jimbo said:
I have physical HD "C" with Win98, FAT32 and physical HD "D" with WinXP,
NTFS as a dual boot system using WinXP boot loader. Everything works just
fine.
I want to replace the "D" drive with a new, larger drive. I don't want to
re-install WinXP or lose data from the drive.
I have one of those external USB cases that will take a hard drive or a
DVD. (I bought this device for my laptop computer where I use it for a DVD
burner.)
I have a copy of Norton Ghost 2003 that I have never used.
Can someone give a step by step or point me to a web site for completing
this task?
Thanks, jimbo
Jimbo:
You may find of some value the following article I recently prepared on this
subject for a local computer club. You can install a hard drive in the USB
external enclosure that you already have. As you will note from my article,
I use a Ghost bootable floppy disk to undertake the cloning operation. I
find the simplicity, straightforwardness, and portability aspects of using a
floppy preferable to using Ghost's GUI. But you can use Ghost's Window's
interface to perform the cloning operation should you prefer that method.
USING GHOST 2003 TO CLONE AN INTERNAL HARD DRIVE TO A USB EXTERNAL HARD
DRIVE
The advantage of this process is that for all practical purposes you're
making an exact duplicate of your working internal drive. Everything is
"backed up" - your operating system, registry, programs & applications,
configuration settings, your data files - everything.
Note that in some cases, connecting the USB external hard drive to a USB hub
prevents the cloning process. In those situations, the external drive should
bypass the hub and be directly connected to the computer's USB port.
The cloning process is relatively simple. Other than the external hard drive
you'll be cloning to, disconnect any other external storage device(s), e.
g., ZIP drive, flash drive, from the computer and boot up with the Ghost
floppy disk (see below instructions for preparing the Ghost floppy) and use
the screen displays to select the source (internal hard drive) disk and the
destination (external hard drive) disk.
With a reasonably fast processor, your cloning speed (data transfer) should
be about 400 to 500 MB/min. Should you be using a USB 1.0/1.1 connection,
your cloning speed will be about 40 to 50 MB/min.
I prefer to carry out the cloning operation using a Ghost floppy disk,
rather than using Ghost's Windows interface. I find this process simple,
straightforward, and effective.
PREPARING THE GHOST FLOPPY DISK
1. Insert a blank floppy disk. It need not be formatted.
2. Access your Ghost program. Make sure you have the latest version 2003.793
(as of 10/04). Use Symantec's LiveUpdate feature in the Ghost program to
check for updates to the Ghost program.
3. Click on Ghost Utilities and select Norton Ghost Boot Wizard.
4. Select Standard Ghost Boot Disk. On the following dialog box (assuming
you have USB 2.0 capability), select "USB 2.0 Support" and check "Assign DOS
drive letters". Click Next.
5. Select the "Use PC-DOS" option in the next dialog box.
6. Complete the process following the screen prompts.
7. Remove floppy and label accordingly.
With the USB external hard drive connected to your computer and powered up,
boot up with the Ghost floppy and perform the cloning operation. You should
be able to easily perform this operation by stepping through Ghost's
informative dialog boxes, however, if you need step-by-step instructions I
will be glad to furnish them. Just remember that when you're cloning from
the internal hard drive to the USB external hard drive, the source disk is
your internal hard drive and the destination disk is your USB external hard
drive. Remember to disconnect any other storage devices you may have
connected to your computer (ZIP drives, flash/jump drives, etc.) before you
begin the cloning operation.
You can also perform the cloning operation in reverse, i.e., from the
external hard drive to the internal one, thus restoring your internal drive
should the need arise. Naturally in this situation the external hard drive
becomes the source disk and the internal hard drive the destination disk.
BTW, the cloned USB external hard drive will not be bootable - at least in
my experience with XP. I have read many comments in the various newsgroups
and websites to the effect that an external USB hard drive is bootable as
long as it's supported by the motherboard's BIOS. But I've yet to achieve
this capability even with motherboard's purporting to have this capability.
Art