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Number : 555 Date : 2001-08-07 Author : Kan Yabumoto Subject : Re: xxcopy older primary partition to Dell computer? Size(KB) : 10
Hi, All: I was busy doing some consulting jobs that I had little time really following this thread. Fortunately, we now have a good "core" members who make this group really worthwhile. Anyway, let me add my comments on the subject of plugging in a working configuration of a Win9x environment from one machine into another by just moving over the system disk. This is a new twist to my standard disk-clone procedure described in TB#10. The answer is it works. But, here is the disclaimer: the plug and play scheme will kick in for the new environment and you will probably need several reboots (with lots of device driver configuration procedures ---- Hardware Wizard) before you find the system stable enough to go on. At first, it is not uncommon to find yourself in a "safe mode" with a 640 x 480 display. But, if you have the necessary device drivers for all the stuff, eventually you will find yourself in a new world of the Win9x using a totally different set of hardware with the same familiar set of software. Probably, you will have to spend at least 30 minutes or so before you find an optimally configured operating environment. Be prepared to supply all the necessary device drivers (yes, all the little diskettes and install CDs for the devices you have on the new machine) --- else, you will find lots of the yellow question marks inside the DeviceManager listing --- often, you find the sound stops working, the Internet connection lost, LAN not detecting, etc. It will take an experienced operator with an hour or more to diagnose and clean up to a perfect set up. By no means, it is an automatic step. ----------------- Now, again, my long story begins here. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The whole process of the Win9x system's self-reconfiguration is quite breathtaking and you will give a renewed respect to Microsoft's engineers who made the whole Win9x thing work when you carefully study the enormous amount of work the system has to perform when you transplant the system disk to another PC. I consider Clinton's 2nd term owes its success (tarnished by the Whitehouse intern) to the very successful launching of Windows 95 and its successors. Windows 95 is the foundation of today's Microsoft's formidable position in the industry. And, it boils down to how an extremely complex set of device drivers work harmoniously under the hood. And more amazingly, Win9x's ability of adapting to the new hardware environment with little or no user-interventions to do most of this. Remember, Windows 9x took at least two years of beta testing. At that time, the program was called Windows 4.x. Late in 1994, it was finally called Windows 95. I was a beta tester at that time. The last twelve months or more that Microsoft spent (and the many delays) were due to the plug-and-play thing which has to be self-reconfigurable. When I occasionally transplant a system disk to a new machine and observe the myriad of driver loading by Win9x, I get awe-struck by the code Microsoft's engineers put in place back in 1994-95 in their hectic days before the Win9x launch. As a programmer, I can really appreciate the feat. -------------------------------------------------------------- The Win9x initialization procedure always goes through the plug- and-play steps and all sorts of device driver loading every time you enter the GUI world of Win9x. On the surface, it looks as though the system configuration is all worked out long time ago when you installed the Win9x OS from the installation CD. But, the reality is the Win9x OS goes through the device detection (PnP) and driver-loading chores every time it enters the GUI world. The system registry help a device driver to recall what was the previous setting for the driver. If you see the DeviceManager section (Control_Panel > System > DeviceManager), you will find what's out there. There are lots of things there. Now, this is with a machine with the same configuration (without the drastic system-disk transplant). Since in today's diverse world of PCs, you don't expect the two PCs having exactly the same motherboard with the same chipset, etc. on two machines unless your company bought identical model with identical set of plug in cards. So, when the GUI world initialization takes place the first time the transplanted system disk wakes up (it's as if you cut off your head off and transplant the whole head with the brain to another torso --- quite a drastic operation), it finds the lowest devices (the motherboard functions depicted in the "System Devices" section of the DeviceManager listing). Very few people pay attention to the low-level stuff like "PCI to ISA bridge", "Power Management Controller", "CPU to AGP Controller", "CPU to PCI Bridge", and so on. It is quite amazing that Win9x and NT/2000 go through all of these things and make it work. In the case of Linux, these steps are even more prominently shown at the beginning of the cold boot procedure (Windows tries to hide all this highly technical stuff which no one bothers to learn). Anyway, the magic of Plug-and-play works quite amazingly in most cases. The step is essentially the same as with more familiar cases of adding a new card to the system such as replacing a broken Ethernet card with a different brand. The plug and play detection mechanism first identifies a device, checks to see if the system registry has an entry of a device driver which has previously been configured for the device. When no device driver were found which is responsible for the device, the familiar "New Hardware Found" wizard will pop up. And, it prompts you to choose between an automatic search for a driver (which often fails) or select the device from a list (which usually don't have an entry for the device) and as a last resort, it lets you supply your own driver. -------------------------------------------------------------- When you configure a new device for Win9x, in most cases you will be prompted to reboot the system. In the case of a system disk transplant, I suggest you defer the reboot as much as possible. That's because it is a routine thing for the programmer who writes the device driver to suggests a reboot. What the programmer does not realize is that you have ten more devices to configure. In many cases, one device configuration does not depend on the previous configuration of another. In that case, you can safely configure two or more devices in one session before reboot. On the other hand, if you can choose "Cancel" to most Install Wizards and let it finish the initial configuration no matter how broken it is, you will at least have a set of "desktop" with rudimentary capability to browse the hard disk. I prefer this mode of system configuration better because I have a set of tools --- including XXCOPY to search for necessary device drivers. It is also quite common that the CD-ROM drive is not accessible during the system configuration steps. For this reason, it is highly recommended that the whole set of files from the Win9x installation CD be copied into the hard disk and do the configuration from the disk which is much faster. Also, when you install a device driver, you often need the hardware manufacturer's floppy or CD. The next thing you find is that it tries to locate a driver software (often a series of xxxxxx.DLL) which you don't know where to find. In many cases, the file it is looking for is already in place (yes, in C:\Windows\System\ or C:\Windows\ ---- I have no idea why it did not occur to the Microsoft engineers to search the file in these directories besides the hardware manufacturer's CD). But, if you don't know where a device driver file is located, give the two windows directory, you will be surprised how often this works). -------------------------------------------------------------- In conclusion, I suggest you avoid plugging a system disk into a new hardware environment as much as possible. But, when you do so, prepare yourself to observe many rounds of reboot before the system becomes usable --- any many more to make it perfect. Anyway, thanks to put up with me and followed this message to this distance... Kan Yabumoto ================================================================ At 2001-08-07 07:47, Dan Anderson wrote: >The issue is cloning the primary partition from one computer and using it as >the primary partition for another system. > >Specifically, I was wondering if I can xxcopy the primary partition from an >old pentium 75 PC desktop and use it as a dual-boot option on a new (or >used) Dell desktop? Jason's earlier comments (below) confirmed that >something similar worked for him, after the plug and play processing found >the drivers for all the different hardware. Supposedly the plug and play >process can be fed the drivers contained on the CD that would come with the >Dell. > >Has anyone tried to do this with Dell equipment (which apparently contains >some non-generic proprietary features). If it works for the primary >partition then supposedly the logical partitions can be cloned over at the >same time with no additional problems. > >The reason for taking this approach would be to easily transfer an existing >operating system and it's prior functional capabilities (including CDRW, >network setup, installed software, etc) into a new faster computer, without >the hassles of trying to reinstall and reconfigure everything. It would be >for transition purposes as I reestablish the same functional capabilities in >the new computer, and it would allow me to immediately give the old computer >to someone else. > >The pentium 75 uses WIN95. I would also be thinking of extending this to a >multi-boot capability on the Dell desktop using cloned WIN98 partitions from >my IBM thinkpad (main objective is a functional backup capability), although >there would be even more plug-and-play adjustments to be made for the change >in hardware. If it's a new Dell, it would have Win-ME. > >Thanks for your thoughts on this so I can pre-plan what approach to take. > > >Regards, > >...Dan
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