Major difficulties with HDD swapping

This was my configuration: Two 250GB internal HDs in RAID 1 configuration, 2 partitions as logical drives C: (OS and software), and D: (for data), each about 50% full. My game plan was to install another 120GB HDD internally, split up the RAID configuration and move the OS and programs from the old C: partition to the new 120GB drive -- my new C: drive. This way, I would now have 500GB on two internal HDs, exclusively for storage. And I have ordered a 500GB external drive to use for backup. (I already have an 80GB external drive -- that will be my backup for the OS and programs on C:.)

I started the process last night -- got about halfway through the whole process. But I encountered some major difficulties. I am very much open to some solid advice so I can avoid these issues again tonight! Here is what happened....

First, I created an image of my C: partition, storing it on my external 80GB drive. I powered down and installed the 120GB drive internally, then powered up again. Running Acronis TI 9.0, I restored the disk image to my new drive. At this point I still had a RAID configuration on the other two drives. I shut down and went into setup to make sure that the #1 boot hard drive was set to the new drive, and I disabled the BOOT designation that had been assigned to the RAID drives. So far, so good. I booted up -- no problem. I powered down again and disabled the RAID configuration. I also removed one of my RAID drives (2 drives, exact copies of each other). I booted again, but my new OS drive was designated as the D: drive -- not C:. My old bootable partition was still designated as the C: drive. I tried to format this old partition, but had lots of issues with that -- the drive was still "being used by other programs" - I could not determine what was using the drive. I systematically deleted stuff from the drive, in the hopes of solving this problem, but I could not get the system to stop "using" the drive. So I was unable to format it from within Windows -- not in Safe Mode, either.

I got around this problem ultimately by booting from the XP installation disk, and going partway through the XP installation procedures. Part of this process analyzes all the drives -- and offers the installer an opportunity to make changes to some of the disk configurations. It is possible here to delete unwanted partitions. So I deleted my old C: partition. When I shut down and rebooted, the old partition was gone -- it was now unallocated space. And the new boot drive was now designated as C:. Mission accomplished!

But now.... I have to install the second RAID drive -- which ALSO has a C: partition on it! And a duplicate D: partition with the data. I plan to use the XP installation disk again to remove BOTH of these partitions, then to reformat the whole drive as a single drive. I have already created an image of my D: partition (data), which I will restore to this newly formated drive. I will remove the first RAID drive -- with the old C: partition that was replaced by unallocated space, and reboot to make sure all of my data that was copied to the new drive is intact. Then, I will re-install the first RAID drive, wipe out the remaining D: partition using the XP installation disk, reboot, then format the drive in Windows. Through all of this, I need to make sure I retain a second copy (image) of my D: partition (data) -- in case of a catastrophic error.

Is there a simpler way to do this?

 

You could start by reading this:

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

in particular the section under
"These examples illustrate two general rules for successful cloning of NT-family OS's: "
regarding booting with identical disks contents.

F.

 

Thank you, Foghorne. This is good information that will make the remainder of my disk swapping process easier to handle without problems.

Best regards,
Rick A.