XP TO HD transfer

**starshipwarrior** · 12-05-2002, 03:34 PM

I am missing a piece of this puzzel to make this work - I want to do a clean install from my HD - But it hangs up -
I have read that others have done this so what am i missing here

Heres what I did: this is a scsi Hd w/39160 controller New HD (10 gig)

I fdisk the Hd from DOS - I formatted from DOS - HD is now C: - MD on C: I386 - using xcopy32 from DOS I copied all files (5085 of them) from directory I386, XP HOME CD ROM to C:/I386 - I then installed XP from the I386 directory on C: - command : WINNT.exe - it starts transfering the files to C: - BUT after the files are transfered to C: it HANGS UP - I have waited 35 minutes to see if this was just a really slow transfer(which i heard it was) but nothing

I know that: > smartdrv can be used to speed it up but i dont have a copy - i think its on the win98SE disk somewhere - but this should not be a major factor

It does install fine using the DISK - so i know its not that

Please dont ask why i want to do it this way - I just do -

I have three copies of XP HOME and none of them work on the HD transfer

Hope someone can help -

**Jizzy** · 12-05-2002, 03:40 PM

Don't fdisk or format the drive from DOS. Boot from the XP cd and it should partition and format automatically.

**Grogan** · 12-05-2002, 03:48 PM

When you used xcopy... (yes, you're running xcopy.exe when you call xcopy32 from DOS... xcopy32 only runs from within windows), did you remember to use the /e switch? (copy subdirectories including empty ones). By default, xcopy doesn't descend into subdirectories. Create the empty c:\i386 directory first, then

xcopy d:\i386 c:\i386 /e

Since you say three different Windows XP CDs don't work when copying to hard disk, yet the OS installs fine from the CDs, then I'd tend to think you are doing something wrong. No other switches are required for this besides /e

I have done exactly what you are trying to do. That's how I install XP, because my CD isn't bootable.

If you boot with a Win98 SE startup disk, smartdrv is indeed available. Simply type smartdrv to load it.

However, that won't help with that seemingly long hang during the file copying phase. (It really is scary). I would say, it's at least 10 minutes on my system that it appears to be frozen. You may not have that occur, when installing from the CD because file copying is slower from that media.

**starshipwarrior** · 12-05-2002, 04:35 PM

Thank you grogan - sorry i forgot to include the "e" switch in my post -
since i use DOS so much I sometimes forget to post properly -
I do know about the "e" switch and used it during the transfer - my 98 floppy is a home made job and I forgot to include smartdrv on it - i will fix that - YEs i agreed I am doing something wrong but am too thick headed to figure it out (small HD in head less then -GB LOL)

I will update the floppy and try again -
Since the HD is already formated - can I just use deltree and remove everthing or should I fdisk - format etc.

I may try it both ways using deltree first what do yhou think?

Again thanks for your advise

**Grogan** · 12-05-2002, 07:30 PM

Since it's just recently been freshly formatted, the fastest thing to do would simply be format c: /q

The temporary Windows XP setup files will be in awkwardly named directories. A quick-format will be easier than fumbling about.

It would be equally fine to use deltree though.

Since you seem to be doing everything correctly, I am going to go out on a limb here, and recommend that this time, you let it sit longer before giving up and saying it's froze.

**starshipwarrior** · 12-06-2002, 04:06 PM

WEll grogan I am still doing something wrong - i refromatted like you suggested and installed the files again - I activated smartdrv and then started the install from the i386 directory on the HD - it indeed does speed things up quite a bit during the first file transfer.

I didnt have to wait more than 10 minutes when XP asked me to press enter to reboot so it could start the reinstall -

BUT - now it hangs after the reboot - just a black screen - in case it was doing something i went to watch a two hour movie and when i came back nothing had chged

I used ctl alt delete to reboot and tryied to reboot into the SCSI HD but it hung up every time (tried three times)

I then rebooted into CD ROM and XP restarted giving the option to install or repair - i tried repair 2 times and it hung every time

I then rebooted and tried to install from the XP CD this time it gave me the option to reformat so i did

Then just to see if the CD install works i cont with the CD install - in about thirty minutes it was complete - win xp worked just like it should -
I then was going to install the sp1 - so i shut down windows

AFter windows shutdown i waited a few minutes and then tried to restart the computer using my dos floppy -

I wanted to transfer the sp1 file from my dos floppy disk - but now all of a sudden it cant find the C: drive

it can go to the D: drive (CD ROM) but it says that there is no C:

I just think the damm thing is lazy - LOL - i dont ever recall having these many problems with win98 or my SCSI drives in the past - I know XP is more complicated but the idea was to make it simpler so any brain dead person could operate it - SO much for IDEAS

Do you have any more suggestins ? I still dont know if it installed from the CD or the HD since in the past i have never had it take less than an hour or so - im guessing it installed from the CD ROM since i formatted it in case it makes any difference it is formatted in NTSF -

thanks again for your help

**Gand** · 12-06-2002, 04:19 PM

As mentioned earlier I would recommend booting directly into the CD through BIOS boot order, then loading the SCSI drivers for the controller when the XP says press <something> to load custom driver modules. If you continue to get freeze ups, try a different OS install, if this is still the case you either have a bad HD, or something else might be causing a problem.

Also check for a BIOS update. Some boards need to be flashed with a new bios to function properly with XP.

Hope this helps.

**starshipwarrior** · 12-06-2002, 04:48 PM

Ok I read your suggestion grandrator and ck it out - the bios is current - The drivers for the SCSI were loaded just before I tried to install (F6) is the command - the hd has been check many times and i cant find anything wrong with it - since the install of xp from the cr rom went ok im sure its got something to do with the soft ware - the boot order is cdrom- HD - floppy - but on boot up after it loads the SCSI drives etc and before it picks the boot order it gives me the option on the screen to pick what i want - if i dont select something then it reverts to the bios boot order looking for the boot program - this is a P4T533 and it has tons of options in bios but i have used mostly the default stuff -

ANY MORE IDEAS - ?
Thanks for your help

**Grogan** · 12-06-2002, 04:55 PM

Since the partition is NTFS, you can no longer install it from the hard disk using a DOS floppy. You cannot access the filesystem from DOS, now that it is NTFS.

Really, booting from the CD is the better way to do the installation. The OS works for you, so I'd just use that method from now on.