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Copying xp boot partition

Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Copying xp boot partition

I will soon be changing a boot drive from an 80GB partitioned 10GB/60GB to 250GB drive partitioned 150GB/85GB approx.
As I don't want to start from scratch I want to copy everything across.
I know I can do it using an Acronis boot disk but I wondered if I could do the same thing using a BartPE boot disc.
4 REPLIES 4
Pendragon
Rising Star
Posts: 445
Thanks: 9
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Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: Copying xp boot partition

If you are using XP Pro you could try using the ASR (automated system recovery) application to back up your C: partition and then recover it. You will need a floppy disk drive and floppy disk.
In theory you should be able to put your new drive in as a slave, partition it, then back the old C: drive up to the second partition on the new drive. Remove your old drive, set the new drive as master and use the floppy disk to restore your C: drive back to the first partition.
Zero cost and always worth a try, regards, P.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Copying xp boot partition

Thanks for the suggestions - looks like I will stay with an Acronis boot disk
samuria
Grafter
Posts: 1,581
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Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Copying xp boot partition

What Acronis boot disk? Acronis makes a boot disk for all its products.
If you have true image that will do it but you could hit some problems depending on your set up.
First you have to expand the partition when its copying or after  for this you may need Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director.
If the drives are the same type it should be ok but if you go from IDE to SATA then boot sectors/MBR might be different.
If you remove the old drive its ok but if you leave it in as slave then some systems wont boot as you have 2 drives with a active partition Gigabyte boards dont like it.
The other way is to copy all the files over to the new partition then boot from XP cd and run bootfix and mbrfix this may well work and if it doesnt you still have your data safe on the old bootable drive.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Copying xp boot partition

Taking the points in turn.
I do have True Image and the disk clone tool included (version 9 onwards) supports manual or automatic partition resizing during the copy process
The drives are both IDE (because I wasn't too happy at trying to use a SATA boot drive on this motherboard).
Regarding two active partitions I am very surprised that any modern motherboard will have a problem as you can usually select the boot disk order in the bios.