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Helen Monte

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #15 - Dec 8^th, 2009 at 10:57pm

NightOwl wrote on Nov 25^th, 2009 at 12:11pm:

you could try running the command:*fixmbr* and possibly *fixboot* to see if that will create a new MBR that allows for booting to the WinXP partition.

Then it seems that I can simply do a partition-to-partition cloning of my Windows partition and then use these fixmbr and fixboot to write a Windows MBR on my new disk -- given that I do not want to keep my Linux partitions so there is no point of doing a disk-to-disk cloning.

====
I've just done that -- with fixboot, and it did not work.
I did a partition-to-partition cloning using ghost with the default setting, i.e. no "image boot". That is, the Windows partition (with the OS on it) was copied from my IBM disk to the Hitachi SATA. As expected, the cloning succeeded without that "problem with Linux volume" complaint.
Then I used the WinXP installation disk to reach a menu where there is an option: "To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R." I pressed R and the next screen showed 3 choices:
1. C:\WINDOWS
2. D:\WINDOWS
3. E:\WINDOWS
and asked me "Which Windows installation would you like to log onto?" I picked 2. It then asked for my admin password and then showed the command prompt D:\WINDOWS>
I issued the 'map' command to see the drive letters.
D:\WINDOWS> map
...
D: NTFS 610477MB \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1
...
So I know D is my new Hitachi SATA. Then I issued "fixboot d" The system responded:
The target partition is D:
Are you sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition d?
I typed Y.
And it said "The new bootsector was successfully written"
Then I exited and restarted the computer and went to the BIOS menu, set the Hitachi SATA in all the three priorities in the Boot Device Priority menu, just to make sure the computer boots from it, with a Yes in the "Try Other Boot Devices" line. Well, it did not boot from Hitachi. Possibly because of that Yes in the "Try Other Boot Devices" line or somehow my change did not take effect, it booted from the WXP on the Western Digital disk. (Recall that I have WXP on both my IBM and WD disks. I can boot from either.) From the MyComputer-Manage menu, I no longer see the Hitachi disk. It mysteriously is gone. I went back to the BOIS menu and made sure all the three priorities in the Boot Device Priority menu are set to Hitachi and restarted the computer. This time it appears to really boot from Hitachi and sadly, those 99s appeared again.
I went to the WXP installation process again and it restarted my computer. I pressed Delete during its booting to look at the BOIS menu and saw that the Boot Device Priority is:
1st IBM
2nd Disabled
3rd Western Digital.
This must be set by the WXP installaton program.
I exited BIOS without any change and let the process continue to the point where I could choose the Recovery Console.
This time it gave me only two choices:
1. C:\WINDOWS
2. E:\WINDOWS
I picked E and typed 'map'. This time it showed only the partitions in IBM and WD. The Hitachi disappeared. So I was not able to do anything (I was trying to try fixmbr) so I exited.
I rebooted and went to the BIOS menu to set the Boot Device. Somewhat surprisingly, Hitachi also disappeared from the list of available device. I rebooted again and this time the Hitachi appeared on the available device list. So I tried to boot from it but those 99s appeared. So I rebooted from WD; and MyComputer-Manage showed the Hitachi disk along with IBM and WD.
Somehow the BIOS menu and MyComputer-Manage gave inconsistent results between two sessions. But anyway, I cannot boot from Hitachi.

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #16 - Dec 10^th, 2009 at 1:20pm

@

Helen Monte

Lots of new information!!!! I will start back with your first *new* post----

Quote:

Here is my boot.ini:

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=~~C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT~~
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
~~C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup"~~

Quote:

ever since, it asked me, during bootup, whether I want to run XP or run XP setup. It must be due to this line in boot.ini. Great, I have another problem to fix.

I think you can fix this fairly easily. (Note: You always see warnings to save a copy of your original *boot.ini* file before you start editing it--so you have a backup copy if you need to use it--I save is as *boot.ini.old*.) So, open *boot.ini* using Notepad, just delete the *C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT* after the *Default=* (I have shown it above with the *strike-through* formatting). Then copy and paste the *multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP* after the *Default=*.

You can then delete the *C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup"* line--if you do, you will probably no longer get the boot menu at the beginning of the boot sequence--I think you have to have at least two entries after the *[Operating Systems]* item for the boot menu to show up.

