DOCUMENT:Q112019  04-MAR-1994  [W_NT]
TITLE   :Changing Primary Disk System After Installation
PRODUCT :Windows NT
PROD/VER:3.10
OPER/SYS:WINDOWS
KEYWORDS:

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The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
 - Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1
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SUMMARY
=======

This article describes how to change the primary physical disk and
controller while maintaining user accounts and desktop settings after you
have installed Windows NT.

MORE INFORMATION
================

This situation may occur when you need larger disk capacity or a more
versatile disk controller. For example, Windows NT if installed on an IDE
drive and you want to upgrade to a large SCSI drive without losing user
accounts or desktop settings.

NOTE: This procedure is not recommended by Microsoft and therefore is not
supported. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the
performance or reliability of this procedure.

To change the primary physical disk and controller while maintaing user
account and desktop settings:

1. Create a startup MS-DOS disk and copy FDISK.EXE, FORMAT.COM, and SYS.COM
   to it.

2. Configure both drives.

3. Place a primary FAT partition on the new drive and format it.

4. Use XCOPY to copy Windows NT files and directories from the old drive to
   the new drive.

5. Create a directory called CONFIG off the root directory of the new drive
   and copy %WINNT_ROOT%\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\*.* to it.

6. Remove the %WINNT_ROOT%\SYSTEM32 subdirectory and all of its
   subdirectories on the new drive.

7. Shut down the computer and physically remove or disconnect the old
   drive.

8. Restart the computer, run CMOS, and remove the old drive reference.

9. Insert the startup disk and "SYS" the new drive (A:\sys c:).

10. Remove the startup disk and verify the new drive starts.

11. Reinstall Windows NT over the old installation.

12. After you reinstall Windows NT, start MS-DOS, and change to the CONFIG
   directory you created in step 5.

13. Delete *.EVT and SYSTEM.* files.

14. Copy the remaining files to the %WINNT_ROOT%\SYSTEM32\CONFIG directory.

When you restart Windows NT, user accounts and desktop settings should be
maintained.

Additional reference words: 3.10
KBCategory:
KBSubCategory: filsys

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Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1994.