Member Avatar for ggeoff

Hi

Simple problem Drive C is running out of space. Easy solution buy a new hard drive and copy everything to the new drive. Simple? a nightmare!

I have bought a larger HDD a Seagate 250GB and want to use that as a replacement for my existing 60GB WD HDD. I have a Dell 8200 1.8 ghz P4 of 2001 vintage running XP Pro SP3. It has an additional 80GB HDD (which is used mainly for daily backups of Drive C and has two external USB Lacie drives which are used for storing photos and reference material. My PC is protected by Windows firewall & Defender & AVG 8 Auto Update is in operation.

I used Ghost 9.0 and connected the new drive using a USB 2 to Ide cable kit. I copied drive C but forgot to copy the Dell utility to the new drive. But did copy it after copying the main partition. (I read somewhere to leave the new drive as hidden so as to not alter the drive letters and thought that it would be better to keep the Lacies on). I am fairly sure that I selected Copy MBR but can't be sure now. I next used Norton partition Magic 8 to move the Dell utility to the first location on the drive. The rest of the new drive's space was unallocated.


When I swopped the C drive for the new drive the system won't boot. I tried all sorts of permutations and then had difficulty even accessing the drive. I used Knoppix and was able to accesss the drive after being told that the NFTS is unclean! I used the ntfsfix command.

Afterwards I was able to see the new drive connected as before using the USB kit. It still wouldn't boot so I then used NP Magic again and made the drive un-hidden. It was then automatically assigned the drive letter H which is correct. I then swopped the new for the old and tried to reboot without success. There are two options to boot Winxp and Winxp #1. I presume that the second option the one marked #1 would entail connecting the new HDD to the USB kit and have not tried that. i don't know whether the system can identify a different instance of WinXP and won't boot from the new HDD because of that when the new drive is in the place of the old Drive C.

I checked in Setup that the HDDs are being correctly identified and they are. I next ran the Ghost disk in diagnostic mode and used Norton Disk Doctor to check the drives -they passed ok but the new 250GB .C Drive was still identified as being only 60GB but then the rest of the space is unallocated so that might not be an error. Next I ran the XP Installation disk and selected Repair. It went through the repair but the PC still wouldn't boot. I then ran the XP disk again in Console mode and did a CHKDSK then used FIXMBR, the system reported that the MBR was a non-standard or invalid MBR so I went ahead and the MBR was replaced. I next tried to boot up and the PC still wouldn't get past two beeps and "F1 to retry or F2 to enter Setup"

I have now replaced the original HDD and the PC boots up ok. Fortunately I have a laptop so I can research the web and still receive email etc.

I don't know what to do next? Should I Format/S the new drive when its connected to the PC with the USB kit and try to copy the C Drive again with Ghost? I did try copying without formating but ghost wouldn't do the copy -as there was not enough space - it wouldn't overwrite the old copy. Or could I simply delete the partitions using Partition Magic and then use Ghost to copy Drive C again. Or is there some other factor that is preventing the boot up?

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Dani AI

Generated

Short, practical summary and a reliable procedure for anyone who lands here later.

What usually goes wrong

  • Cloning over a USB-to-IDE adapter and then swapping drives can leave a perfectly copied Windows partition that the BIOS simply won't boot. USB adapters sometimes present drives differently and some BIOSes will not treat that drive as the primary boot device.
  • The machine boots from the "system" partition (where NTLDR/boot.ini live), not necessarily the partition that contains \Windows. If the Dell utilities/OEM partition was moved or hidden, partition numbering or which partition is marked active can change and the PC will stop early in the boot process.

Practical steps that are most likely to work (and avoid repeating ’s pain). was right to suggest starting clean; was right that fixing the MBR/boot sector helps when recovery is needed.

  • Make a full Ghost image of the original C: to an external drive (so you have a known-good image).
  • Power down, install the new HDD internally (set the jumper to match the original or use Master if replacing the only drive), and disconnect all other disks and external USB drives.
  • Boot the Ghost boot CD and restore the image to the new drive. Choose the options to restore the MBR and mark the system partition active.
  • Reboot. If it still won't start, boot from the Windows XP CD into Recovery Console and run a disk check, then repair the MBR/boot sector and rebuild the boot configuration (chkdsk /r, repair MBR/boot, bootcfg /rebuild).
  • Once Windows boots, use Disk Management (or Partition Magic) to expand the Windows partition to use the remaining space.

Notes and cautions

  • Restoring the Ghost image to a drive installed internally removes most of the “drive letter / signature / BIOS vs USB” problems.
  • If OEM/Dell utility partitions exist, keep their original order and make sure the partition containing the boot files is the active (system) partition before swapping drives.

As discovered, restoring the Ghost backup while the new disk is installed internally is the cleanest, most reliable route.

Recommended Answers

All 8 Replies

Member Avatar for jbennet

If it didnt copy the MBR, you can reinstall it using your XP cds recovery console.

Member Avatar for OlyComputers

Don't bother using the recovery CDs, just start from scratch. Format the new drive, ghost it again being sure to transfer everything and set it as bootable with the MBR.

The problem either came from missing the MBR or confused it when you transfered the hp utility separately.

Member Avatar for ggeoff

yes jbennet I did rewrite the MBR

Member Avatar for ggeoff

Don't bother using the recovery CDs, just start from scratch. Format the new drive, ghost it again being sure to transfer everything and set it as bootable with the MBR.

The problem either came from missing the MBR or confused it when you transfered the hp utility separately.

Thanks OlyComputers.

Member Avatar for jbennet

using fixmbr and fixboot?

Member Avatar for ggeoff

using fixmbr and fixboot?

Yes used fixboot as well. I was advised somewhere to use dskchk then fixmbr then fixboot. At present I am formating the new drive as OlyComputers suggested. The Dell uses cable select but to get the USB to Ide cable kit to work with the Seagate the jumper has to be set to Master. When I replaced the old C drive I changed the jumper on the new drive to Cable Select. So it should have been detected.

Member Avatar for ggeoff

Thanks OlyComputers.

i

Member Avatar for ggeoff

Don't bother using the recovery CDs, just start from scratch. Format the new drive, ghost it again being sure to transfer everything and set it as bootable with the MBR.

The problem either came from missing the MBR or confused it when you transfered the hp utility separately.

Hi
I started from scratch. The format seemed to go ok but terminated with "the format did not complete successfully" after 90 odd per cent! I checked with Partition Magic which reported that the drive was unformatted! and that it was unable to "enumerate the current drive on this system". However in Computer Management the disk is declared as "healthy"

I next copied the C Drive and Dell partition using ghost. I did not select rewrite MBR and make disk Active for the Dell Untilities -as I thought I had done that before. I then copied the C drive with "make active" and "MBR".

It looks like I did not make "everthing bootable with the MBR" as advised! as the subsequent update didn't work!

I installed the new drive and booted up. It got as far as the Windows XP opening screen and then stopped. I then decided (after 20 minutes) to re-boot with the Ghost disk and opted for Restore Drive. The backed up drive was then restored to the C drive -the new drive - without any problems.!!

Maybe I could have just replaced the old drive with the new drive and restored the Ghost backup directly to the new drive from the Ghost CD. If so there is nothing in the Ghost
Manual to indicate that is what I should have done.

Thanks for everyone who helped with this problem!

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