Cloning XP / 2000 boxes

I have a question about cloning XP boxes. Does ACRONIS have a product to image the drive from outside windows? I want to clone my XP boxes but if I replace hardware in my box, say a new harddrive or add a DVD drive, TRUEIMAGE's image file creates an unbootable machine (INACCESSABLE BOOT DEVICE). The problem is corrected by properly running Microsoft's SYSPREP on the machine before cloning to allow a hardware registry rebuild, but then TRUEIMAGE can't be run.. I have to run Ghost from DOS to image the drive and then the hardware registry is rebuilt and the new hardware is added. I HATE ghost, but I haven't found another program that will create a hardware independent image.

 

I haven't tried the BOOTABLE rescue version. I will try this...

 

When you make images, you have to image the entire hard drive, not just the C partition. If you restore all the partitions to a new hard drive, it should boot normally.

The ATI recovery CD boots into a Linux enviroment and should do what you want with Sysprep.