1

Topic: Windows XP Welcome screen empty after partition copy.

Hi,

I have WinXP Pro installed on a 20GB partition inside a 40GB HD. I want to copy the full content of the partition to another HD, a newly HD of 160 GB.

I download the live CD (Gparted-0.3.1) and connect the 40GB HD as master and the 160GB HD as slave. Both drives are IDE.

I made all the steps for copying two patitions that appear on the doc. section.

Then I disconnect the 40GB Drive and I changed the 160GB as master.

Then I installed Mandriva 2007 to use the Grub bootloader.

After making all this, I boot the system, and say to Grub, boot the WinXP partition.

It boots, but at the end I have a nice WindowsXP logo on the welcome screen but any (I repeat, ANY) of my defined users, not even Administrator. I try to do the twice CTRL-ALT-DEL trick to see if the normal login screen comes, but this procedure was also negative. I try even to get into the safe mode, with the same result!!!!

With the Recovery console of Windows XP I could get into the drive, but from there I couldn't do anything.

When I connect my old drive again (disconnecting the new one first) all runs fine.

Any Idea????? It could be that Micro$oft Windows Checks that he is on another hadware and it locks the Windows Version????

Any help will be very helpful.

    Alend.

2

Re: Windows XP Welcome screen empty after partition copy.

The problem you got is quite interesting. There is one step i didnt give attention when copying windows. This could be your problem. What i am talking about is this : http://www.dominok.net/en/it/en.it.clon … ettingupxp
When i made the tests i dint got the problem you have, but it might happen sometimes, and i guess this what happened to you...

Anyway, we must first have a look at something  :
- tell me the output of your partitions, for BOTH hdd. The best way to do this is to past here the output of
# fdisk -ul (when running the livecd)
If you dont know how to keep the output, follow the steps as described there : http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/ti … etails.htm
- you also may try this to know if the problem comes from windows or from hdd : after you have copied your win, immedatly plug the 160 as master and unplug the 40 hdd. I guess it wont boot, because you must restore mbr. To do this boot off your xp cdrom and follow those steps : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058. The command you have to run is : fixmbr :

FIXMBR
fixmbr device name
Use this command to repair the MBR of the boot partition. In the command syntax, device name is an optional device name that specifies the device that requires a new MBR. Use this command if a virus has damaged the MBR and Windows cannot start.

Warning This command can damage your partition tables if a virus is present or if a hardware problem exists. If you use this command, you may create inaccessible partitions. We recommend that you run antivirus software before you use this command.

You can obtain the device name from the output of the map command. If you do not specify a device name, the MBR of the boot device is repaired, for example:
fixmbr \device\harddisk2
If the fixmbr command detects an invalid or non-standard partition table signature, fixmbr command prompts you for permission before rewriting the MBR. The fixmbr command is supported only on x86-based computers.

and tell me if now, ixp boots and youcan logon...

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

3

Re: Windows XP Welcome screen empty after partition copy.

Hi Larry!

I am very thankful, I did what you recommend me on the donimok web site, and it works without problem! thanks a, lot.

Anyway I will describe what I've done:

First I put to work the old HD again, I enter windows, I Backed up the content of HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices, and then I erased the content on this registry key.

Then I installed the 2 HD again (40 GB as Master, 160 GB as Slave), and booted GParted Live cd.

I made the mistake to erase the complete 160 GB disk before the fdisk listing, then I copy the hda1 partition (WinXP Pro) on the slave HD: Then I made the fdisk listing, and that is what I had:


Disk /dev/hda: 41.1 GB, 41174138880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 5005 cylinders, total 80418240 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *          63    41110334    20555136    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2        41110335    80405324    19647495    5  Extended
/dev/hda5        41110398    53383994     6136798+  83  Linux
/dev/hda6        53384058    55633094     1124518+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda7        55633158    80405324    12386083+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1              63    41110334    20555136    7  HPFS/NTFS

As you can see I have also Linux Installed on this 40GB HD, the linux distro is Mandriva 2006.0

I boot the system, disconnect the 40GB and I leave the 160 GB but I set now as master drive.

When I boot again, nope, It seems that there are any MBR. I used the procedure you toldme with fixmbr, but with the same result... no booting :-(

Then I install Mandriva 2007 again, and put graphic lilo as bootloader, and windows partition as default boot.

Reset, Voila!!! System perfect up and running! Both systems boot perfect: WinXP Pro and Linux Mandriva. And I can log in on XP.

Again, thanks a lot for your help!

4

Re: Windows XP Welcome screen empty after partition copy.

Happy with you alen !


Bart, this is weird !
There is something i dont understand. both hd are ide ; he copied just like he has to. The win partition is the same (hda1 / hdb1). After he restore mbr, it should work ! And btw, it seems that removing MountedDevices in XP registry may sometime be usefull ... :-/

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)