Norton Ghost and XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter brianwolters
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brianwolters

Help!

How can I copy a drive to a larger one for use as my primary drive?
I've used Norton Ghost but it will get to the login part, load settings
and then say logging off and go back to login prompt. Is there anything
I need to do before the copy from one drive to another?

Thanks,
Brian
 
Check for, and clean up, spywares and viruses. I have successfully done
Ghost copies and never seen your problem, unless the PC was "infested" by
viruses/spywares.
 
I have a very clean system...I chose copy hard drive and it copies and
boots but will not log into the desktop..as local Administrator or via
the network...other suggestions???
 
How can I copy a drive to a larger one for use as my primary drive?
I've used Norton Ghost but it will get to the login part, load settings
and then say logging off and go back to login prompt. Is there anything
I need to do before the copy from one drive to another?
Click to expand...


Did you disconnect from the Internet and disable the anti-virus
before doing the copy?

If Ghost doesn't do it, try Casper XP. You can download a free
trial version from www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp/ .
It can clone a selected partition from among many on the
source HD and put it among other partitions on the destination
HD. True Image is also available in trial version from Acronis
at http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/ ,
but True Image will copy the *entire* source drive to *all* of the
destination drive - great for migrating to a larger disk, but not
for archiving just one partition.

*TimDaniels*
 
No..it was connected to the internet and anti-virus was on. Someone
told me that it may be a problem with the boot partion drive letter.
That is doesn't match the drive letter assigned to the initial install.
Is there anything I can do in the copy portion of Ghost to make an
EXACT copy? The new copy drive boots but as I said, I log in, and it
will say "LOADING PERSONAL SETTINGS", then "SAVING YOUR SETTINGS" and
goes back to login prompt. It only does this on the new drive. The old
one still works just fine. Any other suggestions using Ghost would be
appreciated. Thanks!
 
No..it was connected to the internet and anti-virus was on. Someone
told me that it may be a problem with the boot partion drive letter.
That is doesn't match the drive letter assigned to the initial install.
Is there anything I can do in the copy portion of Ghost to make an
EXACT copy? The new copy drive boots but as I said, I log in, and it
will say "LOADING PERSONAL SETTINGS", then "SAVING YOUR
SETTINGS" and goes back to login prompt. It only does this on the
new drive. The old one still works just fine. Any other suggestions
using Ghost would be appreciated. Thanks!
Click to expand...


OK, back to square one. You wrote: "I've used Norton Ghost but
it will get to the login part, load settings and then say logging off
and go back to login prompt." But it appears that the *clone* is
getting to login, etc., not Ghost.

Do the copy again disconnected from the Internet and with the
anti-virus disabled. Make the new clone's partition a primary
partition and have it marked "active". After the copy operation,
don't let the clone boot up. Disconnect the source HD to make
the "parent" OS invisible, THEN start up the PC. (Since the
HD that used to be at the head of the BIOS's HD boot order is
now disconnected, the BIOS will go to the next HD in the HD
boot order to look for the "active" partition, where it expects to
find the boot files, e.g. ntldr, boot.ini, and ntdetect.com .)
Since the clone will be at the head of the HD boot order, the
"rdisk(0)" parameter in the boot.ini entry will still apply. On
subsequent boots, both HDs may be connected and visible to
each other. If you don't want to make changes to the boot.ini
file to enable dual-booting, just switch the HDs' positions in the
BIOS's HD boot order to determine which HD's OS gets loaded.
The OS that runs will call its own partition "Local Disk C:", and
it will choose other letters for the other partitions. That's OK
unless you have short cuts that contain paths to other partitions.

If you don't disconnect the source HD to make the "parent" OS
invisible to the new clone during its first startup, the new clone
will form links with various random files in the "parent's" file
structure, and you'll never know that until you remove the
"parent" and find that some of the clone's files are missing.

*TimDaniels*
 
OK..I am about to begin..I have no control over choosing PRIMARY
PARTITION (it is greyed out but does have primary selected) and I
marked active and will begin the copy. Will write when that completes
with results. Do I not need to select Copy MBR?

