this thread has been great!! thank you all ..
i found this handy freeware app the other day , clone maxx .. it makes an identical copy of a hard drive onto another drive regardless of file system or OS .. i booted it off a CD and cloned our server onto another hard drive and after tested it and it booted the server no problem exactly like the other drive.
the free version has a few limitations but the only one i noticed was it wouldn't let me clone to a drive of the same size , i had to clone a 20 gig onto a 40 gig drive , worked fine tho.
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/clone_maxx....htm?Language=1
enjoy :]