I recently migrated my Dell Vista 32 Ultimate XPS system to a larger (1Terabyte) HD. There were some interesting events associated that I thought might help others planning something similar.
I initially used an image and simply restored it to the larger drive. When I booted, I had to use the Windows disk to fix the MBR. After the system booted correctly, I found that the Catroot2 folder, Windows Update, and the Indexing service were all screwed up and didn't work. After two days of attempting to do manual fixes that I found in various forums, I decided that the problem was the missing two partitions in front of the OS partition on my Dell system.
Dell systems have a recovery partition and a FAT 16 partition before the OS partition. In order to migrate all Dell partitions, you will need to clone using any application that permits you to do a byte-for-byte clone (including unused space) and verify operation. I used Terabye's DOS backup software and the clone went perfectly. Norton Ghost 15, which I use, will also do this, but I trust the Terabyte backup application more in situations like this.
As I said, the backup and verify went fine, but, when I logged in, Windows Update did not function and the Catroot 2 folder in Windows\System32 was corrupt and did not update. Obviously, it was not the missing partitions.
After spending hours using Microsoft's solutions to no avail, I stumbled upon a thread in another forum that suggested I update my Intel storage drivers. I did, using Intel's online driver update tool. After the update and a reboot that took forever, the Catroot2 database updated.
But, Windows Update still did not work. So I ran Microsoft's Fix-It for Windows Update and it declared it could not fix the problem. It said the update store was not where expected. I ran a database check against the Catroot2 folder and it was correct and fine. Still no Update. Then I renamed the Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder, as Microsoft suggests, and Update was working again.
Microsoft offers several options, but I had to use only two. Here is the link to all their options.
Unable to install updates in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Now that my system is working again on the larger HD, I will remove the two partitions at the front. Although they are not large, they really offer no use anymore, since I keep several images of the system partition as backup. I was hesitant to do it until I discovered the reasons for errors I first encountered.
I hope this little "adventure" will help someone, or at least give them ideas in their situation.
I initially used an image and simply restored it to the larger drive. When I booted, I had to use the Windows disk to fix the MBR. After the system booted correctly, I found that the Catroot2 folder, Windows Update, and the Indexing service were all screwed up and didn't work. After two days of attempting to do manual fixes that I found in various forums, I decided that the problem was the missing two partitions in front of the OS partition on my Dell system.
Dell systems have a recovery partition and a FAT 16 partition before the OS partition. In order to migrate all Dell partitions, you will need to clone using any application that permits you to do a byte-for-byte clone (including unused space) and verify operation. I used Terabye's DOS backup software and the clone went perfectly. Norton Ghost 15, which I use, will also do this, but I trust the Terabyte backup application more in situations like this.
As I said, the backup and verify went fine, but, when I logged in, Windows Update did not function and the Catroot 2 folder in Windows\System32 was corrupt and did not update. Obviously, it was not the missing partitions.
After spending hours using Microsoft's solutions to no avail, I stumbled upon a thread in another forum that suggested I update my Intel storage drivers. I did, using Intel's online driver update tool. After the update and a reboot that took forever, the Catroot2 database updated.
But, Windows Update still did not work. So I ran Microsoft's Fix-It for Windows Update and it declared it could not fix the problem. It said the update store was not where expected. I ran a database check against the Catroot2 folder and it was correct and fine. Still no Update. Then I renamed the Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder, as Microsoft suggests, and Update was working again.
Microsoft offers several options, but I had to use only two. Here is the link to all their options.
Unable to install updates in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Now that my system is working again on the larger HD, I will remove the two partitions at the front. Although they are not large, they really offer no use anymore, since I keep several images of the system partition as backup. I was hesitant to do it until I discovered the reasons for errors I first encountered.
I hope this little "adventure" will help someone, or at least give them ideas in their situation.
I'm sure others experiencing this problem will really appreciate your efforts.