Partition Help Please

[TheBrit]

Hi,

This is the problem I have and would like to know if anyone can shed some light on the subject.

I have WinXP and Win7 installed onto 1 hard disk
I can now boot between the 2, as and when I wish.

I would like to move the Win7 Install onto a new hard disk.
I have tried to COPY the partition across, set the new hard disk as Active and it comes up with MTB Error.

Please can someone help me.
Which software do you recommend? I downloaded Acronis Demo but it will only let me copy a hard disk. The WinXP and Win7 is on a 1TB drive. The new drive is 160GB, so I want to move Win7 onto its own drive.


Also if I move it to the new hard disk, will I still get the option to boot up into Either of the OS' as having the option is important for me right now.

Thank you

TheBrit

 

[Jonathan_King]

You could try Clonezilla to clone the partition. You will likely need to run some repair tools afterwards, such as Startup Repair and Bootrec. Another option is doing a clean install on the same partition, and using Easy Transfer to copy your files and settings.
Post back after you clone the partition, if you choose to go that way, and we will help you fix the installation to make it bootable.

 

[solar]

the birt... I recommend downloading windows AIK for windows 7.... then create the winpe disk, copy onto a flash drive or dvd.

be sure to copy imagex for the correct architecture (x86 or amd64) into system32 of the winpe mount before unmounting it with commit.

(you do all this in WINDOWS 7, not windows xp)

in cmd.exe you type bcdedit > bcdwin7.txt
or better bcdedit /enum all > bcdwin7.txt (could be useful to post that here for further help)

IMPORTANT!

also type : bcdedit /export c:\bcdbackup (c is your choice)
Boot into the winpe environment and do imagex /capture c: c:\win7.wim "windows 7 image" /verify /compress maximum (where c: is the drive your windows 7 os is on).

Now in the newly formatted empty partition you wish to move it to (lets say is d you then type in cmd (still in wimpe:

imagex /apply c:\win7.wim d:

im assuming windows 7 is running your bootmanager.

restart computer, see what happens, can you still boot into the original windows 7?

if so, type bcdedit /enum all > bcdwin7postimagex.txt and could post it for me/us as well

when that's done and I can see the two files, I should be able to tell you a small list of commands which should make the windows 7 on new disk/partition bootable and in the boot options without reference to old os.

then you try the options given to you and if they work and you can log into the new* windows 7, we can proceed to deleting the old windows 7 on c: (whichever drive that was on).

I just been putting together a script which is meant ot help people with all these kind of issues and all you would do is push 1, 1, 2, 4, 2, 6 etc read a help file here n there and it would all be done in relatively short time (1 hour?) of reading n 'going for it'. I posted ot see if any positive response to small donations for dropping the script here but im realizing with so many scenarios, I should just spend a month more developing a full native stand alone application and just probably demand a small (but larger than hinted) fee for downloading, usage and (loose aka this forum/mail) support. Problem is work, study and life lol

anyway, if you have access to internet during this testing and as long as you manage to create that winpe disk n can boot into it, then don't worry, all I said can be undone... I'll subscribe to this thread and help you if you wish to attempt, although keep in mind, if something goes wrong, or if you need guidance... don't panic about anything, don't rush anything, and remember your procedures you are doing, so if you get stuck, you are able to give a useful explanation to what you did/were doing when you got stuck.

As a final note... perhaps just dl that WAIK (~1.3 GB!) and manage to create that bootable winpe in the meantime showing me/us your bcdedit /enum all > bcdwin7orig.txt file

solar

PS. I just saw the part mentioned by another poster... clean install + windows easy transfer sounds like a good option... I haven't tried it, personally find *nothing easy* with in-built windows apps

 

[gregrocker]

Please post a screenshot of your full HD Disk Management map, using the Snipping tool on Start Menu, attaching file with paper clip in reply box

This can also be accomplished by downloading and burning to CD free Partition Wizard, plugging in the new HD, then copying the Win7 Partition from one HD to the other, deleting the old Win7, booting into Win7 DVD and running Startup Repair 3 times to rebuild the MBR.

Be sure to first make a Win7 backup image stored externally (or in a primary formatted partition) because copying operations can fail but an image can restore the HDD in 15 minutes to start over.