replaced failing HD, how to get image to new drive

[guide1jc]

I have 2 IBM NetVista P4's with WinXP Pro that I purchased for my office at the same time, so they are close to identical.  Machine A is used as a "server" on the XP peer to peer network and machine B functions as a workstation.  The hard drive on machine B failed earlier this week and would not boot the computer.  

After searching Microsoft's site and googling, I found ComputerHope.  I searched this board (and FAQ's) and found answers to most of my questions, but just need a little more help.

The computers did not come with an XP CD.  Many of the solutions I read while trying to save the HD begin with "insert WinXP setup CD".  The OS was pre-loaded and there is an option at bootup to restore it to original settings, but no CD.  

I was able to connect the failed HD as a slave in machine A and used Ghost to image the drive to a partion on the external USB HD that I use for backing up the server.  I've bought a replacement internal HD for machine B but had some questions before installing it.  

Although the data is on the server/machine A (and is backed up by Ghost image), I want to avoid having to reinstall each of the programs that I use.  In addition to the standard off the shelf business applications, I have many proprietary programs that are related to the type of work I do.  Most of those were loaded years ago and have been regularly updated so my setup CDs are way out of date.  I'm hoping to avoid the hours of installing and updating each program.

So enough background...do I need to use the restore function at boot-up to load WinXP to the new drive or is there a way to copy the image to the new HD?  (or both?) Since there were 17 File Record Segments that were unreadable on the failed HD, I'm sure not every program will work without having to be reinstalled but hopefully most will work.  Is this a reasonable hope?

Second question...the new drive is a Seagate 250GB Barracuda UltraATA/100.  Should I install it with the install CD it came with before doing anything else (or after or not at all)?

Sorry if I'm not making sense...many thanks in advance!

[guide1jc]

anybody?

[Calum]

I'm pretty sure that if you just restored the Ghost image to the new HDD, it'd be fine.
then you'd have everything from the old HDD on the new HDD - that's what you want, right?

[guide1jc]

Thanks for the reply.  Yes I do want everything from the old HDD on the new one.  Here's my confusion:

1. The Ghost image was taken when I put the failed drive in the other computer as a slave.  Ghost isn't installed on the computer it originally was in (although I do have a new Ghost software ready to install).  

2. I put the new Seagate HDD in the computer but haven't installed any software yet (waiting on opinions from here).  Should I run the Seagate install CD, then run the IBM Restore, then install Ghost and then restore the image?

[Calum]

OK, so . . .
You have one failed HDD, and an image of that HDD.
You want the image of that HDD on the new Seagate HDD, which is blank, right?
Does Ghost have an option to make a bootable CD?
What I'd do is make a bootable CD, if possible, from a PC with Ghost installed, then boot from the CD and copy the image onto the new HDD which you want it on.
I don't think you need the IBM restore or the Seagate install CD first - HDDs don't need drivers or anything, I bet it's just some tools which you can install later if you want.
Is my assessment correct?

[guide1jc]

Yes, that's the situation.  I'm checking now to see if Ghost 10 can make a bootable CD.  That sounds like the solution I'm hoping for!

[Calum]

Fingers crossed for you.
I now Acronis TrueImage (similar to Ghost) can, and I have used bootable Ghost before, but that was in a full PE CD, so I'm not sure if Ghost can normally make one.
It should be able to, but having not used Ghost much, I don't know.
Anyway, let us know.

[guide1jc]

Looks like the Ghost install cd can be used to boot computer into the Ghost Recovery Environment.  Sounds like I can then copy the image of the failed HDD from the external USB HDD onto the new blank Seagate internal HDD.  Any thoughts on whether I should use the new never installed Ghost 10 CD or the Ghost 10 CD that I installed on the other computer (the one I used to create the image)?  Not sure if it would make a difference or not.

[Calum]

I don't think it would make a difference.
Try it with one of them, and if it doesn't work, try the other, it won't cause any harm.
I really don't think it would make any difference which one you used though.

[guide1jc]

OK, here's the happy ending:
I was able to transfer the image of the failed drive to the new HDD without running the Seagate's installation software and without reinstalling Windows XP.  I also did not have to reinstall all of the applications, which is what I was really trying to avoid.  While I'm sure that I've lost some data/files somewhere due to the HDD failure, the only thing I've noticed so far is a few network links & shortcut paths had to be located or re-created and I had to reinstall iTunes in order to burn CD's.  This was caused by the HDD failure and not by Ghost.

Here's what I learned about using Ghost version 10:
When backing up the HDD there is an option to "Backup" which creates a ghost image of all OS, applications & data.  There is another option to "copy the drive"  which copies everything but is not restorable from the bootable Ghost install CD.  Of course, I used the "copy drive" option first and couldn't copy it to the new HDD.  When I created the ghost image/recovery point by using the "Backup" option, restoring it was easy.

Also, the install CD is very functional (allows several utilities including ipconfig, network operations & several more that I can't remember right now).  Fortunately, I didn't need those functions but it's good to know they're available.  

I highly recommend Ghost and (raising my right hand) do solemnly swear to regularly make complete images of all my HDD's from now on, and not just use Ghost for backing up the data as I had been doing previously.

Finally...MANY, MANY THANKS to Calum for your help!

[Calum]

You're more than welcome, stop by any time.
Thanks for posting back, we love success stories.
Having a HDD image is very useful, which is why many, if not all, of us recommend having some sort of system in place to image your HDD, not just back it up.
Norton Ghost is highly functional, and Acronis TrueImage is an alternative.
Once again, glad to help, and happy you got it all sorted.