ghosting (linux dd-ing) xp partition, will it work?

[pow3rslave]

my windows disk is chirping like a p plater in a vn, so i thought i'd pull it out and replace it with another hdd i have handy. the one being pulled out is 500gb, the one going in is 250gb, but the xp partition on both is 20gb.

i was just going to use a bootable linux usb stick i have and DD from one to the other. then i guess i'd have to mark it as bootable. the new disk will be on the same sata socket as the old one, and it should still show up as c:\.

are there any issues i'd run into with this, i just cbf'd finding new versions of all the apps i have installed.

[holdensupporter2005]

try downloading ghost2003.exe to a bootable floppy and then just ghost it across to the other drive.

It works fine. I just used it Today on going from a 200gb sata to a 160gb sata.

[pow3rslave]

is that norton ghost? if it is i'm not eager to use it, last time i tried was when my root drive was set to e:\. it got stuck in an infinite loop looking for windows on c:\ and i coultn't boot to anything else

[jameswh]

Hey mate, how'd you go with this?
I wouldn't expect there to be too many issues. So long as your boot.ini looks okay, you should be laughing.

[pow3rslave]

still planning to do it, but i forgot the hdd bays are in front of the southbridge which has a massive stack of passive cooling heat syncs on it, so i'll have to take the mobo out it seems.
i wish i had a swank lian li style case with hdd drawers and screwless removal. this is just an old centurion, so it's just the case walls come off easy.

[jameswh]

That would be nice. But those Lian Li cases are extraordinarily expensive!
I'm currently using the Antec Sonata III 500 which has a very nice concept (probably used before) for the hard drive bays.
You screw the hard drive into onto a removable bay which has rubber grommets either side of the screw. Not only does it make the hard drives near silent, but it makes adding/removing hard drives a breeze.

http://bluecouch.com.au/reviews/sonata3/sonata3-6.jpg

[stocky]

my $120 cooler master case has hdd drawers and screwless bays. nice cheap case for me

[pow3rslave]

bit of a problem, even though i haven't swapped the disks in the case yet, i pulled the case side off and plugged in the new disk in, booted a live cd of gparted, used gparted not DD to copy the Xp partition, flagged as bootable, all went sweet and so quick i thought it hadn't worked.
now booting it, it gets grub error 21, which i think is because it is looking for a 2nd ubuntu partition which existed on the old hdd but i'm over for now. this will be just an xp disc, how should i get back to straight xp?

should i swap the discs back, get into the grub menu and delete everything except the defaulting to windows chainloader, ideally i would remove grub completely

any suggestions?

[alien]

If you have a windows CD, boot off that. Enter the recovery console (press R). Then run:

fixmbr

That will remove Grub for you and boot straight into Windows! :P

Also, just my 2 cents. I've never had any problems with Ghost, really good. But maybe because i've got the full ghost suite its easy!

[pow3rslave]

ok, the ****around continues, i tried to boot with the install disc to fixmbr on the new disc, needed admin password, couldnt remember it, replugged old disc, booted windows, ran user setting front ctrl panel, changed password, re-DD'd to new disc, this time the dd'd image should have had the admin password i changed.
plugged new disc back in, XP install disc, entered password. says it's invalid!

GRRRR

bout to try this tool
Ophcrack v3.1.0 Review - Password Recovery Software Review - Ophcrack Live CD ISO Download
but i don't know it'll work because the grub error might stop it finding the windows install.

i don't want to freak with the working xp's disks mbr, in case it breaks the install, i'd rather have it as a backup and work with the new disk

[pow3rslave]

found it, let it be known that setting your admin password as 'assword' is funny at the time, but there's no way in hell you'll remember it.

also the tool i linked to in the last post is rad and found 3/5 passwords in 4 minutes