upgrade HDD

[nutso fasst]

I want to replace an 80GB HDD with a 200GB HDD. I thought I could just add
the new drive, copy files, mirror the boot partition to the root of the new
drive, then remove the old drive, boot to the new and break the mirror, as I
once did in NT. Win2K doesn't allow this. So what is the easiest way to get
my Win2K installation on the new drive? Can I just copy everything, then
remove the old drive and do an install/repair on the new? Will the 'wrong'
drive letters on the new drive be a problem?

One other question... I created a slipstreamed boot CD with SP4. Will
install recognize the large HDD and enable large LBA, or was there something
else I needed to add for this to happen?

thanks,
nf

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I want to replace an 80GB HDD with a 200GB HDD. I thought I could just add
the new drive, copy files, mirror the boot partition to the root of the new
drive, then remove the old drive, boot to the new and break the mirror, as I
once did in NT. Win2K doesn't allow this. So what is the easiest way to get
my Win2K installation on the new drive? Can I just copy everything, then
remove the old drive and do an install/repair on the new? Will the 'wrong'
drive letters on the new drive be a problem?

One other question... I created a slipstreamed boot CD with SP4. Will
install recognize the large HDD and enable large LBA, or was there something
else I needed to add for this to happen?

thanks,
nf

You can't just copy your old disk to your new disk, because many
system files are locked while Win2000 is active. Here are a couple
of options:

a) Use a disk imaging program

b) Perform the copy process while your old and new disks are
temporarily installed in some other Win2000/XP PC. Use
the appropriate switches so that your copy program (e.g. xcopy.exe)
copies hidden & system files too.

If you select b) then you have to run the Command Console
to run fixmbr and fixboot.

 

[nutso fasst]

If you select b) then you have to run the Command Console
to run fixmbr and fixboot.

Thanks for the advice.

The computer I could otherwise have used to copy from one disk to another
doesn't support 48-bit LBA, so I bought Copy Commander and ran it. Arg. Not
only was the target disk not bootable, the original wouldn't boot either. I
did another repair from the CD on the 80GB drive, then installed the 200GB
and saw that all root partition files were there. But when I try to boot to
the 200GB drive Windows doesn't see the Windows installation. I opened the
command console from the CD and was going to run fixmbr, but got an error
message of "non-standard or invalid master boot record" and warning of dire
consequences if I continued. I then ran the map command, and got this for
the drive:

? 0MB \Device\HardDisk0\Partition0
? 12002MB \Device\HardDisk0\Partition3
C 128002MB \Device\HardDisk0\Partition1
? 50776MB \Device\HardDisk0\Partition2

What's listed as partition 3 should be 1, and what's listed as 1 should be
2.

Since all that could happen is another few hours wasted, I ran fixmbr, then
ran map again. No change. So I ran fixboot and got a message (sic): "The
target position is The file system on the startup parition is unknown..."
and that it was trying to find the file system and then it tells me "Fixboot
cannot open the partition".

This HDD upgrade is beginning to look like my life's work.

Suggestions much appreciated,
nf

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the advice.

The computer I could otherwise have used to copy from one disk to another
doesn't support 48-bit LBA, so I bought Copy Commander and ran it. Arg. Not
only was the target disk not bootable, the original wouldn't boot either. I
did another repair from the CD on the 80GB drive, then installed the 200GB
and saw that all root partition files were there. But when I try to boot to
the 200GB drive Windows doesn't see the Windows installation. I opened the
command console from the CD and was going to run fixmbr, but got an error
message of "non-standard or invalid master boot record" and warning of dire
consequences if I continued. I then ran the map command, and got this for
the drive:

? 0MB \Device\HardDisk0\Partition0
? 12002MB \Device\HardDisk0\Partition3
C 128002MB \Device\HardDisk0\Partition1
? 50776MB \Device\HardDisk0\Partition2

What's listed as partition 3 should be 1, and what's listed as 1 should be
2.

Since all that could happen is another few hours wasted, I ran fixmbr, then
ran map again. No change. So I ran fixboot and got a message (sic): "The
target position is The file system on the startup parition is unknown..."
and that it was trying to find the file system and then it tells me "Fixboot
cannot open the partition".

This HDD upgrade is beginning to look like my life's work.

Suggestions much appreciated,
nf

Sorry, my experience is limited to hard disks of up to 120 GBytes.
Regardless of the size, I would always install Win2000 in a small
partition of 5 . . 10 GBytes, and reserve the rest for a data
partition.

 

[Alias]

Sorry, my experience is limited to hard disks of up to 120 GBytes.
Regardless of the size, I would always install Win2000 in a small
partition of 5 . . 10 GBytes, and reserve the rest for a data
partition.

Why?

Alias

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Why?

Alias

Several reasons:
- I prefer to keep my OS & applications strictly separate from my data.
- Having a second partition allows me to create & store an image of
the first partition, using a partition imaging tool.
- If the OS decides to goe south, I don't need to rebuild it. I simply
restore it from the image file.
- Backing up my data is easy - it's all on D:. I never have to go
picking bits and pieces from this folder and that folder.
- If I had just one partition then I could do neither of the above.

