Question : Problem: Errors using Norton Ghost 10 to install a new hard drive

I've got a user here with around 400mb of space left on her C: drive. She's using Microsoft Windows XP Pro, and I'm trying to install a new, larger hard drive. I'm using Norton Ghost 10's copy feature to copy her C: drive to a new D: drive, then remove the C:, replacing it with the D: to become her new C: drive. I've tried twice now, to no avail. I've chosen for it to be the active (boot) drive, to be named C:, and have tried once with Ghost skipping bad sectors, and once with it copying any bad sectors anyway. I've gotten the same result both times, in that the hard drive will boot to windows, but when I get to the login screen and attempt to do so, Windows begins to log in, then immediately logs back out. From what I can tell, this is a sign of an incomplete or corrupt OS, but her original, while not bug free, will boot fine. Am I missing something? Can Norton Ghost not be used to copy a hard drive to a new one?

I'd use the standard backup/image feature to create an image of the drive, then install it on the new drive, but I'm not sure how to go about it. For starters, he computer will not recognize any external hard drives I plug into it. Can Norton Ghost save an image to a network drive? If so, how would I go about installing that image to the new drive from the network?

I know I've asked many questions, but I'm doing my best to think out loud. I'm not looking for an answer to each question, just a solution to the problem as a whole. I need the new hard drive in the machine, and I need an exact copy of her current drive installed on it. If anyone can offer any help, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

Answer : Problem: Errors using Norton Ghost 10 to install a new hard drive

1) Get the machine to complete a chkdsk of C
2) DO both a partition backup, and a full Disk backup.

3) Are there any other partitions on the drive ( recovery etc )

It may be faster to do a repair install on the partly working new drive if you have the correct recovery/ OS media


I hope this helps !