So, final result should look like this:

Quote:

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Save that edited copy of the *boot.ini* file back to the C:\ root directory over-writing the original *boot.ini* file.

To finish the *clean-up*, you could then delete the sub-directory ($WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT) that Setup created with the *Bootsect.dat* information.

Quote:

As said in my original post, I am not able to boot up Linux.

You mentioned that there was an error message, but I didn't understand that to mean you couldn't boot to Linux.

Quote:

And I installed it several years ago so I don't know why I have 3 Linux partitions. Probably because 1 is for the OS, another is for data, yet another is for some swap thing.

I'm going to try and get another member's attention--Mr. Magoo--he's our resident Linux guru and maybe he can help with how best to eliminate the bad Linux install.

Quote:

In yr last paragraph, you said "When you reach the last screen" - last screen in WinXP Recovey Console?

No. I was responding to your question about how Ghost is scaling the sizes of the partitions that it is about to create when you are cloning from the source drive to the destination drive:

Quote:

One thing interesting is that the sizes of the partitions on the IBM disk are scaled proportionally on the Hitachi disk. That is, say the Windows partition on the IBM IDE is 10GB, the Windows partition on the Hitachi is 120 GB; and if the Linux partitions on the IBM are 2GB, 1GB, 4GB respctively, then the Linux partitions on the IBM are 24GB, 12GB, 48GB after the disk-to-disk cloning. Is there a way to change this scaling?

I responded:

Quote:

Yes. When you reach the last screen (of the Ghost cloning setup) where it shows you the new layout and sizes for the partitions, you should be able to use the mouse to go up to the horizontal layout and click on the boundary between partitions and *drag* them to a new value. Or, I think you can click on the listed size to highlight that entry, and then type in a new size. As long as the data will fit, Ghost should allow you to change that to whatever you want.

So, I was referring to the Ghost program where it summarizes what it's about to do--not the WinXP Recovery Console.

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #17 - Dec 10^th, 2009 at 2:46pm

@

Helen Monte

I don't think I'll comment on your reply #14.

On to reply #15:

So, we now have drives *disappearing and reappearing* from the BIOS and Windows Disk Management--Wow--too many confounding variables showing up here!

So, just a couple comments:

Quote:

Somehow the BIOS menu and MyComputer-Manage gave inconsistent results between two sessions. But anyway, I cannot boot from Hitachi.

Reading through the steps you outlined, it looks like you never successfully ran the Recovery Console *FIXMBR* successfully on the cloned Hitachi HDD--and you have run at least one, and probably several Ghost procedures that may have transferred the MBR from the source IBM to the Hitachi--but, you probably have no current idea what MBR is in place on the Hitachi--is it one with the LILO boot loader--or one with just the Absolute 0 boot sector?!

Quote:

Then I used the WinXP installation disk to reach a menu where there is an option: "To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R." I pressed R and the next screen showed 3 choices:
1. C:\WINDOWS
2. D:\WINDOWS
3. E:\WINDOWS
and asked me "Which Windows installation would you like to log onto?" I picked 2. It then asked for my admin password and then showed the command prompt D:\WINDOWS>
I issued the 'map' command to see the drive letters.
D:\WINDOWS> map
...
D: NTFS 610477MB \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1
...
So I know D is my new Hitachi SATA.

Well, seeing those different drive letters is disconcerting--I'd be happier if they all said *C:\* at the beginning because in theory these installations are on three different HDDs, and on three primary partitions--why are there different drive letters reported? Presumably to differential one installation from another! However, when you boot from each, I bet they all report as being drive C:\! But, it looks like you were able to determine to your satisfaction which was which. But.....

Quote:

I exited BIOS without any change and let the process continue to the point where I could choose the Recovery Console.
This time it gave me only two choices:
1. C:\WINDOWS
2. E:\WINDOWS

How is it that the Recovery Console, which loads *anew* each time you boot and load it--seems to *remember* the drive letters it assigned previously to the various Windows installations it had found. If it only finds two installations this time--shouldn't the drive letter assigned be the next available--i.e. D:\ instead of the E:\ that your report above?

Quote:

I went to the WXP installation process again and it restarted my computer. I pressed Delete during its booting to look at the BOIS menu and saw that the Boot Device Priority is:
1st IBM
2nd Disabled
3rd Western Digital.
This must be set by the WXP installaton program.

