copying windows to another drive (SOLVED)

[zcat]

Hi ya all
Im running win 2k pro service pack4 on a 120 gb drive thats quite old its ok now but v noisy so not sure how long it will last.
Im trying to copy it to a new drive which is bigger and slightly newer
another reason is I would like a backup of the running install if either drive gives up the ghost so if I need to I can just slot it in and be going again, like 10 mins instead of a day reinstalling.
I first tried doing cp -r (recursive copy command) in ubuntu with both usb'ed into my laptop it seemed to go ok, and booted but once past the login it just blue screened with cursor and nothing else. it boots into safe mode but also does nothing after login (black screen w safe mode text in corners).
So I try repair from the install disc both r and c comands, still nothing.
Then I try doing it with Accronis copying the partitions over, again on laptop drives usb'ed into it running win xp (copies and partitions are identical size now) and get the same result

I first thought the partitions were not named properly but when trying to repair it asks me which winnit file and only gives only one option C:\WINNT so now not sure about partition name is the problem.
One odd thing is it wants to do a disc check on drive \J: at start up. And since there are only 2 partitions then something is a bit screwy somewhere.

I can't figure this out I did this before with a drive when upgrading my laptop but it was a dual boot and now Ive forgotten what I did!
Anyone got any suggestions? any help much appreciated.
cheers zcat

[Techmonkey]

Hey Zcat,

You mention you have Acronis, this the product I was going to recommend for performing this task.

The correct procedure is to boot up your Windows 2000 machine using the Acronis disk as a boot disk. Run acronis and tell it do a disk image of your C: to a USB external disk.

When it completes shut down and put in your new hard disk, run the acronis boot again and tell it to do a restore from the USB to the new hard disk.

[zcat]

ok ill try that tomorrow thanks

[zcat]

well I couldn't wait for tomorrow so tried it this evening ...
no go it did exactly the same it booted to the desktop then bsod'ed on me.
The acronnis I have dosn't have an image facility (only v10) the boot disk will only copy partitions so thats probably why, it did give me an error msg before the bsod about my pagefile.sys so thought it was going to do it. grrrrrr
I've looked for free apps and there are some but not for w2k only xp
any more suggestions?

[Techmonkey]

hmmm very odd zcat, must be something to do with Windows 2000 as I have had no issues with Acronis to do exactly what your trying.

Have you tried clonezilla?

http://clonezilla.org/

[zcat]

well i susceeded eventually after a few screwups
I tryed Macrium Reflect on my xp laptop and pluged the 2 drives into it via usb
I imaged C: drive on drive 2 (the win2k one) and put it onto partition D: on drive 3 (new drive)
I unpluged Drive 2 and then I restored the image from partition D: to partition C: on drive 3.
I made 2 images of the C:drive which failed the Macrium Reflect verification process.
So 3rd time lucky I guess but a lession in backup images to always verify the image.
Thanks for the help and no doubt Ill be back next year when I build a new win 7 machine its 5 years since I've had an all new machine

[Techmonkey]

Excellent news Zcat and thanks for sharing the info on how you fixed it, you never who this may help in the future

Of course if you need help with anything else or fancy a chat, you know where we are