Member Avatar for twstokes

Ok, here's the deal:

I'm currently running Windows 2000 on my master (c:) drive 30GB, dual booting with Windows ME. Running slave is my new 60GB HD, with ALL of my media files, important files, etc. C:\ has been throwing me warning signs for a while now, and I don't want to risk it possibly failing on me. I simply want to just put everything on my slave, W2K, media, EVERYTHING.

Also, I want to convert this slave to NTFS. My questions:

1. What would be the best way to get everything off of the master on to the slave, without losing my current W2K and its registry?

2. What would be the risk of converting my slave, (that will be master now) to NTFS?

3. Could I possible copy EVERYTHING from the master to the slave, and make the slave master and everything be OK?


Thanks a lot, I hope you're not confused,
T.W. Stokes

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Good call using a spare disk as a staging area — that’s the safest way to protect data while you rebuild. ’s imaging idea is the one to reach for if your goal is to preserve the exact Windows 2000 install (programs, drivers and the registry). ’s point about backing up and converting to NTFS last is sound. If you already did a fresh Win2K install on the 60GB (as described), treat the old 30GB as read‑only salvage: you’ll reliably recover data, but most installed programs won’t work correctly if you merely copy program folders.

Practical checklist and tips to close gaps:

  • Before any copy, run chkdsk /r on the old drive to recover readable data and mark bad sectors.
  • To copy files and keep NTFS ownership/ACLs use xcopy from an elevated prompt (preserves ACLs and attributes): 
    xcopy "D:\*" "C:\Data\" /O /X /E /H /K /Y
  • If you must recover program settings, export specific keys by loading the old SOFTWARE hive in Regedit (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → File → Load Hive), export only vendor/program keys you trust, then unload the hive. Backup first — importing stray keys can destabilize the new install.

Boot and hardware checks:

  • Confirm BIOS boot order, set the 60GB to master and the drive’s partition as Active. If Windows won’t boot, use the Recovery Console to repair MBR/boot sector: 
    fixmbr
fixboot c:

    Then verify Boot.ini points to the correct partition.

Final notes: keep the old disk intact until everything is tested, run the drive manufacturer’s diagnostics if you suspect physical failure, and if preserving a working system is critical in future, make a full sector image (clone) before any rebuild.

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Member Avatar for Dani

Gosh there's a lot you want to do with these drives. I happen to be a fan of PowerQuest Partition Magic, but that's entirely up to you. Now is your 30gig drive partitioned in half, for Windows2000 and WindowsMe?

Converting a FAT32 drive to NTFS isn't really a huge problem - it's done fairly often, in fact. It might be a good idea to back everything up JUST IN CASE of a weird circumstance. But it's usually pretty reliable. However, not all of the indexing/security features will be available for the drive that would be available for a drive freshly formatted as NTFS.

Member Avatar for twstokes

Well, I really don't care about Windows ME, no they aren't partitioned apart. I don't even think ME would run on NTFS would it?

I just want to do two things if possible:

1. Keep my current Windows 2000, registry, programs
2. Convert to NTFS

It's extremely time consuming getting EVERY program back, EVERY update, etc., especially with my screamin' 56K.

Maybe I should just do this:

1. Copy everything to my failing drive (risky, but it's been doing this for quite some time so what's one more day?)

2. Format 60GB, set to master, installed W2K with NTFS, copy everything over from failing slave 30GB.

How does that sound to you?

T.W. Stokes

Member Avatar for Dani

That seems like it would work. I would convert to NTFS last.

Member Avatar for TallCool1

I'm currently running Windows 2000 on my master C: drive 30GB, dual booting with Windows ME. Running slave is my new 60GB HD, with ALL of my media files, important files, etc. C:\ has been throwing me warning signs for a while now, and I don't want to risk it possibly failing on me. I simply want to just put everything on my slave, W2K, media, EVERYTHING.

Also, I want to convert this slave to NTFS.

Here's what I would do. It is similar to what I did recently. Start by downloading Knoppix from http://www.Knoppix.com -- actually, this links to several FTP sites.

Once you have a working CD, you can start the backup process. Start by defragging the slave drive (how full is it?). Once this is done, you can use QTPartEd to create a second partition on the drive. You will have to format the new partition. Once that's done, open a shell and type in sudo partimage. The compressed drive image from C: can now be backed up to the new partition; the filename is in the form /mnt/hdax/<filename>, and the file(s) can be set to be CD-size chunks.

There is an XP utility to change a FAT32 filesystem to NTFS after you restore stuff as you like.

Member Avatar for twstokes

Thanks a lot for the reply, I really appreciate it.

This is the road I chose to take:

I have: A. 30 GB HD (extra) B. 30 GB HD (master) C. 60GB HD (slave)

1. Copy all info I want to save to HD A, already converted to NTFS (I ended up taking up 24.7 GB of nothing but downloaded files, music, etc.)

2. Totally remove HD A from system

3. Totally remove HD B from system

4. Change HD C jumpers to master, format to NTFS

5. Install Win2K to HD C

6. Install HD A as slave, copy entire drive (24.7 GB) to HD C

7. Remove HD A

What this leaves me with: 60GB NTFS Drive, WIN2K, all my saved files (24.7 GB worth), and hopefully more reliability.

It might sound confusing, and time consuming, but I find it pretty safe and reliable.

Thanks again for the help guys!

T.W. Stokes

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