Ghost Cloning Fails (Win2k Pro SP3)

[kmasello]

Hi,

I'm trying to upgrade the hard drive of a thinkpad t23 that was preloaded with Windows 2000 Pro SP3, and failing miserably. I have a license to use the os, but no cd, or I would have just used that by now. The original drive is a 40g drive, one partition, with roughly 10g used. The replacement is an 80g drive, split into 16g portions with fdisk. I used Ghost 2003 to clone the partition from the original drive (in its proper compartment) to one of the partitions of its replacement (in the bay where my DVD drive usually parks). The cloning seems successful, but when I actually replaced the original drive with its replacement, the cloned drive can boot into 2000, but it won't go past the logon box. When I accept the logon, at first it flashes me an error, complaining that the paging file is either missing or too small. I click the ok, I don't get the desktop, but the message "Saving your settings..." then I get dumped to the logon box again. After a few more tries, I figure it's a lost cause and shut down the computer. It has happened when I attempted to go into safe mode. When I reinstall the original drive (or just pop in the ultrabay), the computer boots up to the desktop fine. Then the original drive is C and the Cloned drive gets D.

I have used Ghost to directly clone the partition of the original drive to an active partition in the replacement, and I have made an image file which I restored using the Ghost setup disk I made for this purpose. Same thing happens.

I consulted the knowledge base at the Symantec website about this problem. It suggested that I use a utility called sysprep, which I downloaded from the Microsoft site. I gather I was supposed to use it (on the original drive) right before I cloned the partition through Ghost. Unfortunately, double clicking the program reset the computer before I could stop it, and I got to type in the product key again when I reboot. Shut down again, taking out the original drive and left in the cloned one. Upon reboot, the error message about the missing pagefile disappeared, but the logon box kept looping before it got to the desktop.

At this point, I'm ready to reinstall the original drive, look for a bona fide Win2k CD, and try later. Can anyone tell me where I went wrong? Thank you.

[Marc_G]

This problem is well documented in various places but it is somewhat hard to google for specifically. If you search for posts from me earlier this year around February or March you'll find some good links.

Basically, you need to clear the master boot record of the drive. This will remove the drive signature that is tripping a bug/feature of windows NT-derived OS drive recognition system. That should clear it up for you.

Marc