Cloned Hard Drive Hangs on Welcome Screen

[pinksparklegirl]

I cloned my XP Pro partition onto a new hard drive using Norton Ghost 9 (including the master boot record) so I can use the new hard drive to boot up from and run programs, and my old one for all my files etc.

I booted up the clone but it hangs at the Welcome screen. I have tried various boot options, all with the same result.

I tried disconnecting the original hard drive (power cable only - should I disconnect the other cable too?) and set the clone to Master. It was detected as a 2nd master, rather than primary, but still failed to boot past the Welcome screen.

Does it matter what order the hard drives are on the cable? Should Master be first and Slave in the middle?

My main question still remains why doesn't the cloned hard drive work?!

__________________________________________________ _________________

I have just re-formated my new hard drive, and copied my XP partion again. I then unplugged my original drive, set the new one to Master and booted up but it still hangs on the Welcome screen.

I don't know what else to do now. What does one usualy do to fix Windows when it hangs on the Welcome screen? Can I disable the Welcome screen somehow? I know how to do it from a booted up Windows, but not how to when it's not the one currently in use, or even if it's possible. No doubt it wouldn't make any difference anyway...

Thanks, Sarah

(more added below)

[snowmonkey]

Hi There,

I have done this many time and only fail on me couple of time when there was bad sector on the hard drive or there was two many cross linked files.....I would suggest to do a scandisk first and try the cloning once again....furthermore, you want your new hard drive come up as primary master and make sure the old hard drive is not connected at all on the first boot....later one you can connect the old drive as slave.

Cheers

[snowmonkey]

do you think you would be able to try this software rather then Norton Ghost:

http://www.drive-backup.com/home/per...sk_cloning.htm


Cheers

[pinksparklegirl]

I have the option of which version of Windows to boot into; the original on C:\ and the clone on I:\.
With both hard drives connected, on clicking to boot up the I:\ drive I think it is still booting into the C:\ drive.*
I ran the Recovery Console on both C:\ (with both hard drives conected) and I:\ (with just I:\ connected) to make sure it was booting into the right place, but it made no difference. I:\ still hangs just before the Welcome screen (when booted with just that drive connected) and I think it boots into C:\ regardless of telling it to boot to I:\ when both drives are connected.

This is C:\ boot.ini file:
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windo ws XP Pro (C)" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windo ws XP Pro (I)" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP Safe Mode" /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

and this is I:\ boot.ini file:
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windo ws XP" /fastdetect /noguiboot /sos /bootlog (addded with Recovery Console)
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional (C)" /fastdetect (as coned)
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional (I)" /fastdetect (as coned)
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP Safe Mode" /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

*With both drives exactly the same, how do I know which one it has booted into? I tried changing the wall paper in what I thought was the I:\ version, but on booting into C:\ it was also changed. Now the wall paper is like it was before I changed it (as cloned), but am sure this is not the I:\ drive.

With all the time taken over trying to get a clone to work I could have loaded all the bloody programs on by now!

[pinksparklegirl]

Right, I have worked out that when both HDD's are connected C:\ (original) as Master and I:\ (clone) as Slave I can boot into either version of Windows (going by the different desktop themes).
When only I:\ is connected it hangs on the Welcome screen (or to be precise, the logo just before in the light blue screen).

Why can I boot into I:\ when C:\ is connected, but not when it isn't? Should I copy C:\'s boot.ini file onto I:\'s?

[Tarl]

All you have to do to fix this (cloned or new drive, hangs at login screen) is boot with a win98 boot disk. At the A:\ prompt type in FDISK /MBR

Once this is complete, restart the machine. Your new drive will now work and u will boot completely into windows.

[TopFarmer]

Why can I boot into I:\ when C:\ is connected, but not when it isn't?

The info I have found on reading, not first hand knowledge.
http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

It likely has to do with the hdd ID that XP writes into the MBR (fdisk /mbr will zero it out and mybe fix problem as posted by Tarl ) , the XP's registry boot volume ID points to the original hdd's ID. When you boot the cloned XP and it finds no ID in MBR it will write hopefully a correct one.

[Josef_Blobel]

I encountered similar problem and spent more than 24 hours searching the Internet before finally solving this.

My solution is
1) Log in to the original Windows, and identify the target disk (the disk to clone to) ID. In my computer, it is "G:".

2) Start a DOS Prompt, and type mountvol G: /d . Please replace "G:" with the actual ID of target disk in your PC.

3) Start your PC and make the cloning. Good luck.

The real reason is that Windows remembers every disk letter. Thus when the PC starts with cloned disk, it encountered a conflicting situation. The disk is still "G:" and Windows tries to start from "C:". This makes Windows hanging.

[levidos]

Originally Posted by Tarl

All you have to do to fix this (cloned or new drive, hangs at login screen) is boot with a win98 boot disk. At the A:\ prompt type in FDISK /MBR

Once this is complete, restart the machine. Your new drive will now work and u will boot completely into windows.

this saved my day, thanx. btw, it also works with the fixmbr command at the recovery console (if you don't have a floppy drive or can't get a win98 startup disk)