"daswiftguyda" wrote:

Thanks for all the help, just a few questions though.

then after you've
cloned from C4 Gb to 80Gb you will need to reconfigure
[re cable and re jumper] the drives such that the 80Gb
becomes the primary master and the 4Gb becomes
the secondary master or slave on either IDE interface.

So I DEFINATLY need to change the master/slave configuration?


No. Master/Slave settings are only to differentiate IDE drives
when there are two on the same cable (i.e. connected to the
same controller) and to set the default boot order. Normally,
the Master is ahead of the Slave in boot order, so the BIOS
checks to see if there is a Master Boot Record on that hard
drive. If there is one, the BIOS passes control to it. Otherwise,
it looks at the next hard drive in the boot order. But the boot
order can be readjusted via keyboard input to the BIOS by you,
and it will stay that way until you change it or the battery for the
ROM gives out (after several years).

But if you want to stay out of the BIOS, you can change the
Master/Slave settings in several ways. If you use Cable Select,
just exchange the positions of the HDs on the cable. If you
use explicit jumpers, just change the jumpers - no real need to
change their positions on the cable unless you want to. By
making the new HD "Master", you will put it at the head of the
BIOS's boot order automatically.

If you do the cloning operation properly, that's all you need
to do. Proper cloning involves telling the cloning utility to
copy the Master Boot Record from the old HD to the new HD,
telling it to make the new partition on the new HD a "primary"
partition, and to mark that partition "active". These will make
the new HD bootable and the new partition bootable, and the
OS in that partition loadable - no Repair Console required.

Then, when the old partition has been cloned on the new HD,
shut down the machine and unplug the old HD. Then startup
the machine. The old HD will not be visible to the BIOS, so
it will pass control to the new HD. The new HD will find its
copy of boot.ini taken from the old HD, and the OS on the new
HD it will be loaded thinking that it's the old OS. Since it won't
see its "parent" OS, it will configure itself properly and "come
of age" as an independent OS. Then you can shut down the
machine and rearrange the HDs to your heart's content. But
if you forget to disconnect the old HD before you boot the clone
OS for the first time, the clone OS will recognize its "parent" and
set pointers within itself that will thereafter make it dependent on
the continued presence of its "parent" OS in order to function.

With the cloning done, you can either adjust the boot.ini file to
enable multi-booting between the old and the new OSes
(assuming you have WinNT, Win2K, or WinXP), or you can use
the old HD as extra storage space.

*TimD*