want to install new Primary Master W2K

[stars1234]

I am trying to install a new Master HDD in my sys. Copy old drive to it and have it be the default boot drive (dual boot).

But for simplicity sake, for now, just xfering over my old info and manking the new HDD0 & the old HDD1, with the new drive having the "C" drive letter.

I tried with GHOST but the new HDD0 had the system files on it while the old HDD had the boot files.

It was a mess. Finally had to go back to my old HD as master and do a low-level format off the new HD, before it would even be recognized as an unformatted drive.

I need help with xfering. If both HDDs were of the same manufacture it'd be pretty simple--Maxtor, asks if you want the new HDD to be Primary/Master and Active. But I am xfering to a WD drive.

So far I've tried GHOST, using the Maxtor and the WD xfer programs to make a clone.

I could do a fresh install of W2K onto the new HDD, with the other one out of the system. Then put the old one back in, hoping that the system won't see two boot file's and crash (it's done that twice, but not with this scenario).

If I do that, and it's successful, I can directly xfer the old info to the new drive. But then I will loose all program connections--Partition Magic really screws things up--just in case someone suggest that.

I'm pretty much at a loss as to how to proceed.
If the drive letters weren't persistent, it'd be easier. Oh, I've also tried clearing the CMOS, reflashing the BIOS.

Any suggestions?

[feigned]

That's the problem with Ghost, it sees the hard drive as the old one, which really doesn't help things because of the way Windows addresses disks like that.

Same make/model, it's no problem...toss a Ghost image on another drive and you could be looking at a neatly packaged headache.

Backup everything you can, format the drives, and with a DOS bootdisk, run "fdisk /mbr".

That'll clear the Master Boot Record of the original primary drive, negating the boot manager 2k installed.

And yes, Partition Magic sucks. Plain vanilla fdisk is all you ever need. Reinstalls are good too.

[stars1234]

If I do an MBR, with this being so quirky, am I apt to loose the partition table too?

This just really sucks. Partition Magic screwed everything up. Things were sort of working until then. Now, I have all kind of problems.

I've change out at least a 100+ HDDs and reconfigured them--but then that was with NT4 and this is a whole new ball game.

I agree about FDISK. I went and got the new one that lets you work with large drives. So, I'm set there.

I wonder if one of the software programs for xfering data to a new drive would work? I know the Maxtor xfer setup asks if the new drive is going to be the boot. So it must do something to the MBR of the new drive and old drive. But since I'm going from a Maxtor to a WDD, I don't know what will happen. (I have concluded though, that as far as ease of operation, Maxtor to Maxtor, I think would work much more smoothly that two WDDs.)

I no longer subscribe to TechNet, but it would sure be helpful if I could learn exactly how W2K & XP not only work with assigning disk names, but what they do with the MBR and the BIOS. If I could find that out, then maybe I could solve the problem?

I read somewhere how you can reset the registry to point to swap and fool the OS so it recognizes the new drive as C. But I still think something is being written to a small section of the BIOS that is reserved. Somehow, I have to clear that?

If only I didn't have 80gigs of data, I'd just put on a new W2k and reload the programs. But with that much data if I have to do that manually, it's going to take quite a while. There's got to be a better way?

Why is this so hard? I've read all the MS kbs on the subject, but they aren't detailed enough. --can't find anything that adresses, transferring data from one HD to the other, then establish a dual boot with both HDDs having the same OS.

Bob