How to move a Windows 2000 hard drive

[glc]

You can't just remove the ENUM key with Windows 2000. More often than not, if you try to move a hard drive to a different system you will get an "innaccessible boot device" bluescreen. Here is a way to take care of that.

All the following steps should be taken before rebooting - if it wants to reboot, tell it "later".
Uninstall all software in add/remove programs directly related to any hardware components that will not be in the new system. Uninstall your antivirus software. Uninstall any service packs and hotfixes newer than what came on your 2K CD. Revert back to the version of IE that came with your 2K CD (most likely 5.01). Uninstall all devices in device manager that will not be in the new system - if you miss some, no big deal. Change your IDE controller to a "standard dual IDE controller". Note your network/dialup networking settings. Remove any shortcuts on the desktop and startup group that point to any network drives. Shut the machine down. Move the hard drive to the new system or do your hardware upgrade, it's advisable to have a minimum configuration (essentially just a video card, the hard drive, and one CD drive). Boot the new machine into the BIOS setup and disable all onboard components except video if applicable, the important one to disable is USB - and set it to boot from CD first. Boot the new machine to the 2K CD and when asked tell it to do a setup (NOT just a repair). When the setup finds the existing 2K installation, you will be asked whether to repair that installation or install a fresh copy - choose the repair this time. When this is all done, install the new chipset drivers and video driver (if applicable). Then you can systematically enable the disabled components and reinstall the other cards and drives and everything else you removed/uninstalled. If you had previously changed your drive lettering in disk management, you will have to redo it.

I moved a hard drive from a K6 system with a Via chipset into an Intel 845E system the other day this way - you don't get much different than that. The only problem device I came up with was the NT Legacy APM - and I had to show hidden devices in device manager to see it - just uninstall it if it's red flagged.

[dldz]

Thats very interesting glc, I will try that in a few weeks.
Don

[HAL9000]

That's a keeper George, it's a bit of work, but easily less than a reload.

[mike breck]

Excellent tip glc.

If this works with W2K then I can't see any major reason why it wouldn't work with XP.

[Markoman01027]

Great Tip GLC!

Will save your tip for future reference if I am working with a WIN2K box.

[pointd]

Being as I have several images to set up which are identical except for the hardware I am glad I read this. It should make life much easier.

[glc]

If you are making images, do them on a system with minimum hardware - set them up with standard dual IDE controllers and standard VGA. It's the IDE controllers that cause the inaccessible boot device bluescreen.

[pointd]

Ok - Thanks

I thought there was an easier way to move a HD, I thought there was a registry tweak you use, and it will just go through the hardware config and set you up. I have not used this myself but I thought I would try it, I have seen the tip around. I will look for it.

[Zap Branagen]

I will be replacing my motherboard, CPU, and memory in my Win 2000 system in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know what my experiences were!

[msignore]

1) I cant seem to clear all system devices.

2) Change Driver on IDEs doesnt seem to be an option.

3) My new MoBo wont boot the XP CD!

I havent disabled USB yet, but that wouldnt stop the CD from booting, would it?

I want to just run REPAIR but the CD wont boot...

[Force Flow]

Check to make sure the CDROM is set as one of the boot devices in the BIOS.

[msignore]

code 5 error message after its says BOOT FROM CD

could HDD be interfering?

I'm starting to think that drive moving in XP is hopeless.

Might just buy a new one...

[ms-technik]

Originally Posted by glc Boot the new machine to the 2K CD and when asked tell it to do a setup (NOT just a repair).

Have you ever heard of using the repair console to disable specific drivers manually?

I am trying to move a W2K System from a cheap-ass (and thus broken) no-name PC to a preliminary MSI MS6163 system.

As I am writing this I encounter the first boot sequence w/o BSoD.

I just wonder if it is really neccessary to reinstall part of the OS when the cause of the BSoD (IDE drivers) is already known.

Cheers and MANY thanks
Ralf

[glc]

If you can boot it the way it is with no BSOD, just let it boot and take care of the hardware and drivers once it's in Windows. All the repair reinstall does is refresh system files and write a new HAL. I'm guessing the MS6163 board has essentially the same chipset as the noname?

If you have a slipstreamed CD with SP4 and IE6, this makes the repair a lot easier.

