need help moving Windows XP to new drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sammy Heavyfoot
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Sammy Heavyfoot

I just got a new disk and want to move my existing Windows XP/Pro on the
D: partition to the new disk. On both the new and old drives I
installed another installation of XP on the C: drive.

In C:/windows I backed up the D:/windows installation of the OS on the
old drive using XP's built-in backup/restore program. I then restored
the backup file to D: partition on the new drive. The backup and
restore went without a hitch.

The problem is: the restored D:/windows OS on the new drive hangs after
displaying the WIndows XP logo. Further experimentation showed that I
could boot the D:/windows OS on the new drive only if I also have the
old drive connected. It appears as though the OS is looking for a disk
ID or something to match up against in order to boot.

Does anyone know what's really going on? And what's the right way to
move an OS to a new drive as in the case when your old disk crashes but
you have a perfect backup of the OS which you want to restore to the new
drive?
 
I just got a new disk and want to move my existing Windows XP/Pro on the
D: partition to the new disk. On both the new and old drives I
installed another installation of XP on the C: drive.

In C:/windows I backed up the D:/windows installation of the OS on the
old drive using XP's built-in backup/restore program. I then restored
the backup file to D: partition on the new drive. The backup and
restore went without a hitch.

The problem is: the restored D:/windows OS on the new drive hangs after
displaying the WIndows XP logo. Further experimentation showed that I
could boot the D:/windows OS on the new drive only if I also have the
old drive connected. It appears as though the OS is looking for a disk
ID or something to match up against in order to boot.

Does anyone know what's really going on? And what's the right way to
move an OS to a new drive as in the case when your old disk crashes but
you have a perfect backup of the OS which you want to restore to the new
drive?
Click to expand...

Check you hard drive maker's site.They usually have a free program to
download for moving to a new drive or here,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/hard.html

HTH :)



--
Free Windows/PC help,
It's a G not a J in jmx to reply :)
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
Free songs download,
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
Sammy Heavyfoot said:
I just got a new disk and want to move my existing Windows XP/Pro on the
D: partition to the new disk. On both the new and old drives I
installed another installation of XP on the C: drive.

In C:/windows I backed up the D:/windows installation of the OS on the
old drive using XP's built-in backup/restore program. I then restored
the backup file to D: partition on the new drive. The backup and
restore went without a hitch.

The problem is: the restored D:/windows OS on the new drive hangs after
displaying the WIndows XP logo. Further experimentation showed that I
could boot the D:/windows OS on the new drive only if I also have the
old drive connected. It appears as though the OS is looking for a disk
ID or something to match up against in order to boot.

Does anyone know what's really going on? And what's the right way to
move an OS to a new drive as in the case when your old disk crashes but
you have a perfect backup of the OS which you want to restore to the new
drive?
Click to expand...

Sounds like the boot sector may be accused. You need to make an image of the
drive not just a simple backup. As was stated check the manufactures site
but my first choice would be Norton Ghost. That's what I use.

Hank
 
Next time, please take such questions to a *windows* or *microsoft*
newsgroup; you'll get better answers and not bother those of us who
subscribed because this is supposed to be a *hardware* newsgroup.

Thanks.
 
Sammy Heavyfoot said:
I just got a new disk and want to move my existing Windows XP/Pro
on the D: partition to the new disk. On both the new and old drives I
installed another installation of XP on the C: drive.

In C:/windows I backed up the D:/windows installation of the OS on
the old drive using XP's built-in backup/restore program. I then
restored the backup file to D: partition on the new drive. The
backup and restore went without a hitch.

The problem is: the restored D:/windows OS on the new drive hangs
after displaying the WIndows XP logo. Further experimentation
showed that I could boot the D:/windows OS on the new drive only
if I also have the old drive connected. It appears as though the OS
is looking for a disk ID or something to match up against in order to
boot.

Does anyone know what's really going on? And what's the right
way to move an OS to a new drive as in the case when your old
disk crashes but you have a perfect backup of the OS which you
want to restore to the new drive?
Click to expand...


Yeah, I'm having the same problem. WinXP Pro is the OS, copied
the old disk (FAT32) to the new disk (NTFS) using Maxtor's MaxBlast.
Also using a SIIG controller card (which works with the old hard drive,
so the drivers are installed correctly). But when made Master and the
sole HDD in the system, the new hard drive doesn't load the OS, it just
displays the small version of the WinXP logo. Post here if you find a
solution - I'll do the same.

*TimDaniels*
 
Yeah, I'm having the same problem. WinXP Pro is the OS, copied
the old disk (FAT32) to the new disk (NTFS) using Maxtor's MaxBlast.
Also using a SIIG controller card (which works with the old hard drive,
so the drivers are installed correctly). But when made Master and the
sole HDD in the system, the new hard drive doesn't load the OS, it just
displays the small version of the WinXP logo. Post here if you find a
solution - I'll do the same.

