Copy OS & boot drive to another drive

[kenmo]

On my Video editing computer I have a 80gb drive that houses my operating system and a few video editing apps. Barely any of the hard drive is being used. I'm thinking 80gb is overkill and can be put to better usage elsewhere.

I have a few 40gb drives that are not being used. Is there a way to transfer the operating system presently on my 80gb drive to one of these 40gb drives? I can temporary slave this 40gb as a slave off of my boot hd. But would an plain old XCOPY /S /H work ???

Cheers

[jimmalenko]

Is there a way to transfer the operating system presently on my 80gb drive to one of these 40gb drives? I can temporary slave this 40gb as a slave off of my boot hd. But would an plain old XCOPY /S /H work ???

I don't think so. You'd have to find a way to copy the registry for a start.

I'd use partition magic to resize the current 74GB partition (assuming you have the whole 80GB as one partition) to a smaller size, say, 36GB (so that it can fit on a 40GB drive) and then use Norton Ghost or Acronis TrueImage to take and image of the partition. You should then be able to restore the partition back onto one of your 40GB drives.

[AngusMacGyver]

Put the 40GB disc as slave (or on the other controller) and use Symantec Ghost. You can directly clone a Disc to another. After that, put the 40GB as master and 80 as slave or master of the second controller. Don't worry. The only problem is if you are using over 40GB on your 80GB disk.
Just be sure you aren't cloning the 40GB over the 80GB disc.

[JustOneOfMany]

Just upgraded my 80 gig to 250 gig with Acronis True Image and it went perfectly.
[/code][/quote]

[fritzi93]

I've done it a number of times with the drive manufacturers' utilities, i.e. Maxblast for Maxtor, Datalifeguard for WD. You can make a bootable clone with either one. Other drives probably have similar utilities. Good luck.

[Bjs]

Visit the hd manufacturer's web site's and you should find drive copy tool's .

Seagate , maxtor , western digital all have utitlitie's to perform this function .
Most only require the first frive to be officially supported unit for the tool being used ... ie , maxtor to ibm , wd , sam , sea , fuj ...

I also think I saw a tool for this on the "insert" rescue cd ... a bootable mini distro of linux packed with pc troubleshooting tool's ... plus web browser for net connection and downloading of patch's , update's , print generic text ... and more .

If you get bored , or just need to rescue file's from an xp os partition that hang's during bootup .

Puppy is the go (another mini linux distro) ... some game's , support's burning to cd , internet ...

Note : use the achiver to packup fav's up before burning them ... and visit your email folder under user account (docs and settings / name of user / local settings / application's / identities / big number / microsoft / outlook express / all content from here .

After clean install , simply replace these backup's from where they came from originally ... and all your email's and contact's will be back .

These are the two most important thing's to backup .

[jollyjohn]

G'day
Ihave dept this article for some time. I have never used it. Here it goes:

(I have a batch file that I use. Open notepad and type or paste the following:
xxcopy c:\ d:\ /clone /zy /yy
:end
Then save as backup.bat in the c:\ directory. Go to “Start”, “Run”, type in backup.bat and hit enter.
This assumes that you have installed xxcopy to your C:\ directory and the C: drive is the drive to want to backup and the D:\ is the drive you want to back up to. This will erase anything on the D:\ drive. The added code just tells xxcopy not to stop on prompts.
If you ever want to restore the drive, just boot to your D:\ drive and repeat the same batch file.)

I did not write it. What do you, guys think about it?
John

[Morse2]

Hi Kenmo;

XXCOPY is a specific program for backup purposes. You can find it at http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm

I've never used it but have many times migrated from one HDD to another via disk imaging and now keep bootable backup images of all my computers on DVDR. Usually I use Ghost 2003.

Since you are rebuilding your HDD configuration, here's a little more advice. Move your My Documents to the new disk, so your documents are not on the same drive as your OS.

To move the Documents folder, START->MY DOCUMENTS (RIGHT CLICK)->PROPERTIES->MOVE then Browse to tell it where you want to put your My Documents folder. This way if you need to "nuke it from orbit" (reformat the system disk and reinstall Windows) your documents will be undamaged since they no longer are on the system partition.

As a final thought, 40GB is WAAAY too much for XP. I usually go with 20GB and am happy with that..... You could take your blank 40GB and format it into 2 partitions - one of 15 GB for XP and the second partition of 25GB for "My Documents". Use care though and back up EVERYTHING before migrating your data to a new drive!!

Good luck and all the best!
Morse

[INFRATOM]

Easiest if you have the utility from HD brand, your DOS will work but remember you have to boot the computer with Dr DOS. You can also use Drive image type of stuff but adjusting the partion size to work could be tricky. Can also use NT Backup.

