Move OS to SATA drive?

[Kenny]

XP/SP2 and programs on C: drive, there are also 2 partitions D: & E: on the
same IDE drive on Primary IDE channel.
I have added a 250GB SATA drive partitioned into W: & X:.
Would like to move OS and programs from C: to the W: partition on the SATA
drive.
I have Acronis True Image v10 and have gone through the help files but I can
only see how to clone the whole drive to another whole drive, not clone the
active partition only to another partition.
Am I missing something here?
Any advice appreciated.

--
Kenny Cargill

[Bob Harris]

I have True Image 8, but the concepts are probably similar.

 

"clone", by definition, means a total copy of one drive to another, usually to a larger drive.  In cloning the master boot record is also copied.  After cloning one must remove the old drive, else ther will be two C:\ partitions, and that will confuse the PC.  After the PC has been rebooted at least once, and recognizes the new drive and its partitions, then the old drive can be erased (using a  bootable CD with erasing tools (e.g., DELPART from XP recovery console) while attached inside the PC, or by placing it in a USB enclosure and attaching to the PC while in XP).  Once erased, the drive could be reinstalled, repartitoned, reformatted, and reused.

 

"image", by defintion, means a copy of one or more partitions.  It used to mean without the master boot record, but I believe that may also be copied in True Image verison 10; it is not in version 8.  An image is usually intended to be restored to the same hard drive, same parition.  However, it can be restored to a new hard drive, arbitrary partition.  BUT, be careful, older operating systems (e.g., 95/98/ME) had to be on the first partition on the primary hard drive.  XP is more flexible, BUT must have certain key files on that first partition of the primary hard drive:

 

ntdetect.com

ntldr

boot.ini

 

And, BOOT.INI must point to where XP is installed.

 

Thus, >>in theory<<, you could write an image of C:\ to somewhere else (not C:, not W:, maybe external USB drive), then resotre it to W:\.  Then change BOOT.INI to point to W:\WINDOWS.  Of course, BOOT.INI does not actual refer to drive letters.  Instead it looks like this:

 

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition"

 

Where, "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)", means first parition on zeroth hard drive (and not a raid configuration), also known as C:\ on my PC.

 

>>BUT, this approach will likely fail<<, since the windows registry has thousands of references to C:\..., all of which would need to be changed to W:\...

 

The bottom-line is that the operating systems (and installed programs) are NOT supposed to be moved to a different drive letter.  It can be copied/cloned/imaged-restored to a different physical drive, but you MUST assure that when the proccess is completed, before ever booting into XP, that the operating system is back in the same place (i.e., C:\).  That can be a new physical drive, but not one that was formerly known as W:\. 

 

In your case, you would need to (1) erase W:\, really remove all partitions, not just erase or format.  (2) clone old hard drive to new.  (3) remove old hard drive, in fact all other drives except the new one.  This is very important.  Removing the signal cable would suffice.  (4) Do a repair install of XP before booting into XP.  The repair will offer you a chance to load drivers for the new hard drive via F6.  These drivers must be on a floppy, although they probably came on a CD from the modeherboard maker.  (Note that these drivers never come from the hard drive maker.)  Use the XP CDROM, >>retail edition<< that you used to load XP.  If OEM version of XP or pre-installed XP, >>STOP<<, you can not go on.  (5) Boot PC with only one hard drive electircally attached, the new one (former W:\,X:\, now C:\, D:\. E:\).  (6) With luck, XP will boot normally.  However, it is possible that you will get a popup to re-activate (maybe, maybe not).  If you get one, do what it says.  You will probably need to activate over the phone.  Be aware that multiple activations are permitted with the retail version of XP, but not an OEM version.  However, if you explain what you are doing, Microsoft may allow you to re-activate even an OEM version.  (7) remove paritions from old hard drive, re-attach, re-partion, reuse if you wish.

 

 

"Kenny" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message news:uddQIDwP...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

[Tamiami]

If the SATA drive is from Western Digital, their Datalifeguard utility
offers a variety of tools - including drive to drive and partition
copying. Be careful to thoroughly read instructions.

[DL]

If you do that the registry will still contain pointers to C so a whole raft
of things wont work untill you reinstall them on W.
If you are simply wishing to move to make use of a larger hd, and maybe
faster, then you would be better off following the cloning instructions.
Your W will then become C
(If you have any apps installed on the other partitions they will all have
to be reinstalled)
You might also have to make adjustments in the Bios and or the sata
controler bios, to enable boot from sata.
It depends on your mobo/chipset

"Kenny" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:uddQIDwP...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

[Arkadiusz 'Black Fox' Artyszuk]

Kenny wrote:

I do not know Acronis software - I usually use BootIt from
http://terabyteunlimited.com/ . The problem may be that partition
should be copied to free space on another drive. Try BootIt - IMO it's
much easier to use.

--
Regards
Arkadiusz 'Black Fox' Artyszuk

[Poprivet`]

OP: Stick with the TI you have. IT's capable and will
fille the bill. Don't add more confusion by adding a
new app; it's counterproductive when you already have
it.

You probably want the "clone" feature. Clone to the
drive W, make drive C a non-existing letter, and rename
W to C. If your boot drive isn't C it'll create
confusion later on, down the line. Other than possibly
drive size, nothing to swtich in CMOS that way either.

HTH

Pop`

[Donald L McDaniel]

On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:36:51 -0500, "Poprivet`" <popr...@devnull.spamcop.net>
wrote:

Vista will refuse to boot from an external drive. This is true even if your
Motherboard allows for booting external drives.

It may or may not install, but it certainly won't boot.

Microsoft has not yet come up to the present as far as boot devices are
concerned.

--

Donald L. McDaniel
Please reply to the original thread and newsgroup.
--------------------------------------------------

[Xandros]

"Arkadiusz 'Black Fox' Artyszuk" <blac...@x-privat.org> wrote in message
news:47642C7F...@blackfox.org...

BootIt NG is definitely not easier to use than TrueImage. I use both and
have used BootIt NG since it was first released. In fact I may have been one
of the first people to purchase a copy of it. While it may be one of the
most stable partitioning tools on the market it is certainly not for the
faint at heart. On the other hand True Image is very easy to use. Just clone
the drive.

--

Xandros

[Kenny]

Thanks for all the replies. The problem is that I can clone OS from drive to
drive but not partition to partition.

--
Kenny Cargill
"DL" <address@invalid> wrote in message
news:e6jaYXzP...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

[DL]

Yes you can, a partition is just another 'virtual' drive
But your apparant problem is wishing to change the boot drive to W (I
believe)

"Kenny" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message

news:Od%23zYSlQ...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

[claire...@gmail.com]

hey, you can use some third party software to migrate OS to another disk directly, such as AOMEI Partition Assistant and Parogon partition manager. PS: AOMEI partition assistant(http://www.disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html is free, while paragon is chargable, you can choose the one that fit for you.

[kimj...@gmail.com]

you can use a free migration tool-Aomei Partition Assistant Home edition which build-in a migrate OS to SSD/HDD wizard, I read the information, it could directly move your system to another drive (necessary part). You can see this link:
http://www.extend-partition.com/help/migrate-system-wizard.html

[jim]

SPAM