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Cloned Windows XP Won't Boot

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Name: efs2
Date: October 7, 2006 at 21:31:47 Pacific
OS: Windows XP
CPU/Ram: 1.5GHz/512MB
Product: Intel P4
Comment:

Greetings:
I used HDClone to copy a Windows XP installation to another HDD. No errors were reported.

Now the new installation will not boot. It gets to the two-tone blue Windows XP screen and sticks. The new-installation HDD is the only one installed in the machine.

I found a few threads here from users who encountered the same problem. However, I found no answers. Is there a solution?

Thanks.
Ed



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Response Number 1
Name: Richard59
Date: October 7, 2006 at 22:17:17 Pacific
Reply:

Are you using the cloned drive to boot in the original machine or are you trying to boot it up in a different PC ?

I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.


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Response Number 2
Name: efs2
Date: October 7, 2006 at 22:58:59 Pacific
Reply:

It's in the same machine.


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Response Number 3
Name: Richard59
Date: October 7, 2006 at 23:09:53 Pacific
Reply:

If you have your XP Instal CD boot up to it and go into repair console. Try the FIXBOOT and FIXMBR commands and see if that helps.

I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.


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Response Number 4
Name: Johnw
Date: October 8, 2006 at 04:20:23 Pacific
Reply:

Use a boot disk with fdisk on & make the new HD Active, also make sure it is jumpered to master.


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Response Number 5
Name: efs2
Date: October 8, 2006 at 08:49:22 Pacific
Reply:

I tried fixmbr and fixboot. No help.

The C: drive partition is active. The drive is set to "Cable Select." The system does not fail to see the drive. In fact, it almost(!) boots.

Man, cloning a hard drive sure is a great time saver, huh?


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Response Number 6
Name: JohnFL
Date: October 8, 2006 at 11:02:10 Pacific
Reply:

efs2

I use a program called casperXP and have NEVER had a problem with it making an exact mirror image of my original boot drive. One thing tho that i do different, is that i have my drives jumpered for boot and master, Never did trust the "Cable Select". So if i want to boot from the clone drive, i have to jumper it to master, and the original boot drive to slave.


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Response Number 7
Name: efs2
Date: October 8, 2006 at 11:55:00 Pacific
Reply:

Okay, just to be sure, I tried setting the drive to "master." It made no difference.


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Response Number 8
Name: Johnw
Date: October 8, 2006 at 15:27:25 Pacific
Reply:

"Okay, just to be sure, I tried setting the drive to "master." It made no difference"

Did you use fdisk as per Response Number 4?


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Response Number 9
Name: efs2
Date: October 8, 2006 at 15:41:38 Pacific
Reply:

The C: drive partition is active, as I said in Response No. 5.


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Response Number 10
Name: DanJ
Date: October 8, 2006 at 15:43:39 Pacific
Reply:

I had the same thing happen yesterday. I used Ghost to clone a drive. It went to the user screen, I chose a "limited" user and then it hung. Tried again, same thing.

I had to boot to safe mode with the administrator login. Turns out XP had to load drivers for the new hard drive.

If that doesn't help, what size hard drive? Is it recognized by BIOS correctly?


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Response Number 11
Name: Johnw
Date: October 8, 2006 at 16:16:46 Pacific
Reply:

"The C: drive partition is active, as I said in Response No. 5"
Opp's sorry.

It's almost like the clone missed some files.
XP Home Repair Install
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/win...
Startup your comp, with a Boot disc or Startup disk in the floppy drive (without cd rom support)
At the A: prompt, type > sys c: and then press ENTER.
Take out the boot disk and then "Repair" XP by booting from the XP CD and selecting Install > Repair (NOT recovery console) > Fast Repair.

Or,

If this is an option, do it again & use this.
XXCLONE for XP
http://xxclone.com/



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Response Number 12
Name: efs2
Date: October 8, 2006 at 16:39:08 Pacific
Reply:

DanJ, I tried booting into safe mode. The process hangs at the same place. Yes, the BIOS correctly recognizes the hard drive, which is an 80GB Western Digital EIDE. Assuming the problem I an encountering is the same as yours, is there any way to solve it without booting into safe mode?

Johnw, no problem. I appreciate the effort.
As far as a repair installation, I know how to do that, and in the end I would have saved some time by not having to reinstall all the applications. But I would rather figure out the problem, if I can.



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Response Number 13
Name: efs2
Date: October 8, 2006 at 22:09:43 Pacific
Reply:

I just cloned a Windows 98SE installation onto the same hard drive. It boots and runs just fine.

To confirm that the problem is related to Windows XP, I will try to clone the Windows XP installation one more time.


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Response Number 14
Name: efs2
Date: October 9, 2006 at 08:47:41 Pacific
Reply:

It worked this time. The system is up and running, after a process like the one posted by DanJ.

The system would not boot the first time around, sticking at the same point. But it would boot into safe mode. And then then I got the message that a new device had been installed - presumably the hard drive.

I can only surmise that the issue is related to the anti-theft mechanism built into Windows XP.
Ed


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Response Number 15
Name: DanJ
Date: October 9, 2006 at 18:20:34 Pacific
Reply:

Thanks for letting us know you got it working.

Glad I helped.

Dan


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Response Number 16
Name: znoob
Date: November 20, 2006 at 08:40:15 Pacific
Reply:

I understand this is a bit late, but since this post helped
me today a lot, I would like to post the true solution:

"Unable to log on if the boot partition drive letter has
changed"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249...

and

"How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223...

Hope this helps all future visitors.

Sincerely,
Paul


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