Installing a new System Disk

I need to replace my HD0 on my XP machine. It has two partitions. Primary C (the system partition) and Extended D. My plan is to install the new drive as a slave then use XP's Disk Management to partition it exactly like the one to be replaced. Then use TI 11 to clone C and D to the new(slave) disk, remove the original HD0 and replace it with the new cloned disk as master.

Does that seem reasonable? Is there a better way?

The only flaw I can see is the MBR. How do I get it onto the new disk? I suppose I could boot to XP's repair console and use fixmbr or some such tool.

Thank you very much.

 

Jack:

You don't need to partition the new disk. You can clone your existing drive to a completely blank hard disk and TI will take care of setting up the partitions and writing an MBR.

Just be sure to shut off your PC at the completion of the clone process. Do not boot into Windows with both disks attached for the first boot. Remove the old drive, connect the new drive in its place, and then boot for the first time with only the new disk attached.

 

AWRIGHT!

Thank you very much. That will be easier than I thought.

 

If you have some external storage, such as a USB drive, you could create a complete image of the existing drive using the USB drive as the destination.

The next step is to remove the old drive and place it to one side. Install the new drive in the computer, straight "out of the box" but observe the connections and jumpers if any.

Boot from the recovery CD and restore the USB image to the new drive. You can either check the whole disk for the restore which will include everthing and the MBR or if resizing is needed just select each partition in turn with resizing and finish with the MBR.

I prefer this two stage process as it is virtually impossible to get it wrong and the original drive is safe to go back to and start again if there are any problems.

Xpilot

 

You might want to read up on drive letter problems.

If the source windows xp has seen the drive it will be restored on (whether it's connected internally or usb external) that drives partition ID will be permanently stored on the windows registry. It might not cause problems during the restoration but if it does, it will prevent the restored drive from booting. You might want to actually test the propose backup drive just to make sure it will boot when you need it.

Example : external drive is seen by the source windows xp, it is given the drive letter of h: (mounted devices and partition ID) , when you restore windows xp to the external drive, the mounted device drive letter on the restored drive becomes c: (same as the source windows xp) but the partition ID drive letter remains h: (which is what the source windows xp remembers that hard drive to be).

Its just something to be on the lookout for. Nothing is ever simple when restoring hard drives.

 

Hi,

I too need to Disk Clone. I have a Dell Dimension 5000 with 2 SATA drives. I just want to clone from 1 to 2. I have already formatted 2 in XP so I guess I will fall foul of the drive letter issue? If so how do I get disk 2 to be c:?

Cheers

Dave

 

joneyjoe81:

If you use a blank hard disk to restore (or clone) to then you completely avoid that issue. Since there are no partitions on the blank drive there is nothing for Windows to record in the registry.

 

Use Windows Disk Management to delete the partitions on disk 2 before starting.

 

Let's not complicate matters unnecessarily. In a Clone process the most important precaution is that after the process is done, before you let the newly cloned drive boot for the first time you should disconnect (or remove totally if you desire) the original drive.

After you let the newly cloned drive boot up you can shut down and re-connect the original - as a slave or as master/slave in the secondary.

 

In my case I want to keep the original disk 1 as a backup so I would remove it in any case.

Disk Clone does not seem to want to work for my SATA drives (it even thinks they are IDE in the wizard!!!), I have reported it to customer support is there a FAQ or something I can look at for help? It goes through the motions of working but the copy takes seconds and the resultant disk will not boot!

Cheers

Dave

 

If Jack has a few extra miinutes, he might find this interesting reading. This supplements what has already been stated.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1299861&postcount=9

 

Time I do have right now since I am recovering from surgery

I did find you post very helpful.

Thank you.

 

I got Disk Clone working! The FAQ PDF was great and having booted from the Acronis recovery CD my Disk Clone worked! Boy am I a relieved man!

Thanks

Dave

 

streetd,
Congratulations. I'm glad you found the guides helpful.