Files and settings transfer wizard

oldgoat · Joined: Dec 21, 2004 Posts: 118

I am having trouble with this feature.
I have three hard drives:

C:\ and E:\ DRIVES NTFS (80GB UDMA 133 IDE with 2 partitions DRV_VOL1 and DRV_VOL2 39+ gigs each.) Windows XP Pro SP2.

D:\ DRIVE NTFS (80GB SATA 150 1 VOL) Windows XP Pro SP2.

I:\ DRIVE (120GB SATA 150 1 VOL) NTFS drive used for storage.

Ok, here's the deal, I want to remove the "C,E" drive so I installed Windows XP Pro SP2 on the D: drive (clean install and updated).
I ran the files and settings transfer wizard on "C" (old computer) and stored the USMT2.UNC folder on "I" drive but when I run the wizard on the "D" drive (new computer) and get to the part where you direct the wizard to the file, it says there is no information in that location???
I even put the USMT2.UNC file on a CD and it still can't see the file as valid information.
I have run the wizard on the "old" system twice, once with files and settings and once with just settings but with the same results.
the files and settings file is about 26GB and the settings file is only 83MB.
I've had trouble with this before.
I have also had success using it.
What am I doing wrong?

Gary66 · Joined: Sep 01, 2005 Posts: 8353

Do you have Xp Pro installed on two separate partitions

Quote:

C:\ and E:\ DRIVES NTFS (80GB UDMA 133 IDE with 2 partitions DRV_VOL1 and DRV_VOL2 39+ gigs each.) Windows XP Pro SP2.

Quote:

D:\ DRIVE NTFS (80GB SATA 150 1 VOL) Windows XP Pro SP2.

If so why?

oldgoat · Joined: Dec 21, 2004 Posts: 118

I have 3 separate hard drives.
I had an 80GB IDE, and an 80GB SATA.
The operating system was on a 50% partition of the IDE drive.
I added a 120GB SATA and installed Win XP Pro on the 80GB SATA.
I am eliminating the 80GB IDE drive.
I just wanted to transfer my settings to the new OS from the old one.
It's supposed to be simple but...
I must be related to Mr. Murphy

Gary66 · Joined: Sep 01, 2005 Posts: 8353

usasma · Joined: May 06, 2003 Posts: 5007

The USMT and FAST are a bit quirky and I've never gotten them to work right. To this day my wife still has a blinking CD icon above her mouse cursor that blinks roughly every 2 seconds - a result of using the FAST tool to migrate her settings over 3 years ago.

My advice would be to follow these directions for moving a hard drive or changing a motherboard - this has worked for me! http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

User: inactive Posts:

I was having problems with the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard until I downloaded and installed this update from Microsoft onto both computers. Give it a shot. Good luck.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6C2F2318-CBDB...C0-B7C2

patio · Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 5598

I've never been able to get it to work properly...

patio. Cool

User: inactive Posts:

Well I couldn't either until I found out that both computers had to have the same version. That's why I posted the link. All I can say is that it worked once I had the same versions on both computers.

Good luck

User: inactive Posts:

I was copying and cloning drives years before that transfer wizard was even a gleem in some programmers eye. Laughing

I still use the process that worked for me many years ago and it works just as well today.

Oldgoat, this may not be right for what you are trying to accomplish but will maybe help someone else who wants to move their OS from an old drive to a new one. OK, here goes.....

I set up the new drive with my ME Boot disk and FDISK and Format the drive into a Main and a Storage partition. (That's two partitions.)
I typically use 1/3 of the drive for C: and 2/3 for D:.

Then, with both drives installed in the system, I make a Ghost Image of my old OS partition and store it on the Storage partition of the new drive.

Now, I remove the old drive completely from the system so absolutely nothing adverse can happen to it. (Remember,,,,KaKa Happens!)

I then run Ghost again from the boot CD or Floppy and do a restore of the Image file from Storage to Main on the new drive.

If the jumpers are set correctly, etc, the new drive should now be able to boot the system.

I do this for my customers several times a month, year after year, so I know it works flawlessly.

If you miscombobble somewhere along the line, you can always start over since the original drive has not been altered in any way.

Ghost 2003, copies the drive format, FAT-32 or NTFS along with the boot sector and every bit of data. NOTHING is ever lost in the process.

When I'm done, I have a nice Ghost Image on the Storage partition. In case something happens later, I can just do another restore and be right back where I want to be. That Ghost Image can also be burned to DVD's for a permanent backup.

It's fast, efficient, flexible and fun. What more can I say?

How much does Ghost 2003 cost.....??? Well, it can be had for free, if you know where to look. Wink

I got mine off of a mobo drivers disk as a freebee.

Shadow