multiple drives,multiple os'es

Hello everyone

I just purchased a brand new seagate 300GB ATA/100 and have a few questions about setting it up and moving files.
I'm not new to this in the basic way but i'm not even sure if what i want to do can be done so let me start at the begining.

I have a pc with 4 hard drives 2 internal 2 external, 1st harddrive is a maxtor 160GB almost full, the second is 80Gb almost full.The first external is 80GB almost full and the second external is a 40GB empty. The problem is I have 4 operating systems: XP PRO SP1/Server 2003enterprise/XP PRO MCE and Vista. All of my os'es are on my c drive and what i want to do is remove server 2003 an XPmce and discard them but i want to keep my Xp sp1 and vista. Is there a way i can remove/clone the operating systems i want to keep over to the 40 gig and set it to master as a OS disc only and leave all the other files in place? If there is which files to i copy/clone over. I currently have acronis disc director and true image 9.0. True image will not just let me colne any of the 4 partitions on my master drive it wants to clone all unless i'm doing something wrong.


Any ideas

 

lrice34,

What boot loader are you using to multi boot? Is each OS hidden from the others?

 

Boot loader??

When i start it it gives me the option of which os to start.Each os is on it's own partition on my master drive C:,L:,E: AND N:

 

lrice34,

See "What's Wrong with the Microsoft Way?"

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/principles.htm

I think you are in trouble with your plan. I hope I'm wrong.

 

How can i tell for sure.

If i'm screwed i can just clone the whole 160 to my 300 i know that will work and just say oh well.

I was looking into disc director and it can move paritions to other dirves so maybe if i can combine the two i can get it done but i'm unsure about the MBR/INI and stuff

 

I'm concerned that if you remove one of your OS your multi-boot will be broken.

What I'd suggest is make a whole disk IMAGE with TI. At least you can restore this if the following doesn't work. Then delete the two partitions that you don't need. Deal with the Unallocated Space by using DDS. See if both OS boot. Great if they do and now you can consider the transfer. If it fails, restore the image.

Does this make sense? There are other ways you can consider if you don't like the above. I'll try to help out.



PS Yes, DDS can do partition copies. That's one of our possibilities.

PPS DDS may be the way to go. What do you think?

 

When you say image do you mean a clone then try to work on it in my clone with DDS

 

Not a clone. An image.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/notes.htm#14

 

I forgot to ask, what are your plans for the 160 GB HD if we can get the 300 GB HD working properly? Will you delete all OS?

 

I now think the best and safest approach is to use DDS for partition copies. This doesn't alter your 160 GB HD.

I've done this many times with Partition Magic but never with DDS so I hope the steps are similar.

Keep your 160 GB HD as "master" and install your 300 GB HD as a "slave". Boot to DDS CD. Make sure you choose the Manual option. Make sure your 300 GB HD contains no partitions, all Unallocated Space. Select the C: drive OS and copy it to Unallocated Space on the larger HD. Make sure it remains the same size. When finished, select the other OS partition that you want to copy and copy it to the larger HD. Again, keep the same size. When finished, shut down, remove the 160 GB HD from your computer and install the 300 GB HD as "master". Definitely only one HD attached. See if it boots. If it works we can resize the partitions later.

 

Iwill probably not to be able to get to doing that untill monday unfortunately. If everything goes as planned I will reformat the 160 for extra space and maybe before i format it i will try to see if i can get my vista on the 40. That partition is only 8.666 GB. Yes I know i'm still stuck on trying to get xp pro and vista on the 40, I know vista will work but my C: well ...........maybe after i learn more, I learn quick

I also realized that when i was playing around in TI that my pagefile and hiberfil file are muted out, these sound kind of important, should i copy them and set them aside

I know I'm longwinded but that's how I learn

And thanks,

I'll get back to you

 

Thanks for the graphic of your partitions.

Under my proposed plan there is no danger to your 160 GB HD so you don't need to create a backup image. Forget the pagefile and hibernation file. They are regenerated at each boot and don't need to be copied. TI doesn't copy them anyway.

When you do the partition copies I'd disconnect the two USB HDs as well. Make it simple. Your DDS will show your 160 and 300 GB HDs only. If the 300 GB HD has any partitions, delete them from DDS. We want 300 GB of Unallocated Space.

Copying the partitions will be easy. Whether both OS boot is something we'll know on Monday. Good luck. Keep those questions coming.

 

I'm guessing it will take a while to copy the partitions over to the 300. After that is done I think for now i'm going to set aside my 160 untouched and see if i can learn if there is a way to move my two os'es to my empty 40 gig (test mule kind of stuff) and then get all my pointers to my apps lined up. If i get in too deep or flat out screw something up, i alwas have my 160 untill i get it right. Cause at the moment my C: has the bulk of my programs and with XP/SP1, Vista has nothing on it "drive L:" the other 2 do have data on them but is not linked to the os. The data was there beforehand so do i have to manually delete os'es so i dont lose any data?

Hpoefully i hear back from you before i start

Wish me luck on the fisrt phase, That's all i'm going to do for now

 

lrice34,

Good idea to leave the 160 GB HD untouched. Copying 100 GB on a fast computer should take less than two hours. You could copy your data from the other two partitions later.

I think the C: drive will boot after your partition copies. I'm not sure about Vista however. If the C: drive doesn't boot I think it means that the Vista boot loader needs to be removed.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529/en-us may or may not be relevant.

 

I don't think it applies but it makes sence of something, and this might be food for thought for everyone else, I'll explain.


When I boot up i have a choice of either runnig vista or other version of windows. When i choose other a new screen opens and my other 3 older windows are available to choose from. Eariler today I installed the acronis bootloader and it works fine. Strangely but now understandably when i boot now the acronis bootloader opens and gives me a choice of systems EXCEPT Vista. So I'm thinking i have to uninstall it so I boot into xpsp1 and what happens is my vista load screen appears so i still have a coice, it will still let me get into vista. Now if still decide to go into xpsp1 it will automatically load it , so it seems pretty smart.


Well here goes I'll see you on the other side

 

Well it looks like i'm going to have to do a complete copy. For some reason it will not let me copy C: alone , it will let me copy L,E,N individually no with problem so it looks like it is going to be the whole drive.
The C: drive has a little red x next to the information except when I try to do the whole thing.

I'm looking into this and I'm also learning a lot about how the operating systems work under the hood so something is good is coming out of it

 

Hello lrice34,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

The little red mark means the partition you’re trying to copy contains errors. Please check the partition under question by Windows utility:

- For Windows XP please use Windows menu Start\Run, then enter the command
"chkdsk c: /r".

Please note that you will need to reboot your computer in order to scan the system partition.

Unfortunately, copying only some partitions to the new drive may break the boot sequence of Microsoft multiboot (you can learn why by following the link, provided by Brian K). You can safely copy the full hard drive to the new one with all operating systems remaining bootable (though you should not use resize function for other than Vista partition, for the reasons also described in the above link).

If you want to have only two operation systems anyway, you can try the following course of actions:
1. Export the system settings of systems you wish to save using Window Transfer Wizard (for example, in Window XP it’s located in the Start menu at Programs\accessories\system tools\);
2. Using OS selector hide all the partitions except one chosen;
3. Install the first of desired OSes, boot it and import corresponding systems settings you exported earlier;
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for every OS you want to have installed.

Notice that we have a separate forum branch for Acronis Disk Director Suite. If you have more questions about Acronis Disk Director Suite, you can ask them there to receive more detailed help.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov