Can I copy my 2k install from one HD to another??

[smp]

I want to do this without ghosting.

I have the contents of one 30 gig drive, win2k, and I want to put that on my second hard drive, which is installed and is a 40 gig drive. I have partitions on both, c: is OS only and drivers and stuff. So can I copy that partition to the first partition on the second drive. I guess I would need to copy the MBR too though or modify a new one??? Is there command line stuff to make the new drive bootable? Thanks.

I got a new drive, so the old one is leaving this box and going in my server (I'll have other Debian related threads going ) so that's why I'm doing this.

 

[Basie]

You can try X-Copy at the Command Prompt.

C:\ xcopy C:\ X:\/s/e/h/c/k/r or whatever switches are appropriate in Win2k and X being the
partition you are copying to.

 

[TomBilliodeaux]

If you are not familiar with x copy commands:
The newer more expanded utility with all the instuctions/ descriptions to commands: XXCOPY

I don't know if NTFS format will be an issue.

 

[Locut0s]

This is from the XXCopy site TomBilliodeaux posted:



<< Note: The technique discussed in this article applies primarily
for Windows 9x and ME cases. If your C: drive is loaded
with Win NT4/2000, you will not get a bootable disk. If you
have a dual-boot system (Win 9X and NT/2000), then it is best
you perform the operation from Win 9x. But even in that case,
the newly cloned drive will not be dual-bootable because XXCOPY
does not touch the Master Boot Record (MBR) of a hard disk
(we believe it should be handled by FDISK or other tools). >>

 

[obenton]

After copying the contents of C: to your new drive, however you do it, move your new drive to make it drive 0 (master on first IDE controller). Then, to get w2k to use the new drive's GUID, which will no longer match the old one in the w2k database, run fdisk /mbr from a DOS boot floppy.

 

[smp]

Thanks guys.

Obenton: So I just have to move the drive to primary master and do a
fdisk /mbr
is that the command exactly? Is that all I need to know?
Thanks.

 

[obenton]

That's the command, written at the DOS prompt. Only works on the IDE0 Master, which is why you have to move the drive first.

 

[smp]

Sweet, thank you. Will give it a try when I get home tonight. Hey man, turn on your PM's

 

[Nighthawk69]

I'm actually about to do this same thing. I have Norton Ghost 2000, though, and wouldn't it be the same process for me? With Ghost would I still need to do the "fdisk /mbr" command, or will Ghost take care of moving the boot sector for me?

Thanks!

 

[obenton]

See MS KB articles Q249694 and Q69013 and Q249321, which discuss some of the issues and workarounds.

 

[Nighthawk69]

obenton: that looks a bit more complicated than I was hoping it would be... or at least more than it was in Windows 98

What would you suggest? I plan to get a new 80GB ATA100 hard drive and use it with the two I have now (1 17.5GB ATA66 (has 2k Server on it) and 1 4.3GB ATA33 (has MP3's on it--getting full). My plan was to use the 80GB for the OS and the other two for files and MP3's, but the ghosting process looks more complicated than I thought it would be. So, here is what I can do:

1. Put the new 80GB ATA100 hard drive in and use it for any new stuff for now, then someday when I need to reformat (which I do not want to do right now as I just did it ) I would go ahead and use the ATA 100 drive for my OS.
2. Try to Ghost over 2k installation with Norton Ghost and see what happens.

What is recommended here? Will a change from ATA66 to ATA100 on the OS hard drive yeild any perfomance increase?

Suggestions please! Everyone seems to tell me something different as to how this process would work

Best Regards,

 

[obenton]

I'd copy current C: to the new hard drive and see if it works. It always has for me. I've never done it the safe and long Microsoft way. I pointed to the KB articles so you could see what some of the issues are. If it was a business machine I would likely do it the safe way, but for a personal machine why bother - it's just as easy to reinstall if you have to. If it doesn't work you still have your current w2k install to fall back on, and you could use your new hard drive for data until you feel, sometime in the future, it's time to do a fresh install. For copying the w2k partition, I'd put another w2k install (minimal) on what is now your D: partition, and use it to copy the C: partition to the new drive (you could also use win98 to make the copy unless your w2k partition is NTFS).

 

[obenton]

... and I've always done the transfers on standard IDE33 in order to avoid another possible complication.

 

[Nighthawk69]

You say to make a minimal installation of an OS to copy the 2k installation over. Wouldn't it be possible to just boot to a Norton Ghost floppy and Ghost it over the other drive? Does the same thing without having to install another OS just to copy the main install... or couldn't I even copy it over with XCopy as noted before by booting onto a Win98 boot disk?

Thanks!

 

[Sp3nce]

Get a maxtor and use maxblast!

 

[Nighthawk69]

Well, I can't guarantee that I will get a Maxtor... I would like to know if what I said in my last post will work.

obenton, you around?

 

[obenton]

Ghost should work OK.

 

[Nighthawk69]

Good, good

Thanks!