Disk Cloning Help for newbie

My 160gig hd is my main drive with no partitions and only 8 gig used including xp pro operating sys, I have cloned this drive onto a 36gig Raptor but each each time I try to boot from the raptor I get an error "Error loading operating system" Can anyone offer any advice please

My 160gig hd is my main drive with no partitions and only 8 gig used including xp pro operating sys, I have cloned this drive onto a 36gig Raptor but each each time I try to boot from the raptor I get an error "Error loading operating system" Can anyone offer any advice please

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I presume that you swaped the hard disks and not placed the Raptor in another computer. If it's in the same computer then it should work, if it's in another computer then it generally will not work because of the activation key.

There have been posts here that suggest that you run Sysprep before proceeding with the clone, but it has been established by Acronis that for a home computer it is not necessary.

If you are using the same computer then you could use your XP CD and run a repair and see if it resolves the problem. The guidelines are set out on the following site:

In addition to mark3's recommendations, I would also like to mention that you should completely unplug one of the hard drives prior to booting into Windows for the first time, since keeping two identical hard drives, i.e. Hard drives having identical digital signatures, is unpleasant for Windows and might cause boot or drive letter assignment problems.

If nothing of the above helps and you still experience the same problem then please also try, if haven't done already, to perform the disk cloning operation when your computer is booted from Acronis True Image Bootable Rescue CD and see the result.

If that does not help either then please provide us with the following information:

- What exact version and build number of Acronis True Image do you use?

You can find the full version name and build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window.

- What operating system is installed on your computer?

- Provide the exact text of the error message you receive upon the attempt to boot from the cloned hard drive;

- What are the types of source and destination hard drives (e.g. IDE, SATA, SCSI, etc.)?

- Insert a blank floppy disk in the A: drive and proceed with creation of the bootable floppy;

- Boot the computer having only the source hard drive connected from the beforehand created diskette and wait for the report creation process to finish;

- Collect the report file from the floppy;

- Boot the computer having only the destination hard drive connected from the beforehand created diskette and wait for the report creation process to finish;

- Collect the report file from the floppy;

- Rename the reports collected to report_source.txt and report_destination.txt accordingly.

Then please submit a request for technical support. Provide the files and information collected in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.