From - Thu Sep 11 08:10:27 1997
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From: jeh@cmkrnl.com (Jamie Hanrahan)
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.setup.hardware,microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc
Subject: Re: Replacing boot drive in NT 4.0 standalone system?
Message-ID: <1997Sep10.211134.8164@cmkrnl>
Date: 10 Sep 97 21:11:34 PST
References: <5usrkc$9va$1@dismay.ucs.indiana.edu>
Organization: Kernel Mode Systems, San Diego, CA
Lines: 47
Xref: news.mitre.org comp.os.ms-windows.nt.misc:205014 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.setup.hardware:6118 microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc:3363

In article <5usrkc$9va$1@dismay.ucs.indiana.edu>, pschikor@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (Paul F Schikora) writes:
> I have a standalone PC with NT 4.0 workstation installed.  I need to
> replace the current hard drive with a larger one.  Is there any way I can
> just temporarily add the new drive and copy the system from the old to the
> new drive, with the end result being that I can then remove the old drive
> and boot from the new one?
> 
> In Win95 I've done this by just dragging everything from the old drive to
> the new drive in Explorer.  

That didn't work for me under Win95 - the result was not bootable. 
I had to go through the Windows 95 "Recovery disk" procedure to fix it 
up. 

> I have a feeling it won't be quite that easy
> in NT.

It isn't.  There are some files in the boot partition (that's the one 
that has your %systemroot% directory) that NT keeps open and which 
can't be copied.  Also, you can't copy the boot sector that way. 

> Another option is a tape backup of the current drive, a clean
> install of NT to the new drive, and then a restore of the old system.
> Would that work well?

It's always worked for me.  When you install NT on the new drive, you 
make sure to specify the same directory for the NT system (\winnt or 
\windows or whatever) as you had before. Don't bother with any 
customizations, setting up accounts, etc., just do enough to get NT up 
and your tape drive visible.  Then restore the backup right on top of 
the live running system, shut down, and reboot. 

The only problem left is if your drive was formerly set up to 
dual-boot (DOS or Win95) and NT.  In that case you will have to go 
through some gyrations to restore the boot sector, boot.ini, etc.  The 
Windows NT FAQ has some info on this.  

A company called PowerQuest (www.powerquest.com) has two products that 
may be of help, PartitionMagic and DriveCopy.  I personally 
haven't tried either. 

	--- Jamie Hanrahan, Kernel Mode Systems, San Diego CA
        Internet: jeh@cmkrnl.com (JH645)  CompuServe: 74140,2055  
drivers, internals, networks, applications, and training for VMS and Windows NT
NT driver FAQ, links, and other information:  http://www.cmkrnl.com/

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