Can I move Windows from one hard drive to another?

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Thanks for the Casper XP tip.
Just what I was looking for.

i remember copying contents of 1 drive to another back in 98 wasn't too hard. copy everything except Windows dir, then make a Windows dir on the 2nd hdd and copy everything in the Windows dir over except the swap file. sys the new drive, shut down, change the master/slave settings, and boot on up.

it's probably equally simple for win2k/winxp, but 'm not sure which files are "unmovable". ntuser.dat in the Documents & Settings dir seems to be one of 'em... anyone got a list?

Simply use the software from the manufacture. It does work. I've tried them all.

Or, since I'm bored and tired, I'll explain the way I do it using Ghost and partition magic. This is going to be extrememly long winded. Sorry in advance.

Ok, Say you have a 80Gb in your system now, with 3 partitons. The first is the boot partition, the other 2 are just storage, and you want to move everything to a new 200Gb. Use Norton Ghost 2003.

Just install the new HD as a slave. Boot with a Ghost Boot Floppy, or CD, select "Local," then "Disk," then "To Disk."

Choose the old hard drive as the source, the new hard drive as the target, and it will copy the full disk, creating 3 partitions, onto the new drive. The last partition will have the extra 120Gb. Then just pull the old drive, install the new HD as the Master and reboot into the bios. Have it identify the new HD, reboot again and your done.

You can then use Partition Magic 8.0 to resize the partitions to best suite you.

On the other hand, say you have some data on the 200Gb already that you don't want to lose.

Here's a way to do that.

We'll say the 80gb is full, once again with 3 partitions. First, see how big the C: drive is on the old HD.

Then, use Partition Magic to create a partition 10Gb bigger (just to be safe) than the old C: drive, BEFORE the one that's on there now.

All your data should now be in the second partition, with an unused partition at the start of the drive. Use Windows to format the new partition. (right click on it from explorer and choose format. You might have turn off the recyle bin / or norton protection if you have SystemWorks installed.)

Once again, boot from Ghost, but this time choose "Local", then "Partiton", then "To Partiton" and it will show both HD's. Choose the 80gb. Then it will show all 3 partitons on the old hard drive. Choose #1, then point it to the SECOND hard drive, then the #1 partition on that drive. Remember to check the sizes to be sure you're selecting the right partitions / drives.

It will then copy the boot partition to the new HD. Once it's complete, power off and swap the drives. IE. Move the old one to slave, and the new one to master. (Don't worry about the old OS still being on the old drive.)

Make sure you go into the bios and have it find both drives again.

Now, once you reboot a couple times you'll have the new 200Gb as the master, with all your data that you wanted to keep still in a partiton on it, and you'll also see all 3 partitions from the old drive. Either leave it there as storage, or if you want to remove it, just copy everything you want to keep to the new hard drive. Then power down and remove it.

Also, if you followed this you now own Ghost. The next time you do a fresh install, or system restore for a OEM computer, go ahead and setup your email, install the programs you use on a normal basis. IE Winzip, Winamp, Office, or whatever and don't forget to do all windows / software updates. Once you've done that use Ghost to create an "image" of your Boot partiton.

Boot from Ghost, select Local, then partition, then "To image" and point it at the first HD as the source, and at the first partition.

Then select the SECOND partition, or the old HD as the target. Give it a name, and it will then create a full image of your boot partition. So, the next time you get a virus, or have to do a fresh install just boot from Ghost, choose Local, then Partiton, then "FROM image." Point it to the first partition on the main HD, and then to the image file and less than an hour later your fully up and running again, with everything installed, updated, etc. No more 8 hour nights reinstalling everything.