[Cisridn]

I have a Windows 2000 system that the motherboard went dead on me. Since I can not boot up, does anyone know if I can use this tip when I replaced the motherboard or will I just have to reinstall W2K again?

[Panama Red]

If you are replacing the dead mobo with an exact duplicate, you may get lucky and you can just put it back together and it will run. If not, this tip should solve any hardware conflicts.

[Cisridn]

Thanks Panama Red.

I don't think I will find an exact duplicate mobo because I put this system together about 2-3 years ago.

[glc]

Found some "gotchas" - I upgraded my motherboard weekend before last, and had to do a repair reinstall. Any "dropin" replacements for standard Windows utilities have to be reinstalled - so far, I've had to reinstall Notepad+ and Diskeeper. They got overwritten by the standard Notepad and Defrag.

[Familyman]

Is there a way of doing this on a laptop that doesn't have a CD drive?

[glc]

If it doesn't have a CD drive, how did Windows get installed in the first place?

[Familyman]

I don't know. Originally it came from the manufacturer (Fujitsu) with windows 2000 installed. It's a tablet. There's no floppy either.

I am not sure, but I think Windows can be installed using a PCMCIA CD drive. I don't have one. That's why I am trying moving the drive.

I am wondering if partitioning the drive and copying the Windows CD into the second partition would work. If I can get Windows to run, could the repair be run from their?

So far I have not been able to get Windows 2000 to run after moving the drive. I must be doing something wrong. It's a new drive and fresh install from the W2K CD.

[glc]

Yes, you can install 2K from a partition on the hard drive, but it's gonna take some creativity. Do you have a Windows 98 desktop machine and a notebook drive to IDE adapter?

[Familyman]

Yes, I have both. I also have Partition Magic.

[glc]

Okay. This procedure is not tested by me personally, but it works in theory.

Put the drive into the 98 box as an additional drive and remove all partitions. Set it up with two FAT32 partitions, the second large enough for the contents of the 2000 CD plus a little breathing room. You won't need PM for this, Fdisk will do the job. Note the drive letters - I'll use X and Y here for reference, X being the first partition and Y being the second. Open a DOS prompt window.

format x: /s

This formats the main partition and makes it bootable. Find himem.sys and smartdrv.exe in Win98 and copy them to the root of X.

edit x:\config.sys

Add the following lines, save and exit.

device=himem.sys
dos=high

edit x:\autoexec.bat

Add the following line, save and exit.

smartdrv

Copy the 2000 CD to Y.

Put the drive back in the notebook and boot it up. It should boot to a C prompt, and the second partition should be D.

D:
cd i386
winnt

Set 2000 up on the first partition, leave it FAT32 for now, you can convert it to NTFS later if you want. You may wind up with a boot menu, if so, you can edit boot.ini to fix that. If you want, just leave the second partition there, keep it FAT32, and if you don't want to see it, hide it with PM. If you need to do a repair later, you can boot it with a USB floppy drive - use a 98 startup disk that has smartdrv on it and added to the autoexec.bat - and if the partition is unhidden, you can use the same commands to get into Setup.

Good luck!

[Familyman]

Thanks glc. I will let you know how it goes.

[Familyman]

The procedure worked. Thank you so much.

For some reason the "x:" partition came out formatted FAT, not FAT32. But it converted to NTFS with no problem.

It does bring up a boot menu. Can you tell me how to edit the boot.ini?

I am also wondering about using this procedure with Windows 98. How do I get Windows 98 to install from D:?
[edit] I figured it out.

D:
cd win98
setup.exe






Thanks again. This is fantastic.

[glc]

You don't even have to edit the boot.ini if you do the following -

Control panel, system, advanced, startup and recovery -

Choose Win2000 as the default and uncheck the box to display the list - or leave it checked and lower it to 3 seconds or something.

[Familyman]

Got it!

WOW! Windows loaded on a tablet that has no CD or Floppy drive. Who would have thought it possible. Wonderful tip glc.

BTW, the manual says the PCMCIA slot is not bootable.

Took a pic for you.

Thanks.

[glc]

I just replaced my motherboard again - and I used this shortcut successfully this time - before shutting down, I opened device manager, went to the parent IDE controller (mine was Intel Ultra ATA Storage Controller), updated driver, chose from a list, and chose Standard Dual IDE controller. Then I shut down and swapped the motherboard. Worked like a charm. This works with XP too.