[spiffy]

What would be the best way to move the apps, if the boot sector of my original drive is corrupted? I already installed a new copy of the OS onto a new HD; but re-installing all the programs I have from the original drive is going to be a totally daunting task... Is there a faster way of doing it? I doubt any of the cloning utilities or Ghost can help me since my first drive is not completely healthy.

Spiffy

[AngusMacGyver]

What would be the best way to move the apps, if the boot sector of my original drive is corrupted? I already installed a new copy of the OS onto a new HD

If Xp, you can boot from CD, select "R" recovery console (i think it's it in English version) and type fixboot to fix boot sector. You can try fixmbr to fix the MBR.
If that won't fix, you can boot from OS instalation CD and select reinstall instead of a new install on the second menu.
Good luck.

[spiffy]

What would be the best way to move the apps, if the boot sector of my original drive is corrupted? I already installed a new copy of the OS onto a new HD

If Xp, you can boot from CD, select "R" recovery console (i think it's it in English version) and type fixboot to fix boot sector. You can try fixmbr to fix the MBR.
If that won't fix, you can boot from OS instalation CD and select reinstall instead of a new install on the second menu.
Good luck.

Is the procedure same for Windows 2000? I don't think there is any section that allows me to type in commands if I boot from CD...

[AngusMacGyver]

I don't know if 2000 has those options. I know it works for WXP.
But I think you can reinstall 2000 and all software will work as before (don't do a new install).

[ark]

Kenmo

The easiest way is the method already mentioned by jimmalenko. I do it all the time.

If your op system is WinXP then you have to use Ghost 2003 or Acronis True Image to clone the existing to the new partition / drive. In absence of a floppy drive, if you use a bootable CD, then create one with Ghost 2003 dos version on it.

If the op system is Win98SE then you can use older versions of Ghost. Everything would fit on a single floppy

THe advantage with Ghost is that it is a tiny single file which can do the job.

Size of your existing drive versus size of your new drive does not matter. Your booting drive (partition) should be sufficient for holding the operating system + the swap file(in Win98SE) or the page file (in WinXP) + the application software. Normally a drive(partition) size of 4GB is more than sufficient for WinXP, for Win98SE you can go for 3GB even. Keeping a small partition size for the Op system + the applications has another big advantage, it dramatically reduces the seek times on the HDD and speeds up your computer.

My personal method is:-
Booting partition for only the Op System (around 1.5GB size partition)
Applications on the next partition (About 2GB sized partition)
The Virtual RAM Swap or page file (fixed size) on the 3rd partition(Kept at 2.5 times the RAM installed on your computer)
Rest of the HDD can be used as one single partition or multiple partitions for data. I use one 2GB partition (4th one) for my docs e-mail etc etc. Last partition is for big media files.
This way, even if my op system gets corrupted, I do not loose the data while formatting the first (and maybe the 2nd) partition.

I am stcking to this arrangement for many years - this makes the machine fast + avoids loosing data in case of a mishap. It also allows creation of backup images of my 1st and 2nd partitions which easily fit on CDs. If the swap / page file is kept on the samepartition as the operating system then the image would not fit on a CD.

If you require further info do let us know.

[beam_brandon]

Is there a way to transfer the operating system presently on my 80gb drive to one of these 40gb drives? I can temporary slave this 40gb as a slave off of my boot hd. But would an plain old XCOPY /S /H work ???

I don't think so. You'd have to find a way to copy the registry for a start.

I'd use partition magic to resize the current 74GB partition (assuming you have the whole 80GB as one partition) to a smaller size, say, 36GB (so that it can fit on a 40GB drive) and then use Norton Ghost or Acronis TrueImage to take and image of the partition. You should then be able to restore the partition back onto one of your 40GB drives.

I completely agree with you.
It's a really good advice. I tried this solution by myself.
But I prefer Acronis True Image for that. It seems to me easier and more reliable, due to its fool-proof windows wizard. It perfectly suits for doing that!

[INFRATOM]

if you want to move programs as they are , you have to repair you boot sector and then move your partition, if not you have to install the programs and transfer your data. It is a less chanllenge to do a clean install but it takes more time. At the same time you get rid of all spyware and trojan horses too!! until the next attack!! I vote for clean install.

[lordsmurf]

I tried this a few times in the past. In the end, I always give up (things never work correctly, not 100%) and reinstall the OS and programs, and then put back your user files (MP3's, documents, etc). It sucks at first, but after a couple weeks, I'm always glad I did it. Only takes about 2-3 days to put everything back.

For your exact situation, however, I'd just keep 80GB as it is, and buy another hard drive if you want more room. Put the 40GB on an ATA card if you want to use it, give it away, put it in another system, etc.

[bevills1]

To answer spiffy's question about selecting R for recovery console, etc. those options are given when Setup is run for Win2k.