I posted about my migration problem, but then found this thread.
So if I want myXPprograms that are on the surviving HD (IDE) from my
failed PC to work fluidly in Vista, I have to get Acronis andclonethe drive
to the new C drive?
I have already installed the IDE inside on the bus...will it work from there
(F drive, now)?
Acronis Boot Disc Cloned my XP Home system after everything else
failed!!
Here's my contribution after spending days battling with trying to
clone XP Home edition onto a larger HDD, just like you are
attempting. Most of the information and advice given to you above is
correct but maybe not specific enough.
Although I managed to repeatedly perform various HDD clone steps, I
could never successfully boot the cloned (destination) system! As
described by various others in different forums, my copied XP Home
would boot to a standard Logon blue screen but never actually reach
the Logon step. It would just hang, with just the mouse pointer
displayed and responsive. It would seem as though XP's security
system had created a login p/w file designed not to be copied. In
desperation, I even enabled automatic Logon in the XP registry of my
source system before cloning; this way I hoped the the cloned system
would bypass the Logon process and boot completely; but it made no
difference.
With the hindsight of trying every tool in my arsenal, and after
browsing the web for other postings and guidance, I've concluded that
XP Home has been specially doctored by MS to not be readily copied. I
can say this with confidence because I've never had any problems
cloning many similar HDD expansions and partitioning for my Win98, ME
and XP Pro systems.
1. Don't bother using Norton Ghost v9.0 or v10.0 to clone the drives,
as neither succeeded. (I tried "Smart sector copying" enabled and
disabled, with and without the MBR copy and Active partition options,
and with enabling/ disabling "data checking" of Source and Destination
partitions.) I also tried all variations of CHKDSK to ensure there
were no faulty sectors on source or destination drives, as recommended
on at least one forum. And, of course, I ran the disk manufacturers'
"utility discs, track integrity checking and cloning programs -
without any success either. Interestingly, in view of the ease of
eventually cloning with Acronis TI, I'm left wondering whether
Symantec hasn't deliberately crippled Ghosts' "cloning" function for
XP Home systems? Or maybe Acronis' "imaging" approach is simply more
superior to Ghost's sector copying routines?
2. Do use Acronis True Image (mine was Home Edition v9.0) with an
original disc, which is self-booting. I know people have posted
success with using the limited-period trial version off the web, but
this assumes you have a working system on your source drive. In the
same breath, I have also read postings that say you need to boot XP
into safe-mode (or was it start Acronis in safe-mode?) before running
the clone step?? (I personally think these postings were about
successes copying XP Pro and not about copying XP Home.) After many
days of frustration trying other methods, a used full version disc off
the web was a cheap, cheap solution.
3. When you auto boot the Acronis disc, it presents you with 3
options: Load Acronis in Full; Load Acronis in Safe Mode; Return to
loading Windows. I chose to load "full Acronis" and was presented
with a menu of functions, including the copy of disks and partitions.
Thereafter, choosing the copy options was straightforward, and it
completed amazingly quickly with not a hint of errors or warnings.
(And it tested out as working perfectly.)
4. Take the pain out of trying to prepare your partitions beforehand.
When I eventually gave up hope of copying my XP Home system drive,
with an FAT format OE backup partition preceding it, I was really
pleasantly surprised to see how simply Acronis cloned both partitions
either exactly, proportionally (to the space on destination drive), or
manually. Suddenly I had the exact mirror of my system drive - which
I'd given up hope of achieving 48 hrs ago. And I didn't resort to
trying to match WD/ MAX/SG source and destination drives.
5. A note of caution. Acronis doesn't make it clear that, when you
copy your OS to a destination HDD (which is to become the new system
drive), it disables the source drive just after copying. I had a
rough experience with Acronis when previously cloning 2 XP Pro drives
to larger HDDs. (Unlike Ghost, Acronis doesn't give you a manual
option to migrate/copy the MBR and/or the Active partition flag.) I
forgot to disconnect the source drives just after the clone processes
and ended up with unreadable source drives. In one case I carelessly
forgot I was running GoBack on the source drive, and that GoBack
replaces the normal partition tables with its own. So after Acronis
had cloned the drive, it then somehow reset the partition tables, and
I spent the next 4 hours having to recover my partitions on the copied
source drive. (No, I didn't want to place all my trust in the just-
created drive!)
I'm not sure if this "from-experience" feedback helps dispel some
myths out there, but it is what I would do if I needed to clone my XP
Home system disc again.
