Unique problem in booting Windows XP Pro (migration)

[zonkoz]

Hi,

I have an old HDD of 20 gb size that's about to die anyday.

Then I got a new HDD of 163 gb as a gift, however my bios doesn't recognize it natively (kob 815efx mobo) so I had to install DDO (Dynamic Drive Overlay) on the new HDD to get the full capapcity. This is software provided by the HDD vendor (Maxtor), apparently licensed from Kroll Ontrack.

Note this old HDD's boot partition is FAT32, about 4.7 gb in size. All partitions are FAT32.

The straight-forward method to migrate my install to the new HDD would've been

1. Install new HDD as slave

2. Run the HDD install software provided by vendor which would

a) install the DDO

B) partition

c) migrate data and make the new partition bootable

d) switch off and make the new HDD primary

However the problem was that I wasn't getting the full capacity of the HDD when trying to install as above.

So I had to use the DOS boot-disk of the same software, which gave me the full capacity and partitioned the drive, but failed to migrate the boot partition of the old HDD.

At this point, I took step 3

3. Install Ubuntu Linux on spare partition in new HDD - run it, gloat over it, update it, customize it

Then I remembered I had to migrate the windows partition too.

Tried Step 2 again, failed again in disk copy. Some 796 files couldn't be copied, which included ntldr and lots of dll files from <system root>\system32\

This won't do, of course. Now I took the experimental step 4

4. I copied the data from the windows source partition to the target partition using the dd command in linux

dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/dev/hda1 (This copied the data bitwise from slave (old) HDD to master (new) HDD)

I edited my Linux Loader to allow me to boot to windows partition. I got the xp boot option, and tried to boot, but nothing happend. I got "Error loading OS". I realised there was a problem with the boot sector.

So, step 5.

5. Copy the boot sector of old HDD boot partition to new HDD boot partition

dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/dev/hda1 bs=512 count=1

Note I'm not copying the MBR 'cos the new HDD's MBR has the Drive Overlay software which allows for the full capacity of the drive

No luck still. Worse, the linux boot reports "bad superblock on hda1" when trying to mount it so I do some more research and then..

5(alt). Copy the boot sector partially (first 446 bytes only, skipping partition data)

dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/dev/hda1 bs=446 count=1

This time round I can mount the partition without any errors, and when I boot the system into XP from LinuxLoader, it boots!!

It displays the Windows XP icon with the blue 'progress snake' running underneath it. Then the screen goes black, then it turns blue with Windows XP on it again -- usual boot procedure..

Unusually, it doesn't do anything else at all!! The boot process is stuck without any boot errors being reported. I edited boot.ini (again from linux by mounting the new boot partition) and put in /sos which gave me some display of the boot process

** lots of .sys files are loaded

** the drives are checked for error flags and reported as error free

** screen turns blue and windows xp logo comes,

** nothing more...

So, evidently, I've done something right, 'cos the boot process starts at least. However, I've done something wrong, 'cos it gets stuck somewhere in between. Where exactly, I don't know. I read up on the boot process at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn.../c29621675.mspx but that gave me no clues.

I would be greatly obliged if you can throw some pointers.

To summarise:

1. Copied data into new partition

2. Copied boot sector

3. Boot begins, but fails mysteriously with no error being reported

HARDWARE SUMMARY

Pentium III 866 MHz

192 Mb RAM DDR 100

Kobian 815e fx motherboard

Maxtor 163 GB HDD (new)

Seagate 20 GB HDD (old)

WinXP Pro with SP2

I'm loath to do a new install because of associated pain of updates.....

Thanks In Advance!

[zonkoz]

Oh!

I forgot to mention

1. I've tried to do 'fixboot' from the boot cd recovery console - didn't work, same result on booting

2. I've tried 'last good working configuration' and 'safe' options after getting boot options on pressing F8. Ddin't work, same result on booting.

3. Possible trouble-shooting idea - is it that the boot process is successfully being completed? That it's winlogon.exe that's the problem? Or something similar?

I realised that the 'blue screen with Windows XP logo' is what I see for a brief while before the XP logo shifts to left, and login names /icons come up on right to begin the login process.

The mouse works at this 'blue screen', FYI.