[mdlug] Moving a running Windows install via Linux

[Michael Rudas]

I post this because others might find it useful.

My main system is down -- the hard drive smoked, the power supply has
fried, the motherboard needs the CPU capacitors replaced -- in short,
a fixable-but-funky mess.

In the interim, I'm using a Compaq P4 system I got from a computer
recycler.  He puts a corporate install of WinXP Pro on 20 GB drives
when he sells them -- but I wanted to make it dual-boot with Linux and
20 gig just ain't gonna cut it.  Reinstalling WinXP on a new drive is
out of the question when I already have it working fine.

So I picked up a 400 GB drive and partitioned it with a 20 GB boot
partition, a Linux partition, and an NTFS partition.  I used PartImage
via Knoppix to back up the 20 gig drive to a partition on the 400 gig
drive, then restored the image files to the boot partition of the new
drive.  I rebooted, hoping all was golden -- oops, not so much.  It
would boot to "Loading Personal Settings" -- then go to "Shutting
Down" and never quite make it to "off."  Safe mode didn't work, either
-- a Google search on the problem produced nothing useful.

On a hunch, I went searching for a freeware tool to tweak the Master
Boot Record, and found a GREAT one for Windows (there's a Linux
version, too) called "MBRWizard" (MBRWiz) -- most tools of this type
can only access drive 0 in a multi-drive setup, but MBRWiz was able to
backup and repair the MBR on the new drive even when it was in a USB
external case.  Comparing the backups of the original MBR and the
repaired one showed differences, so I crossed my fingers and rebooted.

It worked!  I now have a 400 GB drive that will soon dual-boot both
Linux and Windows, Windows works fine, and I won't be forced to use a
live CD to boot Linux anymore.  It just goes to show that a mixed
environment CAN be useful -- I'm forced to use Windows because I'm
expected to support it, but I certainly prefer Linux when I can use
it.

Woo-hoo!

~~ Mikey