Help Copying MBR?

[moosebanna]

I just got a new 80GB drive, I used Norton Ghost to copy the partition of my old 40GB to the new 80BG. But it seems that there are no options to copy the MBR. I want to switch use to the 80GB drive, so how do I copy the MBR from the old drive to the new, so that it can boot up into Windows. Is it even possible to copy MBR? I seen commands to back it up and restore what about copy? Thanks.



~Moose

 

[altonb1]

What OS? If you used ghost, the 80GB drive should now be bootable as well. That info is always copied over. If you are running win9x, just boot to a bootable floppy with sys.com on it. From the A:> prompt type: sys c: That will make the C: drive bootable.

 

[moosebanna]

Windows XP is what I am using. It did not boot even though I copied the partition. When I hook up old drive it boots into XP when I hook up new one as master it tries to boot into floppy then tries cd roms and then stops.

 

[moosebanna]

Did I do the wrong thing is Ghost? I copied partition to partition, should I have done disk to disk?

 

[manly]

<< Did I do the wrong thing is Ghost? I copied partition to partition, should I have done disk to disk? >>



Yes.

 

[moosebanna]

After formating the drive and using the disk to disk copy it starts to boot up using the new drive F:, but it stops at the Windows XP log in. The old drive C: is plugged in as a slave and is needed to load XP still. I went to computer management and it shows the c: drive as having a page file. I assume that means it using the F: to run the OS, but for some reason needs the C: Why is that if it copied the drive it needs drive c: to function. I assume it has to do with the drive lettering. How am I to fix?

 

[edblor]

I think you need to FDISK /MBR the old drive!

Than boot up with the new one without the old drive even installed.

Confirm that XP starts and loads and all that fun stuff, then reinstall the old drive and confirm using FDISK that both drives are present, and that the new 80GB drive is the first recognized drive!

I think the problem is one of two things here:

1) The old drive is still the "Active" HDD,
2) The old drive is still the first recognized drive, and/or no drive is set active (in which case XP will goto the 1st recognized HDD)

Does that make sense? PM me for more info if you need to

Good luck!

Edblor

 

[moosebanna]

Wouldn't that be the same as trying to boot up with the new drive without the old one connected? Instead of fdisk/mbr just take it out and test it. no? That way don't risk the MBR on the drive that works.

 

[altonb1]

All you really need to do is change the location of your pagefile. unfortunately, I'm not sure how to get to that option in XP, so I can't really tell you HOW to do it. You uised to be able to right click on My Computer to get there, but XP is much different from NT 4. You probably should boot up to use the administrator account and do it from there. you also may want to use Disk administrator (not sure where XP houses this utility, either) to change the drive letters around. (If you desire)

 

[moosebanna]

I fixed the problem already. Needed to fdisk /MBR the new drive (and the old). Works now, thanks though.