I doubt the WinXP installation program will access and change anything that is set in the BIOS. You could try the following--reboot, enter the BIOS, set all boot priority lines to the Hitachi (or whichever of the HDDs you choose), save and exit the BIOS. Reboot and again enter the BIOS--has the settings remained the same as you set them--or are they different? I suspect it's the BIOS that will not let all three settings be the same!

Well, as I said before *too many confounding variables showing up here*--but one observation--if the WinXP installation CD boots successfully without having to install *additional* drivers in order to access the attached SATA HDDs (i.e. WD and Hitachi), and *see* the Windows installations on each--then I doubt there should be an issue regarding being able to boot to WinXP from the Hitachi--I have to suspect some other variable that has not been accounted for is causing the problem!

Because you are running the Windows based *ghost32.exe* from an active Windows partition--and cloning a Windows OS to another HDD, there's another variable that may need to be checked out--is the new partition on the Hitachi set to *active* as part of the cloning process--or does Ghost set its status as *none* or *hidden*? We might have to look at that as well!

Time to simplify! See next post!

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #18 - Dec 10^th, 2009 at 3:14pm

@

Helen Monte

Quote:

given that I do not want to keep my Linux partitions

Let's get ride of the Linux variable! Did some searching:

How to Remove Linux Boot Loader From Startup After Deleting Linux Partition on a Dual-Boot System?

How to Remove the Linux LILO Boot Manager

Can you use the BIOS to make your other two HDDs *disappear* that you are not working on at the moment? I.e. can you go into the BIOS and disable those HDDs so they are not shown as active. That way, you will be sure which HDD you are working on--but it did seem that you were able to select the correct HDD previously--but just a thought.

Or, another suggestion is to open the case and pull the communication cables out of the drives that are not involved so as to make sure you don't select the wrong drive.

Follow the instructions for removing Linux from the IBM HDD:

Quote:

1. First you'll need to boot using Windows setup CD. You can use Windows 98 Setup CD or Windows 2000, XP, 2003 CD or Windows Vista, Server 2008 DVD.

B. Using Windows 2000, XP, 2003 CD:

Enter into "Recovery Console" by pressing "R", select your Windows installation and enter administrator password. Now provide following command:

fixmbr

Press "Y" to confirm and type Exit to exit from recovery console.

Exit from Command prompt and restart your system.

2. The above commands will remove the Linux boot loader from startup and you'll be able to directly boot into Windows.

3. If you have not deleted Linux partitions, then you can delete them using "Disk Manager" tool in Windows.

Re-enable the HDDs in the BIOS if you have disabled them, and then test booting from the IBM--the Linux boot loader should be gone--and you should boot directly into WinXP. Use Disk Management to delete the 3 Linux partitions--this space should end up as *unallocated* space on the HDD.

Now, boot to your WD Windows version. Start *ghost32.exe*, and select *Local > Disk > To Disk*, select the IBM as source, and the Hitachi as the destination. If the cloning is successful, close down Windows and re-boot.

Enter the BIOS and set the Hitachi as 1st boot device--and set the other 2 lines to *disable*. Also, you could set the other two HDDs to *disable* (if this option is available) so only the Hitachi is available during this test.

Results?

If this outlined procedure doesn't work, then we will want to see what the *status* of the Hitachi partition is--boot back into one of the other Windows installations and we will proceed.

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Helen Monte

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #19 - Dec 10^th, 2009 at 6:25pm

NightOwl wrote on Dec 10^th, 2009 at 2:46pm:

If it only finds two installations this time--shouldn't the drive letter assigned be the next available--i.e. D:\ instead of the E:\ that your report above?

I don't know whether it should or should not. That was what showed up on my screen. I am positive because I used my digital camera to capture all these screen shots for my record.
NightOwl wrote on Dec 10^th, 2009 at 2:46pm:

Reboot and again enter the BIOS--has the settings remained the same as you set them--or are they different? I suspect it's the BIOS that will not let all three settings be the same!

