Way to change system drive?

Hi all,)

I have added a bigger/better hard drive to my desktop and I have cloned the 'old' single drive to the new drive with system files. I have gone into the registry to switch drive letters so that:
C: is the old drive that was all by itself originally.
D: is the larger drive that I have added to the system.
It has a cloned copy of the old drive with system files (used xxclone).

C: drive is now D:
D: is now C:

Is there any way I can change the system drive, which is still D: (now the old drive) not the system drive and instead have my new faster disk (now C the system drive. My end goal being to boot off and use system files from my newer, faster, larger drive.

I have done alot of searching and it seems that this is not possible. So I guess I could distill my question down to........:

"How can I boot off of and use my new disk for all Windows system activity? "
My C: drive continues to be the first drive I tell the BIOS to look to boot on. Will that also mean that the Windows system file for the rest of the session will be read/write from the new drive?

Tell me if any of the above is unclear.

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

 

If you actually 'cloned' the drive, it should be identical to the 'old' drive. If so, disable, or unplug the old drive, and see if the machine will boot form the new drive. If all is well, replug everything in, and format or erase or whatever the old drive. If you purchased a new drive, most drive manufacturers include or let you download a utility that will do just what you want.

Give it a shot...

 

Thanks Ski52.

It does not boot with the original drive (now D unattached. Which puzzles me because when I go into CMOS setup I see "Boot Order "....and I have "Hard Drive (C" as my 'First'.
Hard drive C: is my new drive. So how, or why is it booting off my D: (old) drive?

Another thing I find strange is that when I look at "Storage" then "Device Configuration" the only drive it shows me is the new one (C which it is not booting off of. It shows no trace of the original D: drive that it must be using to boot.

This is an old Compaq Evo D510 with 1gb memory.

Another thing that I don't understand is when it does boot up (after connecting the old drive) It just before it loads Windows and at the top of the screen says:

"Initializing Intel (R) Boot Agent Version 4.1.08 "

"The following configuration options were automatically updated: "

Then it lists my
- old disk
- New disk
- USB Flash memory

"If you are running Unix, you need to configure your system using the Computer Setup Utility (F10) "

I can now hit F10 and go back into the setup or "F1: Save Changes ".

I hit F1 and startup continues until I am interrupted by a screen that asks if I want to start up "Windows XP....." or something about my Xclone software. The screen only stays there xx seconds and then boot Windows successfully.

Now I am in windows. Still another interesting thing. I bring up Process Explorer and I can see that some of my Windows files are being read off the D: drive while my program files are being read off the C: drive. I see the exact same .ini files in both /Windows directories. I see the two files in the root of both drives "boot.ini" and "eKey.lck ".

Ok, I think I see where that strange message that stops the startup is coming from. The boot.ini. These files differ. Is the comment a colon in the first column? It has been a while. I'll see if I can copy these files. Is there a way I can send them to you?

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

 

Boot.ini files differ

I am not sure how these will format but I will paste my two boot.ini files below.
The first one is from my c: drive (which I am not booting off of.
===================================================
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=10
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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "XXCLONE: (Cloned Volume) [d:0,p:1] \WINDOWS" /fastdetect :/NoExecute=OptIn
=========================================================


This is from my D drive which I really want to be booting off of.
======================================================
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=10
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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "XXCLONE: (Cloned Volume) [d:0,p:1] \WINDOWS" /fastdetect :/NoExecute=OptIn
=======================================================


As you can see "XXCLONE" has left its mark. Which is what seems to be interrupting the startup.

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

 

It sounds as though the new C drive is a copy, and not actually a clone - ie: no boot files/sector. I believe the Intel Agent is probably a boot routine to boot from a network. Seems as though it is trying to boot - 1 Floppy (if it is there), 2 CD, 3 Drive C which is not bootable in your case, 4 Network, and finally 5 drive D, which is your old original drive. The boot loader is indicating that you have 2 Operating Systems, but the first one is not bootable. You need to re-clone the drive using something like Acronis (free), or the drive manufacturers' specific cloning utility. These and other programs like these will not only duplicate your drive, but also include the boot sector, Master Boot Record, and all the other stuff needed to make the new drive work like you want.

 

Thanks Ski.

I will get Acronis and give that a try.
Is there a way to tell if there is a MBR on the drive by looking at the files on it?

Thanks,
Jim Lee

 

Jumping in the dark, I would just add to Christers advice, assuming that you are using PATA drive, then you also would need to change the cables to make sure that your new drive is set as Master. I don't think that you mentioned if it is SATA or Pata.

