Thread: How can I copy a bootable Win2K partition to another HD?

I think you have two separate questions:

a) How to copy an existing Win2000 installation to some other
disk. I provided a recipe to another poster, which you
quote in your own post, but you don't seem to be prepared
to try it for yourself. It works!

b) Is a 160 GByte partition bootable? I don't know because I have
never tried. You could find out for yourself within half an
hour, by installing a basic throw-away copy of Win2000
on your 160 GByte partition.

Personally I do not think that a 160 GByte system partition
for Win2000 is a good idea. It seems to have lots of drawbacks
and only a few advantages when compared to having a 20/140
GByte split. But then it's your machine!



"Robbie Hatley" <bogus.address@no.spam.com> wrote in message
news:Jobsf.37748$dO2.3765@newssvr29.news.prodigy.n et...
> I'm having problems trying to copy a bootable Windows 2000
> partition from an 80GB hard disk to a 160GB hard disk.
>
> I wrote some posts here about this a week ago, asking some
> questions about this, but surprisingly, no one here knew how
> to copy a partition. (Or if they did, they remained silent.)
> One person did post some links, one of which seemed applicable,
> but it turned out to actually be NOT applicable, just like all
> his other links.
>
> SO... I'll ask again:
>
> How does one copy a bootable Windows 2000 partition from
> an 80GB HD to an 160GB HD?
>
> When I try to do this, I get "Windows cannot boot due to
> a hardware error (hard disk misconfiguration)". (Or words
> to that effect; that's as close as I can remember the
> error message.)
>
> I thought it was a "BIOS doesn't support 48-bit LBA" problem,
> but I was mistaken; it does.
>
> Then I thought it was a "Windows isn't set up for 48-bit LBA"
> problem, but I was mistaken; the EnableBigLba thingy is set
> to "1" in both the source and destination copies of the
> registry.
>
> Then I thougth it was a bootloader problem, but I was mistaken;
> it's not. My bootloader (PowerQuest BootMagic 7) finds the
> Windows installation just fine, and boots it. The Windows
> installation finds and loads its own kernel. Then it crashes
> with that "hard disk misconfiguration" error.
>
> As I asked in an earlier post here (but no one here knew):
> Does the windows registry record detailed partition information?
> And if so, does that information need to be correct for the OS
> to boot? And will copying a partition to a new size and
> location without updating that information cause it to become
> unbootable? I'm beginning to strongly suspect the answers are
> "Yes", "Yes", and "Yes".
>
> In a related recent post, "Martin" <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > How can I [copy a bootable partition to a new hard disk]?
> > I tried a simple copy from the Explorer and scopy (keeps
> > ntfs attributes) but when I boot, on the new drive, it
> > tells me that lsass.exe is missing...
>
> "Pegasus" replied:
>
> > 1. Temporarily connect the disks to the secondary IDE controller
> > of some other Win2000/XP PC.
> > 2. Make the target partition active.
> > 3. Use xcopy.exe with the appropriate switches to copy the source
> > disk to the target disk. Make sure to include hidden and system
files.
> > 4. Put the target disk into the server.
> > 5. Boot the server with the Win2000 Server installation CD.
> > 6. Select Repair / Recovery Console.
> > 7. Type these commands:
> > fixboot
> > fixmbr
>
> I already tried doing a "repair" using my Windows 2000 CD,
> but I get:
>
> Enter Administrator Password:
>
> But no matter what password I type, I get:
>
> Password incorrect.
>
> So much for that idea.
>
> SOOOOOOOOOOO.............
>
> My original problem remains:
>
> How do I copy a bootable Windows 2000 partition from an 80GB
> hard disk to a 160GB hard disk? Does anyone here have any
> clues whatsoever? This should NOT be that hard! Thanks in
> advance to whosoever can provide useful information.
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Robbie Hatley
> Tustin, CA, USA
> email: lonewolfintj at pacbell dot net
> web: home dot pacbell dot net slant earnur slant
>
>

I notice mention of PM,
I have seen problems with hd's that are prepared with PM, prior to a win
install - its a problem confined to only some, why dont know?

If your simply adding a new hd why not leave as is and use the 160gb as
slave?
or is this a new sys?