My BIOS does allow all three settings be the same.
NightOwl wrote on Dec 10^th, 2009 at 2:46pm:

it looks like you never successfully ran the Recovery Console *FIXMBR* successfully on the cloned Hitachi HDD

I tried fixmbr yesterday morning:
> fixmbr \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1
Recovery Console responded: "
*** CAUTION ***
This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid boot record.
FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed. This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. If you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue. Are you sure you want to write a new MBR?"
I typed "y".
It responded: "The new master boot record has been successfully written"
I exited Console and booted WXP from the IBM disk and MyComputer shows the Hitachi disk as "Local Disk (H:)" -- it renamed it from "Hitachi SATA" which I named it before the fixmbr. I tried to explore this "local disk" and Windows responded : "The disk in drive H is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" I said no. MyComputer-Manage-DiskManagemnet shows Drive H having one partition and Healthy (Active). So I assume that the so-called partition table must have been damaged although the data was probably still there.
So I did a partition-to-partition clone using ghost to clone the Windows partition on IBM to Hitachi. It succeeded as expected.
I set all three boot settings to Hitachi in the BIOS menu and tried to boot from the Hitachi. It still gave me the 99s.
Well, I gave up and took my computer to a local independent shop for them to try. I told him everything I did. The guy charged me $85 if he is able to "fix" it, no charge if he canot "fix" it. He said he would let me know by tomorrow. One way or the other, I will let you know the outcome here.
NightOwl wrote on Dec 10^th, 2009 at 2:46pm:

is the new partition on the Hitachi set to *active* as part of the cloning process--or does Ghost set its status as *none* or *hidden*?

How can I check that in ghost? I did not change any default setting in ghost.

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #20 - Dec 10^th, 2009 at 9:42pm

@

Helen Monte

Quote:

I don't know whether it should or should not. That was what showed up on my screen. I am positive because I used my digital camera to capture all these screen shots for my record.

Didn't mean to make it sound like I was questioning your reported results--mostly a *rhetorical question*--wondering how that can be!

Quote:

My BIOS does allow all three settings be the same.

So, you can set all three to say the Hitachi, save the setting, and then return to the BIOS and the setting remains pointing the just the Hitachi in all three positions--another *rhetorical question*--how did this happen as you reported:

Quote:

I went to the WXP installation process again and it restarted my computer. I pressed Delete during its booting to look at the BOIS menu and saw that the Boot Device Priority is:
1st IBM
2nd Disabled
3rd Western Digital

Another *mystery*!

Quote:

I tried fixmbr yesterday morning:
> fixmbr \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1

Courious report! The MBR might be on *Harddisk1*, but it is not on *Partition1*! The MBR is not on or within any partition. I've not seen that message before--but, I don't have two or three HDDs with Windows installed--so maybe the Recovery Console's response message is different under your circumstances.

So, I'm not sure--did you do the *fixmbr* on the IBM HDD where the Linux install is located--or did you do the *fixmbr* on your Hitachi HDD? In my post above where I said this:

Quote:

Follow the instructions for removing Linux from the IBM HDD:

I was suggesting that you do the *fixmbr* on the IBM--not the Hitachi.

But, you reported this:

Quote:

I exited Console and booted WXP from the IBM disk and MyComputer shows the Hitachi disk as "Local Disk (H:)" -- it renamed it from "Hitachi SATA" which I named it before the fixmbr.

So, when you booted from the IBM disk, was the Linux boot loader gone? No reference to booting to either Linux or WinXP? Doing *fixmbr* on the IBM disk should not have had any effect on the name of the Hitachi! Another mystery!!!

Quote:

I tried to explore this "local disk" and Windows responded : "The disk in drive H is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" I said no. MyComputer-Manage-DiskManagemnet shows Drive H having one partition and Healthy (Active). So I assume that the so-called partition table must have been damaged although the data was probably still there.

Your Disk Management shows that message--*Healthy (Active)*--my WinXP Disk Management only shows the *Healthy*--there are other messages such as (Unknown Partition), (Page File), (System)--but no (Active)!

Quote:

So I did a partition-to-partition clone using ghost to clone the Windows partition on IBM to Hitachi. It succeeded as expected.
I set all three boot settings to Hitachi in the BIOS menu and tried to boot from the Hitachi. It still gave me the 99s.

Did you re-boot to the WD Windows to do this? Or, did you run Ghost from the IBM Windows?

