Windows XP Home won't boot after copi\ying to new HD

Helion · May 6, 2009, 8:25pm

Hi.

I used Norton Ghost14 to "Copy my Hardrive" from a 200Gig SATA HD to a 500Gig SATA HD.

Then I disconnected the old drive and tried to boot windows on the new HD. It only gets

as far as the Welcome screen, then just sits there for ever.

What am I doin wrong?

I selected all the needed functions for the copy procedure:

Check source and destination for errors, smart cluster copy, copy MBR, etc.

Please help.

Brian_K · May 8, 2009, 7:57pm

Helion,

Any feedback for the forum?

Helion · May 8, 2009, 9:12pm

Sorry to let Norton users down, but after some more research into my problem

I found out that a lot of people have had the same problem. Some even said that

it was a bug in this version of Ghost.

Then I found info on an other software (Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0).

And it took only one try to get the job done.

To ad some more info on the Norton Ghost issue:

Instructions said to copy the source HD to an unpartitioned &

unformated HD. This does not work. Ghost does not see

the HD as a potential target untill it is partitioned and formated.

Thanks for your time and effort to answer my query.

Brian_K · May 9, 2009, 3:47am

Helion,

I’m not sure why you can’t see unallocated space from your Ghost as that’s how people successfully clone in this forum. I cloned into unallocated space this morning.

We need to make a distinction between problems with Ghost and problems with the NT family of OS. There are two general rules for cloning these OS as outlined in the link I posted …

Do not let old-XP see the new partition before cloning.
Doing so would give XP a chance to assign a drive letter, it will be remembered by the registry when it is cloned, and the clone will adopt the wrong drive letter for itself.

Do not let new-XP see the old-XP partition the first time it boots.
If new-XP sees old-XP, it won't reuse the original drive letter when it assigns a drive letter to itself. (Once XP-2 has booted and reallocated new drive letters, the old-XP partition can be reintroduced into the system, if desired.)

You broke the first rule. You let the old OS see the partition on the second HD before the clone. You are correct that a lot of people have a problem when using Ghost. But it’s not a bug in Ghost. It is the way these OS behave when they are cloned. It’s nothing to do with formatting either. The Ghost user-guides from Ghost 9 to Ghost 14 say “The new hard drive does not need to be formatted.” This could be interpreted by some as “you can use a formatted disk”. If you do, the copied OS will not boot. What the guide should say is “You can either copy into unallocated space or into a partition without a drive letter.” If a drive letter is present, with or without formatting, the copied OS will not boot.

The other issue with cloning is what to do with the HDs immediately after the clone has been created. The user-guides for Ghosts 9 and 10 had confusing instructions and subsequent user-guides have no instructions at all. The second rule applies to this situation.

Ghost creates partition clones. It can’t create whole disk clones. Acronis True Image can’t create partition clones. It can create whole disk clones. When Acronis TI creates a clone it doesn’t create an exact copy of the original HD. It writes to the registry of the new HD to get around both of the rules quoted above. You had success with Acronis TI and so do I. I’ve tried hard to make an Acronis TI clone fail and I can’t. So why isn’t writing to the registry a good idea? If you look at the Acronis TI forum, the procedure with the most failures is the cloning process. So it doesn’t work for everyone.

Getting back to the mistake many people make, breaking the first or second Rules. As you found, Windows won’t boot because of a drive letter issue. But this can be corrected in less than a minute by zeroing or altering the DiskID and forcing Windows to recalculate Partition Signatures. There are many ways to do this but the easiest ways are fdisk /mbr from a Win98 boot floppy or by using Clear Sig from a BING CD. Once the DiskID has been zeroed, Windows then boots normally. By breaking either of the above rules, the Ghost clone will fail to boot, but the failed clone can always be made to boot by zeroing the DiskID.

Eric, I think Ghost might achieve a 100% successful cloning rate if the user-guide had better instructions. There are too many failures from user error.

jt11 · May 17, 2009, 12:46pm

"What the guide should say is “You can either copy into unallocated space or into a partition without a drive letter.” If a drive letter is present, with or without formatting, the copied OS will not boot."

