Replace HD can't restore XP

[Mike O]

My old HD (40 GB) is failing (so says SMART) so I replaced
it with a new larger HD (80GB). I am trying to reproduce
the old XP installation on the new HD with no luck. The
WD utility that came with the new drive, and Symatec's
Ghost both give me a hang at the welcome screen (XP
Home). I've tried to repair from the XP bootable CD but
it changes my boot drive letter to I: and my two other
partitions to J: and K:, and I can't remap I: to C: even
with Partition Magic. I can re-install XP but none of my
old programs are there, even after I restore the boot
drive with ntbackup from a previous back-up (a file stored
on the E: drive)

The old drive is still working, so I could repeat any step
of the installation process, but I have no idea how this
got so difficult.

Lost in a Hard Drive replacement

 

[Guest]

You are doing most of this right, except one cannot have XP access the new
drive after it is cloned.

1. Boot up Windows XP - off the old HDD and format the new HDD
2. If you have not yet donw it, make the Ghost bootable floppy disk
3. Shut down the PC
4. Boot off the Ghost floppy
5. CLone the old HDD to the new HDD
6. Shut down the PC
7. Reconfigure the HDDs so that the new one is Primary Master and jumpered
as Master: leave the old HDD unplugged for the time being
8. Bootup into BIOS and do the IDE device detection
9. Save the settings and restart the PC: if you are lucky Windows XP will
run: if you get any error messages then you'll need to perform a repair
install of XP to accomodate the change in HDD type, model and serial number
10. Perform a Repair Install by following the step by step below.

Boot up from the XP installation CD
When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.
Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows
installations.
Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to
start the repair.
Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not
press any key to boot from CD when the message appears. Setup will continue
as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will
remain intact.
11. Test the system and ensure everything is functioning properly.
12. Shutdown and set the old HDD to Slave or else remove it from the PC
altogether.

 

[Mike O]

I'll try again, but in the past after I've restored the
(Ghost) image file to C: and run repair from the setup
disk, my C:, D: & E: drives (one physical drive, a boot
partition, active and an extended partition with 2
logical drives) get remapped to I:, J: & K:. The problem
being I can remap I: back to C:

Is there a choice I am selecting that would cause this?
Because the repair function does find the the windows
directory on C: drive, but afterwards C: is gone and only
I: exists.

Perplexed