WHy, why? Recently I installed on a 9 GB drive Win 2000 SP1 , uppgraded to SP4, and added some other standard software I usually want to use. Then I used this disk for a couple of days and then bought a larger drive ( Maxtor, only 80 MB). The goal of installing the main systems on this 'small' drive is to be able to use that smaller drive for future installations of the basic softwarwe on larger a larger disk. Then the smaller sick could serve as a backup if the larger one fails e.q. due to virus, or general brake-down ( I have had 3 disk crashes during the last 8 years) The information in the new 80 MB Maxtor CD package informed me that I could transfer the information stored on a smaller disk ( drive c:) to the new one . So I used that option when I partionated / formatted the new drive (say e: f: g: etc) After that I made the ned drive to be the new master drive and removed the old c:-drive. Win 2000 did not start. Further investigation indicated that the original drive containg Win 2000 must exist on the system ( MBR Record, I assume). Conclusion 1: Maxtor has given an oversimlified picture of the usefuleness of copying content of a smaller drive to a larger one. They should have recommended to intall the operating system on the new drive using the orininal CD and then copy/installl application data from the original drive.) So on my system now the new drive is the master drive, the old c: drive is the slave Now my QUESTIOIN 1: When I start the computer in about 1 to 2 starts out ot 5 starts, win 2000 fails to start saying .. something like could not .. driver \root\system32\drivvers\name wher driver is e.g.netbt.sys, mrxsnb.sys or tepip.sys ¨(etc) . When I restart the computer, the system usually stats nicely. WHAT MIGHT BE WRONG ? (no new software) QUESTION 2: The system resides now on the large drive, the MBR ibformation is on the small drive. I would like to remove the small ddrive. Queston: Is it possibble to repair / install the win 2000 system files without destoying the other files (programs) on the new drive ? With kind regards Christian

Guess you didn't consider the fact that when you copied the OS to d: that it still contained registry entries for everything on c:? Your D: copy was corrupt from the beginning. Proper method in your case would have been to use a product like Ghost or Drive Image to "clone" the 9gig to the larger drive. You would then remove the 9gig putting the larger drive in its place. It would boot since the clone includes the mbr and since the drive is c: all the registry entries would be correct. To answer your question #1 relates to the registry corruption/inaccuracy. Question #2 is a yes. Remove the 9gig from the system. boot the w2k cd via the bios and start install. Do not select recovery console or repair. When you get to the choice of new install or repair existing choose repair existing. It will leave your apps and data intact. You will need to redo all service packs since you are at install defaults for patches. Golly gee wilerkers everyone. Learn to Internet Search

If you install the newer drive as first physical drive "and set as Master" (and bootable as per Wanderer's advice) you can still install the older 9Gig drive as Slave to it and get it to boot too - via the boot-loader on the newer/larger drive... Then should the installation on the newer (Master) drive go pear-shaped, as long as the mbr/boot-loader etc. on the c: root of the newer drive is intact, you should (still) be able to boot to the slaved drive and run that version. That original version (then on the slaved Drive) will still boot as now; i.e. its path statements etc. will still show as c: - and this should present no problems. Should you wish (need) to you can reset the original 9Gig drive as Master (at any time) and boot it as now via its own boot-loader etc.. And if the larger drive is then set as slave to the 9Gig you should be able to access its data etc. (unless that drive is toast there should be no problem in that regard...). The only item that will (probably) change if/when the newer drive is slaved to the 9Gig in this way is that newer drive's letter; the 9Gig installation will assign another drive letter to the newer drive when addressng that newer drive in a slave posn. (it will show it as something other than c: ) - but this will/should present no problems as you will merely be accessing data etc., not running the OS/apps etc. installed there. ********** Going back to the issue of copying the 9Gig installation to the newer drive... I haven't used any of those utils (as supplied by Maxtor etc.). However, as I understand it, once you have copied the drive contents over (from the 9Gig in your situation) to the newer drive, you need to set that newer drive as Master and run a repair\fixmbr (fixboot is not requred as far as I know..) to enable it to boot. The only thing that doesn't go over the via the copy-util is the mbr... (the boot/start-up files already across in the root directory)? Once you resolve that item, all things being equal it should boot as normal. Since the newer drive is in the same physical system as the original (9Gig) drive, all drivers etc. (the Mobo etc.) are the same - and will be correct on the newer drive. If the newer drive (with the copy of the 9Gig on it) was installed in another system then things would not work properly afterwards...; thus a little more tweaking/work would be required...? As I say I haven't used one of these utils thus far, so I may be out in left field here. My general trawls etc. over time incline me to my understanding as above. If I'm incorrect then please be free to correct... I'm inclined to agree with your comments re' Maxtor (et alii) guidelines re' this and other utils; often the information supplied is sparse, or assumes a lot on the part of the end user..?