Arthur Fuller
artful at rogers.com
Wed Mar 8 21:24:42 CST 2006
A question about Ghost virgins. Mine is dated 1999. Many things have changed since then. But I have also read several reviews of the new virgins and they have not been ecstatic, to say the least. So, what should I do? a) Attempt to Ghost the current drive c:\ onto some available box with enough space to handle the Ghost file; b) unhook either the CD burner or the DVD burner and replace it with the new big drive and then Ghost it to there; c) quit computers and programming and open a women's shoe store specializing in very erotic shoes. I think I like option c) the best LOL. Certain technologies I know to deal with. Arthur -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steve Erbach Sent: March 8, 2006 10:44 AM To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Ghosting an old HD to a New HD John, Oh, I don't mind the inquisition at all. It focuses my mind on coming up with the right answer! I have used Ghost for some years as a quick backup. Of course, it isn't completely kosher since the "backup" drive is mounted inside the PC rather than as an external drive. In any event I fully expected a Ghosted drive to simply boot up if my main C: drive went south. All I'd have to do would be to make sure the Ghosted drive's jumpers were set properly and that it was on the primary IDE controller, and voila! Up and running. I tried doing that once some time last year as a test and found that Windows would not boot all the way and it presented me with a message saying something about the PC's configuration having changed. My understanding from the first days of XP was that Windows kept tabs on the equipment mounted in your PC, especially the hard disk, in order to provide a bit more copy protection. My understanding was that if you dropped in a validly formatted C: drive from a different system that Windows would recognize that the rest of the equipment didn't match its internal record of the PC's configuration and would not allow you in. That was my experience the one time I tried it. To overcome that barrier I just re-installed Windows. "Just", he says! Install and then re-upgrade it with all the security updates and such. So your message and those of the others here came as a surprise to me; that is, it sure sounds like all I would have to do is take my ghosted drive -- which is SUPPOSED to be byte-for-byte identical with the original -- and set it up as the C: drive. That's what I TRIED to do last year, but Windows wouldn't let me. The ghosted backup drive wasn't crippled in any way. As far as I know it had everything needed for it to be bootable. The original C: drive was the master on IDE controller 1 and the ghost drive was the master on IDE controller 2. When I say that I swapped the cables that's just what I did: put the ghosted drive on IDE 1 and the original C: drive on IDE 2. It would just be nice to know that I'm doing something wrong or stupid if I have to use a ghosted drive to replace a dead C: drive in future -- without having to go through the travail of re-installing Windows! Steve Erbach Neenah, WI On 3/8/06, DJK(John) Robinson <djkr at msn.com> wrote: > Hi Steve > > I'm not at all familiar with Ghost, sorry, and I don't know why XP would > 'choke' over a drive serial number; why should it, unless perhaps there was > some OEM issue? > > As far as I'm concerned, XP just does as it's told, and runs from the new > drive - done this several times with different machines and systems. Maybe > I'm just blissful because I'm ignorant! > > I think you need to bottom out the 'choking' issue. What does Ghost have to > say about this? Was the "back-up drive" set up with an active partition and > a copied MBR, both necessary for booting from it? You say you swapped the > IDE cables: were the drives on different cables, or just different > connectors on the same cable, in which case did you change the jumpers on > the drives? And what makes you think it was definitely something to do with > drive serial number? > > (end of inquisition!) > > John > > > -----Original Message----- > From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steve Erbach > Sent: 08 March 2006 14:45 > To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues > Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Ghosting an old HD to a New HD > > > John, > > I'm sort of confused by this. I just had to do this, more or less, to my > wife's PC, though instead of installing a new drive, I wanted to take her > Ghosted back-up drive and make it the new Drive C:. Well, of course, > Windows sees the different drive serial number and won't boot up if you > simply swap the IDE cables. > > Does this scheme solve the problem of Windows XP "choking" on a drive with a > different "signature"? > > Steve Erbach > Neenah, WI _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com