Adding a temporary 2nd SATA disk - how?

[Tuscan]

Can someone please help me out on this? Probably a numpty question but I don't want to lose a lifetimes data doing something wrong here.

I am running XP Pro on Abit KV7. Currently one SATA hard drive on there - no problems. I would like to upgrade to a larger HDD now.

Essentially what I was wanting do was to simply add a 2nd SATA HDD and use Norton Ghost to clone from the current disk to the empty 2nd HDD. I would then take out the first drive and use it as a mobile HDD for back-ups. So, I would be running with just one (the new) disk in the PC. If this was all IDE, it will be cloning master to slave - easy. But I am stuck with the SATA things.

So I want to effectively clone my SATA "master" drive onto a new SATA drive. I have added that drive and it can be seen when booting up, but then I get a 'non system disk error' and Windows will not start. I guess that the PC sees both SATAs and does not know that one had an OS installed, while the other is blank. How do I do it then please?

Does a RAID need to be set up, if so what type? I know nothing about these and don't want to risk my data on my full drive! So what is the best way of going about this task please?

 

[SiriusB]

In the BIOS go to your boot settings and set your boot drive as the first priority. This should make sure Windows starts, although I am puzzled as to why it hasn't found a bootable HDD by itself.

Once you're in Windows then Norton Ghost or similar is pretty much all you will need to copy the contents. Never used Ghost but if it is like Acronis True Image there is probably a Clone HDD tool of some sort.

Just clone the drive, copy it over to the new one, test the new one [for a few days to make sure no errors/bugs show up.] once you are happy you can nuke the first HDD.

SiriusB

 

[Tuscan]

Thanks for that.

Well, in the boot up screens it shows 2 drives installed. I think what I posted before may have mislead you. In the BIOS itself, I don't see anywhere where the drives are listed so I can dictate the boot sequence. Both drives are visible in the RAID BIOS, but I don't know what I am doing in there to be honest.

Is it case that I have to use the RAID BIOS then whether I like it or not. If so then, do I have to set up a RAID to span them or something like that.

Sorry for the Sunday morning numptyness, but I imagined that things would have been liked you describe, but it does not appear to be that way.

 

[aelitaman]

Keep looking in the bios I have an Abit motherboard and the is definately a section entitled "boot Priority". This is where you can chose to boot from hard disk or cd-room or usb device. Choose the original hard disk if you can not find it by looking get the manual out.

Once you have the PC booting of the orginal hard disk you may not be able to see the new drive in windows. If this is the case you need to go to control panel -> administrative tools ->computer management-> storage disk management. You should be able to see the new hard disk in there and windows may have it flagged as unactive. If this is the case right click and activate the new hard disk. Now windows will see it and you can use your clone tool to do what you want.

 

[malcolm]

The fact that you said 'I can see both the discs in the Raid Bios' is the clue here. With 2 discs connected the board thinks they are a RAID array, but they are two independant discs. If you have only one drive, then it works OK.

I have had a look at the manual for the KV7 on the ABIT website and it seems there are no details in the bios to set up the RAID. If you still have the books that came with your mobo, then the answer may be in there. Basically you have to turn off the RAID function so it sees the two drives as individual discs, but maybe this is a strange implementation by VIA and the bios can only use SATA for RAID.

You could buy an external USB SATA box, put the new drive in it and then ghost your first drive, then take the new drive out of the USB box and see if it boots.