cloning windows XP to a new harddrive

OK, my problem. I have windows XP installed on my computer, and I just bought a new harddrive to replace my old one. My old one is setup in 3 partitions, first partition is small and the boot partition. 2nd is for my windows install, and 3rd is just extra misc partition. I want my new harddrive to be the same setup. I have access to Norton Ghost from my university, and I ghosted my first and 2nd partitions to my new harddrive.

Well, the first partition didnt boot, so I just lauched a windows install on my new hhd, and when it restarted, I booted my original hhd and deleted the windows files from the new install and edited the boot.ini on the new harddrive to point to the windows install in the 2nd partion. So now I have 2 harddrives, my old one that works perfectly, and my new one that is a clone of the first, and now boots.

So now I boot up my new harddrive and load windows XP. It brings up the old style login, and I enter my name/password. After this it just hangs.

Has anyone successfully cloned windows xp to a new harddrive? Can I use ghost, or will the WD utility be better?

i used drive image 7 and it works like a champ.

it is very fast compared to norton ghost 8

30 gb in 20 min. Not bad, heh???

powerme said:

i used drive image 7 and it works like a champ.

it is very fast compared to norton ghost 8

30 gb in 20 min. Not bad, heh???

Click to expand...

im downloading the trial now, were you able to boot/login?

Just use the software that you can get from your new drives manufacturers website Free and Simple


And when using ghost, ghost the whole drive, not just one partition at a time, and it will let you resize the partitions however you want them.

Kendan said:

Just use the software that you can get from your new drives manufacturers website Free and Simple

Click to expand...

I was thinking that, but a floppy drive is something i lack , well i have one, i just dont have a cable in my dorm for it, not a disk on me, i guess I can grab one from a friend or something.

I edited my post.

casper XP

I use Casper XP from future system soulutions. You can download a trial version, but the trial version won't allow you to use the whole drive. It will only copy the specfic size of the drive being copied. But if you use the whole version, I don't see any problems with having to log onto anything. I use Casper XP to back-up my hard drives all the time. When it comes time to use the backups, I can't tell any difference.

cyberey66 said:

im downloading the trial now, were you able to boot/login?

Click to expand...

of course, it works like it should be

the trial version ONLY allows you to backup NOT restore.

if you buy a full version, you will be able to RESTORE by using CD

the time it takes to restore my 30 gb is 20 min

it is SUPER FAST


norton ghost and drive image 7 do the same thing. If you want SPEED, choose drive image 7. Period

powerme said:

of course, it works like it should be

the trial version ONLY allows you to backup NOT restore.

if you buy a full version, you will be able to RESTORE by using CD

the time it takes to restore my 30 gb is 20 min

it is SUPER FAST

Click to expand...

I'll just find a way with ghost or WD utility then. I havent tried making an image then restoring to a new drive, so far i just tried, cloning the entire drive, and then cloning the partitions. So far both tries didnt work.

cyberey66,

why don't you partition your new hard drive FIRST and then RESTORE it later????

if i were you, i will back up drive C, partition my new hard drive the way i want

and restore drive C

it is easy that way. I'm sure it takes less time than backup 100 gb hard drive

if you use win xp, try to boot into recovery console and use diskpart to partition your new hard drive the way you want

and use ghost or another utility to RESTORE your current drive C to your new DRIVE C