Problem cloning XP boot disk

[brewston]

Hiya

I've been trying to clone my current server HD to a new drive. I've used Maxtor Maxblast, Clonezilla & Gparted (The latter two when booted from a linux live USB stick) Each time I clone my C partition and try to boot from the clone, it starts booting and I get :

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

I'm shutting down Windows cleanly before performing the clone. I would have thought if my registry was genuinely corrupt I would have problems with the original installation

What's the secret to getting a clean backup of WinXP ?

Thanks

[rgroves]

Try to use GHOST to clone the drive.

[Folkboat]

http://www.xxclone.com/

[Ericft]

acronis migrate easy is also a good option.

[paulbeers]

I've used Easeus's disk copy before to make a clone of my hard drive. For home use, the software is free. I haven't used it in a couple of years since I switched to mostly Mac's, but it worked well when I cloned my netbook's hard drive and moved it to a bigger drive.....

http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by brewston

...
Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM ...

Did you move the new drive to the same SATA/PATA port that the old drive was using?

[brewston]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

Did you move the new drive to the same SATA/PATA port that the old drive was using?

No and on speaking to a friend I'm beginning to wonder if this is the problem. I also left the old drive connected, I just changed the boot order in the BIOS.

I'll try removing the old drive and moving the SATA cable

Thanks

[mikejaner]

Try DriveImageXML http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

[PhilH]

I've never had a problem using Acronis. Makes upgrading drives very easy.

[davephan]

I use Ghost or Acronis either work fine. If you don't want to buy a product, you could try using PING, Partition Image is Not Ghost, which is a free download. PING isn't as reliable as Ghost or Acronis for recoveries, but usually it works. For best results, store the image files on a hard drive, not on optical disks.

Dave

[nyplayer]

I use Casper 6.0.. It creates a bootable copy to a USB drive or any other kind of drive iDE Sata etc.. . In an emergency you can even boot it from the USB copy if your BIOs allows. Simply create a copy and you just replace the drive. Works great when upgrading to a larger drive.