Ghosting Question!!!

A

Atanum141

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
Messages
150
Lo chaps
well it seems im gonna get a new HDD but i dont want to reinstall everything so the best way is ghosting...i want to copy everything!...OS inc drivers, Software, Games....everything. can this be done??

all im changing is the HDD from IDE to SATA....so i want to completely copy my entire HDD with everything and have the remaning space to work with on the new HDD....can this be done?
 
Just use the utility that came with your new hard drive. All major HDD manufacturers include a utility to do this. You can get it off their website if you didn't get a disc with the drive. They're free and very easy to use.
 
ok...well i dont think i said clearly what i want to do..

i want to completly image my c: drive from a IDE HDD to the new SATA HDD i want everything intact and how it is currently...

so basically all im doing is switching HDD's and going from IDE to SATA.

can this be done with norton ghost?
 
Atanum141 said:
ok...well i dont think i said clearly what i want to do..

i want to completly image my c: drive from a IDE HDD to the new SATA HDD i want everything intact and how it is currently...

so basically all im doing is switching HDD's and going from IDE to SATA.

can this be done with norton ghost?
Click to expand...
Yes, but it's can also be done with the HDDs free imaging/cloning utility that comes with your HDD. If it's OEM and doesn't include the software you can download it from the manufacturer's site.

Like S1nF1xx said...
 
Hmmm....never done that before. I would at a minimum load the SATA drivers for the new HD into the existing OS so that it would pick up the new HD once you rebooted from writing the new image. Since you are loading to a new drive, you could try it and if it didn't work you would still have your existing HD to continue with - no harm in trying it. Just don't wipe out your old drive until you get a successful transition.

Ax
 
it wont work.. I'll just let you down right now. I'm dead serious since I am the distributed computing technician for a mortgage company. you cant just up and image a hard drive and throw it in a different box on a different standard (ata100/133 to sata) wont work bro.
 
Om1kron said:
it wont work.. I'll just let you down right now. I'm dead serious since I am the distributed computing technician for a mortgage company. you cant just up and image a hard drive and throw it in a different box on a different standard (ata100/133 to sata) wont work bro.
Click to expand...
Really!! but all im doing is changing HDD's no other hardware will be effected...thats the thing...all i want is to use the newer HDD but its on SATA insted of IDE....and i allready hve the Sil3112 RAID/SATA drivers on my OS so would it still be a problem?

also the new HDD im getting are OEM....so no software with them. :(
 
I've never heard of free cloning appz that come with hdd's... those mainly check for errors and format hard drives... I could be wrong.

Anyway I just recently cloned my XP w/ sp2, first I tried Ghost 2003, v9, and v10 but with bad results. I was only successful with Acronis True Image. Apparently Hot-imaging doesn't work well with cloning. just my 2 cents
 
I forgot to mention ghost 2003 is not hot-imaging but it still didn't work for me...
Acronis True Image FTW!!!
 
CAD OC'er said:
I've never heard of free cloning appz that come with hdd's... those mainly check for errors and format hard drives... I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

Yep, you're wrong. ;)
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?swid=1

In the instructions under step 5 you can see
DRIVE-TO-DRIVE COPY - Copy all the files or a specific folder from one drive to another.

I was oblivious to this up until a few years ago myself.


Anyway, back OT. Has anyone tried to clone an ATA drive to SATA and gotten any bootup errors? Compatability with the IDE driver vs the SATA driver? It should work fine I'd think. Plus it's not like you're erasing the old drive as you do the clone. Give it a shot, can't hurt.
 
oh... I usually buy OEM raptors. Good to know ;)

The OP could run Sysprep and clone from there but that may require a bootable cloning CD.
 
sweet guys thanks for all ur help...im gonna try norton ghost and the true image software...depending on how easy it is. :D
 
Atanum141 said:
Really!! but all im doing is changing HDD's no other hardware will be effected...
Click to expand...
The raid driver has to be installed in the windows hardware setup when you initially format so it will recognize sata drives... you cant just transfer that data to a blank sata drive and plug it up due to lack of the hard drive cotroller.

if you were going ide to ide on the same mobo platform then I would say its possibly.

But sata from ide.... not happening.

thats the thing...all i want is to use the newer HDD but its on SATA insted of IDE....
Click to expand...
Your best bet is to see if there is some way you can install that hard drive controller w/o the drive actually being installed on the computer. I Can tell you it wont work a million times until you try it out yourself.

and i allready hve the Sil3112 RAID/SATA drivers on my OS so would it still be a problem?
Click to expand...
lack of a written boot sector on your sata drive... you could always log in as admin on your machine and copy your profile to the default user profile folder, then copy that default user profile to a cd or something like that. and your resources folder if you have custom themse and the uxtheme.dll's yada yada and just do a clean install and restore the default user profiles before logging into your main profile.


also the new HDD im getting are OEM....so no software with them. :(
Click to expand...
Good luck man, sometimes you just have to find out on your own. I would just take the time to do a clean install.
 
Om1kron said:
Good luck man, sometimes you just have to find out on your own. I would just take the time to do a clean install.
Click to expand...
thanks for the input......i wouldnt mind doing the clean install but i have over 170gigs of data including the OS and bits that come along with it....usually i do,do a clean install everytime but i thought i could give this a try and see what its like....by reading the pages on the google search many people have tryed different methods and many work and some dont.....ill have to wait and see what happens when i get my drives...

as ive just ordered 2 250gig SATA2 samsung spinpoints......should be fun! :D
 
There ARE some MBs with BOTH SATA and IDE, if he has one of those MBs, the drivers are already installed in windows, even though the controller wasn't in use, and most controllers are somewhat universal. I have never done this personally, but I imagine it can be done, if you are using a new controller that is not part of the system, install it first with the new HDD, blank, and boot off the old one. Let windows do it's thing so it detects'recognizes/likes the new drive, then power down, copy, unplug old (do not delete/format yet in case something goes wrong) power up with new sata drive, and you very well could be done and good to go.
 
Om1kron said:
it wont work.. I'll just let you down right now. I'm dead serious since I am the distributed computing technician for a mortgage company. you cant just up and image a hard drive and throw it in a different box on a different standard (ata100/133 to sata) wont work bro.
Click to expand...
Yes it can work.

There are several methods, the first actually requires no extra steps, but the HAL and IDE controller must match between the two mobos. ;)

Then there are a several methods where this can work with extra steps, sysprep, repair install, and another mucking aroud with they system manually.

Morgage companies use distributed computing?!??!???!? Can you explain?
 
Sysprep + Ghost = success.

It will work, despite the maddening amount of misinformation posted in this thread.

CAD OC'er said:
I forgot to mention ghost 2003 is not hot-imaging but it still didn't work for me...
Acronis True Image FTW!!!
Click to expand...
You don't want to EVER use hot-imaging. Ghost isn't meant to be run in Windows, and never needs to be actually installed. I run Ghost from a bootable thumb drive or an ERD Commander disc.
 
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