how can I do this?

[Tash]

I presently have a 160gb drive with 4 partitions, C, D, E, and F. Partition F: has Windows XP on it and I've been using it daily for a long time. I want to set up another 80gb drive with a single C: partition with an exact copy of partition F: from the first drive. I have GHOST and Partition Magic 8.0, but I have been unable to accomplish this.

Can anyone tell me how to do this? Would appreciate it a lot.

(I also have Boot Magic)

Thanks.

 

[impudence]

I struggled with the same issue recently. I found a great program called CASPER XP, which did the job perfectly. Norton Ghost can suck my left n*t, its the worst program ever like all other norton junk. Anyway best of all CASPER XP has a free trial available which lets you do a full copy without even buying the program. The only problem you might run into is if the partition is a different size than the drive your copying to.

Good luck

 

[aGreenAgent]

Well, most drives come with with a program from the manufacturer that let you do this. Check the manufacturer's website for such software.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Easily done if you understand HOW Norton works. Most people just don't take the time, but then again I'm an IT tech and use it proactically every day.

If you're copying or restoring a partition, then there most be an existing partition to overwrite. The only way you can copy to a blank drive is if you do a clone copy or a restore of an image of an entire drive.

 

[Navid]

You say that the original XP is on drive F on the old drive. But, you want to copy it to drive C on the new physical hard drive.

That is a problem!

On your current XP drive, there are pointers to drive F. After you copy the partition to the new hard drive and make it active, those pointers still point to partition F. But, the files that are needed will be on the new partition C. The only way to fix this is to change all those pointers to point to drive C instead if you want to have a self-contained XP drive.
There is a utility that comes with Partition Magic that is supposed to be able to make such a change. But, I have never heard anyone recommend such a utility.

The easiest way to handle this is to just make a fresh installation on the new hard drive and then, copy the data files from the old drive.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

AH, I missed the fact that your were copying an OS partition. I thought it was just data.

Yes, that would be a problem. Clean install time.

 

[Tash]

Thanks. I used Diskwizard from Seagate to create the bootable F: partition on the new drive. Was working ok. Then I used the Norton Drivemapper utility to change references to F: to to C: on the drive. I rebooted without changing the drive designation to C: in windows. When I tried to reboot, it wouldn't go past the user logon screen. I then reinstalled win XP and instead of getting back to my desktop as it was, it was a fresh desktop with nothing installed. What happened? Can I recover?