HELP - replacing hard drive with ghost, can't log on in xp

semitech

Member
Sep 19, 2002
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I hope this is a "dumb" question with a simple answer...

My main WD 80mb hard drive is making noise, so I want to replace it. I used Ghost 9 to copy / clone it to a new Seagate 120 drive. I then unhooked the old WD drive and hooked up the new Seagate drive. When I start the computer, I get the windows xp screen BUT NO BOX TO LOG ON. When I go back to the still functioning WD I can log on and it works.

I have a second slave drive on the system. I copied the drive with ghost using a USB external connection for the new Seagate, then unhooked it.

I think this is a Windows XP activation issue. I read somewhere that I should boot to the original XP disc and select REPAIR windows setup?
 

imported_Phil

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2001
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A Repair option* is definitely the best way to go. More than likely, during the Ghost process, the source drive failed to read a number of sectors, which means that the corresponding sectors on the destination drive are blank; i.e. files missing. You could think of this as "copying errors", although it doesn't actually copy the physical error.

* Repair Option:

Boot from XP CD.
Press Enter to "Set up Windows XP now" - don't press R for Recovery Console here.
F8 to get past the License Agreement.
Setup will display "...found an existing installation of XP, press R to repair or Esc for a fresh copy of Windows" - press R.
Wait 30 minutes to an hour, and you should be good to go.

Remember, you will need to visit Windows Update as soon as you boot to get those all-important updates that Setup has nuked.

Hope this helps :)
 

semitech

Member
Sep 19, 2002
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Phil, Thanks for the advise. I couldn't get Ghost to clone the drive as is. It stopped due to a file error, so I started over and chose "ignore errors". Ah hah!

If I go the repair route, can I still later change my mind and stick back in the original drive? Would I then have two working drives I could switch back and forth between (with a bit of effort unplugging things in the case), at least until the original drive crashes, if it does.

I want to go the repair route, just don't want to get stuck in anything...

Thanks in advance...
 

speed01

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2001
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Try the repair on the new drive, not the old one. If you're lucky, Ghost copied the majority of your data and you'll be set. Leave the old drive alone if you want to keep using it until it dies. If the repair does work you can switch between the drives as often as you like. Just make sure you don't have them both hooked up at the same time.

Speed