Boot problem from copied HD - Partitionmagic 7.0, Win 2000

  • Thread starter Thread starter DRIZAII
  • Start date Start date
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DRIZAII

Hi,

I have a 40GB hard disk. One 8001MB FAt32 primary partition to hold
Win98; one extended partition that holds a NTFS logical partition
which holds the rest of 32odd GB space. NTLDR, NTDETECT.COm, BOOT.INI
are all in my C: (fat32 partition)and I start the system with
Win2000's OSloader. Everything works fine.

I bought a new 80GB harddisk and tried to move everything from the 40G
disk to 80G disk. I booted into Win2000 (40GB drive) and tried to use
partitionmagic7.0 to copy the partitions from 40G disk to 80G disk.
but this failed with an 'invalid sector' error. This didn't make sense
because I am able to see the 80GB drive, write data to it, view the
data etc. by loging on to Win2000.

Then, I created just the partitions on the 80GB disk with
partitionmagic 7.0 exactly the same as the first disk (8001MB primary
FAT32, rest in a logical partition inside an extended partition). This
operation went okay.

Then I logged onto 40GB disk's Win 2000 and copied all files from the
appropriate partitions to the appropriate partitions. I used the
DiscWizard utility that came with the 80GB Barracuda disk to perform
this. Tihs operatoin went okay. I could see the boot.ini etc in the
80GB drive now.

Now I removed the 40GB drive, set the 80GB drive's jumpers as the
master and tried to boot. Result: OS not found!!!

This doesn't make much sense because the HD's configuration is exactly
the same in the 80G disk except for the size of the drive. Am I
missing anything here?

Then I tried to boot from the partition magic rescue floppies .. but
they couldn't load the partitionmagic! The rescue disk was created
with the 40G partition.

Then I put back the 40G disk, removed the 80G disk and created a
Win2000 emergency repair disk. But this would not boot at all!!

Can someone help please?

thanks.
 
Try and find out if the two OSs on the 80 GByte disk are OK:

- Format a floppy disk on some Win2000 PC.
- Copy the three hidden files from c:\ to a:\ (ntldr, ntdetect.com,
boot.ini)
- Make the 80 GByte disk the primary master disk
- Disconnect the 40 GByte disk
- Boot the machine with the boot disk you just made. Select
Win98 first, then reboot and select Win2000.

What do you get?
 
I'd suggest you try something along the lines of Norton GHOST, I've done this a
number of times. If you use GHOST, make sure you specify additional command
line parameters of "-fdsp" to avoid scrambling the signature bytes during the
copy.

You can also do this task with the disk manufacturer's image copy utility...
 
I'd suggest you try something along the lines of Norton GHOST, I've done
this a
number of times. If you use GHOST, make sure you specify additional command
line parameters of "-fdsp" to avoid scrambling the signature bytes during the
copy.

You can also do this task with the disk manufacturer's image copy
Click to expand...
utility...

interesting. . . could this "-fdsp" be responsible for the problems i'm
having with a ghosted win2k box? it constantly is needing sp3 reloaded,
office programs won't load, and it loses it's modem connection.
 
DRIZAII said:
Hi,

I have a 40GB hard disk. One 8001MB FAt32 primary partition to hold
Win98; one extended partition that holds a NTFS logical partition
which holds the rest of 32odd GB space. NTLDR, NTDETECT.COm, BOOT.INI
are all in my C: (fat32 partition)and I start the system with
Win2000's OSloader. Everything works fine.
Click to expand...

Running an NTFS volume from within an extended partition is undefined
behaviour. Your Windows 2000 OS should be running from a primary partition.
I bought a new 80GB harddisk and tried to move everything from the 40G
disk to 80G disk. I booted into Win2000 (40GB drive) and tried to use
partitionmagic7.0 to copy the partitions from 40G disk to 80G disk.
but this failed with an 'invalid sector' error. This didn't make sense
because I am able to see the 80GB drive, write data to it, view the
data etc. by loging on to Win2000.

Then, I created just the partitions on the 80GB disk with
partitionmagic 7.0 exactly the same as the first disk (8001MB primary
FAT32, rest in a logical partition inside an extended partition). This
operation went okay.

Then I logged onto 40GB disk's Win 2000 and copied all files from the
appropriate partitions to the appropriate partitions. I used the
DiscWizard utility that came with the 80GB Barracuda disk to perform
this. Tihs operatoin went okay. I could see the boot.ini etc in the
80GB drive now.

Now I removed the 40GB drive, set the 80GB drive's jumpers as the
master and tried to boot. Result: OS not found!!!

This doesn't make much sense because the HD's configuration is exactly
the same in the 80G disk except for the size of the drive. Am I
missing anything here?

Then I tried to boot from the partition magic rescue floppies .. but
they couldn't load the partitionmagic! The rescue disk was created
with the 40G partition.

Then I put back the 40G disk, removed the 80G disk and created a
Win2000 emergency repair disk. But this would not boot at all!!
Click to expand...

An ERD disk is not a bootable disk, the synonym of a start disk in W2K is
the emergency console:
http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q301/6/45.ASP
 
SaltPeter said:
Running an NTFS volume from within an extended partition is undefined
behaviour. Your Windows 2000 OS should be running from a primary
Click to expand...
partition.

I don't think this is correct. As long as the boot files are located in the
active primary partition, the rest of the operating system can reside
anywhere. I have numerous installations where Win2000 is installed
in extended NTFS partitions.
 
utility...

interesting. . . could this "-fdsp" be responsible for the problems i'm
having with a ghosted win2k box? it constantly is needing sp3 reloaded,
office programs won't load, and it loses it's modem connection.
Click to expand...

Well, normally the result of not using -fdsp is a non-bootable image for me. :-)
 
I finally found a way around..
What was happening is this: when I created the partitions the
partition tables etc were created on the 80G disk. When I copied the
files from 40G disk to 80G disk, all the files got copied over. But
there are some raw bytes in the disk that would get copied only if I
do a disk image. I think the bootstrap loader was not copied to the
80G disk .. and as a result, there was no one to load the ntldr etc.
I used Ghost to copy the 40G disk to the 80G disk. Everything is fine
now.
thanks for your messages
 
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