norton ghost - XP - new hard drive topic can it be done ?

[ghost123uk]

Simple question - Is there any way of using Norton Ghost to create an image of your exixting XP build, and transfer it to another type of hard drive, ( as you may wish to do if you are upgrading your HDD )without the fatal "blue screen of death" complaining about the new drive ? - JB

 

[wolluf]

Yes - that's what Ghost does! Second machine needs to be a near hardware clone of the first (drive apart - that probably won't cause a problem) for seamless transfer - otherwise windows will need to reload all its device drivers when you first boot - which sometimes results in a non-booting PC/problem PC. There's also the question of (re)activation of course.

 

[ghost123uk]

I think I must have worded that badly ! -
There is no second PC.
I have run out of space on my 10gig fujitsu drive ( running XP-pro ) and I am trying to use ghost (7.5) to do a "disk to disk" copy onto my new 40gig seagate drive in the same PC.
( I have used ghost a couple of times to restore my entire drive after a (dissaster of one sort or another )from a backup image stored on a slave drive with no probs. )

p.s. all bios settings are OK and the new drive boots fine when simply dos formatted.
p.p.s. Surly one does not have to re-register XP-pro when just moving my entire OS etc to a new drive and the re-formatting the old drive to use as a slave drive ?
Cheers
JB

 

[Bobg1]

Why don't youo just add the new drive as the slave?

 

[wolluf]

Yes ghost should do this (I've only used it a couple of times - think you'd need to save image somewhere first then restore from there if this is the personal version) - also your new drive manufacturer should have a utility (on website if didn't come with drive) to do this (with no intervening image).
And yes, you shouldn't need to reactivate in same PC (sorry, you never mentioned a second machine, I just assumed).

One thing - after doing it, I'd disconnect old drive before trying to boot new (to avoid possible drive letter confusion) for the first time.

 

[ghost123uk]

To Bobg1 - Reason is I have the slave drive in a "grab tray" and like to exchange the slave drive for others that have other data on them.

To Wolluf - Yes a backup image is stored on a slave drive that I plug into the grab drive bay when required ( see above to Bobg1 ) - or a "disk to disk" ghost from my old 10gig to the new 40gig, but both methods blue screen.
From some searching on the web I am pretty sure that it is to do with the serial number on the HDD being recognised as different from one drive to another that XP does not like.
I have tried the Seagate DriveImage software that came with the drive but it takes hours and does the same fault as ghost.

 

[wolluf]

You mean new disk blue screens when you try to boot from it?
What message?
Can you run recovery console (ie, does recovery console see the installation)? If it does, try running the fixmbr and fixboot commands & then retry.

 

[Bobg1]

It reads the serial number (which you can change) but I think it also looks at the size and from these it creates its disk signature.

 

[ghost123uk]

To Wolluf - Yes it blue screens after POST, I am @ work right now so I cannot give precise error message, but it refers to " Windows has detected a hardware change and cannot continue " etc - I cannot get into any boot mode so cannot run recovery console & I am pretty sure from my research that Bobg1 & I are correct, it IS something to do with XP reading the change in HDD serial number & / or size change, but there must be a way round this. By the way I am aware that I could do a fresh install & use the XP's migration tool from the old 10gig drive, but I do not have the XP cd as it was pre-installed when I bought the machine.

To Bobg1 - do you know what software can be used to change the serial numbers on the drives, perhaps if I can make them the same it might work.......

 

[wolluf]

You don't boot from hard disk for recovery console - boot from install CD & choose repair using recovery console. This would at least check if XP can find existing installation.

Can't see how disk's serial number would cause this - if drive is only thing difference as long as its standard drive (ie, doesn't require special drivers) it should just boot - unless there's something wrong with boot sector - which is why I suggested recovery console & fixmbr/fixboot.

 

[ghost123uk]

Wolluf - thanks for that re the recovery console.
I will try get hold of the CD and try this over the weekend and report my findings when back at this pc on monday.

 

[Xaqte]

For some extra $, you might want to purchase a copy of Powerquest's drive copy 4.0 I've used this software numerous times to do just what you're wanting. If you decide to go this route & have questions, just let me know.

 

[domburi]

Hmm. I've used Ghost to copy my Windows XP installation to another Hard Drive. It works... BUT I got an error message which may be similar to what you're getting.

I ended up having to modify my Boot.ini file somehow. If you search Microsoft's KB for the exact error message I'm pretty sure you'll come up with something - that's how I solved my problem.

Sorry I can't remember how I modified it exactly - it was 7-8 months ago.

 

[ghost123uk]

To all
I seem to have cracked this one after some experimenting at home over the weekend.
In ghost there is an option under :- Options // image/tape // to select a check box labeled "Image Boot" - the txt associated with this reads "Image boot also copies the entire boot track, including the boot sector, when creating a disk image file or copying disk to disk.
Use when installed applications such as boot time utilities use the boot track to store information."
--------------------
I am not using any boot managers on my machine but I guess XP writes some info, perhaps re serial numbers or what have you on the boot sector, so transfering the old boot sector info solves the problem.
It may be noted that I have used ghost quite a few times with other OS's and have never used this switch before.
So all is now well & I hope this info may be of use to others - thanks for all the contributions - be happy - JB