Hard disk cloning problem

[MTOW]

I run XP Pro SP 2 on a P4 PC. The system is fully updated; (I downloaded the latest Office and Outlook patches yesterday, [could that be part of my problem?].)

My hard drive was close to full, so I bought a larger hard drive and tried to clone my current setup onto the new hard drive. Simple? It used to be a no sweat operation using Nortons Ghost, but this time it has proven not to be.
In the past, I've used a Norton's floppy and put the source drive in as the slave and the target HD as the master. (This overcame a paging file size problem that occurred if I had the target as slave.)

This time, after the cloning, I got the message (from memory) "Windows could not run because the Windows root/system32/hal.dll file is missing or corrupt", so I copied that file from the old system into the new… and got nowhere. Same message.

So I tried Acronis Tru Image 7... and it spat the dummy 50% of the way through checking the partitions (the third check), coming up with an error message saying that partition config has changed, press any key to reboot. On one attempt, I deleted all partitions from the new HD and let True Image start from scratch, but got the same result every time.

I use HD cradles for easy HD swapovers, and I thought one of the cradle connections might be dodgy, so I removed them and went back to a traditional straight cable to motherboard connection. Tried the Ghost floppy again - and this time, got as far as the Welcome Screen on the cloned copy, where the system stalls with a small Windows XP logo where the password field should be. The mouse will move the cursor, but everything else is frozen.

So I tried a Maxtor Disk Copy floppy I've had for some time - with exactly the same result - the blue Welcome screen and the small XP logo. Even a start in Safe Mode results in the same unresponsive page. (In each case, except with Acronis Tru Image, I’ve always used the partition to partition option when copying.)

So, thinking I’d try using Ghost within Windows, I tried installing a new copy of Nortons Ghost that came with my Laptop. Same result – the unWelcome page.

Tried removing my password and copying again. Same result.

Tried safe mode boot and booting from the new copy – works fine, but only while the original copy is in place.

Any suggestions that will save me having to go the nausea of a fresh install and another call to Microsoft to authorize it would be greatly appreciated.

[Buttino]

Try this

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_21173912.html?query=hall.dll+is+missing+or+corrupt&clearTAFilter=true


Don't replace drivers in safe mode, only from the recovery console.

Hope this helps

Trev

[Conan the Librarian]

Ok this is there for a thought... but it is the system I am using now and works a treat. If you have a larger , new hard drive, then why not just install it as the secondary drive?

Dump what you can and redirect temp file directories and other clutter onto the new disk, leaving your original just for the OS? You might be surprised how much room you can free up without compromising the OS one bit.

Conan

[Jhieminga]

I'm guessing that XP won't start because it doesn't recognise the drive you're booting from as the one it booted from the last time. While copying a partition from one drive to the other should theoretically work, windows does store some info about the drive it's installed on somewhere in its innards.

Suggestion:
Copy the partition to the new drive using Ghost, or something similar.
Get out your XP CD and boot from this.
Now run the setup and install (without formatting or changing anything about the partitions) in the exact same location as your current installation.

I must add that I haven't tried this myself yet, but this way you should end up with a working example of your trusty XP version again, including all your old settings, programs etc.

[Saab Dastard]

MTOW,

What was the last successful Ghost clone that you did? What is the version of Ghost that you are using? Are you sure that it supports XP?

What size is the original disk and what size is the new? Does your PC BIOS support the full size of your new disk?

I did a considerable amount of work with Ghost and Win2K / XP, although I was creating image files (as opposed to direct disk-disk cloning) which I multicasted to several destination PCs simultaneously. No problems with then booting all the "clones" - Sysprep was run on the master before taking the image.

If you have access to a 2nd computer with sufficient disk space to store the compressed image file from the source computer, you can then swap in the new hard disk and re-image it as the destination computer.

[MTOW]

Old disk, an 80 gig Maxtor, in two partitions of ~ 40 gig. New HD, a 250 gig Maxtor, with a C partition of 60 gig. All partitions on both disks are NTFS format.

The Ghost floppy is the same I've used for some time. I think it was made from a Ghost 2003 program. The within Windows attempts using Ghost were made with Ghost 2003. The floppy has succeeded with XP in the past.

Conan, your idea is a good one, but I didn’t explain myself completely in my first post. Apart from wanting to run the bigger HD, I want a backup copy. I've been in the habit of making a spare copy of my operating system and keeping it stored well away from the computer. This saved me when we received an email from an address we recognised that contained a nasty that literally wiped out our system. (The anti virus people hadn't found a cure for that particular nasty when we got it.)

I was able to get everything up and running again in 20 minutes simply by swapping the dead HD for my spare and copying our data files across from the separate backup disk.

Jhieminga, I think that if I did as you suggest, it overwrites the existing Windows installation completely, so I'd have to reinstall all my software, and if I was to do that, I'd be far better off doing a clean install, which I'm trying to avoid.

Saab Dastard, I do have access to a second computer, but know nothing about image files. I'd appreciate a lesson if you could find the time. It sounds like it might fix my problem.

One thing I haven't yet tried is disabling Zone Alarm before doing the clone. Could that have any effect?

[Jhieminga]

I'm quite sure that a repair install can be done without having to reinstall applications!

As I said, I haven't done it myself with XP yet, although I have done this many times with previous versions. Have a look at this site for the details: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm. It states that "A Repair Install will replace the system files with the files on the XP CD used for the Repair Install. It will leave your applications and settings intact, but Windows updates will need to be reapplied."

Obviously if you can get the swap done without this, then so much the better.

[Saab Dastard]

MTOW,

The documentation that comes with Ghost (or the Symantec website) is the best source of a "how-to". You need to be comfortable with IP networking, as you will need to set up one PC as a Ghost server (it can just be running XP itself) and be able to create a ghost boot floppy with network drivers for your network card and assign appropriate IP addresses. Not difficult - and well documented - but daunting if networking affects you like Smirnoff.

SD