Cloning XP OS partition to back-up HD

I'm trying to clone the operating system partition from my master HD to my slave HD, so I don't have to take the time to install and do all the updates. I've tried using Norton Ghost 2003 and found it to be very user friendly, but discovered that it doesn't do what I want. I was able to clone the partition easily, but when I attempted to start up the new drive, it loaded up till the log-in screen without going to my desktop.
I don't find that TrueImage is as user friendly. It seems that I would be allowed to clone an entire HD, but I am going from an 80GB Western Digital HD to a 120GB Western Digitial HD, with a different number and size of partitions. I only want to clone from a 10GB partition to a 10GB partition. My mobo is a DFI Infinity NFII Ultra. It supports SATA RAID, though I don't use it. I did make an image of my OS partition and, luckily (I was given no option as to where it was to go), it was sent to the OS partition on the 2nd HD. I explored the image and then copied and pasted it back into that partition. It looks like the original partition, except with the Image file present also. When I started up the computer on that HD, I got the same results as with Ghost. It loaded till just before desktop comes on and then stops at the log-on screen. I'd appreciate step-by-step guide instructions to accomplish what I am attempting to do. I attempted to figure it out with your user guide, but can't seem to find what I need. Any help would be appreciated.

 

I guess I am used to WindowsBBS where I get responses to my posts. Is anyone here familiar with TrueImage software?

 

Based on the overwhelming number of responses to my thread, and by reading other threads, I realize that what I want to do can't be done. Now that I've realized this, is there anyone out there who is willing to work with me on solving my problem, or should I just not purchase TI? How do people work with different size drives? Can I just clone the smaller drive onto the larger drive and then add and alter the partitions? If so, how? I'd love to have someone walk me through the process, along with helping me to make a backup, in case the OS gets corrupted or the HD freezes and has to be replaced. What if I just installed XP on the new drive and then installed an image of my old OS on top of it, so I don't have to do all the additional updates? If TI can't be used for these issues, I'd appreciate someone telling me this and giving me a referral to a program that will handle them. So far, I'm not impressed. Can someone help me change my mind about TI?

 

If I understand your goal correctly, it certainly is possible - and not difficult, as I do it quite frequently.

Let's take a look at what you wish to do - and how to get the results you want. I'll start you off here in the forums, but you'll have to email me for the step-by-step as I don't want to clutter this forum up with needles minutiae.

I am going to use as an example exactly what I did last week on my personal "toy", which is my main computer at home.

I have a 60Gb HD as Master on the Primary IDE channel. I installed a new 250Gb drive as the slave on the same channel. What I wanted to do was clone the entire 60Gb drive onto the new drive -while keeping it as a 60Gb partition- for emergency boot purposes in case of disaster. That would leave me with 190Gb in one or more additional partitions on the new HD.

Using Partition Magic I created 3 partitions on the 250Gb drive: A 60Gb Primary, a 150Gb data, and a 40Gb private partition.

Now I booted to one of my boot floppies and used Ghost to clone (partition to partition) the 60Gb drive onto the 60Gb primary partition on the new drive.

So far so good, and as it is a sector clone you'd think I could simply boot from the Slave drive... but it won't work. The boot.ini file that defines which OS is located on which partition has been cloned as well. And where does it point to? It points to the first/primary partition on Disk 0 - not on Disk 1 where I am hoping to boot from.

We can fix this easily enough - and without editing the boot.ini file - and arrange for automatic incremental backups that will keep your new drive in sync with your old one. I can testify that the method I chose works, and works very well. Your mileage may vary!

I can only point out the relative strengths of the various products and leave you to make a decision. I made mine 18 months ago, and TrueImage is an integral part of my disk management system. But to each their own; it is YOUR data, and how you manage it and protect it is entirely your choice... you need to judge your tolerance for disaster and compare it with your tolerance for complexity. Just do what works for you.

Drop me a note if you care to and I will send you a step-by-step on how to deploy your new HD, insure that it will boot flawlessly should you need it, and will keep itself up-to-date automatically.

Regards,

AhhNoh
ahh.noh@gmail.com