Question on changing & upgrading XP Home Boot disks? and Partition Magic

D

Dallas Overturf

Here's the scenario: A Friend of mine a couple years back bought a Sony
Vaio PCVRZ22G Desktop PC ;
it has plenty of memory (512Mb) and and an 80GB disk (which for him is
plenty).
They never mentioned to him (a technologically challenged person) that they
split the disk into
a 20GB boot and OS partition drive C: AND a 60GB partition drive D: where
he should install all else onto D:.
Needless to say he is running out of disk space due to this nonsensical
setup. and installing and saving things in the default manner.
Note: Sony suggeste changing My Documents to point into the D: drive which
I did but it was too little to late.
he keeps running very low on disk space (Megabytes vs. Gigabytes) and he is
sick of it.
Sony's reply on it was that it was done due to XP becoming unuseable if it
runs out of disk space; duh!

Question(s): He wants me to make a bootable backup of the hard drive onto
(a largerWestern Digital 120GB WD1200JB ) drive and then turn it into a
single partition; once working. Will Partition Magic be able to do this
automagically? AND what software should I use for Safely copying the
original XP Home OS onto the new drive? (freeware would be preferred for
this if available).
Does Partion Magic fix the registry entries for stuff on the current D:
drive to point to C: if you convert to one partition?

Any Caveats or advice appreciated! I've heard
of but never used Partition Magic before.

Thank you very much group!
Best regards, Dallas...
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G

Guest

Actually xp already has the tech to due what youre trying to already
installed.
Simply place the new hd on the same IDE cable as slave with xp (C:) being
master.Once in xp,format the new hd,once thru,go to run,type:
XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window,when its thru,the
entire xp OS is now also on the new hd & ready to boot into,just reset to
master
on the hd jumper pins,& set in BIOS as 1st boot device,format current when
back in xp.Also,D: being the new hd,if asigned diffrent letter then use
that letter.
 
D

Dallas Overturf

Thanks Andrew! I'll try that xcopy.

Regarding Format command: woud this be the correct syntax: format C:
/FS:NTFS /s /v to create an NTFS bootable hard disk?

Thanks, Dallas...

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S

Shenan Stanley

Andrew said:
Actually xp already has the tech to due what youre trying to
already installed.
Simply place the new hd on the same IDE cable as slave with xp (C:)
being master.Once in xp,format the new hd,once thru,go to run,type:
XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window,when
its thru,the entire xp OS is now also on the new hd & ready to boot
into,just reset to master
on the hd jumper pins,& set in BIOS as 1st boot device,format
current when back in xp.Also,D: being the new hd,if asigned
diffrent letter then use
that letter.

WHAT?!
Andrew... You are a crack-monkey offspring.
 
D

Dallas Overturf

Shenan: You appear to disagree with something Andrew said. I was a bit
surprised by the reference to using
XCOPY. Is there a good way to do what I want to do that you know of or can
point me to a reference on it???
I'll be driving 45min to my friend's house to try to help him. I'm going to
try and do it on my own system first
to verify it works. If it was DOS I know it would not work; but for XP I
don't know what's changed in the boot process.
Would my reply asking about formatting allow the Xcopy to work? Thread is
below...

Thanks, Dallas...

THREAD----------->>>
Thanks Andrew! I'll try that xcopy.

Regarding Format command: woud this be the correct syntax: format C:
/FS:NTFS /s /v to create an NTFS bootable hard disk?

Thanks, Dallas...

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Andrew E. said:
Actually xp already has the tech to due what youre trying to already
installed.
Simply place the new hd on the same IDE cable as slave with xp (C:) being
master.Once in xp,format the new hd,once thru,go to run,type:
XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window,when its
thru,the
entire xp OS is now also on the new hd & ready to boot into,just reset to
master
on the hd jumper pins,& set in BIOS as 1st boot device,format current when
back in xp.Also,D: being the new hd,if asigned diffrent letter then use
that letter.


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S

Shenan Stanley

Dallas said:
Here's the scenario: A Friend of mine a couple years back bought a
Sony Vaio PCVRZ22G Desktop PC ;
it has plenty of memory (512Mb) and and an 80GB disk (which for him
is plenty).
They never mentioned to him (a technologically challenged person)
that they split the disk into
a 20GB boot and OS partition drive C: AND a 60GB partition drive
D: where he should install all else onto D:.
Needless to say he is running out of disk space due to this
nonsensical setup. and installing and saving things in the default
manner. Note: Sony suggeste changing My Documents to point into the D:
drive which I did but it was too little to late.
he keeps running very low on disk space (Megabytes vs. Gigabytes)
and he is sick of it.
Sony's reply on it was that it was done due to XP becoming
unuseable if it runs out of disk space; duh!

Question(s): He wants me to make a bootable backup of the hard
drive onto (a largerWestern Digital 120GB WD1200JB ) drive and
then turn it into a single partition; once working. Will Partition
Magic be able to do this automagically? AND what software should I
use for Safely copying the original XP Home OS onto the new drive?
(freeware would be preferred for this if available).
Does Partion Magic fix the registry entries for stuff on the
current D: drive to point to C: if you convert to one partition?

Any Caveats or advice appreciated! I've heard
of but never used Partition Magic before.

Dallas said:
Shenan: You appear to disagree with something Andrew said. I
was a bit surprised by the reference to using
XCOPY. Is there a good way to do what I want to do that you know
of or can point me to a reference on it???
I'll be driving 45min to my friend's house to try to help him. I'm
going to try and do it on my own system first
to verify it works. If it was DOS I know it would not work; but
for XP I don't know what's changed in the boot process.
Would my reply asking about formatting allow the Xcopy to work? Thread is
below...

