Replacing HDD on Dell Dimension & doing a Drive Image-Not Working?
Hello all,
I have been trying to help a friend with a PC problem that has me stumped and I was hoping someone here might help.
I want to replace the current Hard Drive in a Dell Dimension PC with a new, larger drive (The old drive is a 160Gb SATA Seagate, the new one a Maxtor DiamondMax10 300Gb SATA II).
I would also like to do a Drive Image (or similar) of the current system so that I don't have to re-install nearly everything and various files accrued over time (e.g. iTunes music etc.).
What I have tried so far is this:
Put the new HDD in as a second drive;
Used Drive Image 2002 to make an image of the existing drive (using the 2 Boot Floppy discs DI2002 makes you create on installation);
Copy the image to the existing drive in Windows;
Used Partition Magic (from Partition Magic's Boot Floppy's) to set up the partitions on the new drive as they are on the old drive and format it;
Go back into DI2002 via the Boot Floppy's and Restore the image onto the newly formatted new hard drive;
The only problem is, that when I try to boot now the system starts to load Windows XP, loads up the normal blue screen and has the "Starting Windows XP" text, but nothing else happens. The HDD stops responding, the system beeps if I push the 'Enter' key.
What should happen is a screen with which user to log-in appear (they have 5 different users accounts), but it does not.
I have tried several times to do this and I have also tried a few other methods (e.g. Installing Windows XP on the new drive first, then using Drive Image to restore) all with the same non-loading result.
One thing that is bizzare about this machine, and that's why I mention Dell Dimension specifically, is that the current Hard Drive is partitioned thus:
LABEL: "DellUtility" - Type: Primary - TOTAL: 59.7Mb - Used: 7.9Mb - FORMAT: FAT
LABEL: "" - Type: Primary - TOTAL: 120,110.9Mb - Used: 4,800.9Mb - FORMAT: NTFS - ACTIVE
LABEL: "" - Type: Primary - TOTAL: 2289.7Mb - Used: 2289.7Mb - FORMAT: CP/C SOMETHING
The "SOMETHING" above is because I can't remember the rest of the Label, but it was not a typical name I would know.
I tried re-creating the same partitions on the new drive (except with the main drive, middle one, I made it use the remaing space rather than just the 120,110.9Mb that the previous drive used. However, I could not create the final/third like on the existing drive because I had no clue what format it was, what was on it, or how to access it.
Is there anyone that can please tell me:
1) What I'm doing wrong?
2) How I can fix the error of my ways?
3) Any other input you might have?
Thank you kindly for your time.
X10
Dell Dimension 5100 Spec's:
Intel 3.2GHz P4 CPU
512Mb RAM
Seagate 160Gb Hard Drive
Video Card Unknown
Windows XP Home SP2
