Using Linux to clone a Windows installation, possible?

[Thetargos]

Hi all!

So a friend of mine asked me (since he's seen me do it with my [Linux] systems) if he could just clone his Windows XP installation over to a new hard drive. Here's the issue, he bought a new hard disc for his computer since after a while he finally has filled up his ancient 80 Gb drive. This guy has been using Windows XP ever since it was released, and has refused to purchase a more recent release (his copy is all good and all). Anyway, because his system has seen a few revamps in the past all he has had to do was reactivate Windows and all was dandy again. However, since he is running out of space on this particular drive, and since he has bought a new system with S-ATA II controllers on it (with his same ancient copy of XP RTM reactivated ad-infinitum) and a couple HDDs to take advantage of this (that and the fact that his new motherboard only has one IDE channel, which means the system disc has to share channel with one DVD-RW drive), he's asked me if it was possible to clone his install of Windows to one of the S-ATA drives.

Asking on another forum I frequent some friends suggested to use Ghost to do this and other disc imaging software to clone the HDDs (with Windows tools of course). When I told my friend a few minutes ago, he promptly asked "what if we used Linux to clone the installation? Since Windows wouldn't be involved, no conflicting files would prevent the copy of disk to the newer disc"... That line of reasoning is why in most cases you can do a clone of your Linux installation to another hard drive and the only messy part would be installing the bootloader and making sure the partition is bootable, of course. In the case of Windows, though, I don't know if this would be as straight forward, as usually this kind of copy doesn't account for the MBR, etc. The other thing is that his drive is partitioned in three, so using 'dd' is not an option (AFAIK), still I think it is interesting... So what do you guys (many of you with far more experience than I) think about this? Will it be worth trying?

[deanjo]

I would simply make sure the sata controller is set to ide mode and then use clonezilla live cd to clone the drive. It should work with minimal fuss. even if the mbr did get screwed up, simply boot to the windows dvd, select the repair option and run fixmbr at the command prompt.

http://clonezilla.org/

[Thetargos]

This is very interesting indeed! One question. Would it be possible to "clone" the contents of one partition on the original drive to another partition in the target drive (not the partition as such) since the partitions on the target drive are going to be much larger? If that can be done, that would be awesome! (of course the drive could be cloned and then the partitons extended within Windows' disk manager (I hope?))

[Moustacha]

You could use dd with the input as the partition. The problem with this though is windows won't boot because NTLDR etc is on the C:\ drive, even if C:\ is a different HDD. If the chipset etc changes, windows won't boot either. It'll be easier to re-install windows.

[Thetargos]

You could use dd with the input as the partition. The problem with this though is windows won't boot because NTLDR etc is on the C:\ drive, even if C:\ is a different HDD. If the chipset etc changes, windows won't boot either. It'll be easier to re-install windows.

But following Windows "logic", the intent would be to leave the system drive "alone", hence, Windows has no other way of identifying the first partition other than C:\, as that is what the first partition of the current system drive is (or am I assuming too much?)

[deanjo]

This is very interesting indeed! One question. Would it be possible to "clone" the contents of one partition on the original drive to another partition in the target drive (not the partition as such) since the partitions on the target drive are going to be much larger? If that can be done, that would be awesome! (of course the drive could be cloned and then the partitons extended within Windows' disk manager (I hope?))

Yes, partitions do not have to be the same size. Clonezilla will allow cloning to a larger partition. Drive letter also does not matter. You simply set the Sata drive to the top of the order list in the BIOS.

[Thetargos]

Well, I used Clonezilla, and it indeed works wonders! However this drive in particular seems to have a problem with its MBR or some such, as the disk is unbootable... I tried cloning to another drive and booted just fine, so I guess is something with this particular drive... Being it a new one, my friend will seek warranty replacement of the unit.

[rbmorse]

You should be able to use the Windows installation media to rewrite the MBR on the disk that is not booting. Go to the installation memu, select "r" for open a repair console and when you get to the dos box just do

fixmbr

[Thetargos]

And that is why he is returning the disc, not even fixboot/fixmbr solve the problem, but the system looks like is going to boot from the drive, and just hangs there... Another SATA drive (one I borrowed him) did indeed boot, same brand, different specs.