Move Windows 2000 boot files/etc. to other hard drive

[mscdex0]

Ok, here's the situation:

I currently have 6.4gb, 40gb, and 80gb hard drives. I just bought the 80gb for storage purposes only. The way everything is set up right now is, the boot.ini/ntldr/ntdetect.com are on the 6.4gb drive which is FAT32 formatted. The 40gb holds the actual windows 2000 installation and is formatted NTFS. What I am wanting to do is copy and do whatever I need to do, so that I can boot directly to the 40gb, instead of having to have the small 6.4gb drive hooked up just so I can boot. This way I can replace my 6.4gb with my new 80gb drive.

I have tried using the recovery console and using fixmbr and fixboot on the 40gb drive after copying the ntldr/ntdetect.com/boot.ini from the old hard drive to the new one. I did not have to change the settings in the boot.ini because I had the 6.4gb set as master and the 40gb as slave. So what I did was after I copied the files and set the same file attributes, I took out the 6.4gb and put in the 80gb as master (This way the boot.ini still points to the second hard drive and the first partition still). I tried changing the BIOS to boot to HDD-1 (2nd drive). But no matter what, I get the NTLDR is missing error. All the cables are firmly connected, the files are there on the 40gb drive, and everything.

But the funny thing is, I take out the 80gb, and put the 6.4gb back in, and set the BIOS back to HDD-0, and windows 2000 boots up just fine.

I'm wondering if the OnTrack thing I installed the same night I tried swapping the drives (I installed it thinking the Western Digital utility would let me copy the boot files, and it said it had to install OnTrack in order to format the 80gb drive and whatnot, so I let it install it). So I'm wondering if this could be the problem? I don't know.



If someone could please help me out, I'd be forever greatful for your help. I am totally stumped.

 

[Keysplayr]

Use Norton Ghost or Drive Image to clone your 6.4GB drove to your 80GB drive. Any bestbuy or Compusa will have these programs.
What happens is, the image of the 6.4 GB drive (every single bit) is duplicated to your 80GB drive. Your computer will never know the difference except for maybe 1 reboot for detecting new hardware. but thats it.

Keys

 

[mscdex0]

Ok, but I don't want my 80gb drive to be formatted FAT, like the 6.4gb is.

 

[Keysplayr]

So convert the 6.4GB to NTFS!
You will need at least 200MB of free space on the 6.4GB to do this.

Open a command prompt and type the following:

convert X: /fs:ntfs (X being the drive letter of your 6.4 drive)

You will have to reboot and the conversion will take place befor the OS starts up. Depending on how fragmented and how much data you have on the 6.4 will determine how long it will take. I say 1/2 hour max if its really jammed.

Then do your disk clone.

Warning: you will not be able to boot up and get into the file system with a DOS boot disk after you convert to NTFS. You will need to use the Windows 2000 CD to boot up if you have to troubleshoot system files.

 

[mscdex0]

Yeah, but if the boot files for windows 2000 are on the FAT file system on the 6.4, and I convert that drive to NTFS, won't that screw up the boot files? That's what I'm leary about. I don't want to end up with a non-bootable high-end P4 rig.

 

[Keysplayr]

Why would that screw up the boot files? It doesn't matter if you had nine different filesystems on 9 different disks. As long as the OS can read the file system (Windows 2000 can see Fat, Fat32, and NTFS) it doesn't matter what file system is on what disk.

I understand you are leary about all this, but a High end P4 rig with a 6.4GB drive isn't exactly a high end p4 rig. Know what i mean?

 

[mscdex0]

Well, the only reason I still have the 6.4 in there is because it's always had my boot files on it. It's from an older machine I used to have. I would have gotten rid of it a long time ago if I could have.

 

[amdskip]

IMHO, you are much better off just doing a fresh install onto the 80gb drive. Sure the other products work but fresh installs just seem to work better for me.

 

[mscdex0]

I would, but I've got so much stuff installed right now in my windows installation. I install a lot of games and apps, etc. Probably more than the average person

 

[redbeard1]

Ghost the 6.4 to the 80, then use a partitioning program like Partition Magic, or Acronis, or 7Tools to convert it to ntfs. 7tools would actually handle the copying of the partition also.