One for IT Bods

[smeagol]

Got a theory not sure it will work but as usual I'm sure omeone here will be able to tell me if it will work.

Got a client with failing hard disk. However it has not yet crashed totally. Solution replace the hard disk. Heres the theory, install new hard disk as a slave, format it. Then clever (stupid bit ) Theory can I copy all the files across from the C drive to the D then simply shut down take old disk out, change new disk to master and boot up?

Or am I going to have to make new disk master, install OS, programs, then copy data files across.

Interesting theory as most hard disk installations are after the horse has bolted ie hard disk totally Kaput.

Anyone tried this and suceeded/failed?

[miniman]

The tricky bit is getting all the boot sector stuff which you cannot see with Windows Explorer / DOS etc.

We have a utility called Norton Ghost which makes a perfect replica of the HDD including boot sectors which you can then burn to CD and "reload" to a new disk. We use it for quickly rebuilding PCs for testing software. Suggest you try that, or similar.

HTH

[ErnestM]

Try this...

www.powerquest.com/drivecopy/

Have used it - does work. It even allows you to enlarge partitions on the fly.

ErnestM

[Bodo]

Yep. worked:
Had a working system with 8GB hdd on master, bolted a 40GB hdd on slave; formatted, partitioned, copied; and finally took the 8GB out. done

Works AFAIK only when the bootloader is written on an active partition, as the MBR will not be copied?

[smeagol]

Thanks Guys, much appreciated.

[bengie]

Just be careful if you have to go out and buy a package to do this...

If the drive you wish to copy is formatted with XP's flavour of NTFS, Norton Ghost won't read it...

Read the box / spec carefully - cause it's sod's law that you'll get the wrong one, and in the time it takes to change it, the disk will die properly.

I use PowerQuest Drive Image 2002, which seems to do the job nicely.

HTH


>> Edited by bengie on Wednesday 26th February 22:20

[plotloss]

On a sort of related subject.

Is there any way to convert a Dynamic NTFS disk to a Basic NTFS disk without losing the data?

A mate had Win2000 and has a new pc with XP Home and the bloody thing wont recognise the file system.

Matt.

[xsaravtr]

plotloss said: On a sort of related subject.

Is there any way to convert a Dynamic NTFS disk to a Basic NTFS disk without losing the data?

A mate had Win2000 and has a new pc with XP Home and the bloody thing wont recognise the file system.

Matt.

Try this...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314097

>> Edited by xsaravtr on Wednesday 26th February 22:55

[GregE240]

Xsaratvr, that link explains converting a FAT partition to NTFS. This isn't what Matt's asking.

Matt, it can be converted back, but any volumes on the dynamic disk must be deleted first. If there's data within the volumes you can of course move it elsewhere.

Suggest either slapping another HDD in and moving the data, or 2 NICs and a crossover cable.

That's your only option, I'm afraid.

Greg

EDIT: Bleeding obvious, but you must have local Admin rights to do this.

>> Edited by GregE240 on Thursday 27th February 08:56