partimage and Windows XP

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Mon, Jan 08, 2007 at 05:44:47PM -0500, Giles Orr wrote:
> I recently purchased a 120Gb HD to replace the 40 Gb HD in my laptop.
> I have a multi-boot system on the 40Gb including XP, and I'm somewhat
> stumped as to how to clone a Windows partition from one drive to the
> other.  Unfortunately, I don't have the ability to put both drives
> into a computer together, but I can boot with Knoppix or the Ultimate
> Boot CD and save partition images to an external USB HD.

Well you could do a fresh install (windows needs that every 6 or 12
months to stay sane after all) and then get a usb case (about $25 will
get you a nice one) for the old drive to copy over the data afterwards.

> I booted the 40Gb HD with Ubuntu and used "partimage" to create
> gzipped partition images for both Fedora Core 5 and Windows XP on the
> USB HD.  I put the 120Gb into the laptop, booted Knoppix, and used
> partimage to unpack both images - Windows onto hda1, the first primary
> partition (it's on hda2 on the old HD).  FC5 went onto a logical
> partition.  Both partitions were slightly larger than the original
> partitions.  With a GRUB install and a bit of tweaking, FC5 booted
> fine.  But attempting to boot XP got me the GRUB parameters on screen
> and a screeching halt.  The partition is mountable and appears to have
> the expected files, but won't boot.
> 
> I haven't done anything like this before, and I don't have access to
> any "professional" ghosting/imaging software (although there seem to
> be many free choices).  partimage's NTFS support is considered
> "experimental," so perhaps it's not the best choice?  Any
> recommendations, success stories, or information on details I'm
> missing?  Thanks.

I find the boot process and NTFS too fragile to ever attempt any kind of
clever transfers.  It really does sound like a good time for a refresh.
:)  My wife just did that on her laptop with a new 120GB drive replacing
a 60GB.  Windows seems much faster after a fresh install on the new
drive, and if anything went wrong her old drive was always able to be
put back in the laptop in under 5 minutes.

--
Len Sorensen
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