Transferring Windows To Another Disk

[JonS]

Hi all,

I wanted to create a backup disk of my Windows XP installation of my PC - the idea being that if the Windows on my PC became corrupted, I could simply swap the backup disk in and be up an running. This would save hours of work re-installing Windows XP and all the programs from scratch.

The trouble is I can't get this to work. When I swap the new disk in to the PC, Windows XP boots up to the normal black screen with the Windows logo and then progresses to a smooth blue-type screen. Normally this screen has 'Welcome' on it and then quickly disappears to reveal the desktop. Instead, the replacement disk stops at this blue screen - and the blue screen does not show the words 'Welcome', but it does display a small colour Windows logo.

I copied the disk using Acrionis True Image by first taking and image file and then restoring from the image to the backup disk. The backup disk is I assume formatted correctly (sometimes an issue if it won't boot) because it seems to result in the boot action at least starting and progressing, if not completing.

As this backup hard disk is an exact copy of the original disk in the machine, in theory there shouldn't be any software driver/chipset issues, so I don't know what the problem is.

I am hoping there is an expert user who really knows what is going on, if this is possible, or how to make it work.

As this is hard-disk is to the same machine, there doesn't seem any point in setting the drivers to standard Microsoft ones. In addition, I have tried SysPrep, but I think that application is to streamline the registration process on the new machine and would still not resolve the basic problem I appear to be having which seems to be at the bootup stage.

I only speculate that Windows knows the registration number of the hard disk and when a new disk is entered, it refuses to progress.

Any help appreciated.