Hi,

I'm thinking about changing my primary Harddisk (300GB)  to a bigger one (750GB)

But I expect that will not be so easy to do, I trust ShadowProtect at doing an exact copy, but there lies the real problem, I expect.

Here's the situation :

The first disk in my system, which I want to change consists of 4 partitions :

1) a 50GB NTFS primary partition with my windows XP installation on it.

2) a 100GB NTFS primary partition with my windows Vista installation on it.

3) a 150GB NTFS logical partition where I store some data.

4) a 7MB  FAT Boot partition with the bootrecord which contains the multiboot tool  BootIt NG (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm)

Here's a screenshot of the XP Disk Manager : http://i29.tinypic.com/25u7b6b.png
 

 I expect some serious problems with the boot partition that will now not contain the correct offsets of each partition ?

 I expect some mild problems with the OS's not adapting to the new HD.

In other words, I expect a non-booting system.

Does anyone know any trusty, working way to actually change a primary HD containing multiple OS partitions AND a boot partition ?

Please, I could use any help !

Thanks a lot !

 Can someone help please ?

7 mg should not be a nightmare to recreate.   Look at dd (originally a linux tool but there are dos versions) then just create your partitions the right sizes and restore with Shadowprotect.

This reminds me of my ems/fire/rescue days.   Someone made a t-shirt with Taz in a haz-mat suite and the slogan was:

"That with man has created, he must now contain".

:)
 

So, Couldn't Iuse some "Make Exact Duplicate" way in ShadowProtect, that will duplicate a HD sector by sector ?

This way, I could still make partitions bigger in the BootItNG multiboot tool.

Please, nobody willing to help seriously ?

@kenneth

Do you mean ShadowProtect isn't able to duplicate a 7MB partition correctly ?

Shadowprotect is not designed for that.  It uses shadow services in NT-based operating systems which DOS or FAT file systems do not have.

Yes, it could duplicate a 7 mb partition exactly if it was NTFS.

 Beze,

That should be easy. You have a third party dual boot with BING so you know how to use BING and its Boot Edit menu.

 Create images of the first 3 partitions with SP. Change HDs. Install BING using its automatic setup and partition your new HD from BING. Restore the images. Use BING to setup the Boot Menu.

You don't really have to use SP. You could do everything from BING.

Ah OK, I understand. Thank you very much !

 Beze,

My post was very brief but you obviously understand what I meant.

You won't have any trouble booting either OS with BING. You can put the Vista partition anywhere on the new HD and it will still boot. You can even change the Vista partition from cylinder aligned to 2048 sector aligned and it will still boot.

Please let us know what happens.

Brian K:

 Beze,

My post was very brief but you obviously understand what I meant.

You won't have any trouble booting either OS with BING. You can put the Vista partition anywhere on the new HD and it will still boot. You can even change the Vista partition from cylinder aligned to 2048 sector aligned and it will still boot.

Please let us know what happens.

I'll keep this thread updated, but I have some problems now, it will take some more months I guess.

My wallet just won't let me buy a bigger HD in the direct future, LOL...

 I meant to add that you can even copy/move Vista to a primary partition or a logical volume on the second HD and it will still boot with BING. No BCD edits needed.