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Replace / upgrade system disk on NT4

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9 replies

by the_duf

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I would like to change my 4gb IDE system disk on an NT4 server (BDC) for a larger capacity drive. The new disk needs to be the C: drive and contain all the apps / data which is on the current C drive.
NB There is nothing wrong with the current installation of NT , it is just too small. Any advice ?

9 replies

by dcassat

I would add the new drive as drive D:, Ghost the contents of C: to it, Switch the drives by changing jumpers, verify the operation of the new drive to make sure that it boots, etc and then format the old drive after you are convinced that all is well. This is a common method in my experience.

by rms7086

You could do a backup of current drive. Install new drive; install the os under a directory called WINNT22; boot up to the WINNT22 install and do a full restore from tape. Reboot and you will have two installs to run from; the original and WINNT22. You can delete the WINNT22 directory and modify the boot.ini file after booting to the original install

by curious_george

The best and fastest method is to install the new IDE drive on the second IDE channel as IDE can only access one drive at a time per channel but can access both channels simultaneously. Use Ghost (or my favorite Drive Image Pro by Power Quest) and transfer the contents from one drive to the other and extend the partion on the second drive during the transfer, but remember NT doens't do well booting to system partitions larger than 7.8Gig. (You can exceed this, but I've seen this come back to haunt me later even with Apps like Server Magic) so just create a second partition with the disk administrator later to use the remaining drive space.

Then of course just swap the drives around so you now have the new drive as primary.

Since youare not using any fault tolerance and are running IDE as a system drive, I'd suggest purchasing a third party IDE RAID controller and mirroring you OS drive.

Try this one:
http://www.ars-technica.com/reviews/4q99/fasttrak66/fasttrak66-1.html

by buttwobbler

Ghost is the way to go. Jus install the second hard disk as the secondary one. Ghost the 1st HDD contents to 2nd. Remove ur 1st HDD and ur away!!
Hope it helps. All this in less than 20 mins!!!

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