upgrading to a new hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ron
  • Start date Start date
R

Ron

I am trying to move to a new hard drive and need some
help. I installed a new 120 GB drive, partitioned it in
three partitions like my old drive and then using Drive
Image I copied each partition to the new partitions.
Following the instructions for Drive Image, I then
replaced the old drive with the new drive set as master.
When I tried to reboot, I am requested to insert the Win
XP disk. I do not know what to do from here. I do not
want to do a clean reintall. Any help would be
appreciated.
 
You did not copy the Master Boot Record (MBR). You now may have to do a
"repair" reinstall, which should keep all your files/settings in place. You
will then need to re-activate and re-do all updates.
 
What is the proper procedure to install a new HD without having to do a
repair/install and reactivation? On the surface you'd think Ron did the
right things. IS there a link which outlines the procedure? Thanks.
 
jch said:
What is the proper procedure to install a new HD without having to do
a repair/install and reactivation? On the surface you'd think Ron
did the right things. IS there a link which outlines the procedure?
Click to expand...

AFAIK, there's no way to avoid reactivation if you're running a version of
XP that has to be activated. The activation code detects the new hard drive,
and you will be obliged to reactivate the XP system. This is often not a
hassle.

As far as copying the system goes, there's a few gotchas.

One of them is the fact that a particular copy of XP may have to first
recognize the new hard drive as a supported piece of hardware in order to
boot it. You can usually accomplish this by booting XP with the new hard
drive connected, and then simply shutting XP down.

If you format and mark a hard drive and partition as being active with XP,
you can copy all of the files for an XP partition that is not currently
booted to that preformatted drive, and it should boot the next time you try
to boot it. The trick is getting the copy to be complete.

Products like Ghost will copy an entire XP boot drive to a new hard drive,
if the XP system is prepared for residence on the new drive as previously
described.
 
I am still running into problems. When I tried to
do the repair install, it stopped and then asked for the
location of an ASMN file that is on my XP PRO disc. When
I tried to direct it to this file it would not restart.
Also is there a recommended way of setting up the 2
drives on the cables? Should they both be set up on the
same ide cable or can the master be on one and the new
drive be on the second cable set up as a slave or master?
 
Ron said:
Also is there a recommended way of setting up the 2
drives on the cables? Should they both be set up on the
same ide cable or can the master be on one and the new
drive be on the second cable set up as a slave or master?
Click to expand...

Typically the master and slave HD are on the same cable. The other cable is
commonly connected to your CD drive(s).
 
Arny,
Could you explain how to shut down windows XP, after
I boot with the new drive connected. I have tried boot
with the new hard drive after copying the old drive to it
with drive image 7, but it will not boot. If I try to
boot it after removing the old drive and setting the new
to master, I cannot get it to do the repair intall. I
even for a day lost the ability to boot my computer with
my old hard drive after attempting different
suggestions. I was lucky to get it going again. Thanks
for your help.
 
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