If you did a *Local > Partition > To Partition*, then the MBR on the Hitachi was not the MBR from the IBM--unless you had transferred the MBR doing a *Local > Disk > To Disk* clone previously! But, had you also done a disk-to-disk clone using Ghosts option to transfer the whole boot tract (the *-ib* image boot switch)--which would have been the MBR with the Linux boot loader!?

Quote:

How can I check that in ghost? I did not change any default setting in ghost.

Can't check it in Ghost! And there are no settings in Ghost to control this. Ghost has a companion program that comes with your Ghost installation program--*gdisk.exe* for DOS Ghost and *gdisk32.exe* for Windows based Ghost. That is Ghost's partitioning program--it runs from the *command line*, no GUI user interface.

Or, you can use other MBR tools to show the status of the different partitions--PartitionMagic, MBRWizard - The MBR Management Utility, MBRtool, MBR Tools from *The Starman*, and probably others....

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #21 - Dec 11^th, 2009 at 10:25am

Ok, Nightowl asked me to stop by to led my Linux experience. I haven't read the entire thread in detail and just skimming it I'm a little confused about what OS's you have where. I think I understand that you have Windows and Linux both on the IBM drive and then 2 other drives besides.

If you want to get rid of Linux, you have a few options. Rad went through a similar process removing Grub and Linux from his system. It is detailed in a thread here: http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1238113195/0

The same types of things should work for you. Rad used Partition Work BING and said it went very smooth. You can also use WinXP install CD (has to be a Microsoft disk, not an OEM version.)

Once you get the MRB and boot loader taken care of, you can reclaim the partition.

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #22 - Dec 11^th, 2009 at 5:55pm

Quote:

Quote:
I tried fixmbr yesterday morning:
> fixmbr \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1

Courious report! The MBR might be on *Harddisk1*, but it is not on *Partition1*! The MBR is not on or within any partition. I've not seen that message before--but, I don't have two or three HDDs with Windows installed--so maybe the Recovery Console's response message is different under your circumstances.

I really don't know. "help fixmbr" says that fixmbr takes a device name as an argument. I did not know and did not have time to find out what a device name is exactly. So I typed the whole thing "\Device\Harddisk1\Partition1" and Windows took it!

Quote:

Quote:
So, I'm not sure--did you do the *fixmbr* on the IBM HDD where the Linux install is located--or did you do the *fixmbr* on your Hitachi HDD?

I believe, and I am led by how the Recovery Console behaved to believe, that I did the fixmbr on the Hitachi disk.
First, the Recovery Console asked me to choose a drive to logon, I selected the Hitachi drive. And I issued the fixmbr command on "\Device\Harddisk1\Partition1", which according to the output of the "map" command, refers to the Hitachi Windows partition. Perhaps I should have done the fixmbr on "\Device\Harddisk1" instead, in that case Microsoft did a poor job by failing to reject my fixmbr on "\Device\Harddisk1\Partition1".
Quote:

Quote:
I was suggesting that you do the *fixmbr* on the IBM--not the Hitachi.

Then I misunderstood you. But, conceptually speaking, my approach should work -- put a valid Windows MBR on the Hitachi disk, and then clone the Windows partition from IBM to Hitachi. And it is safer than what you suggested in the sense that I do not need to mess with my IBM disk.

Anyway, I called the shop this afternoon and the guy said he removed Linux and cloned my IBM's Windows partition onto his 160GB hard disk and can boot from there. He is now cloning his own 160GB hard disk to my Hitachi and hopefully I can get it back next Monday.

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #23 - Dec 12^th, 2009 at 12:41am

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Helen Monte

Quote:

I called the shop this afternoon and the guy said he removed Linux and cloned my IBM's Windows partition onto his 160GB hard disk and can boot from there

Looks like the Tech is following my advise to *simplify* by removing the Linux boot loader from the IBM.

If he has a 160 GB SATA in place of the Hitachi that's booting okay, I'd offer the Tech an extra $100 for his 160 HDD and leave the Hitachi at the repair shop--but, that's just me!