*TimDaniels*
Click to expand...

Try a repair of the install,
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/
I've had to do this with a few XP upgrades,
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm



--
Free Windows/PC help,
It's a G not a J in jmx to reply :)
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
Free songs download,
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
You're both stuffing around with the boot partition behind XP's back.

You can do that, but you need to be very careful that XP
cant see both the original and the copy on the first boot
after the copy, otherwise it gets comprehensively confused.

The only real trick is to do that copy, and then temporarily
remove the original from the system before the first boot
after the copy, by unplugging the ribbon and power cables
from the original drive. Once the copy has booted for the
first time, you can put the original back again and do what
you like to that drive to wipe the original contents etc.

You can fix it manually by editing the boot.ini, but the entrys are a
bit cryptic and its safer to ensure its not stuffed up in the first place.

You can do a repair too, after booting from the XP CD.
 
Rod Speed said:
You're both stuffing around with the boot partition behind
XP's back.

You can do that, but you need to be very careful that XP
cant see both the original and the copy on the first boot
after the copy, otherwise it gets comprehensively confused.

The only real trick is to do that copy, and then temporarily
remove the original from the system before the first boot
after the copy, by unplugging the ribbon and power cables
from the original drive. Once the copy has booted for the
first time, you can put the original back again and do what
you like to that drive to wipe the original contents etc.

You can fix it manually by editing the boot.ini, but the entrys are a
bit cryptic and its safer to ensure its not stuffed up in the first place.

You can do a repair too, after booting from the XP CD.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the tip, Rod. Yes, booting without the old HD
connected got the OS loaded. There was a complaint from
MaxBlast not finding the Windows drive, and thinking that it
wanted the new drive on the same channel that it had been
boot-partitioned on, I switched it back to the 2nd channel and
voila! But now I think the complaint from MaxBlast occurs
regardless of what channel the new drive is on, and after a 2nd
restart, MaxBlast will chill out even if the new HD has been
switched to the primary channel.

Now the problem is Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Personl
Firewall which apparently don't recognize their new environment.
I tried un-installing them, but the Anti-Virus un-installer doesn't
work. And when I try to install a new Anti-Virus, it says that
there is already a copy in place. But the "Enable" option is grayed
for NAV, and an attempt to invoke the dialog box for NAV gives
the message "Symantec Integrator coulde not initialize the current
frame class. Please make sure that you did not directly run the
integrator." <Groan, some software is so hard to get rid of...>


*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy Daniels said:
Thanks for the tip, Rod. Yes, booting without the old HD
connected got the OS loaded. There was a complaint from
MaxBlast not finding the Windows drive, and thinking that it
wanted the new drive on the same channel that it had been
boot-partitioned on, I switched it back to the 2nd channel and
voila! But now I think the complaint from MaxBlast occurs
regardless of what channel the new drive is on, and after a 2nd
restart, MaxBlast will chill out even if the new HD has been
switched to the primary channel.
Click to expand...

Cant say I have ever tried MaxBlast
for that, I normally use Drive Image.
Now the problem is Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Personl
Firewall which apparently don't recognize their new environment.
I tried un-installing them, but the Anti-Virus un-installer doesn't
work. And when I try to install a new Anti-Virus, it says that
there is already a copy in place. But the "Enable" option is grayed
for NAV, and an attempt to invoke the dialog box for NAV gives
the message "Symantec Integrator coulde not initialize the current
frame class. Please make sure that you did not directly run the
integrator." <Groan, some software is so hard to get rid of...>
Click to expand...

Yeah, thats always been a problem when the uninstall doesnt work.
 
I think I found the problem, and am looking for a solution.

Here's the problem:
When I was running the old OS on D:, I had the new drive connected
online. So the old OS assigned drive letters to the partitions on the
new drive. The partition where the OS was supposed to reside on the new
drive was assigned letter J:. So the partitions were as follows,
disk 1, partition1, c:\windows
disk 1, partition2, d:\windows2
disk 2, partition1, h:\windows
disk 2, partition2, j:\windows2 (this is supposed to be D: when
booted from disk2)

The old OS was correctly restored to the new drive. The new drive was
connected online, but the old drive was not connected. The OS loaded
fine and started to boot fine. The problem was: it thought it should be
running on the partition with letter J:, so it hung. I found this out
after I did a repair from CDROM. The system drive of the fixed OS
(partition2, presumed letter D:) was in fact assigned letter J:!

