two drive in one drive

Hello,

We have a machine with 2 hard drive.

On is 9 Gig harddrive the other one has 40 Gig. (All in Fat 32 )

Those drive are old we would like to put everything in one drive (for example 120 Gig)

This computer has multiboot

Letter c: Windows server 2003 on it
Letter D: with Windows XP Pro on it

Can we do it with your software to put thoose two hard drive in one harddrive with two partition(one partition for the C: and one for the D ? and if yes how we should do it?


Thank you....Let me know and we would like to look at the option of getting the software.

 

Hello harlugo,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Since one of your operating systems is Microsoft Windows Server 2003 we may recommend that you use Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATISWin/ to accomplish this task. Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows supports Microsoft Windows XP as well, therefore you will be able to transfer the content of both hard drives to appropriate partition on the new hard drive. Please be aware that in order to transfer your Windows system to a different hardware, you should first prepare Windows using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (Sysprep).

Basically, you should do the following steps in order to complete this task:

1) Prepare one of your operating systems with sysprep tool;
2) Create an image of this system partition (when booted from Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows Rescue Media);
3) Plug the new hard drive and restore the image (with resizing the partition, if needed);
4) Reboot the computer and complete the operating system set up process
5) Prepare second operating system with sysprep tool;
6) Create an image of this system partition (booted from Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows Rescue Media);
7) Plug the new hard drive and restore the image (you may want to resize the partition);

Please be aware that you will need to repair MBR as descrided at this thread after all this steps.

Please read more information on how to use Acronis True Image 9.1 Server for Windows in the respective User's Guide.

Please visit Acronis online store in order to purchase the product http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/sales/online/

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Hi,

First thank you for your respond i have read carefully all the link but trying with Windows 2003 server and using the sysprep tool i just don't get the step correctly.

Any link to help for the sysprep tool in Windows 2003 server i just down know which option to select to make it right

Thank you to let me know.

And also question for sending the data to another drive externally in a USB enclosure

i have done this:

Before:

C: Windows 2003 server
D:Windows XP Pro

Now

E:nothing yet
F:nothing yet
G: Put the image of Windows 2003 server and Windows XP Pro

When we will put the drive that is inside the enclosure back to the computer inside do we gonna get the drive letter C and D for drive letter E and F or they will remain the same?

I just need to understand better this step!...

I really want to put thoose two hard drive that i have inside this server in only one drive with 3 partitions.

Thank you again.

 

i have found this link http://www.geocities.com/kilian0072002/sysprep/sysprep.html and it seems to explain how we should do it with system preparation tool 2.0 on Windows 2003 server.

The three question i have is when we use sysprep we will reset our present setting for our server i think? ( We really don't want this to happen to our current installation)

If yes do we have to make a backup of the current installation we have and then use the recovery fonction?

iM also scare about the letter drive is the computer will reassign letter drive like C and D if we have use the letter E F and G for the extarnal drive where we did the back up first?

Have a nice sunday.

Let me know, Thank you.

 

Hello harlugo,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Server Disk Backup Software.

Yes, you are correct. If you use sysprep, all your settings are removed.

You should use sysprep at first then create an image of the operating system and restore it to another hard drive.

Please follow the instructions of Aleksandr Isakov in order to transfer your operating systems to the new hard drive correctly. In this case your drive letters will be the same after restoration.

Thank you.
--
Tatyana Tsyngaeva

 

Ok so it's been a couple of months and we didn't complet the process here is my other question:

What setting we select in the sysprep with Windows server 2003 in order to prepare the system?

Here is a screen capture of the window.

http://www.geocities.com/kilian0072002/sysprep/sysprep_v2.png

Let me know.

Thank you for your help again

 

Hello harlugo,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Please note that we recommend that you find the detailed information on how to use Microsoft Windows System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) in the Microsoft web site. If you have any questions on how the Sysprep works please contact Microsoft Support Team.

You may also find this article by Microsoft useful. Here you can download (in *.pdf format) the step-by-step instruction on how to use Sysprep to prepare your system.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

This is very like the situation I had a few years ago with an installation of Windows ME on disk 0, C drive and XP on disk 1, D drive. I wanted to put them both on to a single drive.
You will need the following tools :- Disk partitioning program, you may be able do do the necessary in Windows disk management but I used Partition Magic, and a USB drive assembly. You will also need some unused space to store images of both the existing drives. I will assume this is available on drive D.


Put the new drive in the USB box and format and partition into the sizes that you want your new C and D partitions to be. The file system can be FAT 32 though it will be over written to that system later anyway.
Make a note of the drive letters assigned, there is no need to change them as they will be over written to become C and D later on.

The principle is quite simple as Windows is not bothered where the operating systems are actually located as long as the boot INI points in the right direction.
The original boot INI pointed to disk 0 partition 1 for the first operating system ( in my case ME) while XP was at disk 1 partition 1.
Save a copy of the boot INI as a safety net and then edit so that it will point to the XP installation where you want it to be ie. Disk 0 partition 2.

The system should still boot into Windows 2003 though the rest of the operations are probably best done when booted from the TI recovery CD.

The next steps are to image the whole of C drive including the MBR and store the .tib file on D drive. Then restore this image to the new drive partition 1. If the image was stored on D you should now delete it.
Now do the same for D drive, image the whole of it but do not bother about ticking the MBR box. As long as there is enough space ignore the warning about storing the image on the same drive.
A point to watch is that TI may not use the same drive letters as Windows in this mode so make sure you know which drive is which. It should be easy enough because of their different sizes.

So you can now remove the old C and D drives and connect up the replacement as master without slave or cable select.

You should now be able to multi boot as before to either of your systems though they are now where you wanted them!

Only one loose end left to tie up. You will have unallocated space on your new drive. This may be on C or D or both. This could have been used up when doing the restores but I think it is better to sort it out after you are back with a usable system again.
Bring the unallocated space into using a partitioning tool or make a temporary secure zone and when deleting it with its wizard you will be able to allocate the space to your drives.

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