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #24 - Dec 15^th, 2009 at 9:22pm

I got my Hitachi disk back last night. The technician said he spent a lot of time on it. He tried many different things including different versions of Ghost and he did not remember exactly the sequence of the steps he took to make it work. He just remembered that he used a Windows XP installation disk which has an option to repair Windows to somehow repair WXP, which somehow "disabled" the accessibility to the Linux partitions and probably overwrote the MBR or booting sequence or whatever. And then he did (and probably re-did and re-did) the cloning. He said he did not do it on my IBM disk but rather on his own 160 GB disk. He believed the problem should be related to (the) Linux (dual-booter).
Anyway, I can now boot using either the IBM or the Hitachi disk but when I boot with Hitachi, my Internet Explorer does not work. It is the "The requested lokup key was not found in my active activation context" problem which I did some research on the Internet and people suggested one to re-instal IE, which I am planning to do later.
And while I am on WXP, booted from IBM, MyComputer-Manage-DiskManagement shows my IBM disk as "Healthy(System)", my Western Digital as "Healthy (Page File)", and my Hitachi as "Healthy(Active)". Because my WesternDigital disk is almost full, just a quick question: how do I put the page file on Hitachi rather than WD?

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #25 - Dec 15^th, 2009 at 9:34pm

Quote:

Quote:
is the new partition on the Hitachi set to *active* as part of the cloning process--or does Ghost set its status as *none* or *hidden*?
How can I check that in ghost? I did not change any default setting in ghost.
Can't check it in Ghost! And there are no settings in Ghost to control this. Ghost has a companion program that comes with your Ghost installation program--*gdisk.exe* for DOS Ghost and *gdisk32.exe* for Windows based Ghost. That is Ghost's partitioning program--it runs from the *command line*, no GUI user interface.

Just for the record and for future reference, if ghost has no setting to set the active status of a partition, then what did you mean by asking "is the new partition on the Hitachi set to *active* as part of the cloning process--or does Ghost set its status as *none* or *hidden*?" ? I assume that the cloning process is done by Ghost itself, not its companion program.

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	Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys? Reply #26 - Dec 16^th, 2009 at 12:04am Just checking in. Interesting thread. I see you're in good hands with NightOwl.
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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #27 - Dec 16^th, 2009 at 10:06am

@

Helen Monte

Quote:

He just remembered that he used a Windows XP installation disk which has an option to repair Windows to somehow repair WXP, which somehow "disabled" the accessibility to the Linux partitions and probably overwrote the MBR or booting sequence or whatever.

That's a *Repair Installation*--rather than selecting *R* to repair WinXP through the Recovery Console--you can choose a Repair Install of Windows through the install branch of the installation disc--it basically places all the original WinXP OS files from the installation disc onto the current OS--it also goes through the *discovery* process of determining what the different hardware is present and what drivers must be put in place to access and use the current hardware found.

It removes all the Windows updates from the OS that you are installing over. If you had updated from Internet Explorer 6.x that is installed initially by the WinXP installation, say to IE 7--that gets wiped out and you are back to the IE 6--but, it leaves all the other changes intact such as any programs you have installed since the original installation of WinXP.

I used that technique to transfer my OS from a failing motherboard based on the AMD CPU that used a HighPoint RAID HDD controller to my current system that's based on a Pentium CPU and a Promise RAID HDD controller. Actually work out great!

All my current programs and setting came over untouched--had to do 90 plus Windows Updates and had to Upgrade again to IE 7 from IE 6. My biggest challenge was figuring out how to add the Promise RAID HDD controller drivers using the *F6* during initial boot of the WinXP installation CD where you add drivers that are not included on the Installation CD--the instructions that came with the new system where *wrong*--so I kept getting an error saying that the drivers where not found and/or could not be installed! Once I cleared that up--everything else when smoothly.

I was actually going to recommend that to you if we determined that you could not access that Hitachi HDD on the SATA controller, being as the cloned OS was coming from the PATA IBM HDD--because that procedure would have gone through that *discovery* sequence where the installation routine looks at what drivers are needed to access the attached HDDs--but, that never appeared to be the problem--something else appeared to be interfering with the boot process from the Hitachi!

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He said he did not do it on my IBM disk but rather on his own 160 GB disk.

It's always good to experiment on a *spare* HDD when doing things and you are in unfamiliar territory--you have a good Tech using good techniques!

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I can now boot using either the IBM or the Hitachi disk but when I boot with Hitachi, my Internet Explorer does not work. It is the "The requested lokup key was not found in my active activation context"

Curiosity question--did you have to do any Windows updates on the now bootable Hitachi (maybe the Tech already did that!)? And check to see if the IE version is the same on the Hitachi as on the IBM! If it's IE 6 or IE 7--I'd recommend updating to IE 8--see if that solves the problem!

