Moving the OS

[GeForce]

Hi guys,

Bit of a techy question, but I'm sure one of you will be able to answer it

I want to move my existing Windows XP installation from my old 40Gb hard drive to my newly installed 160Gb. I wish to do this without re-installing Windows, or any other programs, if possible.

Also, is it possible to copy the C:\Windows folder to D:\Windows and modify boot.ini to boot from the D: drive.

This is the current state of my boot.ini file:

Code: Select all

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect


Thanks for any help at all!

Jonathan

[Delta_]

You need to "image" the 40GB onto the 160GB hdd.

[eno]

Unfortunately imaging O/S's tends to make them unstable .... i would think that reinstalling windows is almost certain.
I would also suggest that instead of moving windows keep it on the 40Gb drive and just put everything else on the new one .... quicker easier and keeps things safer if ya system goes down. Im running my system with windows on my old 8Gb drive and everything else on my 40Gb drive.

[GeForce]

Hi,

Hyvry1:
Yup that's what I was thinking of. I have Norton Ghost and I was going to:
1) Image C: onto D:
2) Format C: to FAT
3) Use a Norton Ghost bootdisk to copy the image file from D: to C:
4) Image D: using the Ghost file now on C:
5) Swap the jumpers on the drives to D: becomes master and C: becomes slave.

Eno:
Yeah I have heard that. I think I am going to go with the second option which is:
1) Backup everything onto CDRs
2) Format both drives to FAT
3) Swap the jumpers
4) Install Windows on the master drive (120Gb), and during the Windows Setup convert this drive to NTFS.
5) Put everything back from the CDRs onto the system

Thanks, and any more suggestions are welcomed

Jonathan

PS. In my first post I said the D: drive was 160Gb. It is actually 120Gb, my apologies.

[GeForce]

Hi All,

Just thought I'd let you know what I have done - Option 2 in my above post. Now my 120Gb is master and 40Gb is slave. All seems good!

Windows is running much faster now, startup is down to about 10 seconds. With a bit of tweaking it might go down a bit more

Jonathan