Can I move Windows from one hard drive to another?

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Hi,

I've done that many times with NT, 2000 and XP:
Boot on an other system than the one to copy otherwise some files cannot be copied (registries).
Copy system directory to new location including on other drive.
Edit boot.ini file to make an option to boot to the new directory.
Boot into the new system.
Set the drives letters like you want then reboot.
Edit the registry to replace every occurrence of old paths by the new ones. Repeat until no more is left.
Reboot. Now the older system should no longer be used. Backup the original system to be careful.
If you want , delete it. Reboot. Now you'll know if it's allright or not. Check system logs.

I can't remember of a problem arising after that method was applied and I've used it many times. But it can always happen with peculiar applications. Some Unix-fashioned applications may require you to edit their config files to substitute some paths. Anyway this is not a Windows issue.

As far as the aforementioned Windows are concerned, this method is reliable..

This explanation is given to the best of my knowledge but I don't give ANY garanty or liability about it and the one who uses this method is supposed to be knowledgeable in IT, understand that he may lose data, and assume his decision to try it.

Patrick Bouster

hi, i have a very small 8 gig hard drive running as the main c drive with windows xp in it. i also have a 250 gig drive installed with a lot of stuff saved onto it. the c drive is very low on space and requires me to clean it up often after using the internet. how do i change the new 250 gig drive into the main drive for the computer for temorary internet files to save in and also so that i can have enough space to install macromedia studio?

My Win XP Pro 64 bit is on the only hard drive and it's labeled J:.
I have tried changing the drive letter to c: but it won't let me.
I was wondering if I install another hard drive and give it the c: drive letter,
and move Win XP to the c:drive from the j: drive, will it work and boot the computer?

Leo,
I added a 2nd hard drive for more space. My original drive is almost full and I am unsure of how to move files to the new drive. I'm not a computer Guru so is there a simple way to move like music files, for instance, to the new drive and if so, what will need to be changed or reset to be able to access them on the new drive. I'm very illiterate about how this works. It's a Dell PC. I know if I download anything new I need to choose the new drive to put it on, but don't know how to get to these files if I do that, especially my music. Can you help me?

Thanks for your time.

Sherry

Hi Leo,
I have done my own research and have been able to "transplant" windows from one pc to the other without reinstalling. VMware uses the same trick for p2v conversion.
The trick is to somehow grab windows folder and copy it to the other machine and set boot.ini setting in boot file there.
I use sysinternals utility, but you can use bart pe, windows pe.
first somehow make driver backup of the source machine using driver backup utility.
then make a copy of windows folder using file sync or cd based booting such as bart pe.
if you make copy of windows while running windows using utility such as filesync, u cannot copy registry files. in that case copy registry file from the repair folder. to main system32\config folder
once you have system folder ready copy it to usb pen drive. also copy boot.ini to pen drive.
insert pen drive in target machine
now go to target machine, boot using boot cd such as bart pe, format the drive and make partition active, copy windows folder and boot.ini to the partition.
now remove the cd and try to boot the machine, chances are that it will boot, if it does not boot that means your storage controller in target machine is different. in that case you need to edit registry file for different storage controller, there are two types of storage controllers so there is 50% chance that u will not need to do this. There is an msdn article on this issue, i can send it later.
now when it boots it will not find documents and settings folder, it will complain but will creates them.
alternately you can copy documents and settings folder too.
later you can copy display, network and sound driver should the hardware be different.

It's possible to move a windows installation onto another drive and boot off the copied version, but not in your case, because you're obviously still booting off your old drive, then the bootloader is set up to load windows the files from the new hard drive. I've been in this situation before and it can be very frustrating.

But if you're reading this and only have one hard drive with windows on it, then read on.

I have copied my windows installation before, it's not that hard to do. You might need to delete some entries from the registry to avoid problems, but that's it.

Then you just use your favorite hard drive cloning tool (I used the partitionmagic recovery floppy, it boots from DOS and has no problem copying an NTFS partition from one drive to another along with the boot sector).

I would suggest that you use the norton ghost software.. It will surely solve your problem... It doesn't matter if you transfer all files to a bigger hard drive or a smaller hard drive. As long as the data fits in the drive, it will work... Good Luck!

I don't think Leo really answered the question. Instead, he said don't do it.

Sometimes, it just needs to be done. I need to do it now. Here's my peculiar problem:

I had a BDC that had to have the Win2K Server OS reinstalled. Unfortunately, we reinstalled the BDC, we installed the OS on a 8GB hard drive that's 6 years old. Ooops.

Leo's solution would be to install the BDC on the correct hard drive and re-do everything. The problem here is that the BDC is not on the same local network as the PDC which means that we'd have to physically move the server to the location of the PDC this means loads of money and time.

Enter Norton Ghost... Norton Ghost will accomplish the task for us moving the Win2K server to the 80 GB hard drive, but alas it costs $ 70 + tax. IS there another solution?

I think so. I just can't find it from Leo because he's too busy telling us not to put ourselves in this situation. Your right Leo. We shouldn't have been here. But we are. Now we are looking for a solution to get out of the problem without having to buy Norton Ghost. So instead of just telling us no, how about offering us some real solutions?

i just got a new motherboard. i would like to no how to add a hard drive that allready has windows XP on it with out haveing to Reinstall there not the same brand board but thay are boath PC's iv ben wondering how to do this for a long time an would help me out a lot thanks

I have a 300gig hard drive with xp pro Ran great for 3yrs not troubles. Then installed explorer 8 beta goes to reboot and from then on I could no longer get it to boot to windows I tried every option under F8 and got it to boot to safe mode command prompt So I tried to do a system restore from command prompt C:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui hit enter & nothing happened. So tried the xp cd to do a repair windows install that didnt work so Her's what I did I changed jumper on 300gig hd to slave and used same xp pro cd and installed windows on a 60 gig hd in hopes I could somehow now be able to transfer/replace/repair the windows on my 300gig hd so it will boot up again then I can do a system restore and get it back to how it was b4 became unbootable. or leave it as is If I can get it bootable again. Like I said for 3yrs never had any serious problems that system restore never corrected. I have so many programs installed aswell as links and info that would be hard if not impossible to retrieve like activation codes usernames & passwords to sites saved in my favorites where user name and PW were remembered for them Not to mention all the programs that were current with drivers/codecs etc.. only some will run correctly now that the drive is slaved so please in Step by step instructions can some one help me and tell me exactly what files I need to transfer/replace etc.. on my old primary 300gig hd where windows became unbootable which is now slaved to a 60gig hd with exact same xp pro installed on it. So I can unslave it and be able to boot to windows again. Or would this be easier now that I can access my Old main HD now that its slaved isnt there a folder/files or backup that I could just copy n paste edit/replace then unslave my hd make it master again would be able to boot back up like normal? If so please help with which files/directories/folders and step by step on how to. Thank you in advance for your generousity and for sharing your knowlege,help,time spent aiding me with this problem

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