RE: OT: Cloning a multiboot system

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

--- Marc  wrote:

> For re-sizing partitions I have found Powerquests'
> Partition Magic V7 to be
> quite reliable. I have used it on at least 6
> occasions to re-size partitions
> without any problems.
> Don't go near V8 - this ALWAYS failed for me leaving
> me with a disk needing
> re-imaging again.


Marc,

Resizing I could do, at least a couple of different
ways. The big problem was relocating, in the course
of migrating to the larger HDD, and *especially*
resizing PLUS relocating. This you pretty much have
to do, in order to gain the value of the added HDD
real estate: many partitions must be slid much further
down the drive. And it doesn't matter if this is done
in a single operation, or separately. So far in my
experience, this only seems to be a problem for the
Win32 boot partitions. (I'm not a Linux user, and so
can't speak to that.) Even though great pains were
taken to preserve the existing partition order and
drive assignments, this procedure has been fatal in
all my attempts to date. Thus, I am led to
speculations about things like hard-coded
sector-location info recorded somewhere. It doesn't
seem too terribly far-fetched to suppose that MS may
have taken steps to prevent -- or at least inhibit --
Win32 boot partition "portability." But, whatever
they can design to block something, _someone_ can
usually find a way to circumvent.

Note: I'm pretty confident this is not a distance from
Sector 0 kind of issue (like, say, the 8G limit for
DOS). I have long been using Win boot loader files
at the beginning of C:, and have successfully booted
W2K pretty far out onto a larger drive (well, not a
400G or a 500G one, yet). It's just that --
*normally* -- however you originally installed the
damn thing is pretty much what you will be stuck with
for the duration, if you want it to still boot. The
size can possibly be expanded, but -- so far -- only
if I retain the original starting location.