Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (
More info?)
>> "jimbo" <jimbo62@spamex.com> wrote in message
>> news:10mdrja3jo8f38@corp.supernews.com...
>>
>>>I have physical HD "C" with Win98, FAT32 and physical HD "D" with WinXP,
>>>NTFS as a dual boot system using WinXP boot loader. Everything works just
>>>fine.
>>>
>>>I want to replace the "D" drive with a new, larger drive. I don't want to
>>>re-install WinXP or lose data from the drive.
>>>
>>>I have one of those external USB cases that will take a hard drive or a
>>>DVD. (I bought this device for my laptop computer where I use it for a
>>>DVD burner.)
>>>
>>>I have a copy of Norton Ghost 2003 that I have never used.
>>>
>>>Can someone give a step by step or point me to a web site for completing
>>>this task?
>>>
>>>Thanks, jimbo
> >Art wrote:
>> Jimbo:
>> You may find of some value the following article I recently prepared on
>> this subject for a local computer club. You can install a hard drive in
>> the USB external enclosure that you already have. As you will note from
>> my article, I use a Ghost bootable floppy disk to undertake the cloning
>> operation. I find the simplicity, straightforwardness, and portability
>> aspects of using a floppy preferable to using Ghost's GUI. But you can
>> use Ghost's Window's interface to perform the cloning operation should
>> you prefer that method.
>> USING GHOST 2003 TO CLONE AN INTERNAL HARD DRIVE TO A USB EXTERNAL HARD
>> DRIVE
>> The advantage of this process is that for all practical purposes you're
>> making an exact duplicate of your working internal drive. Everything is
>> "backed up" - your operating system, registry, programs & applications,
>> configuration settings, your data files - everything.
>> Note that in some cases, connecting the USB external hard drive to a USB
>> hub prevents the cloning process. In those situations, the external drive
>> should bypass the hub and be directly connected to the computer's USB
>> port.
>> The cloning process is relatively simple. Other than the external hard
>> drive you'll be cloning to, disconnect any other external storage
>> device(s), e. g., ZIP drive, flash drive, from the computer and boot up
>> with the Ghost floppy disk (see below instructions for preparing the
>> Ghost floppy) and use the screen displays to select the source (internal
>> hard drive) disk and the destination (external hard drive) disk.
>> With a reasonably fast processor, your cloning speed (data transfer)
>> should be about 400 to 500 MB/min. Should you be using a USB 1.0/1.1
>> connection, your cloning speed will be about 40 to 50 MB/min.
>> I prefer to carry out the cloning operation using a Ghost floppy disk,
>> rather than using Ghost's Windows interface. I find this process simple,
>> straightforward, and effective.
>> PREPARING THE GHOST FLOPPY DISK
>> 1. Insert a blank floppy disk. It need not be formatted.
>> 2. Access your Ghost program. Make sure you have the latest version
>> 2003.793 (as of 10/04). Use Symantec's LiveUpdate feature in the Ghost
>> program to check for updates to the Ghost program.
>> 3. Click on Ghost Utilities and select Norton Ghost Boot Wizard.
>> 4. Select Standard Ghost Boot Disk. On the following dialog box (assuming
>> you have USB 2.0 capability), select "USB 2.0 Support" and check "Assign
>> DOS drive letters". Click Next.
>> 5. Select the "Use PC-DOS" option in the next dialog box.
>> 6. Complete the process following the screen prompts.
>> 7. Remove floppy and label accordingly.
>> With the USB external hard drive connected to your computer and powered
>> up, boot up with the Ghost floppy and perform the cloning operation. You
>> should be able to easily perform this operation by stepping through
>> Ghost's informative dialog boxes, however, if you need step-by-step
>> instructions I will be glad to furnish them. Just remember that when
>> you're cloning from the internal hard drive to the USB external hard
>> drive, the source disk is your internal hard drive and the destination
>> disk is your USB external hard drive. Remember to disconnect any other
>> storage devices you may have connected to your computer (ZIP drives,
>> flash/jump drives, etc.) before you begin the cloning operation.
>> You can also perform the cloning operation in reverse, i.e., from the
>> external hard drive to the internal one, thus restoring your internal
>> drive should the need arise. Naturally in this situation the external
>> hard drive becomes the source disk and the internal hard drive the
>> destination disk. BTW, the cloned USB external hard drive will not be
>> bootable - at least in my experience with XP. I have read many comments
>> in the various newsgroups and websites to the effect that an external USB
>> hard drive is bootable as long as it's supported by the motherboard's
>> BIOS. But I've yet to achieve this capability even with motherboard's
>> purporting to have this capability.
>> Art
Jimbo wrote...
> Thanks for the detailed procedure. Just what I was looking for!
>
> After I finish cloning the existing HD to the new HD, is it then just a
> matter of removing the old HD and putting the new HD in it's place? And
> what about the difference in HD size. Does the clone occupy the first xx
> GB of the new HD or is it there as a xx GB partition? I have Partition
> Magic, so it shouldn't be a problem to increase the size of the cloned
> partition.
>
> jimbo
Jimbo:
Yes, you could remove the cloned hard drive from its USB enclosure and
install it as a replacement of the hard drive that was used as the source
disk. This assumes that your external hard drive is removable, i.e., it is
not a USB external hard drive unit that is designed in a way that doesn't
allow the drive to be removed from its enclosure, as many of the retail USB
external drives marketed today, for example, the units from Western Digital,
Maxtor, etc. If you purchased the USB enclosure and then installed a hard
drive in that enclosure there would be no problem in removing the drive.
There is another way to achieve your objective (without using a USB external
hard drive) of replacing your old drive with a new, larger one, however,
this involves getting inside of your desktop computer case and making some
cable disconnects/connects involving the old and replacement drives, so I
won't cover that procedure.
As far as the difference in hard drive capacity between the two drives --
the only requirement is that the destination drive be large enough to
contain the contents of the source disk. Obviously that won't be a problem
in your case since it's clear your destination disk will be larger than the
disk you're cloning from.
One other thing... The likelihood is that the XP Activation process will not
be triggered if you are changing only one component of the computer, i.e.,
your hard drive. However, I have run into a situation where a hard drive
change with no other component changes did, in fact, necessitate another
Activation. I cannot explain why this happened, but it did. So be aware of
this.
Art