at all, but use
Partition Magic to format them and then adjust sizes without juggling
the order. Then use it to make the XP one the active one.


Note that the XP will retain the drive letter it currently has - it will
not become C and there is nothing in practice to be done about that
short of a complete reinstall clean