 

[Alias]

Several reasons:
- I prefer to keep my OS & applications strictly separate from my data.
- Having a second partition allows me to create & store an image of
the first partition, using a partition imaging tool.
- If the OS decides to goe south, I don't need to rebuild it. I simply
restore it from the image file.
- Backing up my data is easy - it's all on D:. I never have to go
picking bits and pieces from this folder and that folder.
- If I had just one partition then I could do neither of the above.

I wasn't clear. Why should the OS/programs be in a small partition? Does
Partition Magic do the imaging thing (I just got Partition Magic)?

Alias

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I wasn't clear. Why should the OS/programs be in a small partition? Does
Partition Magic do the imaging thing (I just got Partition Magic)?

Alias

Sorry, I've never tried to put the OS into a big partition, hence I don't
know what limits (if any) exist.

 

[nutso fasst]

Sorry, my experience is limited to hard disks of up to 120 GBytes.
Regardless of the size, I would always install Win2000 in a small
partition of 5 . . 10 GBytes, and reserve the rest for a data
partition.

I agree, which is why my boot partition is 12GB, followed by 128GB for video
editing, followed by 49GB for data.

Anyway, the system is up and running, and since I hate when threads end
without a solution, I'll tell the tale...

The boot problem was not caused by Copy Commander. I had created/formatted
all three partitions and copied files prior to buying the cloning software.
But the clone must be to unused space. So I deleted the first partition in
W2K (I suppose there's a way to remove formatting without removing the
partition, but I don't know it). This left the second partition ID'd as 0
and the third as 1. So, when Copy Commander cloned, it created a new
partition numbered 2. But boot.ini pointed to 0, so the OS could not be
found. Not knowing enough at that point to edit boot.ini, I deleted the 2nd
and 3rd partitions, recreated them in proper order and copied data again.
Then I was able to boot into Win2K from the new HDD, PROVIDED the old HDD
was still in the system on the second IDE channel. I then saw that I was
booting from drive F, not C. Googling got me an MS reference to changing
boot drive letters (Q223188) by editing the registry. Fortunately I searched
further and found a horror story by someone who followed those instructions.
After changing the boot drive letter to C, there would still be references
in the registry to critical files on drive F. My situation was further
complicated because I had a drive F before starting this debacle, so the
registry had a mix of valid and invalid references to f:. So after swapping
drive letters for f: and c: in HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices, I searched the
registry and changed critical f: entries (those pointing to \WINNT\... and
\Documents and Settings\...) to c:, then rebooted. Voila, it worked.

Warning about Copy Commander: the user guide and help file tell the user to
check an option to create a new SID on the new drive if you are connected to
a network, WITH NO EXPLANATION of what this means. This is fine if you're
cloning the drive for a new system, but if you are upgrading an existing
system you'll have create a new identity on the network. I am glad I knew
not to do this, pity purchasers who don't.

Again, thanks for taking the time to reply.

nf

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I agree, which is why my boot partition is 12GB, followed by 128GB for video
editing, followed by 49GB for data.

Anyway, the system is up and running, and since I hate when threads end
without a solution, I'll tell the tale...

The boot problem was not caused by Copy Commander. I had created/formatted
all three partitions and copied files prior to buying the cloning software.
But the clone must be to unused space. So I deleted the first partition in
W2K (I suppose there's a way to remove formatting without removing the
partition, but I don't know it). This left the second partition ID'd as 0
and the third as 1. So, when Copy Commander cloned, it created a new
partition numbered 2. But boot.ini pointed to 0, so the OS could not be
found. Not knowing enough at that point to edit boot.ini, I deleted the 2nd
and 3rd partitions, recreated them in proper order and copied data again.
Then I was able to boot into Win2K from the new HDD, PROVIDED the old HDD
was still in the system on the second IDE channel. I then saw that I was
booting from drive F, not C. Googling got me an MS reference to changing
boot drive letters (Q223188) by editing the registry. Fortunately I searched
further and found a horror story by someone who followed those instructions.
After changing the boot drive letter to C, there would still be references
in the registry to critical files on drive F. My situation was further
complicated because I had a drive F before starting this debacle, so the
registry had a mix of valid and invalid references to f:. So after swapping
drive letters for f: and c: in HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices, I searched the
registry and changed critical f: entries (those pointing to \WINNT\... and
\Documents and Settings\...) to c:, then rebooted. Voila, it worked.

Warning about Copy Commander: the user guide and help file tell the user to
check an option to create a new SID on the new drive if you are connected to
a network, WITH NO EXPLANATION of what this means. This is fine if you're
cloning the drive for a new system, but if you are upgrading an existing
system you'll have create a new identity on the network. I am glad I knew
not to do this, pity purchasers who don't.

Again, thanks for taking the time to reply.

nf

Thanks for the feedback.