How To Clone Old HD To New HD And Make New HD Bootable
1) Visit
http://www.bootitng.com and download BootIt NG. Unzip the file, and
execute BOOTITNG.EXE to create the bootable floppy (accept the defaults).
Or choose the ISO option and burn a bootable CD, your choice. Now shutdown
the PC.
2) Assuming old HD is master on primary IDE controller (IDE1), move old HD
to slave on IDE1, or master on secondary IDE controller (IDE2). Install new
HD to master on IDE1 (replacing old HD). Be sure to get HD jumpers setup
correctly! Use cable select (CS) if unsure.
3) Insert BootIT NG floppy/CD and boot it. When the Welcome to Setup screen
appears, select Cancel, follow the prompts, and you will be taken to the
Partition Manager.
4) Your new HD will be displayed by default (HD0). To see the contents of
the old HD, select HD1 (in the upper left corner). To clone HD1 to HD0,
select the first partition on HD1, hit Copy, switch to HD0, select the
freespace, and hit Paste. In all likelihood, you'll probably want to expand
the partition to take advantage of the increased drive capacity. Select the
newly cloned partition, hit Resize, choose a new size (if the file system
type is of type FAT, you can convert to FAT32 as well), then hit OK. Repeat
for each partition on HD1, in order.
HINT: If you are cloning a Windows XP partition based on FAT32 and intend to
convert to NTFS later, then once copied, select the cloned partition, hit
Resize one more time, but choose the "Align for NTFS" option (the size
parameters will be disabled), and hit OK. This will ensure the NTFS
conversion results in 4K allocation units. If you don't do this, then the
conversion to NTFS will result in only 512 byte allocation units (not nearly
as efficient).
5) At this point, although all the partitions on the old HD (HD1) have been
copied to the new HD (HD0), the new HD is NOT yet bootable, we'll correct
that now. Select HD0 from the upper left corner. Hit View MBR, and in the
dialog, you will notice four entries in the MBR (Master Boot Record). Each
entry w/ a non-zero address represents one of your cloned partitions.
Select the bootable partition (usually the first MBR entry), hit "Set
Active", and the partition will indicate Active status. Now hit "Std MBR",
this will initialize the boot loader in the MBR. Finally, hit Apply to save
the changes.
6) Hit Close, remove the BootIt NG floppy/CD, and hit Reboot. Your system
will now reboot as before but using the new HD. Before rebooting Windows,
you may wish to shutdown and remove the old HD (see notes below).
NOTES:
i) The procedures outlined herein are NON-DESTRUCTIVE to your old HD. If
you should happen to have any problems, you can always retry the procedures,
or even revert back to the old setup by simply placing the old HD back on
the primary IDE controller (IDE1) as master and removing the new HD (adjust
jumpers accordingly). Your system will be configured and boot EXACTLY as
before the new HD installation.
ii) If you decide to keep the old HD installed, beware that any partitions
on the old HD will appear within the booted OS as additional data
partitions. These partitions are usually assigned drive letters following
the last ATAPI devices (e.g., CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, DVD+/-R/RW) and/or removeable
storage devices (e.g., USB pen-drive, USB external HD) already installed.
It's your choice, you may wish to keep the old hard installed as a means to
re-clone should problems arise w/ the new HD. Or eventually you might want
to reformat the old HD's partition(s) and use them for other purposes. Or
perhaps reboot BootIT NG, delete the old partitions, and create and format
new ones. The options are all there, it just depends on your personal
preferences. Of course, you can also remove the old HD and keep it safely
tucked away as a backup to the new HD. When you feel confident w/ the new
HD, you could reinstall it, clean it off w/ BootIT NG, and use it for any
other purposes you wish (e.g., periodically store images of the OS using
BootIT NG).
iii) When cloning a Windows XP partition, you will most likely NOT have to
reactivate. Since activation writes to the partition (which you are merely
cloning) and a hard drive change is not itself enough to trigger
reactivation, it should not present a problem. But even if reactivation was
required for some reason, it's a trivial matter to call and get reactivated
w/ a five minute phone call. And if it's been 120 days since last
activation, the issue is moot. MS "wipes the slate clean" after 120 days,
meaning you can reinstall Windows XP and reactivate w/ ANY equipment changes
you deem necessary (a whole NEW system if need be), as if you had activated
for the very first time, no questions asked.
HTH
Jim
