Clone (XP)HD To Another HD In The Same System

Hi

I'm asking if there is a TRICK to clone an old hd(with xp os) to another hd in the same system,& boot the first time without disconnect the old drive


maybe hide Or resize the partition of the old hd, could be a trick ?

 

You don't need to disconnect the old drive, but you do need to swap the master and slave settings (assuming these are standard IDE drives and not SATA). With IDE drives, there can be two devices on each IDE interface connection: a master and a slave. The master will be the first drive and will boot the OS if it's a bootable drive. On some drives you need to change physical jumper connectors on the back of the drive while on others that support 'cable select' you can just swap the connectors. Your drives should have a sticker on the top or back plate showing you how to set the jumpers for master, slave, or cable select.

 

thanks for the answer
but they are 2 sata2 drives

 

Don't know enough about SATA drives, but I'm guessing there is a similar procedure. Could be that you need to swap the connectors or that there's a setting you can change in the BIOS. Either way the material point is to make sure that windows sees your intended boot drive as the first hard disk.

 

Mantra, can you try it and let us know if, in the case of SATA, the original drive must be disconnected for the new clone to boot?

 

No.

At least because the drive letter references in the cloned drive would all refer to the old C drive.

And the ntldr, etc. would still be seeon the C old C drive, so you'd have to swap the drives.

 

Hello Mantra,

Do you mean something other than "Method #1", "Method #2" or "Method #3 (Kawecki's Trick)" detailed in this <Dan Goodell article>?

Regards

 

thanks Menorcaman

did you get this problem ? that the new clone of windows will freeze booting from an second hardisk?



did you think Method #2 WORK?

 

Hi mantra,

I haven't tried it myself. However, if the freeze is due to a retained DiskID problem then if Dan Goodell says it works you can bet your bottom dollar it will work .

Regards

 

thanks
i don't know why it freezes!

in this forum i did read that i should disconnect the others drive , because xp should not see the second drive!

 

If you booted with both connected then that is likely why it freezes because Windows gets all mixed up having 2 drives with the same references on them.

Removing the old SATA drive is easy, just unplug one end of the cable. There are no jumpers to fool with. You might try disabling in BIOS but that wouldn't be as foolproof until you tried it. Hiding the partitions etc doesn't work since the problem is at a very low disk structure level.

 

Hi seekforever,

I'm uncertain whether you are talking about disconnecting the old drive before or after Windows boots for the first time. Just so we are all clear, my interpretation of Dan Goodell's article is that if the the system refuses to boot due to the infamous retained DiskID problem then retrospectively disconnecting the old drive won't help. The Windows Registry entry (which is taken from the old drive) still wont match the new DiskID assigned to the cloned drive when Windows first detected the original drive and the cloned drive connected at the same time.

Regards

 

Hi Menorcaman,

I knew what I meant . Although I didn't specifically state it, I was referring to before the first boot, ie, before the "damage" was done.

I had in my mind his original post asking if there was a trick to avoid removing the old drive before booting the first time. My thinking was that with SATA it is so simple why look for a trick.

 

HI

Hi tried [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]
and seems to work

i'm reporting to https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=111489


maybe acronis team could help us?

 

TESTED!!!

Before make an image
make a reg file

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]

make the image

RESTORE in an another drive , boot , re-set the hd letters

it works without disconnectin the old drive!!

 

Hi mantra,

Nice one . I had little doubt that what the Great Man (Dan Goodell) said was correct .

As I've said before, the technical areas of his <website> should be essential reading for anyone that's really interested in multi-booting and cloning PC hard drives/partitions.

Regards