Thanks,
Brian
 
"After the copy operation,
don't let the clone boot up. Disconnect the source HD to make
the "parent" OS invisible, THEN start up the PC."

Question about that...if I disonnect the source and don't let clone
boot up, how will it boot?

Thanks,
Brian
 
Timothy Daniels wrote:

Do the copy again disconnected from the Internet and with the
anti-virus disabled. Make the new clone's partition a primary
partition and have it marked "active". After the copy operation,
don't let the clone boot up. Disconnect the source HD to make
the "parent" OS invisible, THEN start up the PC. (Since the
HD that used to be at the head of the BIOS's HD boot order is
now disconnected, the BIOS will go to the next HD in the HD
boot order to look for the "active" partition, where it expects to
find the boot files, e.g. ntldr, boot.ini, and ntdetect.com .)
Since the clone will be at the head of the HD boot order, the
"rdisk(0)" parameter in the boot.ini entry will still apply. On
subsequent boots, both HDs may be connected and visible to
each other. If you don't want to make changes to the boot.ini
file to enable dual-booting, just switch the HDs' positions in the
BIOS's HD boot order to determine which HD's OS gets loaded.
The OS that runs will call its own partition "Local Disk C:", and
it will choose other letters for the other partitions. That's OK
unless you have short cuts that contain paths to other partitions.
Click to expand...

OK..I've disconnected the source but left the new drive connected as
slave and it booted but alas, same thing. Log in and get logged out
right away. I was a little lost in your directions (see other posts.)
Any other suggestions?
 
You need to do a sector by sector copy and copy the MBR. After the Ghost is
complete, you need need to disconnect the original drive and re-configure
the new drive as the Master drive. With only the new Master drive in the
PC, XP should boot normally.
 
OK Yves...I have a lot of help going on here and I will try your
suggestion as well...will update ASAP.
 
OK..I am about to begin..I have no control over choosing PRIMARY
PARTITION (it is greyed out but does have primary selected) and I
marked active and will begin the copy. Will write when that completes
with results. Do I not need to select Copy MBR?
Click to expand...


My familiarity with Ghost 9.0 (if that's what you're using)
comes from its previous identity as Powerquest's Drive
Image 7.0 . In that utility, IIRC, you were given the choice
of making the new partition (if you would be making a new
partition in unallocated space) a "primary" partition or a
"logical partition" within an extended partition. If it's not
primary, it cannot be used as the partition that runs the
boot loader (ntldr). Since 99% of PC users make that
booting parition (which Microsoft perversely calls the
"system" parition) the same as the partition which contains
the OS (which Microsoft perversely calls the "boot" partition),
they can't boot the OS from a non-primary partition. Disk
Management puts a black bar above its GUI represent-
ation of a primary partition, and it put a blue bar above an
extended partition. If the destination partition isn't a
primary partition, delete it and tell Ghost to use the unallo-
cated space to make a new primary partition, and of course,
tell it to mark the new partition "active". Extended partitions
can also be marked "active", I have found, but it has no effect
on the choice of partition to be accessed for its boot files.

Assuming that the MBR had been copied to the destination
HD in a previous operation, it won't be necessary to re-copy
it. It wouldn't hurt to copy it again, though.

Take care to avoid letting the new clone "see" its "parent"
OS when it boots for the first time. Shut down the PC when
the copy process completes, BEFORE the new clone is
booted (as I recall, this happens automatically in Ghost 9.0
and you have to be alert to avoid it). Then disconnect the
source HD, THEN start up the PC again to let the new clone
boot up. Subsequents startups can be made with both OSes
visible to each other. The running OS will see the other
"Local Disk" as just another partition with an accessible file
structure.

*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy said:
Take care to avoid letting the new clone "see" its "parent"
OS when it boots for the first time. Shut down the PC when
the copy process completes, BEFORE the new clone is
booted (as I recall, this happens automatically in Ghost 9.0
and you have to be alert to avoid it). Then disconnect the
source HD, THEN start up the PC again to let the new clone
boot up. Subsequents startups can be made with both OSes
visible to each other. The running OS will see the other
"Local Disk" as just another partition with an accessible file
structure.
Click to expand...