In the future - please do not change the subject line. It breaks up the
thread.

Andrew E. is known for giving bad information.
He is someone who still states - despite being pointed to references to the
contrary - that there is no update path from Windows XP Home to Windows XP
Professional.

Back to your question - unsnipped for this off-shoot of the thread.

Has your friend installed anything on D? Surely - in all this time -
something is installed on D.

In any case - you can just use Partition Magic to resize C and D as they are
now.
Partition Magic, BootITNG, etc..
You should backup things first.

You could also uninstall the applications now installed on C and use the
media to install them on D this time - as well as some cleanup on C...
Archiving old files/installation executables, etc... Get them off the
machine completely. CD/DVD/external hard disk drive.

The other (best) alternative is to use an imaging utility (Symantec Ghost,
Acronis TrueImage, BootIT NG or a host of other possibilities) to backup the
individual partitions to an image on an external hard disk/network share and
then utilize the same application to restore the image to partitions on the
new drive (you can pre-create the partitons with a boot disk/Windows XP
CD) - maintaining the C and D setup. From this point on - make sure
everything your friend installs is done onto D and they start saving their
stuff elsewhere (files/folders they make.)

XCOPY just is not going to do the job, especially with NTFS in the works -
which I would assume it is. Even with FAT32 - Windows XP just wasn't made
to be copied in that way. While I have gotten that method to work with
Windows 95 - I have not seen it work since nor has there been any great push
to make it work. The products like those already mentioned were MEANT to do
this for you and reliably... although - good backups are always encouraged.

In other words - Andrew E.'s method will *not* work... Xcopy (for one
thing) is just not going to copy all the files you have 'in use'. I suggest
you use one of the tools listed above - as those are made to do this and
their instructions are listed on their web pages and documented throughout
the web.... Also - new (retail) hard disk drives come with imaging
utilities....

Western Digital was mentioned, so...

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...X3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PXRyYW5zZmVy&p_li
 
K

Kerry Brown

I agree with Shenan. Andrew E. is rarely right and his advice sometimes will
cause more problems or even cause total data loss. He never responds when
corrected and continues to post the same bad advice over and over. In this
case his advice is just bad, not dangerous. His advice was almost correct
for older versions of Windows but won't work with XP. Take Shenan's advice.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


Dallas Overturf said:
Shenan: You appear to disagree with something Andrew said. I was a bit
surprised by the reference to using
XCOPY. Is there a good way to do what I want to do that you know of or
can point me to a reference on it???
I'll be driving 45min to my friend's house to try to help him. I'm going
to try and do it on my own system first
to verify it works. If it was DOS I know it would not work; but for XP I
don't know what's changed in the boot process.
Would my reply asking about formatting allow the Xcopy to work? Thread is
below...

Thanks, Dallas...

THREAD----------->>>
Thanks Andrew! I'll try that xcopy.

Regarding Format command: woud this be the correct syntax: format C:
/FS:NTFS /s /v to create an NTFS bootable hard disk?

Thanks, Dallas...

--
Home Page: www.geocities.com/d_overturf
Newsgroups to reply to me me via email, please fix the email address
(e-mail address removed)
REMOVE NOSPAM from the reply address.

----------

Andrew E. said:
Actually xp already has the tech to due what youre trying to already
installed.
Simply place the new hd on the same IDE cable as slave with xp (C:) being
master.Once in xp,format the new hd,once thru,go to run,type:
XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window,when its
thru,the
entire xp OS is now also on the new hd & ready to boot into,just reset to
master
on the hd jumper pins,& set in BIOS as 1st boot device,format current
when
back in xp.Also,D: being the new hd,if asigned diffrent letter then use
that letter.


--
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Newsgroups to reply to me me via email, please fix the email address
(e-mail address removed)
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----------
 
D

Dallas Overturf

Thank you very much Shenan and Kerry for confirming the xcopy method won't
work. I'll try the WD utilities
followed by using PM per Shenan. Stuff on D: drive is minimal and can be
copied and reloaded.

Sorry about the thread change, I thought it made sense in this case.

Thanks and Regards to all, Dallas...

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D

Dallas Overturf

Finally got up to my friend's house to resolve this anomaly on his Sony
computer and figured I'd post the resoluton...

Sony Tech Support gets a thumbs up on this one; they were kind enough to
respond to an email (quickly)with something very helpfull.
In my friend's case he had a GigaPocket TV Tuner/Recorder on his PC (the
reason Sony created the Extra D: partition) so that the TV tuner/recorder
canNot fill UP XP's OS partition (C:); the really helpfull thing they
explained was that if your system expects a D: drive on there and you delete
the D: drive; The Gigapocket software will re-create it's folder on D: once
you add back in D:
In my friend's case I had an extra 40G drive from when I upgraded and just
put it as the sec. on the IDE cable so it became D:
Boot up and all is well with that now. Sony's reply makes me suspect that
there may have been more than one way other
than them adding the D: partition; but that is just my speculation based on
the wording of the reply. I will note that Giga pocket
stuff kept trying to load until finally we added a Drive D: Then all was
good and his gigapocket worked fine.
Now his 120G drive is 100% devoted to the OS and Apps. I will not that his
Sony Recovery CDs do indeed create the 2nd partiition.

Hope that helps someone else out there. Thanks and
regards to all, Dallas...

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Dallas Overturf said:
Thank you very much Shenan and Kerry for confirming the xcopy method won't
work. I'll try the WD utilities
followed by using PM per Shenan. Stuff on D: drive is minimal and can be
copied and reloaded.

Sorry about the thread change, I thought it made sense in this case.

Thanks and Regards to all,
Dallas...

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