Help! - how to replace XP system disk?

[LvR]

Currently running XP SP1 on a Gigabyte 8IK1100 with an IDE disk as system disk and a SATA disk as video storage (SATA driver already installed and working ok).

Need to replace the current IDE disk containing a well-stocked XP installation with a SATA disk, and I don't want to have to reload everything (32G worth).

Tried Ghost 2003, and while the cloning seems to go off unhitched, as soon as you try to boot off the new SATA disk, XP goes through the motions up to the point where you have to enter your user password - while it accepts the password, it complains that its got a problem with the disk and cannot confirm valid installation after which it sits in a loop constantly asking for the password and then moaning about the disk. Tried a repair installation on the SATA after the clone has been completed, but while XP then runs again off this disk, the system seems to lose some of my settings and programs.

Also tried Ghost 7.5 Corporate, but it seems to know nothing of SATA and cannot even start Ghost.......

Any suggestions on how to do things simply from experienced disk swappers?

[The PIT]

Just wondering if you've got a problem with your orginal disk. Have you checked that???
Apart from programs like drivecopy the only other thing I can think of it is creating an image file and then using that too the new drive. Presuming you've got enougth room on your present drive to resize and create a new partition and then create the image.

[LvR]

No problem with the current disk - its just too small after a few years, and since technology now dictates a SATA drive to be flavor of the month, I thought it would be a good idea to go that route - yeah right!.

[Wombat]

Did you clone the drive, or the partition?

[LvR]

Whole drive. Cloning old IDE to a new IDE makes all happy - its just with the new SATA...

[Wombat]

Try doing it partition by partition. I have a hunch XP is trying to apply some info about the old drive during startup, and this might help clear some of it.

[LvR]

Will give it a bash and report joy/misery - thanks

[VJ]

I ported a W2K from one disk to another. It wasn't very straightforward though:
- first I copied all the files from the old to the new disk
- then tried the Windows installer to repair the installation

I forgot about hidden/system files: make sure you have them as well (esp. in the root of c:\); once I had these (and set back to their original attributes), the system managed to restore itself. However, not all software appreciated that change (so some software had to be reinstalled).


Jörg

[LvR]

W2K I used to run never had any hassles with Ghost - slap a new disk in, run Ghost and do a disk clone - and youre done.

Never had a chance to try with different disk controller technologies though.


Jörg - did try a repair XP install on the SATA Ghosted disk, but then end up with a lot of stuff missing - too much in fact ..........

Push comes to shove I will just slap a new IDE disk in there and get on with it.......

[Marshmallowman]

What about swapping channels?

[LvR]

Marshmallowman

Cheers for that suggestion that proved to be the answer - posting from the machine while running on the SATA system disk cloned with no known problems and the original IDE disk removed.

Any idea why swapping SATA channels would get the job done? - theory has it that both are exactly the same ?

[The PIT]

Now this is where some clever dick posts "everything in computing is logical" and gets a computer shoved up his/her arse.
The only thing I can think of is that one channel is defective????

[LvR]

The only thing I can think of is that one channel is defective????

That was my initial reaction too........... problem is how do you prove that its defective to the supplier when the other 160G SATA disk I have , (and my guess any other disk the supplier will hook up to it) works flawlessly for video work on the "faulty" channel and will also allow raw OS installation without any hassle - its just this particular stupid XP cloning exercise that I will hopefuly never have to do again.........

[The PIT]

Gawd knows thats all I can say. Was it worth the hassle in the end.

[LvR]

Was it worth the hassle in the end.

Sure - I saved about 2 days worth of re-installing/setting up hell (subtract 1 day for the imaging hassles then its still worth it).