I am trying to clone onto a newer, bigger, faster drive... In this case, I should probably create a partition prior to cloning, but remove the drive letter, true? I tried to clone onto an unallocated target, but the while the clone booted into XP just fine, it adopted the capacity of the smaller drive. Bummer.

Brubaker · May 17, 2009, 3:38pm

-jt-,

For whatever it may be worth:

When replacing a hard drive, Ghost 14 also gives you a second option if you have a current backup. When replacing your drive, rather than cloning, you can physically install the new drive, boot from the SRD and then restore the latest backup of your old drive to your new drive.

When you take that approach, there are several options that may be selected (see user guide, Recovering a computer, for details). These settings normally aren't needed when restoring to the same drive (the usual restore), but may be needed when restoring to a replacement drive.

One of those options is "Resize restored drive" which, if selected, "Automatically expands the drive to occupy the target drive's remaining unallocated space."

Drive letter designation isn't a problem because you're working in the recovery environment which deals with the drive, not its Windows logical designation.

When the restore is completed, reboot into your new drive which will have the content, etc, of the old, but will be sized according to the size of the new drive.

I prefer this approach, but it's a matter of choice. Either will work.

One final point: If you make a clone and it is otherwise successful, but the new partition is not as large as the drive, use Symantec Partition Magic to resize the partition or add additional partitions. No muss, no fuss.

Message Edited by Brubaker on 05-17-2009 11:54 AM

Brian_K · May 17, 2009, 8:35pm

I am trying to clone onto a newer, bigger, faster drive... In this case, I should probably create a partition prior to cloning, but remove the drive letter, true?

You can do that. Or you can clone into unallocated space and select "resize drive to fill unallocated space”. Both methods work.

Message Edited by Brian_K on 05-18-2009 06:39 AM

Brian_K · May 17, 2009, 8:48pm

Brubaker,

I agree. Using image/restore is my method of choice too.

jt11 · May 17, 2009, 9:25pm

I'll keep Partition Magic in mind for the future, but in the meantime, I got 'er done, by hook and by crook!

Thanks for the advice, all... very helpful.

Brian_K · May 19, 2009, 7:42am

-jt-

Out of interest, which method did you use? Remove the drive letter or unallocated space?

Brian_K · May 26, 2009, 5:35am

Here is a cookbook approach to zeroing the DiskID.

1... Using Method #3 http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm#method3

Use a Win98 floppy (or a Win98SE floppy). At the A: prompt, type fdisk /mbr and press ENTER. You won't see anything happen. It just goes back to the A: prompt.

As most people don't have floppy drives, you can also use a Win98 boot CD from...

http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/iso.html

Get the Win98SE_bootdisk.iso. Burn the ISO file with ImgBurn. Use the same method. Type fdisk /mbr at the A: prompt and press ENTER.

2... Using Clear Sig. Download BootIt NG. There is a one month trial usage. Unzip the file and make a boot CD.

double click makedisk.exe, next
dot in I accept the agreement, next
no tick for Registration, next
dot in Mouse Support Enabled, next
dot in VESA Video, next
dot in Partition Work (Don't put a dot in Normal), next
don't choose any Default Device Options (if necessary, these can be chosen in BING), next
leave Registration strings blank, next
select your CD burner drive letter (you can use a CD-RW or a CD-R disc)
Finish

Boot from the CD....

the BootIt NG CD boots to the Work with Partitions window
Using the radio buttons on the left side of the Work with Partitions window, select the appropriate hard drive. (It should be HD 0)
click the "View MBR" button.
click the "Clear Sig" button. Then click OK on the Notice.
click the "Apply" button.
click the "View MBR" button again and confirm the number in the left bottom corner is 0x00000000
click Cancel
click Close on the "Work with Partitions" window
click Reboot and remove the CD

If your cloned WinXP, Vista or Windows7 wasn't booting due to breaking one of the two Rules, zeroing the DiskID will enable the clone to boot. Unfortunately, Vista and Windows7 will need a BCD repair as well, but after the DiskID has been zeroed. Not before.

These methods take less than a minute. That's much better than up to several hours for a repeat clone and there is no need to open the computer to switch hard drives.

Helion · May 6, 2009, 8:25pm

Hi.