[CompCav]

OK I need some information on your computer and the internal drives.

What brand and model number are the two internal drives (80 GB and 250 GB)?

Do they have a SATA or a PATA interface?

SATA


or PATA




If they are SATA do you have two of the cables to connect them?

If they are PATA does your cable have connectors for two drives?

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Sorry for the long wait, My service provider was playing up.

OK Both my hard drives have a SATA interface. It looks like there are two SATA ports in my computer, one blue and one white, but there is only one cable. I have an extra SATA cable from a previous computer.

250 GB Drive = WD2500JS-75NCB3
80 GB Drive = ST380819AS

[marlon667]

Sorry for the long wait, My service provider was playing up.

OK Both my hard drives have a SATA interface. It looks like there are two SATA ports in my computer, one blue and one white, but there is only one cable. I have an extra SATA cable from a previous computer.

250 GB Drive = WD2500JS-75NCB3
80 GB Drive = ST380819AS

[CompCav]

Step 1.

OK we need to directly clone from the 80 GB to the 250 GB drive so with the 80 GB drive installed and working we need to shut down the computer then connect the 250 GB drive with the other SATA cable and one of the extra power connectors.

Then start the computer and go into the BIOS to verify that both drives are recognized and installed.


Step 2.

There are several free disk cloning options. Sometimes even in the best case one or more of them will not work for your particular case.

The one's that have been recommended to me are:

xxclone - This has had positive results where even Norton Ghost has failed. The link is here , you need to download the freeware version xxclone.zip to your current hard drive, install it , and to clone to the larger drive, put the source and destination drives in the correct boxes and then select :
Backup the entire volume by copying all the files from scratch (/backup1)


hdclone - has excellent success with several people at GTG. This has had positive results where even Norton Ghost has failed.
The freeware version needs to be run from a bootable CD so you need a computer with a CD/DVD drive to boot from. Again connect both drives and then boot from the bootable CD.


EaseUS Diskcopy - and it has been used also by GTG personnel with success cloning XP and Windows 7 for training on GTG.


Ping Partition copier - This is a linux based product so the interface is not as finished but the supporters rave about it's performance in cloning drives. It can be run as a bootable CD or as a bootable usb drive.


If you have a Seagate drive you can download and use Disk Wizard once on this page you click the download finder and plug in the information on your drive to download the software. The instructions in a video slide show are here.

If you have a Western Digital drive you can download and use Acronis True Image WD Edition Software, you can download the program and there is a user manual also available.



Again the source and target drives need to be installed prior to boot for all of these freeware products to work in making your new larger drive a true clone that works.


Since you have one Seagate and one Western Digital drive you can use any of these programs. Pick one that you can run and install on the 80 GB drive and use it per the directions to clone from the 80 GB to the 250 GB drive.


Step 3.

Once the cloning is complete, shutdown the computer and remove the SATA cable from the 80 GB drive and attach it to the 250 GB drive and then start and go into the BIOS to make sure the 250 GB drive is the only one recognized and then boot up on it.

[marlon667]

It finally works! Thank you so much, I now have more storage space on my hard drive! Is it ok if I go on with installing Linux Mint?

[CompCav]

Yes, it should create the proper partitions and dual booting as part of the process, if not we can use GParted.

Regards,

CompCav

[marlon667]

I installed mint onto the other part of my drive, but It doesn't give me an option to boot it.

[CompCav]

How did you install it? Did you use a bootable distro that gave you the option to install?

[marlon667]

I Used a mint Live USB made with unetbootin.

[CompCav]

Did it give you the option to set up a dual boot with windows?

[marlon667]

It had an install alongside win xp option, which I used. It said I woulfd be able to choose the os i boot when i turn on the computer.

[CompCav]

OK I am not a linux person at all. I will leave a message in tech help for someone to help you with this, my main emphasis is malware removal.

Regards,

CompCav

[CompCav]

Step 1.

We need to check your boot.ini file
Click Start... click Run... type in sysdm.cpl click OK
Click on the Advanced tab... click Settings
In the Startup and Recovery area at the bottom click Settings
Under System Startup click Edit... Boot.ini file will open in Notepad...
Do not edit it, just copy and paste it in your reply...


Step 2.

Download aswMBR.exe ( 1.8mb ) to your desktop.
Double click the aswMBR.exe to run it Click the "Scan" button to start scan when it asks to download definitions answer no.



On completion of the scan click save log, save it to your desktop and post in your next reply and attach mbr.dat which will also be on the desktop.




Step 3.

Please post:

boot.ini text file
aswmbr log


Please attach:

mbr.dat

[marlon667]

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=10
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP (windowsboot) 155.21 GiB" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
 aswMBR.txt   2.18KB   157 downloads
 MBR.dat   512bytes   250 downloads

[CompCav]

I can see the partitions but the boot record says nothing about dual or linux. I am getting help from an expert so please be patient.

Regards,

CompCav

[CompCav]

These steps should get the information we need to correct this issue.

Please download udumpit and remount.sh to your Ubuntu USB drive.


Now boot your computer from your Ubuntu flash drive.
Copy remount.sh to the Ubuntu desktop (right click>Copy then Paste or right click>Copy To>Desktop), close any open 'explorer' windows,
Right click remount.sh on the desktop and select Properties.
On the Permissions tab, check the box labeled Allow executing file as a program then close.


Double click remount.sh and select Run
Once it completes then double click udumpit on the USB drive and select Run in Terminal.
It will create a file named mbr.zip

Please attach mbr.zip to your next post.