[ltp] Re: Copying Windows XP to a new disk

[km]

My normal migration scenario (and broken hdd salvage scenario) are
variations of this:

boot up thinkpad1 and thinkpad2 with gentoo (or other) install cd.

thinkpad1# dd if=/dev/hda bs=1M | ssh thinkpad2 'dd of=/dev/hda'

this copies the entire HDD from TP1 to TP2 over the network. This is
also easy to do with just a single partition if you create the partition
table first and align your copy to the right starting cylinder.

You could just create the new partition with a bigger size and then
expand the filesystem. There is a DOS utility in the windows resource
kit that does this.

If you only have one thinkpad you could DD the image to a CIFS/NFS share
instead and then boot up with the new disk and DD back the image after
creating the partition table.

Only 40GB of data should go fast even on a 100mbit network, just a
little more than an hour.

-km

On 01/02, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> 
> I have a new 160GB Seagate disk I want to install in my ThinkPad T43,
> to replace the 40GB disks presently in it.
> I can put the disk temporarily in the Ultrabay.
> But what is the best way then to copy my Windows XP partition
> from the old disk to a larger partition on the new disk?
> 
> I should say that this is a perfectly legal Windows XP,
> and I could simply re-install it.
> But I'd like to avoid the trouble of updating Windows
> and running Lenovo's Update Software, if possible.
> 
> I have an old copy of Partition Magic.
> Would this do the trick?
> 
> Alternatively, could I use dd to copy the Windows partition
> to a partition of the same size on the new disk,
> and then expand this partition?
> 
> Or is there a standard Microsoft utility for such a conversion.
> (As will be clear, Windows is not my usual OS.)
> 
> Any suggestions or advice gratefully received.
> -- 
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