My usual method, for Windows 2000 though it should work with later versions is:
1) Do a minimal Windows install to a spare disk or a throwaway partition on the new disk. Boot into it. 2) Copy the system from the old disk to the new partition using "XCOPY /S /E /C /F /H /K /O M: N: >xcopy.out 2>&1" 3) Reboot with a Windows install disk and select the basic repair options to get the MBR and boot files regenerated. You don't want to let it repair all system files though! 4) You should now be able to reboot into the new system. Sometimes weird ACLs will mean bits didn't copy in (2). Cygwin for example installs itself with permissions that stop it from being copied from the "unknown" user you will be running as in the staging system. These will be highlighted by errors in xcopy.out which is why you generated it in (2). Once you are rebooted into the copied system you should be able to manually fix these up. You may also need to fix up drive letter assignments then reboot to have them take effect. 5) Once all looks well, the staging system can be removed. Or kept, because it's always useful to have a known bootable OS lying around in emergencies.
Done it several times and it seems to work without requiring any 3rd party tools.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-06-19 02:53 pm (UTC)1) Do a minimal Windows install to a spare disk or a throwaway partition on the new disk. Boot into it.
2) Copy the system from the old disk to the new partition using "XCOPY /S /E /C /F /H /K /O M: N: >xcopy.out 2>&1"
3) Reboot with a Windows install disk and select the basic repair options to get the MBR and boot files regenerated. You don't want to let it repair all system files though!
4) You should now be able to reboot into the new system. Sometimes weird ACLs will mean bits didn't copy in (2). Cygwin for example installs itself with permissions that stop it from being copied from the "unknown" user you will be running as in the staging system. These will be highlighted by errors in xcopy.out which is why you generated it in (2). Once you are rebooted into the copied system you should be able to manually fix these up. You may also need to fix up drive letter assignments then reboot to have them take effect.
5) Once all looks well, the staging system can be removed. Or kept, because it's always useful to have a known bootable OS lying around in emergencies.
Done it several times and it seems to work without requiring any 3rd party tools.