Copying a Bootable Partition

[telcart]

Hey there,

Is there any way I can copy a primary bootable partition on to a new hard drive and still be able to boot from it? I've tried with Partition Magic and have had no luck, I'm going insane with this. Any ideas?

[Sterling_Aug]

Symantec Ghost, Acronis, Bart PE with Ghost, every hard drive manufacturers' hard drive test utility. Should I go on?

[telcart]

Well I've used several but the problem is that the Windows XP HAL file seems to always get messed up. So I'm guessing it's something changing in the MBR that Windows doesnt like.

[G]

"HAL file seems to always get messed up"

In what way? How do you know it relates to HAL? Do you have an error message I can work with?

You are restoring the image to the same system - yes? Otherwise HAL would be messed up as the HAL file will not be applicable to the new hardware components in the new from old computer.

[Sterling_Aug]

Copying a hard drive from one drive to a new drive works perfectly every time as long as the hard drive is the ONLY thing that changes.

Upgrading an entire system by copying an old drive to a new system will rarely work without at least a Windows repair install after.

[daverme]

If you clone a hard drive using Norton Ghost, you cannot boot from it unless you fix the MBR. FDISK /MBR will do the trick.

[Sterling_Aug]

Of course you can boot from it. I have NEVER had to do a FDISK /MBR yet.

A drive to drive copy is a perfect duplicate of every file.

[BipolarBill]

Clone with this:

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

This is important! - do NOT leave the old drive in when you reboot. Reboot with the cloned drive only the first time and be sure that it's the primary master or SATA1. Add the old drive (for formatting) *as a slave or secondary master* after you've made sure that the new drive boots properly.

[Sterling_Aug]

What function did you use in Partition Magic to copy a drive? I don't see that available in version 8.05. I can copy a partition, but not a drive.