 

Pata.

This has become a real struggle slash 'learning experience'.

I have used XXClone exactly as advertised for cloning a hard drive and it has gone through all of its motions except starting up Windows when I reboot with only the new drive attached. Blank screen. Complete emptiness when it is supposed to be starting Windows XP.

I am now using Maxtor MaxBlast which is giving me no warnings and no errors and going through its gyrations but it is now getting my original drive stuck on the very end of the Windows startup. So I have achieved hung-ness.

I cannot believe this could be so hard.

Any suggestions for cloning software? I downloaded Acronis but of course the cloning part of it is not available for trial users.

Now let me see if I can get this actually booted up again using just the original disk.
If not I am going to be very bummed out.

Any and all suggestions for cloning software that might work would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim Lee

 

So now, with only the original hard drive attached as it originally was I get as far as seeing the "Microsoft (in tiny letters) Windows XP" which I believe is right before Windows really starts to come up.....and I am hung.

I see this message just before it starts, or tries to start, Windows startup
"Acronis autopart completed "

The Maxtor Maxblast uses Acronis cloning software so I appear to have put some sort of Acronis software on my original hard drive that is preventing it from booting.

I am officially Dead In Water.

 

Found this thread which makes me a feel a little better as in misery loves company but I am still hung. I did back up the original drive AND made a bootable DVD but am still unable to boot. I am hoping that by making the registry change suggested in this link I can boot up again and continue on with my lifes work.

I must agree with the authors of the above post. Acronis is on my list of places never to visit again....especially becau
Thanks,
Jim Lee

 

....especially because this Acronis abomination came under the covers of Maxtor. The folks who made my new hard drive.

Here is the link:

http://forum.acronis.com/forum/5773

 

Very frustrating for you, I think if I was in your position I probably would do a Windows XP Repair on your old HD to try and get it back to full functionality.
In a successful Repair you do not loose any data or programs, all that you will loose are the updates, a bit of a pain as well, but better than loosing all data.
If that would be successful I would then format the new drive and start again.
hawk22

 

"Any and all suggestions for cloning software that might work would be very much appreciated. "

I clone a SATA drive to another SATA drive on the first of every month as a total system backup. That includes the boot partition and 3 data partitions. I have been doing this for several years using a free program named Drive Image XML. I run Drive Image XML from a boot CD so I can lock the source drive and target drive while cloning the partitions.

The function that I use to clone the partitions is 'Drive to drive', cloning one partition at a time. The boot CD was created using PE builder, also a free program.

I have learned, the hard way, more than once, that Windows XP will render the boot partition of the drive that it did not boot from as non bootable if both drives are connected when you boot up Windows XP from either hard drive. To fix that problem you can use Drive Image XML to 'set new disk id'. That has saved me several times when I forgot and left both hard drives connected at the same time.

So what you want to do can be done using free software.

Gordon

 

Cloning struggles

Thanks very much Gordon. I am going to see if I can do exactly what you are doing. I refuse to be unable to clone a darn hard drive.

What I ended up doing was, like Jacques Cousteau, finally I could stand no more and installed Ubuntu and am running "Wine" which is a Windows emulation. I tried every Windows CD that I had hanging around the house and could never get ANY version of Windows to boot. I must say, Bill Gates really needs to get on the ball because so far this Ubuntu craziness runs windows applications without complaint. Whereas with Windows I could not even get to the starting line.

I will never know probably but I think the beginning of my troubles happened when the Acronis True Image software wrote something that was supposed to be temporary but ended up being permanently (disabling) to both of my drives. Disabling in terms of either one of them being a system drive that I could boot off of. So two cloning applications did not work as far as I know.
Xxclone and Acronis (under the covers of Maxtor). For me there is something wrong with an OS when semi intelligent person such as myself spends days to simply replace one hard drive with another. Especially when he finally surrenders and goes Unix....which then allows him to finally use the Windows application I needed.

I am not going to give up though. I already have my old hard drive and I will get another scratch one and finally clone an image that will boot. I will see if I can replicate what you have suggested Gordon. I don't know how many pc folks have installed Ubuntu but it is pretty frightening in its simplicity. Installing and using it was, for me, far easier than simply cloning a boot drive. I assume I made some mistake(s?) in my desperate attempts to clone but for the end result to be the inability to boot is kind of crazy I think. At the very least I know that one of those cloning programs wrote something (I am thinking the registry entry) to my source drive which I thought was an absolute no no for disk cloning software.

Wish me luck. I will report back as I seek to emulate Gordons method.

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee