basically my laptop has one HD in it thats full, if i put a brand new HD i know it wont boot without all the windows files etc on it.

can i therefore, just transfer all the windows files (basically the whole C drive) onto the new HD and then swap them over?

When I saw the duplicate post in XP, I thought you were new! I deleted your duplicate. Posting the same question in more than one forum - "shotgun posting" - is frowned upon for several reasons. From the technical standpoint, it results in the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This is not good for the poster, or for those in each thread trying to help - and often results in the problems getting worse. And it is also considered poor forum etiquette as it may "appear" as though you are attempting to get ahead of other standing in line - kind of like spreading your 6 kids across the busy grocery checkouts to ensure you get served first.

In your defense, I assume you are using XP and you did not know if this was a hardware or an XP problem. Well, that's why you were not taken out back an shot - it could go in either - or in our "Build or Upgrade Forum" too - so you missed one!
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You have a couple options but none are 100% risk free. You need to ensure you have a backup of all your current files first, and your original Windows install and driver disks (or better yet, download all the latest HW drivers and have them on CD first.

Note that most major hard drive makers have tools you can download for free (or come with the drive if you buy a "retail" version) to do what you want - although it will be a bit trickier with a laptop.

Or you can use imaging program such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost.

Or you can take it a shop and have someone that does this sort of thing all the time do it.

yeah well tbh i thought it fell in both categories but in future will keep it to one thread sorry!

cheers for the reply, i think il try it anyway, if it doesnt work keep the HD as a spare, il be ordering it soon and wil let you know how i get on

done a bit of research think il try ghost!

but in future will keep it to one thread sorry!

No problem - and if you post in the wrong forum, a moderator can simply move it.

A lot of people like Ghost.


Keep us posted.

ok so i tried using ghost, (first of all i formatted the drive, set it as active so i could boot from it.)

partitioned it to two sectors.

then used ghost to copy everything from C on my current harddrive to the first sector on my new harddrive.

i then booted the laptop up with the new HD in but i get the "ntldr is missing error"




i know that this means that the os doesnt know which partition to boot from, but how do i fix it? i tried creating a boot usb file but it didnt work?

i read somewhere that i can jst download the boot files but where from? as i cant find them

it gets worse :S

i have a external HD case which i use to plug in my new HD to transfer stuff onto it, before when i plugged my new HD in it would recognise both the 2 new partitions......

now it doesnt.... only the empty one where i didnt transfer my c drive to?

and when i go to disk management it says that the partition is a eisa configuration?

Did you format both "partitions" not "sector" - there are sectors in each partition.

im pretty sure yeah, i created the two partitions from fresh, as it was a new HD , and i formattted it when i got it......


bit of an update, i booted the pc with xp disc in, ran the recovry and typed fixmbr.

and now when i reboot i get the message saying no operating system?

im pretty sure yeah, i created the two partitions from fresh, as it was a new HD , and i formattted it when i got it......

When you partition the drive, Windows sees each partition as a separate drive and each partition must be formatted individually.