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Old December 15th 07, 04:16 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Bob Harris
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Posts: 424
Default Move OS to SATA drive?

I have True Image 8, but the concepts are probably similar.

"clone", by definition, means a total copy of one drive to another, usually to a larger drive. In cloning the master boot record is also copied. After cloning one must remove the old drive, else ther will be two C:\ partitions, and that will confuse the PC. After the PC has been rebooted at least once, and recognizes the new drive and its partitions, then the old drive can be erased (using a bootable CD with erasing tools (e.g., DELPART from XP recovery console) while attached inside the PC, or by placing it in a USB enclosure and attaching to the PC while in XP). Once erased, the drive could be reinstalled, repartitoned, reformatted, and reused.

"image", by defintion, means a copy of one or more partitions. It used to mean without the master boot record, but I believe that may also be copied in True Image verison 10; it is not in version 8. An image is usually intended to be restored to the same hard drive, same parition. However, it can be restored to a new hard drive, arbitrary partition. BUT, be careful, older operating systems (e.g., 95/98/ME) had to be on the first partition on the primary hard drive. XP is more flexible, BUT must have certain key files on that first partition of the primary hard drive:

ntdetect.com

ntldr

boot.ini



And, BOOT.INI must point to where XP is installed.

Thus, in theory, you could write an image of C:\ to somewhere else (not C:, not W:, maybe external USB drive), then resotre it to W:\. Then change BOOT.INI to point to W:\WINDOWS. Of course, BOOT.INI does not actual refer to drive letters. Instead it looks like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Home Edition"

Where, "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)", means first parition on zeroth hard drive (and not a raid configuration), also known as C:\ on my PC.

BUT, this approach will likely fail, since the windows registry has thousands of references to C:\..., all of which would need to be changed to W:\...


The bottom-line is that the operating systems (and installed programs) are NOT supposed to be moved to a different drive letter. It can be copied/cloned/imaged-restored to a different physical drive, but you MUST assure that when the proccess is completed, before ever booting into XP, that the operating system is back in the same place (i.e., C:\). That can be a new physical drive, but not one that was formerly known as W:\.

In your case, you would need to (1) erase W:\, really remove all partitions, not just erase or format. (2) clone old hard drive to new. (3) remove old hard drive, in fact all other drives except the new one. This is very important. Removing the signal cable would suffice. (4) Do a repair install of XP before booting into XP. The repair will offer you a chance to load drivers for the new hard drive via F6. These drivers must be on a floppy, although they probably came on a CD from the modeherboard maker. (Note that these drivers never come from the hard drive maker.) Use the XP CDROM, retail edition that you used to load XP. If OEM version of XP or pre-installed XP, STOP, you can not go on. (5) Boot PC with only one hard drive electircally attached, the new one (former W:\,X:\, now C:\, D:\. E:\). (6) With luck, XP will boot normally. However, it is possible that you will get a popup to re-activate (maybe, maybe not). If you get one, do what it says. You will probably need to activate over the phone. Be aware that multiple activations are permitted with the retail version of XP, but not an OEM version. However, if you explain what you are doing, Microsoft may allow you to re-activate even an OEM version. (7) remove paritions from old hard drive, re-attach, re-partion, reuse if you wish.


"Kenny" wrote in message ...
XP/SP2 and programs on C: drive, there are also 2 partitions D: & E: on the
same IDE drive on Primary IDE channel.
I have added a 250GB SATA drive partitioned into W: & X:.
Would like to move OS and programs from C: to the W: partition on the SATA
drive.
I have Acronis True Image v10 and have gone through the help files but I can
only see how to clone the whole drive to another whole drive, not clone the
active partition only to another partition.
Am I missing something here?
Any advice appreciated.

--
Kenny Cargill





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