Replacing boot drive Win XP

Stevem627

Golden Member
Jun 18, 2000
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I have an IDE 120 GB drive and want to replace it with a 160 GB SATA drive I am getting. How do I do this?

I am pretty sure it can be done by editing the boot record somehow but I'm not sure exactly now to do this, or where to find the info I need.
 

Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
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If you don't want to reinstall, you will need to image your current drive onto the new one. Your drive may have come with software to do this, or you may be able to download such software from the manufacturer's website.

Alternatively, you can use third-party imaging tools like Norton Ghost or Acronis TrueImage. You can also use a Linux boot CD and do a sector-by-sector copy of the partitions, though this is somewhat more involved. Once you have imaged the drive, set your BIOS to boot from the SATA drive and you should be all set.

Also, the link in your signature is not formatted properly. The syntax for linking here is: [ L = 'text_of_link' ] actual_link [ /L ]
 

Stevem627

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Jun 18, 2000
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It's been while since I was really active here...thanks for noting my signature issue.

My problem is not copying the drive, but making sure WinXP knows where to look for the drive when I swap it out. I know the mbr or boot.ini have something to do with this, but I find nothing available to easly understand this.
 

TG2

Banned
Nov 14, 2005
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Using a disk imaging program will make the new drive, exactly the same as the old drive, just bigger.

Another thing is it may have problems booting from sata because of the drivers currently installed in the system for the hard drive controller (IDE) may not work on the sata port.

Also, the boot order may have to be set and/or corrected depending on what drive letters the the BIOS assigns to what drives.

Are the sata drivers installed in the system currrently?
 

MrWizzard

Platinum Member
Mar 24, 2002
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I do this a lot at my work, I use Norton Ghost it works great, just make sure you fix your Bios settings for the boot device and you should be fine. Make sure your mobo can boot from sata also. There are some funny ones out there that have boot issues when trying to boot from sata and you have other IDE HDs hooked up. Good luck.
 

ShellGuy

Golden Member
Mar 1, 2004
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Acronis True image for the win, create boot cd-r and place image on diff drive, install new drive drop in boot cd and install image from drive.. that easy..



Will G.
 

Navid

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2004
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Originally posted by: Stevem627
My problem is not copying the drive,

It is actually! If you do copy the drive, you will start your problems!
But, if you do as others have advised and image the drive, you will be fine.

You will need to enter the BIOS and put the new drive on the bootable hard drive list.
You must also put the new drive ahead of the old drive in the boot priority list in the BIOS. Or, you can just have the new drive in the list.

While in the BIOS, disable SATA RAID also. Then, you should be able to boot to the new drive.