Anyway, Sorry for the grammar errors. It's way too late, and I'm way to tired to care about them. I might have a few steps mixed up but it's really easy to figure out. Just remember Disk = the full hard drive, and partition = just that... a single partition.

well sysprep made my endevor a lot easier
and then its as simple as editing the boot.ini file to direct it to the folder containing the "ntldr" file usualy \windows

this is my boo.ini file

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

to acces yours go to run type the letter of ur active partition then boot.ini like this "e:\boot.ini"

Hmm... I appreciate all your posts; very informative. However, my problem is that my old computer's motherboard fried, and I'm trying to get the old information from my old computer to my new computer. The old computer's HD has Windows XP Home installed, and the new is Windows XP Pro.
This is what I'm planning on doing.
1) connect old hd as slave to new computer.
2) hope and pray that my new computer recognizes it and can sneek into the HD to take the old information that I need.
3) remove said old hd, and install my old storage 80gb hd as the new slave (as it was in my old system), and keep my music, pictures, etc.
4) did I mention pray??
I can't clone the old HD, because the system is now dead.
Any guidance/help is appreciated!

Well, your plan sounds sound to me. (Especially step #4 :-).

Good luck!

Wayne, you shouldn't have any problems at all. If you are now using a store brand computer (Dell, HP, Gateway) then your bios is already configured to boot from the drive that the system came preloaded on. This means, when you plug in your old computer's system drive as a slave drive, your computer will boot fine. Your bios may say that it has detected multiple Operating Systems. Don't worry, let it time out and boot to default. Once booted, you should be able to get whatever you need from your old drive, assuming nothing was wrong with the drive in the first place.

Anyways, I hope this helps.

OK THIS IS MY PROBLEM I HAVE A LOCAL DISK(C) AND LOCAL DISK(D) AND MY DRIVE (C) DON'T HAVE MORE MEMORY (SPACE) AND I WANT TO KNOW HOW CAN I DO.. ALSO I WANT TO KNOW HOW CAN I PUT THE LOCAL DISK(D) HAS LIKE THE (C) DRIVE.

It is not enough to do the partition copy. You also have to remap the drive letters. Windows XP/2003 assignes drives by name. you have to go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices" and swap assignments from old drive to new one.
It IS DANGEROUS.
Best way is:
1) Save registry key
2) remap letters in registry (not only the "\DosDevices\", but the appropriate volumes, and the system drive.
3) Do system Backup.
4) replace SYSTEM hive on the new drive, with the one generated in "repair" folder.
5) restore registry key, so machine works.
6) shut down
7) swap physical drives
8) reboot.
- should work now. I did it 3 times.

If Partition Magic, Norton Ghost or the HDD manufacturers programs dont work for you, try
[Acronis TrueImage 9].

I tried all of the above including most of the solutions already listed here to move Windows XP Pro from a 30Gb Quantum to a 160GB Western Digital with no success. Here's what happened and why I think TrueImage worked.

I started with Partition Magic, fantastic ap for joining, spliting and resizing partitions, as far as copying went i was left with blank partitions constantly so no joy there.

Next I tried Norton Ghost (Many, many tries). Whil norton would clone the drive, when I rebooted to the new, larger drive, windows would begin booting but would crash during the pale blue loading screen. After a lot of mucking around I booted back to the old hard drive and used the system explorer program that RobTillaart mentioned. Windows had become VERY confused and was running processes of the windows directory on both hard drives! After my second clone it must have transfered this to the new drive too. Eventually I figured out that the problem was assignment of the drive letter C: . I tried numerous ways to fix it, reassigned C to the new HDD before cloning and rebooting, still no joy.

After nearly tearing my hair out I decided to try another cloning program and came across TrueImage. It did the clone after rebooting windows on the old drive and just after it completed I noticed a line which said 'Reassigning Drive Letters'. I then unplugged the old HDD, booted to the new, and Viola! It worked. I'm not sure what TrueImage does but im assuming it reassigns the drive in the registry of the new version of windows before you reboot to it.

Either way, Im a very happy man now. If nothing else works for you, I'd strongly recommend giving

Acronis TrueImage 9

a try.

Good Luck.

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