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Because my WesternDigital disk is almost full, just a quick question: how do I put the page file on Hitachi rather than WD?

In WinXP, go to My Computer, right click on it, and then select *Properties*. The select the *Advanced* tab, then the *Settings* button under *Performance*. Then select the *Advanced* tab, and then the *Change* button for *Virtual memory*.

The dialog box will show all the partitions on all the drives that the OS has access to. You can then select each partition and select whether it can be used for some or all the page file. If you do not want certain partitions to be used for the page file, then click on the radio button so it has a *dot* where it says *No paging file*, and then press the *Set* button. Do that for each partition. You can select to either use a *Custom* setting, or you can elect to let Windows control the page file size (i.e. *System managed size*)--probably letting Windows set the size is best unless you know what and why you're setting *Custom* sizes! Windows default setting usually is to set aside 1.5 times the amount of installed RAM.

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #28 - Dec 16^th, 2009 at 10:53am

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Helen Monte

Quote:

Just for the record and for future reference, if ghost has no setting to set the active status of a partition, then what did you mean by asking "is the new partition on the Hitachi set to *active* as part of the cloning process--or does Ghost set its status as *none* or *hidden*?" ?

This is a *murky* area--depends on what cloning procedure has been done--and what version of Ghost has been used.

Older versions of Ghost will set a cloned partition *active* if you do a *whole disc > to whole disc* procedure. But, it will not change the partition status if you use a *partition to partition* procedure. But, somewhere along the line, the programing of Ghost changed because if you cloned a *whole disk* to another disk, and both were on the same machine and both had the identical disk ID and structure, then certain systems (able to boot from more than one HDD by changing the BIOS)--when you re-boot after the cloning (and you have left both HDDs attached) you would get an identity crisis where the two *active* partitions would cause a *nervous* breakdown and corruption of the Registry of the system you have booted from. So, Ghost was re-programed to not make the cloned HDD's OS partition *active*. Later, Ghost was reprogrammed so to erase the Disk ID which then forced the OS to re-initialize the drive letter assignments. And, it was found that it was a good *safety measure* to remove (disconnect) one of the cloned drives during the first re-boot to make sure there was no identity crisis. These steps seemed to resolve the identity crisis--but, if you use these newer Ghost versions on Vista or Win7--without modifications this erasing of the disk ID will break Vista's and Win7's ability to boot properly! (For every action--there's an alternate effect on something else!)

DOS Ghost and the *ghost32.exe* version do not have within their user interface an option to select whether to make a partition *active* or not, and *hidden* or not! And there is no command line switch for controlling those settings. Ghost does what's it's programed to do--and the user has no control!

I've not used *ghost32.exe* with a setup such as yours, and you have done any number of previous cloning attempts--so it was difficult to know what might be the status of that Hitachi HDD--which is why I asked about the status!

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I assume that the cloning process is done by Ghost itself, not its companion program.

Yes, Ghost does the cloning process and it creates (and can modify the sizes) of partitions on the fly as it clones--but if you want to set the settings regarding *active/not active* and *hidden/not hidden*, then you do have to use the companion *gdisk.exe* in DOS or *gdisk32.exe* from within Windows--or one of the Master Boot Record (MBR) tools I mentioned in my reply # 20 above.

If you use just the *list* or *status* commands with these various tools, you will not cause any changes to the MBR--you will just get the readout of the current settings. It's when you attempt to make any changes that you have to be very sure of what you are doing before proceeding--the results can be *final* and *fatal* if you do it wrong--but that's were a backup Ghost image file can save your bacon! I never use those MBR tools without knowing I have a current backup to restore from if something goes wrong!

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Re: will new disk boot after cloning only Win prtitn from dual-boot sys?
Reply #29 - Dec 27^th, 2009 at 4:24pm

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Helen Monte

Quote:

Because my WesternDigital disk is almost full, just a quick question: how do I put the page file on Hitachi rather than WD?

In another thread on the forum here, Brian reminded me of this web site that discusses various issues on managing the *page file*--looks like it has been updated since the last time I reviewed it--seems to be less supportive of the idea of changing the location of WinXP's page file--or at least more supportive of leaving a portion of the page file on the OS partition: Virtual Memory in Windows XP

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