The question then becomes: how do I make the OS _forget_ the letter
assoications with a new drive? I tried unassigning drive letters while
in disk1/D:/windows2, but it didn't help.
 
I think I found the problem, and am looking for a solution.
Click to expand...

The solution is to copy the drive using the correct tool like
ghost or drive image. XP backup wont do the job properly.
Here's the problem:
When I was running the old OS on D:, I had the new drive connected
online. So the old OS assigned drive letters to the partitions on the new
drive. The partition where the OS was supposed to reside on the new
drive was assigned letter J:. So the partitions were as follows,
disk 1, partition1, c:\windows
disk 1, partition2, d:\windows2
disk 2, partition1, h:\windows
disk 2, partition2, j:\windows2 (this is supposed
to be D: when booted from disk2)
Click to expand...
The old OS was correctly restored to the new drive.
Click to expand...

I doubt it, particularly the boot block and MBR.
The new drive was connected online, but the old drive was not connected.
The OS loaded fine and started to boot fine. The problem was: it thought
it should be running on the partition with letter J:, so it hung.
Click to expand...

Nope, it thought it should have been booting from the disk 1, partition1,
and got seriously confused about which drive was NOW disk 1.
I found this out after I did a repair from CDROM.
The system drive of the fixed OS (partition2,
presumed letter D:) was in fact assigned letter J:!
Click to expand...

Yep, because you used XP restore to put it there.
The question then becomes: how do I make the OS
_forget_ the letter assoications with a new drive?
Click to expand...

It can be done by manually editing boot.ini
I tried unassigning drive letters while
in disk1/D:/windows2, but it didn't help.
Click to expand...

Yeah, because that doesnt change whats in boot.ini

The simplest approach is to do the copy with
something like ghost or drive image, not XP backup.
 
I found the solution to my problem.

As I suspected, the behavior of Windows XP indicated it had some
"memory" of the physical disk and its drive letter assignments. It
turned out that this driver letter/disk assoication is stored in the
registry and also in the MBR of the physical disk. Resettomg MBR with
fdisk /mbr makes XP forget this assoication and thus fixed my problem.

Just to recap: I was able to use XP's standard backup/restore program to
move my OS from old drive to new drive without using any partition
migration software.
 
It's interesting that you didn't use any special software other
than what's in Windows XP (i.e. no MaxBlast, no Partition
Magic, no Drive Image, no Ghost). Could you sum up the
entire procedure that you used to transfer the OS from your
old HD to the new one, including the names of the copy/
backup/restore utility/utilities? TIA.


*TimDaniels*
 
My situation is unique, in that both my old and new drives are dual-boot
with C:\windows and d:\windows. I set the new disk up as master and old
disk as slave (the old drive was running as master). I then installed
XP to C: drive. From there I backed up old D:\windows and restored to
new D:\windows using XP's built-in backup/restore program. I also took
care of copying the boot.ini and other files necessary for multiboot
from the old drive to the new drive. After I finished the restore I
physically disconnected the old drive just to play it safe.

If I had done exactly what I described above, the process would have
been straightforward and D:\windows would have booted perfectly as I
have done many times in the past with Windows 2000. However, I glossed
over an important detail: When I was running from the old D:\windows, I
had the new drive connected online. And XP assigned a signature to that
new drive and stored it in MBR. This was what caused me hell later on
until I found the fix.

So here's the real trick to get things working (and it's so simple,
too): _before_ booting up new D:/windows, I had to boot from DOS floppy
and run FDISK /mbr to erase the disk signature XP sneakily installed in
the MBR.

In your situation, unless your maxblast program erases the disk
signature, even if it makes a perfect image, you'll still have the same
problem I experienced. I could be wrong, but I think your XP on the new
drive is already "corrupted" with the wrong drive letter assignment if
you booted it up the first time before clearing the disk signature in
the MBR. The fix is to re-image and run fdisk /mbr before first boot.

Good luck and let us know if you get things working.
 
Good luck and let us know if you get things working.
Click to expand...

it always work w/o any special software if you copy from other OS ALL
files & if needed also MBR ...

I do that with a W95B stripped to 12MB .... (if no NTFS) ..

-- Regards, SPAJKY
& visit site - http://www.spajky.vze.com
Celly-III OC-ed,"Tualatin on BX-Slot1-MoBo!"
E-mail AntiSpam: remove ##
 
Spajky said:
it always work w/o any special software if you copy from other OS ALL
files & if needed also MBR ...
Click to expand...

This is fine if you are copying to FAT/FAT32. But this won't work if
you want to retain all the security settings (permissions, ownership,
etc) from the original OS and not those from the OS in which you
initiate the copy. Also, I'm not sure how certificates for EFS is
transferred using copy, but they are restored intact using backup/restore.
 
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