I'm trying to migrate the contents of an existing hard drive (NTFS format) to a new computer usint Norton Ghost 9.0. The problem is disk formatting. According to the tech support person for Symantec the problem is different file systems. The old computer has NTFS and the new computer has FAT 32. The question is how to format the new computer drive to NTFS file system?

Your thoughts?

What OS are you using?

Hey, a couple of quick thoughts. If you're completely imaging the disk (loading entire disk via image), then it shouldn't matter what format the new drive has, it'll be overwritten with the old drive format. Basically, Ghost will blow away the new drive with an exact copy of the old drive. Therefore, you'll get NTFS on the new drive.

But, having said that, my first question would be are you imaging or just copying folders?

If you're keeping the OS on the new box (copying folders), you might have problems with a machine running Win9x (Win95, Win98, WinMe), as I don't think NTFS is recognizable in those OS's. So, when the machine boots, those folders/data might have a problem. Definitely not Win95, perhaps the others. Still, it shouldn't matter if you're imaging (not copying), as the entire drive is wiped.

Also, you can change the format of the new drive (assuming that it's up and runnning) by running convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs at the command prompt.

Sounds like the tech support from Symantec has his head up his rear, or there's more information I don't know. Tell me more, and I'll do what I can to help. I need to know what you're running, what you're putting it into--basically tell me everything.

One final note: If you're imaging from existing drive to brand new computer (a different box), then the device drivers, windows updates, and all else wouldn't necessarily match, and you'll have issues getting all of the display, network, modem, etc, to work. If you're keeping the same box, then forget what I just said.

Stuart

That's why I wanted to know what OS he was using.

Encryption is the only other thing...that and compression.

striplett & drmaddvibe,

My work computer has Windows XP Media Center. It has the ability to go out to the internet and look up the television schedule for every channel available through the TV in/out card. If the computer is plugged into cable it will know the cable schedule, too. I can make the computer work in a TIVO-like manner by telling it to record every Gilligan's Island no matter what channel, or to always record whats on channel 16.

I can't use my work computer for that, but I have a spare computer that's doing nothing right now. I wiped the old computer completely. Then I had the bright idea to use Ghost to take a disk image of my work computer (written to a set of 4 DVDs) to copy onto the spare. When I boot the new computer with Ghost and try to "recover" the disk image I get an error something like "INVALID DISK." This had me stumped and I called Symantec and spoke to tech support who asked me all kinds of stupid questions and then asked the format of the source and destination drives and said that probably was the problem and to format the destination drive as NTFS.

Others have advised me to simply download LINUX and the freeware that does what I want, but now I want to make this work just to say I did it.

Thanks for your help.

Just a couple of things first.

Unless your work computer has a corporate, (One license-multiple installations) license, Microsoft does not allow you to use the same installation license for two computers.

XP Multimedia has some specific requirements for hardware, including a video capture card.

With that said, assuming the ‘donor’ pc was formatted NTFS on a single drive and you created a single drive/partition image file, restoring the image will not require any formatting of the target drive. Ghost transfers the file system from the imaged drive to the target drive. During the image restore, Ghost can adjust the size up or down to match the new drive and will over right the existing partition and file system.

It sounds like the image file/disks are bad. Try creating them outside of XP using a Ghost boot disk(s) to create a new image.

I'm reaching here, but I'm gonna assume a few things. Since you have a spare PC, I'm guessing it may be a few years old and the filesystem is FAT32. I'm also going to assume you dont need this spare PC for anything, so it is OK if you screw it up. If this is true and you are sure the drive is FAT32, you can try to convert it using the following command at a DOS prompt:

convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

...as in...

convert C: /fs:ntfs

This should convert the drive to NTFS. I've heard that this is not the most effecient way to convert the drive, but it should work. I've always just reformatted. Also, once you convert to NTFS, you cant go back to FAT32 without reformatting the drive. There is no "unconvert" command.

The best part about these projects is that they are a great learning experience. I rebuilt my server about 3 or 4 times before I got it the way I wanted. Good luck.

BTW, what are the specs on the spare PC? Just curious. I'd be interested in hearing your "lessons learned" when you finish it.

ooooops...I didnt see that striplett02 already suggested the convert command.

I'm not familiar with Windows XP Media Center edition. I have heard that this is probably what "Longhorn" will closely resemble and that people will have to run out to get new pc's to run it. That being said I'm not sure if you car read partitions with discs in NTFS and the hardware requirements aren't allowing an install.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/evaluation/hardware.mspx 

When mine crashed and I got a new SATA 250 GB HD ... it wouldn't let me format it any other way ...

Thanks for all your help, but I've decided to surrender to LINUX. I found a website (mysettopbox.tv) with freeware for making a PC into a PVR based on LINUX, with its own copy of LINUX built-in. The site even gives specs for how powerful the computer needs to be for various functions like record only, watch one program and record one or two more, etc.

Good for you. Welcome to the dark side. 😉

I think you'll be happy with your choice. Let us know how it works out.

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Another one bites the dust.