XP Pro on new drive - cont.

[Jeff Weinberg]

To all, now that I know that moving from a smaller drive to a larger drive
by cloning the drive will work OK with Windows XP, my next question is about
how to go about it. I have 4 partitions on the old, current 40 Gb drive.
The operating system is in the first partition with associated files (C,
programs are in the second partition (D, data is in the 3rd partition
(E, and general data backups are in the 4th partition (F. So, having
the right data in the right lettered partition is critical.

Can I do the following (option 1)?

1) Install the new 120 Gb drive configured as the secondary drive (Slave
Drive)
2) While booted up with the old 40 Gb drive as the Master, and using
Partition Magic under Windows, partition the new drive into 4 partitions and
format the partitions
3) Boot up under Ghost and clone the 4 partitions on the old drive to the
new drive
4) Remove the old 40 Gb drive from the system
5) Reconfigure the new 120 Gb drive as the Master
6) Boot up and go

My concern is this... if I do it this way, the system will assign available
drive letters to the partitions on the new 120 Gb drive that are not C:, D:,
E:, and F:, which is what the information in the XP registry is looking for.
When I remove the old 40 Gb drive and install the new drive, that these
drive assignment letters for the new partitions will remain on the new
drive, even though I have reconfigured it to be the Master not the Slave.
And when I try to boot up, there will no longer be the C: or D: or E: of F:
I need found on the system and the system will either not boot up or won't
run properly. Plus doing it this way does not set the first partition on
the new drive to be primary with the other partitions set to be secondary.

OR, should I do it this way (option 2):

1) Clone the old 40 Gb drive to my regular backup image drive (an IDE drive
configured as a Slave)
2) Remove the old 40 Gb drive from the system
3) Install the new 120 Gb drive as the Master in place of the old 40 Gb
drive
4) Boot from a Windows boot disk and using Fdisk, partition the new drive
into 4 partitions and format the partitions accordingly
5) Reboot using the Ghost boot disk
6) Clone the information in all 4 partitions from the backup drive to the
new drive
7) Reboot the system back into Windows

Is the second way even necessary? Am I concerned over nothing that the
virtual drive designations created under Partition Magic will be carried
over? Or will the system see the new 120 Gb drive now configured to be the
Master and say to itself "Hey, these new partitions really are C:, D:, E:,
and F: even though they weren't originally created that way. And, the new
drive C: is really the primary partition and the all the rest are
secondary." Or is there a better option 3?

Comments and help are welcome. As you can tell, I'd like to do this only
once.

JWeinberg

 

[CWatters]

Post a short version of this over on comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage and
see what Rod Speed says.

I've read that it's importan't NOT to let windows boot if you have two drive
connected when one is a clone of the other.

 

[Michael Stevens]

To all, now that I know that moving from a smaller drive to a larger
drive by cloning the drive will work OK with Windows XP, my next
question is about how to go about it. I have 4 partitions on the
old, current 40 Gb drive. The operating system is in the first
partition with associated files (C, programs are in the second
partition (D, data is in the 3rd partition (E, and general data
backups are in the 4th partition (F. So, having the right data in
the right lettered partition is critical.

Can I do the following (option 1)?

1) Install the new 120 Gb drive configured as the secondary drive
(Slave Drive)
2) While booted up with the old 40 Gb drive as the Master, and using
Partition Magic under Windows, partition the new drive into 4
partitions and format the partitions
3) Boot up under Ghost and clone the 4 partitions on the old drive to
the new drive
4) Remove the old 40 Gb drive from the system
5) Reconfigure the new 120 Gb drive as the Master
6) Boot up and go

My concern is this... if I do it this way, the system will assign
available drive letters to the partitions on the new 120 Gb drive
that are not C:, D:, E:, and F:, which is what the information in the
XP registry is looking for. When I remove the old 40 Gb drive and
install the new drive, that these drive assignment letters for the
new partitions will remain on the new drive, even though I have
reconfigured it to be the Master not the Slave. And when I try to
boot up, there will no longer be the C: or D: or E: of F: I need
found on the system and the system will either not boot up or won't
run properly. Plus doing it this way does not set the first
partition on the new drive to be primary with the other partitions
set to be secondary.

OR, should I do it this way (option 2):

1) Clone the old 40 Gb drive to my regular backup image drive (an IDE
drive configured as a Slave)
2) Remove the old 40 Gb drive from the system
3) Install the new 120 Gb drive as the Master in place of the old 40
Gb drive
4) Boot from a Windows boot disk and using Fdisk, partition the new
drive into 4 partitions and format the partitions accordingly
5) Reboot using the Ghost boot disk
6) Clone the information in all 4 partitions from the backup drive to
the new drive
7) Reboot the system back into Windows

Is the second way even necessary? Am I concerned over nothing that
the virtual drive designations created under Partition Magic will be
carried over? Or will the system see the new 120 Gb drive now
configured to be the Master and say to itself "Hey, these new
partitions really are C:, D:, E:, and F: even though they weren't
originally created that way. And, the new drive C: is really the
primary partition and the all the rest are secondary." Or is there a
better option 3?

Comments and help are welcome. As you can tell, I'd like to do this
only once.

JWeinberg

If you want to keep the system the same as it is now, just clone using disk
to disk. You will need to disconnect the cloned drive and set the cables
and jumpers on the new drive to the master. Boot the system without
connecting the cloned drive. After successfully booting the new drive, you
can connect the cloned drive as the slave and reboot. The old drive can be
formatted from XP after the reboot.
Check the Ghost users guide for more information.
--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Michael Stevens]

If you want to keep the system the same as it is now, just clone
using disk to disk. You will need to disconnect the cloned drive and
set the cables and jumpers on the new drive to the master. Boot the
system without connecting the cloned drive. After successfully
booting the new drive, you can connect the cloned drive as the slave
and reboot. The old drive can be formatted from XP after the reboot.
Check the Ghost users guide for more information.

That should have read:
After successfully booting the new drive, shutdown and connect the cloned
drive as the slave, then reboot.
--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[bc]

You should be able to just reassign the drive letter once
you boot into windows with the new drive. Right click my
computer, go to Manage, then manage disk and rename the
drive letter.
When I used ghost before, I just cloned the whole drive
and then place the whole image on to the new drive. (I no
longer use ghost).
Make sure you bios boot from the new hard drive first and
not the old drive. It is even safer if you just unhook the
old drive first and your old drive and it's data is "safe".
Hope this helps.

bc