"Ghosting" new master drive

[Yankee fan]

Hello all --- I've asked this one before, but I have to do it now, so I want to make sure I have it right.

I have an older system (gateway Pent II, 300 MGH, running Windows 98 2nd Ed). I have 2 hard drives (C & D). My C is a 3.2 GB Quantum Fireball that is failing. I have Norton Ghost, and an "Image" of C ready to go.

The replacement drive I have is a 5.2 GB Maxtor, newly factory refurbished and totally blank.

Now, here is what I was advised to do a few months ago. I just want to make sure I get it right:

1) Take out the old "C" drive and put in the new one, set as "master".

2) Do NOT FDisk, format, or anything.

3) Boot up system with Ghost Boot disk in Floppy drive.

4) Copy the image of old "C" on to new "C".

5) Reboot system and that is it?

It just seems to me that I am missing something. It seems to easy. Please let me know if I am missing any vital steps. Thanks, as always...

[reboot]

That's it.
If you mount the new drive, and do anything to it, it gets a drive letter and a boot record, and Ghost may not be able to mount the image correctly.
Just boot to the Ghost diskette, and do it.
Only one concern, if you have "Trend Chip Away" anti-virus in your BIOS, <b>turn it off</b> before Ghosting.

[Yankee fan]

So --- after the "Image" is placed on the new drive, the new drive will all be formatted, etc. just like the old drive, and you are ready to go just by rebooting the system --- even though it is 2 GB bigger?? Man---it just seems too easy....

Do I do the GHOST Image 'Partition to Partition", Partition to Disk, ...?

Thanks again, Reboot....

[reboot]

Doesn't matter. It's a whole new drive, and unless you've previously partitioned the new drive (you haven't), or the original has more than one partition, then you can just do a disk to disk.

[Yankee fan]

Thanks, Reboot...It just doesn't seem possible that it could be so simple....Ghost is a great tool...

[reboot]

Yup, Ghost and Partition Magic are my friends ;)

[avx]

Peter Norton is my BEST friend:D

Did you know he actually made the "Recycle Bin" Utitlity, the first one atleast, *I believe*. Cant tell you how many times Ive been saved by having that recycle bin, especially when I first got the PC:)

[reboot]

Too bad that Peter has absolutely nothing to do with Symantec :mad:
When Peter actually owned the company, they produced plenty of great tools, especially system works (back when it fit on a floppy).
Symantec bought the company, and now the only decent program they still have is Ghost.

[avx]

What about the latest Norton A/V's they are still pretty good dont you think?

[Yankee fan]

One last thing I forgot to ask on my original question....Do I have to do anything in the BIOS after I "image" my new drive and then reboot? Thanks...

[reboot]

If you're swapping drives, then yes, you'll have to change the disk parameters in BIOS setup.
It's much easier than it looks, just hit the "Detect IDE", answer Y to the 4 questions, save and restart.

[Yankee fan]

Most excellent.....Thanks again....

[Yankee fan]

Well --- 7 months later I finally got around to trying the "swap:
1) I made my Ghost Image of Drive "C".

2) I took out the old drive C and put in the new, unformatted, drive.

3) I rebooted with the Ghost disk in drive A..

When I tried to put the Ghost image on the new disk, I could not "select" the new disk. I could "see it" listed, but I couldn't select it. What am I doing wrong???

Thanks....

[reboot]

The first question asked in Ghost, is where is the SOURCE. Once that's answered, you'll be able to answer the second question, where's the destination (your new drive).
Where did you save the Ghost image?
If you have two hard drives, you can simply clone one to the other, no need to make an image, but they must both be mounted in the computer at the same time.
Maybe I don't fully understand your problem...

[Yankee fan]

Right now I have a C & D drive. The image is on the D. When I take out the "old" C and put in the "new", replacement C, then I reboot with the Ghost disk in the A drive.
Ghost comes up, and it does ask for the source drive, but the "new drive" C is not listed, and the old drive D (where the image is) is listed as the "C" drive. I choose that one and get to the image OK. Then it asks me for the destination, and that is where the new drive "C" is listed, but can not be selected. It is "grayed out" and can' t be highlighted.

What is interesting is the unaccessble drive shows the size of the "old C" drive 3.2 GB, not the size of the new drive C (5.2 GB). Maybe something wrong with the new drive? My system maybe can not handle it above 3.2GB?

Can I test the new drive somehow to see if it is OK?

Thanks for the help again.

[glc]

Try using Fdisk to make a partition on the new drive first, no need to format it. Is it seen then?

[Yankee fan]

Worked like a charm. Used Fdisk to make one partition on new drive --- no fomatting. Rebooted with GHOST disk and cloned the image from D drive to new C drive.

All is well. Thanks to all.

[reboot]

That's a new one. I have never had to fdisk a new drive before ghosting to it...