Clone or copy XP o/s from disk to SSD

ozstar

ozstar

Hi,

I have a 320GB disk with XP Pro on it and want to up to a 480SSD.

I have a clean 120GB partition I would like to use for the copy boot area.

The current O/s is only 30+ GB so there is plenty of room.

I do have Mini Partition and also True Image.

Can I copy or clone to use the target partition only or do I have to use the whole target disk?

Thanks,

oz
 
I cloned a disk with the free software Macrium Reflect using ExplainingComputer's guide below a few days ago.
If you're unsure which options to use, just play around with it. The worst that can happen is the new disk won't boot or the partition is the wrong size so you can just delete the partitions, format it and start again.
 
The most important thing to remember is to have the software used for actual cloning installed on a bootable CD, bootable flash drive, or on a dedicated bootable partition. Some disk imaging applications claim to allow cloning the live system (the OS you are booted to) but it is not always reliable.

For example, I have Clonezilla installed on its own dedicated partition and clone different versions of Windows between different partitions all the time. With Clonezilla the size of the target partition must be equal or higher than the size of the source partition. Other cloning tools like True Image or Macrium Reflect usually don't have this kind of limitation, depending on the version.

Full OS backup using xcopy command is possible as well, but again, you can not copy the OS you are currently booted to. I have BartPE installed on the dedicated partition and have copied Windows XP between different partitions many times using XXCopy (it's similar to xcopy but more advanced and shows very clear message in case of errors):

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/8555/IrHZYe.png

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/8206/5DwgG9.png

There might be a few files which refuse to get copied. In that case a second run of xxcopy might simply solve the problem, otherwise a few minutes on Google is all you need to fix the errors. Any version of Windows PE will work (BartPE is just one example) and robocopy command can be used in place of xxcopy.

PS: I use MBR (Legacy, BIOS) partitioning on all my computers and have no experience with GPT disks.
 
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