Did I expect too much from TI9?

I recently replaced a hard drive on my notebook using TI8 and all went well. I was sold on the program.

Then recently I replaced my hard drive on my desktop using TI9 and could never get the computer to boot to WinXP Pro. I received a "corrupt" hal.dll message. I didn't have an original install, only a recovery disc from Dell so couldn't do a repair.

It was only after reading the new hard drive instructions (Maybe a hint why I had trouble with TI9? ) I found they had included a program to copy from the old drive to the new, Windows, MBR, etc. After running that I was able to boot and all is kinda ok (a few minor glitches with specific programs but nothing drastic.)

The copy program from Seagate saved the day and I now feel a little apprehensive about TI9.

I need (for both time and experience sake) an image program that will reliably restore an image in the case of disaster. One that I can start, create image, and be done. And then if necessary start, Restore, and be done.

Am I expecting too much? Should I be expecting to jump through more hoops than I my knowledge allows? Or were my problems self-induced? I know practically nothing about how it could have happened.

Any thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

BTW, I use TI9 to make images for a drive melt-down disaster and another program for regular backups of data.

Thanks.
Lary

 

The corrupt hal.dll message is one that is not of itself caused by TI, but due to the vagaries of the way XP and 2K work.

Sometimes this is caused by boo.ini pointing to the wrong installation point of XP. In this case it is probably due to a different drive geometry in the boot sector to that contained within registry. Especially if the drive is of a different size, though even a change of drive serial number can cause the problem.

The first thing to try in these circumstances is to remake the MBR and try fixboot.

With Dell another thing that might cause a problem is the hidden restore partition it uses. It will have special entries within the boot sector, if these differ it can cause problems.

I suggest a couple of things. You should have on your drive a folder marked something along the lines of I386 or OEM\I386 this folder is a copy of a complete XP CD minus the boot image - it is worthwhile hunting down a boot image (they're all over the internet) and copy it and the I386 folder and burn it to a CD. Then you have a bootable CD which will allow you to get to console mode from which you can run XP repairs.

If you feel you'll never need to get your laptop/PC back in time to the day, you purchased it, I'd suggest after making or buying an XP install CD, deleting the Dell hidden partition, which can confuse other programs such as boot loaders as well.

I think you haven't necessarily done anything wrong, just become a cropper to a known XP frailty.

Colin

 

Thank you bodgy, very informative. I'll check out the boot image as you suggest.

Although I formated the old original Dell drive I do see a Dell partition on it as you indicated. But not on the new drive I moved everything to. Guess that was the problem.

Is there a way to remove partition on the old drive since it's completely a slave for data from within TI or do I need partition software?

Yes, I have the \386 folder....

Thanks,
Lary