Novice question...cloning XP to a partition on 2nd drive

So here is my situation. I'm new to this so bare with me.

I have two identical hard drives. Both single partitions.
Drive1 is my primary drive and has Windows XP.
Drive2 is a secondary drive and I want to use it for my backups.

I made the mistake of installing windows XP onto Drive1 before creating multiple partitions. What I would have liked to do was create three seperate partitions
Partition1:Windows XP and Critical software
Partition2:Games and extra apps
Partition3:Media

What I want to try and do and I dont know if this is possible but:
1. Create the three partitions on Drive2
2. Using TI Create a Clone of Disk1 onto Drive2 Partition1?
3. Swap drives so Drive2 is now the primary and Drive1 is the secondary.
4. Reformat Disk1 once i've checked Drive2 is working with XP and use it as my backup.

Am i talking nonsense here? Any help would be appreciated or if someone could redirect me to where this question might be more appropriate. Or if this question has been asked send me to where that is on the forums.

Thanks,
Robo

 

acronis disk director, I think you can resize partitions; I'm just learning to work with it
need to double check, however.
nick

 

The only problem that I see is the cloning part. Some TI users have had problems cloning and some of the more frequent and knowlegable posters appear to steer clear of cloning using TI. Here is a quote from the following thread

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=745804

You could try the cloning process but it may not work for you.

If it does not then you could create an image onto one of the partitions of your second drive and then restore it to the first partition of your second drive. Once you have established that you have XP working on your second drive, proceed with your other steps.

 

You will need a disk partitioning tool to manage your disk (e.g. Disk Director by Acronis) and imaging software to create images (e.g. True Image by Acronis).

You will have noted from postings on this Forum that the True Image "Clone" process is not suited to all system setups and the general concensus of the more experienced members of this Forum is that "cloning" should be avoided unless your resources are such that a disaster won't have an impact.

Disk "imaging" is therefore the route that is recommended by both Acronis Support and the experienced members of this Forum.

To increase your level of safety I strongly suggest that you purchase an additional disk. Disks are much cheaper than the costs associated with losing your system or data.

A really cost-effective solution is to buy an internal disk and an enclosure. There are numerous options on the Internet. On one of my systems I am using an Enermax EB305C enclosure and a Maxtor disk. Check these links for further info.

Enermax : http://www.enermax.com.tw/english/product_peripherals.asp
UK Supplier : http://www.scan.co.uk/
Maxtor 160Gb HDD : http://uk.shopping.com/xPO-Maxtor_DiamondMax_Plus_9_160_GB_6Y160M0

If you live in the EU then you should be paying about Euro 130 for the above.

Your safest procedure and the one, in my view, that is most likely to succeed is:

1. Backup anything of value on disk_2

2. Format disk_2 and run chkdsk d:/f

3. Setup your external disk (disk_3) (e.g. Enermax enclosure and Maxtor disk)

4. Cleanup, Defrag and run chkdsk c:/f/r on your system disk (disk_1)

5. Image your system disk (disk_1) to the external disk (disk_3)

6. Verify the image

7. Shutdown

8. Isolate your system disk (disk_1) by unpluging the data cable

9. Plug the data cable from disk_1 into disk_2

10. Reboot with the TI bootable CD

11. Restore the image from disk_3 to disk_2 (which is connected with the disk_1 cable to the system)

12. Shutdown

13. Reboot into Windows

14. Run chkdsk c:/f/r on the new system disk

15. Run a few tests to see that your data and applications are behaving as expected.

If all of the above works without any problems then you are absolutely certain that you have a good image and a good system disk.

If the image won't restore or if it restores "with errors" then your original system disk is still intact and you can start again from the beginning.

Please remember that RESTORE is a destructive process. The data on the disk to which you are restoring will be deleted. It is therefore imperative that you keep your original system disk intact until you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that you have a good, working and fully functional image and system.

 

I did not mention in my earlier post that if you do not have access to Disk Director or Partition Magic to create partitions then you can do it through Disk Management in XP if the disk has not got any data on it. (Ignore this if you are already aware of this option).

 

Thanks for the info guys and gals. Since i'm pretty new at this I don't think i'll try cloning and create an image instead.

Thanks again,
-robo

 

You didn't say what version and build of TI you have. But if it is the latest, the Clone feature should work for you. Try it ... you have nothing to lose except some time - the drive is new and has only the 3 empty partitions you have created on it.

If it doesn't work you can do the Image process instead.