Copying From Drive to Drive

[GrumblyBear]

So will I run into some risky issues if I attempt to copy my install of XP from a 20GB HDD to a new 120GB HDD?
I'd really love to avoid reinstalling Windows again.
I've heard terrible outcomes to these types of procedures, and usually they just generally don't work.
Is there any way at all that anyone has ever gotten this to flawlessly work?

[Cyclonite]

Use Norton Ghost. Don't just copy and paste. You will more than likely run into issues. I've never had any problems using Norton Ghost. It's a great utility.

[kanezfan]

this will not work as you will not be copying the boot sector of the drive and it will not find anything to boot when you switch the drives. you will also not be able to copy system files that are in use when you copy and paste. get ghost or any other drive mirroring utility, that'll work for you.

[GrumblyBear]

Uh...
Well see now I wasn't planning on copying and pasting in Windows. o_O

A friend mentioned booting to DOS, copying all files to the new drive, then booting with the XP CD and fixing the master boot record.
Only problem with this is I'm using NTFS which won't be recognized in DOS.

[HalOfBorg]

If there are any encrypted files - Ghost may fail to copy the drive.

I have tried to do this before, and Ghost and the WesternDigital utility for the new drive both failed to copy the XP installation. I DID have some encrypted files, and I assume that was the problem.

[GrumblyBear]

Yes, it is Pro with SP1.
What sort of files would I have that would be encrypted?

[kryyst]

Your dos copy won't work as you won't get hidden files and any file with specific permissions probably won't be copied correclty or with the correct permissions. Secondly NTFS yeah no worky work through dos. You need to use Ghost or another util that actually copies the drives at a dumb level i.e. no OS interactions. Not to mention that a normal copy will have a very screwed up partition table and won't boot correctly if at all.

check out http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/#whatisit
it's an image cloning program similar to ghost but it's everyones favorite price of FREE

[GrumblyBear]

Okay so I've got Symantec Ghost 8.0 Corporate Edition.

Can someone help guide me through this process, or perhaps link me to a site that can help?

[kryyst]

Have the two harddrives up and running. Make a ghost boot disk. Boot up using ghost. Then tell it which drive is your primary (the one with the data on it), which drive is your secondary (the drive you are copying to). Then you just tell it to copy the full disk. That's really all there is to it. Just always ALWAYS keep it straight as to which drive is which and you'll be fine.

[GrumblyBear]

In regards to the Ghost boot disk:

Which type of boot disk am I supposed to create? I shall list the types.

Standard Ghost Boot Disk
Network Boot Disk
Drive Mapping Boot Disk
CD/DVD Startup Disk with Ghost

[HalOfBorg]

IF you have right-clicked a file (or folder), selected "Properties", "Advanced" and THEN told it to "Encrypt" - you have encrypted files that other OSs (including a fresh install of XP on same machine) will NOT read. Folders can be OPENED, filenames READ - but not opened.

If not - nevermind it.

[kryyst]

Either the Standard Ghost boot disk or the CD/DVD Startup Disk w/Ghost will do the trick.

[GrumblyBear]

Is there a site somewhere that can walk me through this process step-by-step?
I'm checking out things I need to do and I have a lot of uncertainties concerning the whole ordeal.
I did some searching but couldn't find anything to help.

Do any of you have any info to help me through this process? I'd greatly appreciate it!

[kryyst]

hmmm check the cd there are probably docs or a help file on it.

Though it is pretty basic (yes I know easy to say if someones done it a bunch of times).

1. Have both hard drives in the system and be sure you know which drive has the data (source) and which drive you want to have the data.
2. Boot up with ghost
3. Go into the copy setting you don't have to worry about any of the options
4. Tell it which drive is your primary aka. source drive
5. Tell it to copy the whole drive and not just by partition.
6. Tell it which drive is the destination drive aka. drive you want to put the data onto
7. If the drives are different sizes it doesn't matter as long as the second drive is big enough to hold the data you are putting on it.
8. Tell it to start copying.

As long as you are clear on which drive has the data on it and pay attention to the prompts you can't screw it up or harm your data drive.

[GrumblyBear]

Okay that helps kryyst, but there are options in ghost regarding the type of image it copies over; like whether or not it copies the boot stuff. Don't I need that?
Also, I was told I'll need to boot windows for the first time using the WinXP CD and run some recovery stuff to fix the master boot record, is this true?

[GrumblyBear]

Oh by the way, is there anything special I should be doing since my current C: drive is in NTFS? Do I need to format my new HDD to NTFS before I do this copying?

[kryyst]

ummm yeah copy the boot stuff. And you may or may not need to reboot with the xp cd in to do the recovery options. I've had it work without having to do that but other times I have so it's a 50/50 thing. You'll know if you need to do it when you try and boot up and it gives you errors.

After the drive is coppied pull out the original and make the new drive the primary master though. Then reboot and see what it does.

[GrumblyBear]

Well here are the options in ghost about images:

Image All Forces sector-by-sector copy of all partitions.
Image Boot also copies the entire boot track, including the boot sector, when creating a disk image file or copying disk to disk. Use when installed applications such as boot-time utilities use the boot track to store information.
Image Disk is similar to Image All switch, but also copies boot track like Image Boot, extended partition tables and unpartitioned space on the disk.

The currently selected one is Default, and I'm assuming that's just a bare copy of all files.
Any ideas as to which one I need?

Sorry, the help with this program is terrible. I can't seem to find any documentation on how to do a system copy from drive to drive.

[GrumblyBear]

Well I decided to go with the Image Boot option and everything worked flawlessly!
No booting problems or anything.

Thanks for the help everyone!!! :D

[kryyst]

Image boot or disk were the correct choices. Image disk is the one I would have recomended as default. However you only need to do image disks if you have more then one partition that you want to deal with. So in your case Image Boot works just fine.

At anyrate glad to see things are up and working and glad I could help.