transferring xp to a different HD

[Kilgore65]

I would like to transfer my XP and programs to a new hard drive. It's been a very long time since I've done something like this, so I'd like to get some comment on the correctness of my procedure. Currently I have two drives, C and D, with XP and my programs on drive C (nearly full) and my data on drive D. Here's what I plan to do:

1. Back up all data on drive D
2. Using Partition Magic, create a new partition on drive D.
3. Make new partition primary and active
4. Copy drive C to new partition (automatically becomes 'C').
5. Swap drives
6. Disconnect old drive C
7. Boot new drive C to XP
8. Run XP CD for 'repair' if necessary.

Have I left anything out?

I also have Norton Ghost, would it be easier to use that program?

 

[Billb2]

Yeah, a method that will work.
For one, where's the boot sector?
For another, boot.ini will be fubarred.

 

[Kilgore65]

OK, so what should I do to make sure that boot.ini is intact?

 

[RebateMonger]

You are making it harder than it needs to be:

a) Download your hard drive maker's (free) utility for setting up a new drive
b) Remove the data drive from the PC to avoid accidents
c) Install the new hard drive onto your system. No need to format it
d) Run the utility and tell it to clone your system drive onto the new drive. This can normally be done either in Windows or in DOS. The Windows cloning is usually much faster.
e) Remove the old system drive and replace it with the new drive
f) Re-install the data drive.

 

[bruceb]

He does not need the makers utility as he has Norton Ghost.
Save all your data on a seperate drive just in case.
The use Ghost to clone the Old Drive to the New Drive (I prefer
it be done in DOS Mode .. better that way) .. Shut down pc,
swap to the new hard drive and boot up fine. Afterwards, if
desired you can partition it. Then decide where you want to
keep all your personal data files.

 

[Kilgore65]

I am moving XP to the data drive - I will move the data to a different partition on the data drive.

 

[IronWing]

I'm reviving this thread as I am in the same boat but with a question about partition sizes. I have a new blank HD that is three times the size of the old and the supplied cloning software is Acronis. In looking at the Acronis menus it appears that if I clone the old drive onto the new all should work except that Acronis wants to throw all the new space into either a FAT32 partition or into unallocated space. It won't allow me to change the size of the NTFS partition during cloning. So I'm trying to figure out how I go about moving XP over and getting to use all the new space. Any ideas?

The old disk has three partitions, in order:
39.19 MB FAT16
229 GB NTFS
2.9 GB FAT32
plus 7.8 GB unallocated

What I think I want to end up with is:
39.19 MB FAT16
~900 GB NTFS
2.9 GB FAT32
plus 0 GB unallocated

I'm not sure why the FAT16 and FAT32 partitions are even there but I don't want to rock the boat by getting rid of them.


Edit: I also have an external drive with sufficient capacity to make a complete image of the primary if that helps the process.

 

[Blazer]

acronis will alow you to resize when using the boot cd, what ver of acronis ?

 

[IronWing]

Ver 11, the freebie version for Western Digital drives

Also, a problem I just thought of. When I bought the drive I thought my PC had only two SATA ports so I didn't bother buying a new SATA cable as both ports were already taken so I had to disconnect the CD drive to connect the new drive. Turns out I have four SATA ports.

 

[Blazer]

it will alow you to resize and use the whole drive, if i remember correctly you will come to a choice, been awhile since i have had to use acronis so i cant walk you through it but somewhere you will be presented a choice.

 

[IronWing]

it will alow you to resize and use the whole drive, if i remember correctly you will come to a choice, been awhile since i have had to use acronis so i cant walk you through it but somewhere you will be presented a choice.

Maybe in the full version. I went into manual clone mode and was able to re-size the FAT32 and FAT16 partitions but the NTFS partition wouldn't budge even with unallocated space on both sides. I'm not sure why that is.

 

[Blazer]

'Clone' mode is just that an EXACT copy, size and all, dont use clone.

is the software you are using installed on your pc OR just a bootable CD ?

 

[IronWing]

The software is installed on the PC, not a CD.

 

[Blazer]

then use the installed software to create a boot cd, use the software to create a backup image of C: drive [os] and store it on another hard drive [internal would be best], make sure you validate the backup as well, then use the boot cd and boot from the cd with your bigger hard drive inplace and choose to restore your pc from the backed up image file you placed on the other hard drive, here you will be given a choice to expand the hard drive image to fit the drive size, use manual mode.

before doing the above its a good ideal to move all your files in your documents folder to another location to make the restore process quicker and safer.

its also a good ideal to clean up xp's temp files [ start>run> %temp% and delete] and defrag the disk and reboot twice before the process.

 

[IronWing]

I figured it out using a different approach. I cloned the drive in Acronis and then went into Disk Manager and de-allocated the FAT32 partition. I then used diskpart to extend the NTFS partition to take up the available space. It took me a bit to figure out that I had to keep the original drive in place as the system drive in order to extend the partition on the new drive as XP won't allow the active system partition to be extended. Thank you for your advice Blazer. I appreciate the time you put in.

Sadly, the original problem I am trying to fix is not the HD as I had thought. The PC was locking up yesterday and this morning. However, after going through the process of switching out the HD the PC locked up upon start up, at the Dell splash screen, before it even touched the system drive. Oh well, if the mother board is dying, at least I'll have a shiny new HD to go into a new system. The PC is five years old but the motherboard and video card were replaced two years ago.


Edit: I also remember what the FAT32 partition was for. The PC came pre-loaded with "The Dell Experience", a DVD multimedia player program thingy that I never used that ran in it's own partition for some kludgey Dell reason.

 

[Blazer]

diskpart will do it, glad you got it sorted out.