Ghosting a hard drive

[madcat75]

I have never ghosted a hard drive before (making an exact copy of one drive onto another so it's exactly the same except now you have more HD space). So how do I go about doing this, what is the best software to use also? Thanks.

 

[KSoD]

Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. How to do it depends on the application used. Both do it a different way and both give instructions on how to do it.

 

[madcat75]

Thank you.

 

[Win2kpatcher]

Also remember that the clone operation will only work on the same computer. Meaning if you currently have a 80GB HD and want a 300GB HD installed and ghosted the 80GB to the 300GB then that would work fine and it would boot no problem.

If you however say ghosted the 80GB HD to the 300GB and put that 300GB HD in another PC of a differnt type it would not boot and throw a hal.dll BSOD due to the different HAL.

 

[madcat75]

So you're saying if I ghosted mhy 120 gig to a 320 gig and put that 320 gig in a different PC, it would not work?

 

[KSoD]

That is correct. The hardware, processor and RAM would be different and therefor would be corrupt and not boot.

 

[Win2kpatcher]

So you're saying if I ghosted mhy 120 gig to a 320 gig and put that 320 gig in a different PC, it would not work?

That is what I am saying exactly 2 differnt HAL's simply wont work.. Well let me rephrase that.. "sometimes" it works..but the ratio from my personal experience is about 95% chance of not working and 5% chance of working.

 

[madcat75]

So there's not a **** thing I can do to make sure I keep everything the same? That sucks.

 

[Win2kpatcher]

So there's not a **** thing I can do to make sure I keep everything the same? That sucks.

Well you could do the ghost operation then run a repair on the OS if you have the original XP CD you installed XP with on the image you are ghosting. That would make it boot normal..you may still have to load all the drivers for the new machine though if they are not built in to XP SP2.

 

[technogab]

So there's not a **** thing I can do to make sure I keep everything the same? That sucks.

Unfortunately you cant move it to another PC. Not to plug Mac's here, but I just imaged a Mac the other day, and you can take a drive out of a completely different model and throw it in another Mac and it boots up no problem! It doesnt even have to configure the new hardware, it just works. Even if it's a different platform. I took a drive out of a G5 and put it in a G4 and it booted no problem just as if I were on the G5(it ran a little slower of course) but it does work. You can even use an external Firwire drive and carry your OS with you from Mac to Mac.

I wish Windows could do this, because that is a great feature. I've been in your situation many of times, and GHOST is great, but only if you are using the same exact type of PC.