Yes..it is Ghost 9....however, I never got the automatic message in
Ghost 9....and I will do what you said above..however, as I said
before, it boots the OS just fine..it is getting to the desktop that is
the problem...will try the above...
 
Nope...the same results...using all of the suggestions in this
thread...it simply will not log on with the new drive...it books fine,
all the files are there but it will log on, accept my password and then
log off back to the login prompt.
 
Yves Leclerc said:
You need to do a sector by sector copy and copy the MBR. After
the Ghost is complete, you need need to disconnect the original
drive and re-configure the new drive as the Master drive. With
only the new Master drive in the PC, XP should boot normally.
Click to expand...


It isn't necessary to configure the new HD as Master if it
is to be the only HD in the system. If it is to be one of
2 or more HDs, it would be less confusing to the user if
it were re-jumpered, but not necessary. All that is necessary
if there are 2 or more HDs is that it be jumpered differently
from another device on the same IDE channel (i.e. on the
same cable) and that it be put at the head of the BIOS's HD
boot order.

Electrically, though, it is better to put a lone HD at the end
connector of the IDE cable to avoid the ringing that could
occur in the length of cable between the unused end
connector and middle connector. If you use Cable Select
jumpering, the end connector's device becomes Master,
but again, with only one device on a channel (cable),
Master/Slave have no meaning.

*TimDaniels*
 
Yes..it is Ghost 9....however, I never got the automatic message in
Ghost 9....and I will do what you said above..however, as I said
before, it boots the OS just fine..it is getting to the desktop that is
the problem...will try the above...
Click to expand...


There is no "automatic message". As I recall, the utility
shuts down and there is an automatic *reboot*. It's
possible that the reboot might boot the new clone if the
BIOS's boot order has the destination HD at the head of
its HD boot order. That's why you should keep an eye
open for the completion of the copy process - to avoid
the automatic reboot. If the new clone has a problem that
doesn't exist with the "parent", it obviously is not a clone,
and that is why I cautioned to disable the anti-virus software
during the copying. Anti-virus software can get upset when
it sees programs mucking around in system files.

*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy said:
There is no "automatic message". As I recall, the utility
shuts down and there is an automatic *reboot*. It's
possible that the reboot might boot the new clone if the
BIOS's boot order has the destination HD at the head of
its HD boot order. That's why you should keep an eye
open for the completion of the copy process - to avoid
the automatic reboot. If the new clone has a problem that
doesn't exist with the "parent", it obviously is not a clone,
and that is why I cautioned to disable the anti-virus software
during the copying. Anti-virus software can get upset when
it sees programs mucking around in system files.
Click to expand...

Boy, I sure hope I am not a pest...but this simply isn't working. it
doesn't automatically reboot after I choose to COPY ONE DRIVE TO
ANOTHER. I have to manually shut down, hook up the new, copied drive
and it boots but wont go to desktop. I think it may be a drive letter
issue but I can't seem to get into the system (even in safe mode) to
change it.
 
"After the copy operation,
don't let the clone boot up. Disconnect the source HD to make
the "parent" OS invisible, THEN start up the PC."

Question about that...if I disonnect the source and don't let clone
boot up, how will it boot?
Click to expand...


1) Don't let the clone boot up while the source HD (containing
the "parent" OS) is still connected. Disconnect the source
HD BEFORE the new clone is booted.

2) THEN restart the PC, and the new clone should boot by
virtue of it being on the only HD in the system, which puts
that HD at the head of the BIOS's HD boot order.

*TimDaniels*
 
Yves Leclerc said:
You need to do a sector by sector copy and copy the MBR. After the Ghost
is complete, you need need to disconnect the original drive and
re-configure the new drive as the Master drive. With only the new Master
drive in the PC, XP should boot normally.
Click to expand...

I am about out of hair to pull. I have heeded all of the suggestions in this
thread and it will still not let me log in to the desktop via domain or
local administrator.

Question...when you say "disconnect the original drive and re-configure the
new drive as the Master drive", when is this done?

Thanks,
Brian
 

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