[SOLVED] Make Boootable HD

[ron_remm]

Hello,
Windows XP(ALL UPDATES).
Trying to Upgrade my HD.
I have a C:MASTER and F:SLAVE
Copy ALL From C: to F:
Change F: to C:
Then Boot from NEW BIG C:
Ron Remm

 

[PudgyChicken]

The first think I'm going to suggest is that you remove your email address from your original post unless you really want to get an inordinate amount of spam.

Before doing anything outlined in this post, it is essential that you log onto your machine and defrag your hard drive a minimum of 10 (ten) times, or until you can run the disk defragmenter and have it finish immediately. Even your computer says your drive doesn't need to be defragmented, it does. If you don't do this, you're going to screw everything up. Everything.

This shouldn't be too difficult of a procedure. The easiest way to do this would be to use a Linux live CD (preferable Ubuntu) to copy the data from one drive to another using the "dd" command (don't worry, it's a lot easier than it sounds.)

The first step is to burn an Ubuntu live CD. You can find comprehensive instructions on how to do so at http://www.ubuntu.com/downloads

Once you've burned the CD, shutdown your machine and boot from the CD. Once the menu comes up, select English and then select "try Ubuntu without any change to this computer"

It'll take Ubuntu a little while to start up. Be patient.

Once it brings you to a desktop, you need to go to System->Administration->Gparted

This is a program for partition editing. While you won't need to use it just yet, it will tell you which drive has all your data on it and which drive is the empty one. At the top right of the window, there will be a dropdown menu that has something like "/dev/sda (100 GiB)" When you click on that, it will show you a list of the hard drives in your machine. Look at the sizes of the two drives shown and determine which one is your new drive and which one is your old drive. You can also check the volume labels and space used thanks to the very easy to use interface.

Write down that the C:\ drive is either /dev/hda or /dev/hdb (or whatever it is in your case) and write down what the F:\ drive is. It is very important that you get this right.

Next, go to Applications->Accessories->Terminal

Now, this is the most important part of the procedure, so you're going to have to be very careful. You will be using the "DD" command. DD is a direct copy, byte for byte, from one drive to another. When you use DD, you have to specify two things. The "IF" (input folder) and the "OF" (output folder).

Your command should look something like this:

sudo dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb

The "if" value should match what you wrote down as your C:\ drive
The "of" value should match what you wrote down as your F:\ drive

you must put in the term "sudo" before your command so that it is run with administrator privileges.

Hit enter to run the command. It won't look like anything is happening, but it is. Depending on the size of the C:\ drive, this will take a very, very long time, as it's copying the data byte for byte.

Once that finishes running, which I can't see taking any less than a few hours, you're going to want to open up Gparted again, and go to your F:\ drive. The F:\ drive will show that there's a ton of free space, so what you're going to have to do is drag the slider on the right side of the freshly copied partition to fill up the whole drive, then hit apply.

Shut down your computer and open that thing up.

Since you're referring to your drives as "master" and "slave," I'm going to assume that you're using IDE/ATA/PATA whatever you want to call it. The opposite of SATA.
You're going to want to have the two drives switch places on their ribbon if they're configured for cable select OR you're going to need to switch the jumpers on the pins.

After that, you should be able to boot up and have your former F:\ drive as your C:\ drive!

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In case you're wondering, it's not possible to do what you're asking from inside Windows. If you tried to copy all of the contents of your C:\ drive onto your F:\ drive, your computer wouldn't let you, as you're running Windows off your C:\ drive. Windows can't copy programs that are in use. Therefore it can't exactly copy itself ;D

The Linux live CD method I just outlined seems to be your only option. If you're at all confused by any of the steps, just ask!