How to migrate my C-Drive (Active/Windows) from an old HDD to a new HD

[Shaitan00]

Here is the situation - currently I have a C-Drive (PATA, Primary Master) that is 10GB (with Windows XP SP2) and this isn't enough to run my system correctly (I have been using it at 300megs free for months, just running a scan disk causes a "windows low-disk space" issue on my c-drive).

My computer specs:
- Asus P4C800-E Deluxe Motherboard (2xSATA, 1xATA 133, 2xATA 100/66/33)
- 5 HDDs in order, all are PATA (10GB, 20GB, 160GB, 60GB, 260GB)
(so these occupy 5/6 of my available PATA slots)
- 1 DVD-burner SATA (on SATA1)

So - I went out and bought a SATA-II 250GB hard disk that I want to use to replace my C-Drive (10GB) and D-Drive (20GB) [primary master & slave] as I think they are too small to keep in my system at this point...
Now this is where things get complicated ... ideally I would like to do the following:

- Backup (ghost? direct copy/paste? etc...) my C-Drive and D-Drive onto DVDs or another one of my HDDs
- Remove the physical C-Drive (10GB) and D-Drive (20GB) from my system
- Install the 250GB SATA-II drive (I'll move my DVD to SATA2 and use SATA1 for this drive)
- Break/partition my new 250GB drive into 2 parts (that will become my new C-Drive and D-Drive)
- Restore my C-Drive (THIS HAS WINDOWS XP SP2 ON IT !!!) and D-Drive onto these new partitions
Main idea is - not to need to format/re-install windows at all - would be a huge hassle that I don't want to deal with


Questions:
- How can I accomplish this? The part that I am stuck at the most is the partitioning and restoring of my C-Drive (Windows), when I boot how will I partition the new drive, make one ACTIVE and somehow LOAD the ghosted C-drive backup (can I put it on multiple DVDs and make them bootable or something?)
- What would be the best way to "backup" these drives? Ghosting? Can this work with such LARGE drives as it would take multiple DVDs?
- Would it be a bad idea to leave the other 3 PATA drives where they are or do I have to change them PATA slots (from Secondary to Primary or just leave them on Secondary and have Primary empty)
Is any of this even do-able or am I just dreaming?

Any help, hints, or ideas would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks,

 

[wolluf]

What I would do:-

Decide on tool to copy partition (eg Norton Ghost, Acronis True image). Connect SATA drive and create single partition which is going to be your C: drive (if the copy software allows you to resize the destination partition you can skip this step). Copy the current C: drive partition to this new partition. Make sure the new partition is active.

Disconnect all the hard drives except the new SATA, and then perform a repair reinstall (method 2):-

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

(you'll probably need SATA drivers on a floppy - press F6 shortly after XP Cd boots when prompted for additional drivers - as XP needs them for most boards).

Assuming the repair works ok, reconnect drives (except old C. Create new partition (I'd make it primary) for new D: drive and just do a straight copy from old D:. When complete, remove old D: drive and reallocate D: to new partition in disk management (run diskmgmt.msc).

 

[Shaitan00]

wolluf: thanks for the reply - thats pretty much what I was aiming for ... I do have another question for you.

Assuming I use Acronis True Image to make an image of my current C-Drive and then load it on my new SATA drive - how do I make this new SATA drive ACTIVE as you mentioned?

Also, I want my new SATA partition to be C: and not something like J:, when I copy my "current c-drive patition" the new partition (on my SATA) won't the "new partiton" be J: (for example, as I already have an I: drive for one of my PATAs). If after this a perform a REPAIR (and somehow set it active) won't I be reparining and setting active the wrong drive letter (J: and not C?
How do I correct this?

Hopefully that wasn clear ... having a hard time explaining it...

Thanks for the help.

 

[Shaitan00]

Sorry - also isn't it setting to SYSTEM (and not active) that I need to do to the partiton? I just checked Windows Disk Manager and it says my current C-Drive STATUS is Healthy (SYSTEM) (as opposed to active), does that make a difference.?

 

[linney]

If your current C: drive is the Active primary partition, the option to "Mark Partition as Active" will be dimmed and not accessible in the Disk Management Snap-in when you right-click on C: drive. Any primary drives that are not Active have the option available to "Mark Partition as Active". The "Active" partition must be your "System" partition, that is the partition with the boot loading files on it (boot.ini, NtDetect.com, NtLdr).

See if these articles help you?

How To Upgrade A Hard Disk Drive — Without Crashing The System

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/company/inpress/2005/02-28-en-smallbizpipeline-trueimage.html

How to Switch from Booting an IDE Hard Drive to a SATA Hard Drive

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=294

Your new Sata drive manufacturer should have free software and help available on their web site to further assist you in what you are doing.

 

[wolluf]

When you boot from the new hard drive after doing the copy, it will automatically become C: (as long as old C: is NOT connected - one reason I said to disconnect all drives to do the repair) - because it is an exact copy of the current system drive, which is C:

An active partition which has o/s on and you boot from automatically becomes the system partition.

 

[NARSBARS]

I still use Norton Partition Magic,
Copy both your C & D drives to two Partitions you create on the new drive, remove old 2 drives and reboot.

You may have issues with XP activation as you will have changed the disk ID of your C drive, but if you do no other changes, video cards etc. you should have no problems.

I know everyone likes Acronis and other software but P.Magic works perfectly and has almost zero learning curve for this type of thing. Just don't expect any real help from Norton as they bought P.Magic just to kill it.

NARSBARS

 

[gbaughma]

You may want to look at the XP Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. It works rather welll, and will inform you of what software it was unable to migrate and has to be reinstalled.



Just my 2¢

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