1 Topic by Gurkchen

  • Gurkchen
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  • Registered: 2009-12-27
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Topic: clone winxp bootable on new hdd

Is it possible to clone a runing winxp on a brand new hdd so that i can boot the new winxp using gparted?
What about any problems which may show up upon cloning the os like this:
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=2815

are there any other things i should know?

please answer in an way a almost newbie like me can understand^^

thank you, Gurkchen

2 Reply by xcrln (edited by xcrln 2009-12-28 00:37:07)

  • xcrln
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Re: clone winxp bootable on new hdd

It is definitely do-able,

Make sure that the two Hard drives match in capacity, or that the new one is larger than the original, and that both hard drives will remain in the same computer. (if they don't, windows might throw a fit, and that would also be piracy wink )

put both hard drives in the machine and make sure that your BIOS has enabled them (press one of the "F" keys to setup your BIOS during boot)   Boot gparted, and when you can see both hard drives in gparted, right click the partition with the working windows install, and select copy.  then in the drop down menu, select your new hard drive,  click and select paste.

Depending on the size of your drive, it may take anywhere from an hour, to overnight.   

If your copy doesn't boot, boot up off a windows xp CD, and run "chkdsk /f" at the recovery console (let the CD load, and press "r" when prompted if you want to install XP)

I hope this helps, and please report back to the forum for any problems, or if you get it working.

3 Reply by class413

  • class413
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Re: clone winxp bootable on new hdd

You can perform the disk copy using "clonezilla" too, or the Linux dd command (that performs a bit copy of the entire drive).
You need to clone the entire hard drive, including the master boot sector, not just the system partition.

Be sure to remove the old drive from the computer just after doing the copy, before rebooting the system. Don't boot into windows with both hard drives connected, otherwise the registry will keep the new partition under another letter instead of the original one (usually C). This could make the new partition impossible to boot.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***