Copy one HD to another HD and is bootable? How?

[eno]

I have tried PowerQwest: PartitionMagic7.0. And I can't seem to get my trial edition Norton Ghost to work. I made a copy of my primary partition with P.M.7.0 and when I tried to boot from the new copied HD it told me I had a Windows2000 file missing and needed to install the OS. All I want is a easy way to back up my hard drive. Where all I would have to do is swap out the drives if one went bad and keep going. So what is a easy way to copy them and if you are giving me a program to look for, what part of the program should I use to make a 1 to 1 copy.

 

[daveqb]

Norton Ghost is the way to go,
it makes an image keeping files sector locations and therefore letting an OS still be bootable

there are other programs out there though, i have only ever used Norton,

although i am having trouble myself doing the same thing you are doing, done it before though ..

 

[Dogsbody]

There is an excellent guide for Norton Ghost at http://ghost.radified.com. If you can't get Ghost to work for you, you might try PowerQuest's Drive Image.

 

[eno]

I just tried Norton Ghost 2002 and it did the same thing Partition Magic 7 did,

"Windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <windows 2000 root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Please reinstall a copy of the above file."

What gives? I read the help pdf file I thought I was doing everything right. Maybe something to do with the NTFS files? Can the not copy/clone over to another HD?

 

[daveqb]

hmmm, well that NTOSKRNL file is the file you change when you want to change your boot up screen.

i delete mine and add one that i have downloaded

maybe a ntoskrnl file from XPboot or ThemeXP would do the trick for ya !

just a thought

 

[Psyrex1]

i used to use the age old trick of getting a boot disk with xcopy on it.
boot up to a command prompt with the disk and then use this command
xcopy c: d: /c/h/e/r/k


c: and d: drive may be different in your case though.

 

[eno]

Daveqb where would I get that file? What folder would I put it in? Could I just go into my working hard drive and copy it and paste it into the correct folder on the cloned HD? So basically what steps do I need to take to try your idea?

 

[daveqb]

so sorry mate, missed thst there was a reply here,

theres heaps of "Theme" places for XP, but i found ThemeXP to have the best screens.

just doanload any of the boot up screens,
unpack them,
then to install it-

because the fuile is a system file you cant swap it while running.
theres programs that get you past this, but i prefer the manual way, (had stability issues using programs)

boot up in safe mode and then you can swap the file over with a new one.

in your case it probably wont matter as yours has gone walk-about.

just copy and paste into C:\WINDOWS\System32 folder

and ya done!

i hope this helps.

and why i can back in here to say was that i used Drive Image yesterday, From PowerQuest
and it is f$%king awesome!!
200% beter then Norton Ghost, try it mate!


i hope this helps ya out

 

[corkyg]

I do that every week on three computers. Each has duplicate "reserve" drives. ALl I do is use PowerQuest's DriveCopy 4.0 and boot using their diskettes. The OS never enters into it - it is fast and exact. Even an optimized drive comes out optimized. I then rotate the drives. That gives each one a week off and I always have a good drive ready to go in case of bad events - viruses, bad beta ware, etc.

 

[eno]

Thanks I will try PowerQuest : Driver Image.

So is this possible or do I always need a boot disk, can I just copy the whole HD or the boot partition to another HD and then swap it out and I can boot from it no problems with no diskette or anything else? Or do I always have to run some type of program with Drivequest and Ghost? Figured I could just clone the drive swap em out and the computer wouldn't know the difference.

Thanks for your help.

 

[daveqb]

yep!

thats the idea of imaging or cloning a HDD, it means its ECASTLY the same, bootable and all just like the original.

i use it to make a backup compressed image every so often, so if i screw my OS over (do quite often experiementing with Overclocking and new programs etc) i can simply replace it to a good know state, with my programs how they were etc and in about 3-5 minutes running off another HDD or 10minutes if off of CD's

thats with maximuim compression

top stuff!!!