Need some Advise

[Murf]

Have two hard drives:
1-20GB (system drive)
1-60GB (storage)

Both drives have two equal partitions on them:

20GB = C: / D:
60GB = E: / F:

Running XP Pro. I want to take out the 20GB and only leave the 60GB. Transfer programs/Operating System Over, then use the 20GB in another computer.

What is the best way to do this?? Ghost the 20GB to one of the 60GB partitions, then take out the 20GB and Ghost back to the other partition of the 60GB. BIOS should see the O/S???

[Train]

If you use Ghost 2003.
I clear the primary boot sector of the larger drive. So I do not lose anything.
Then Ghost the primary of the smaller drive to the larger ones' primary partition. Switch which drive I boot to and I am off running.
Got questions, fire away.

[Murf]

OK, need to check what version of Ghost I have as 2002 I think is not XP compatible.

So I clear the 1st partition of the 60GB then make it a primary. Ghost the 20GB to the 1st partition of the 60GB, take out the 20GB, switch the 60GB to Master and boot away. I know XP is figidy about drives ect.. Guess once I do this, immediately go into SETUP and auto detect, then continue booting.

Should not have to mess with boot.ini as it will still be pointing to the 1st partition of a primary..???

[Murf]

Well I see that the following are compatible with XP:

Symantec Ghost 8.0
Symantec Ghost 7.5
Norton Ghost 2003
Norton Ghost 2002

[Train]

That is about what I do, I tend to skip the setup step though.
Other than that you got it.

I use 2003, never wanted to fight the 2002 serial number bit.

[Murf]

Thanks,

My version is not compatible I have version 5.1, need to look around for a later version got it here somewhere.

Putting a DVD/CDRW in my son's and have no IDE space, unless I buy a controller card, which is an option ,then just can leave both HDD in there. But DADDY needs the extra HDD space for me.

[Train]

Well then get a ATA133 card and a couple LARGE hdds then.
Like a couple 300's

[Murf]

Hey if they would pay us here at VRDR, then I could afford that. lolol.

[Train]

A point well taken.

[Ridgerunr]

I did pretty much exactly the same as Train describes when I got my Seagate 120 gig a' couple months ago. My main drive was the WD800JB 80GB. Set the seagate to 4 partitions with the primary to 20GB,then transferred the primary(also 20GB) from the WD then made it the storage drive. I also installed the Promise TX133 controller card on my Asus A7V600-X board and run both HDD's off of it. DVD burner is on primary IDE and DVD-ROM on secondary IDE. Runs very well with this config for me...

[Murf]

Thanks,

May just buy a controller card, easiest solution, no cloning/imaging, just hook the DVD up to it...

Will try repartitioning and image I just found my copy of Paragon Hard Disk Manager Professional which will do the job, the same as Ghost.

[Train]

IDE primary cdrom
IDE secondary has my dvd and cd burners
And my 4 hdds are on the ATA1 cards.
The ATA card may not pick up that DVD .
So put it on the IDE and place your slave hdd on the ata card.
Besides, it will speed up the transfers from hdd to hdd if they are on the same ribbon. Besides that with dvd if it is a burner, replace one of the cd devices.

[Murf]

Thanks,

I would just replace his CDROM with the DVD/Burner, but I just bought the CDROM recently..got the DVD/Burner from a buddy free. Oh well will figure it out. Thanks for the advise it helps. If I do go with a card will put the IDE drives on it.

[Murf]

Mission accomplished. I now have an additional 7200rpm 20GB hard drive in this one. DVD burner installed in son's, used Paragon Disk Management, my Ghost software was not compat with XP.

Thanks to all for the help.

[Train]

Good to hear!