"Robbie Hatley" <bogus.address@no.spam.com> wrote in message
news:Jobsf.37748$dO2.3765@newssvr29.news.prodigy.n et...
> I'm having problems trying to copy a bootable Windows 2000
> partition from an 80GB hard disk to a 160GB hard disk.
>
> I wrote some posts here about this a week ago, asking some
> questions about this, but surprisingly, no one here knew how
> to copy a partition. (Or if they did, they remained silent.)
> One person did post some links, one of which seemed applicable,
> but it turned out to actually be NOT applicable, just like all
> his other links.
>
> SO... I'll ask again:
>
> How does one copy a bootable Windows 2000 partition from
> an 80GB HD to an 160GB HD?
>
> When I try to do this, I get "Windows cannot boot due to
> a hardware error (hard disk misconfiguration)". (Or words
> to that effect; that's as close as I can remember the
> error message.)
>
> I thought it was a "BIOS doesn't support 48-bit LBA" problem,
> but I was mistaken; it does.
>
> Then I thought it was a "Windows isn't set up for 48-bit LBA"
> problem, but I was mistaken; the EnableBigLba thingy is set
> to "1" in both the source and destination copies of the
> registry.
>
> Then I thougth it was a bootloader problem, but I was mistaken;
> it's not. My bootloader (PowerQuest BootMagic 7) finds the
> Windows installation just fine, and boots it. The Windows
> installation finds and loads its own kernel. Then it crashes
> with that "hard disk misconfiguration" error.
>
> As I asked in an earlier post here (but no one here knew):
> Does the windows registry record detailed partition information?
> And if so, does that information need to be correct for the OS
> to boot? And will copying a partition to a new size and
> location without updating that information cause it to become
> unbootable? I'm beginning to strongly suspect the answers are
> "Yes", "Yes", and "Yes".
>
> In a related recent post, "Martin" <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > How can I [copy a bootable partition to a new hard disk]?
> > I tried a simple copy from the Explorer and scopy (keeps
> > ntfs attributes) but when I boot, on the new drive, it
> > tells me that lsass.exe is missing...
>
> "Pegasus" replied:
>
> > 1. Temporarily connect the disks to the secondary IDE controller
> > of some other Win2000/XP PC.
> > 2. Make the target partition active.
> > 3. Use xcopy.exe with the appropriate switches to copy the source
> > disk to the target disk. Make sure to include hidden and system
files.
> > 4. Put the target disk into the server.
> > 5. Boot the server with the Win2000 Server installation CD.
> > 6. Select Repair / Recovery Console.
> > 7. Type these commands:
> > fixboot
> > fixmbr
>
> I already tried doing a "repair" using my Windows 2000 CD,
> but I get:
>
> Enter Administrator Password:
>
> But no matter what password I type, I get:
>
> Password incorrect.
>
> So much for that idea.
>
> SOOOOOOOOOOO.............
>
> My original problem remains:
>
> How do I copy a bootable Windows 2000 partition from an 80GB
> hard disk to a 160GB hard disk? Does anyone here have any
> clues whatsoever? This should NOT be that hard! Thanks in
> advance to whosoever can provide useful information.
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Robbie Hatley
> Tustin, CA, USA
> email: lonewolfintj at pacbell dot net
> web: home dot pacbell dot net slant earnur slant
>
>

"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com> misquotes:

> I think you have two separate questions:
>
> a) How to copy an existing Win2000 installation to some other
> disk. I provided a recipe to another poster, which you
> quote in your own post, but you don't seem to be prepared
> to try it for yourself. It works!

What I actually said was:

I already tried doing a "repair" using my Windows 2000 CD,
but I get:

Enter Administrator Password:

But no matter what password I type, I get:

Password incorrect.

So much for that idea.

What does "administrator password" mean in this context?
Does it mean "the password of any member of the
'administrators' group"? Or does it mean "The password
of the one-and-only 'built-in account for system
administration'"? Until I can resolve that issue, the
repair console is useless to me.


> b) Is a 160 GByte partition bootable? I don't know because I have
> never tried. You could find out for yourself within half an
> hour, by installing a basic throw-away copy of Win2000
> on your 160 GByte partition.


That is (yet another) misquote. I never said anything about
trying to boot a 160GB partition. The Windows 2000 partition
in question is being expanded in size from 6GB to about 20GB,
not 160GB. The total size of the destination hard disk is
160GB. It is partitioned roughly as follows:

Primary Partition #1: 100MB Linux boot
Primary Partition #2: 500MB MS-DOS
Primary Partition #3: 20000MB Windows 2000
Extended Partition : 132000MB
The Extended partition contains:
Logical partition "drive D:": 120000MB
Logical partition "Linux swap": 2000MB
Logical partition "Linux /": 10000MB

> Personally I do not think that a 160 GByte system partition
> for Win2000 is a good idea.

I quite agree. Which is one of the reasons I'm not
doing it that way.

Meanwhile, these questions remain:

1. How do I get a Windows 2000 partition copied from an
80GB hard disk to a 160GB hard disk to boot? I get a
"disk misconfiguration error" when trying to boot the
copied partition. Possible causes already eliminated
include:
- No, it's not a BIOS 48-bit LBA issue.
- No, it's not a Windows 48-bit LBA issue.
- No, it's not a bootloader issue.
- No, I'm not attempting to boot a 160GB partition
(see partition table above)

2. Does the windows registry record detailed partition
information? And if so, does that information need
to be correct for the OS to boot? And will copying
a partition to a new size and location without updating
that information cause it to become unbootable?

3. Is the "repair console" the only way to fix a
resized and/or relocated partition so that it can boot
again? Or is there another way?

4. What is the meaning of the phrase "administrator
password" in the context of the repair console? Does
this mean the password of any administrator? Or does
it mean the password of the original, built-in
administration account? Until I can resolve this, the
repair console is useless to me.

Much thanks in advance to whoever can answer these questions!

(And if no one here knows, is there some other, more
appropriate newsgroup I should be asking these
questions in?)

--
Cheers,
Robbie Hatley
Tustin, CA, USA
email: lonewolfintj at pacbell dot net
web: home dot pacbell dot net slant earnur slant