HDD Installation Questions

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 2:05 pm

My current set up is two HDDs:

1st HDD is a WD 20.5 gig (master on IDE 1), split into two partitions, 1st partition 4 gigs with Windows XP on it.
2nd partition is the remaining space on the HDD.

2nd HDD is a WD 13 gig (master on IDE2) with single partition.

Both HDDs are NTFS.

I need more space so this what I want to do.

Buy a WD 60 gig HDD. Use Ghost 2002 to copy over contents from HDD 1 to the new HDD so the first partition would be the same as the original HDD and second partition the remaining space.

Then when I have the new 60 gig up and running I would want to now copy over the contents of the second original HDD (the 13 gig one) to the old 20.5 gig HDD then get rid of the 13 gig entirely.

Wow that's a mouthful ain't it?

OK, I have already got good information from this forum on another thread how to copy over the original 1st HDD over to the new one. I think I got that one down.

But now I'm a little confused on how I would copy over the contents from the 2nd original HDD over to the original 1st HDD.

Because I know Ghost is on Drive C and I wouldn't even be using that HDD in the copying process because the copying would involve two different HDD's from the drive C.

Then I figure I would have to format the first original 20.5 gig because it had two partitions on it and would end up with one single partition from the 13 gig HDD.

I hope I didn't just give anyone a headache, I kinda of got one just trying to explain this.

I sure hope I can get some instructions how to do this whole process. Thanks

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 2:56 pm

I answered your email as well, but also posting here for the benefit of others....

The drive letter have nothing to do with it. When you connect the drives Ghost sees them as drive 1,2,3 Starting with Pri master, then Pri Slave, then Sec Master then Sec Slave

Just don't get confused - check the drive size to be sure you're copying from and to the drives you want.

What you will do is first copy the old HDD 1 to your new 60 Gb drive using Ghost's drive to drive copy option. I would urge you, however, to make that WinXP boot partition larger than 4Gb while you have the opportunity. 4Gb is VERY small for a WinXP partition - even if you have no apps installed in it. XP has a way of growing. I woul consider 4Gb adequate for a Win2K boot partition but 5 or 6 would be safer for XP - expecially if you use the System Restore feature.

Then when that's done and you're sure that the new drive is working okay, copy the old 14Gb HDD to the 20Gb HDD, again using Ghost's drive to drive copy.

You don't need to format or reparition the old 13Gb drive - during a drive to drive copy Norton will wipe it.

Also, you should do this from DOS not Windows. Boot with a 98 Emergency disk (don't use that PC Dos crap on the Norton disk) and then run Norton from DOS - preferably from a floppy.

You NEVER want to copy partitions or drives from Windows. You can make images from Windows, but I don't even recommend that. Norton works best in a clean DOS boot.

You don't need to make a Ghost boot disk - just copy the GHOSTPE.EXE file from the ghost folder to a floppy. That's all you need.

When you remove the old 13 GB drive and boot you MAY find that your D and E partitions are reversed. If so, just go into Disk Management in the Admin Tools in Control Panel and assign them the letter they're supposed to have.

Good luck!

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 3:10 pm

Man that is cool. Thanks a bunch. Tomorrow Circuit City has a sale on the WD 60 gig (7200 rpm) HDD for $89. Gonna grab that puppy.

If I ever see a flying penguin flying overhead, I will definitely salute! Thanks

I take it that it doesn't really matter where I hook up the 3 HDDs when I get to that point (besides of course the master C drive)? I will temporarily have to unhook one of my CDs (since I have all the IDEs hooked up with my two CDs) and just make sure I have those HDDs jumpers set right to correspond where they are hooked at.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 3:32 pm

EXACTLY - even the C drive doesn't matter because you should boot from a floppy to run Ghost anyway (and since you don't need CD drivers installed for this, just hit F5 when the floppy boot menu comes up and that'll boot DOS without any background apps running).

Just make sure all 3 drives are jumpered properly and keep in mind that WDC drives a re a little funky - they have TWO different jumper positions for Master: "Master with Slave" and "Single Master"

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 4:05 pm

Your last comment confused me a bit. I was assuming that even with Ghost running off the floppy, that it still needed to access Ghost on the C drive where it was installed.

If this isn't the case, how come I need to hook up 3 HDDs when I get to the point of copying the 13 gig to the 20.5 gig? Why would I even need the 60 gig (once the 20.5 gig was already copied to it) hooked up when I am just copying the 13 gig over to the 20.5 gig?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 5:35 pm

No, you never even really have to install Ghost after the first time. GHOSTPE.EXE is a completely stand alone DOS app - it requires no other files.

GHOSTEXP.EXE is a completely stand alone Windows app (used for browsing Ghost images and extracting files from them) and also requires no other files or registry entries.

I also made a batch file called GHOST700.BAT which will run Ghost with switches to force it to split all image files into less than 700Mb files (so they fit on CDs) and prevents Ghost from prompting you for file names during the image process (so you can walk away from it until it's finished).

The batch file contains this one line:

ghost.exe -split=698 -auto

I never install Ghost on a system anymore. I just copy the GHOSTPE.EXE, GHOSTEXP.EXE and GHOST700.BAT to a floppy. I carry that floppy in my repair kit.

When I want to put it on a system I copy those 3 files off the floppy to a folder called GHOST then make a Windows shortcut to GHOSTEXP.EXE.

First time you run GHOSTEXP.EXE it will automatically associate itself with .GHO files.

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 5:55 pm

I take that to mean I do not need to hook up 3 HDDs when I copy the 13 gig to the 20.5 gig. I can just unhook the 60 gig completely and just hook up the two other HDDs, run Ghost and copy one to the other, remove the 13 gig completely, rehook up the 60 gig and 20.5 gig. Correct?

Then why were we talking about hooking up 3 HDDs?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 7:52 pm

Yes you can do it that way, or you can connect all three at one time and save yourself from having to reboot between copies. Makes no difference.

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Sat Jul 27, 2002 8:33 pm

OK I got it. Yes I would definitely want to make sure the 60 gig (and the OS) was operating OK after the first HDD was copied to it before I just over write all the info on the original HDD.

So I will do it in two steps.

Temporarily disconnect the 13 gig, hook up the 60 gig and copy the original 1st HDD over to the new 60 gig HDD.
Fire up new 60 gig to make sure everything went as planned.
If so, then temporarily remove the 60 gig, hook back up the 20.5 gig and copy over the 13 gig to it.

This way I don't have to disconnect the two CDs at all.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Jul 28, 2002 6:05 am

That'll work fine.

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Sun Jul 28, 2002 3:04 pm

Alrighty then! I made my trip to Circuit City and got the 60 Gig.

Did everything from your instructions and I am happy to say everything went without one single hitch!

I took your advice and changed the first partition from 4 Gigs to 6 Gigs.

Got plenty of room now.

Thanks again, it's always great to have a helping hand from people who are willing to help.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Jul 28, 2002 3:09 pm

You're welcome. Enjoy!