Copying Old HD to New Ready to install 1

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fred-C
  • Start date Start date
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Fred-C

I have just installed a new 80g hard drive, in replace of a 10g one. Anyway,
I also did a re-installation of XP, but now i realise that it would have
been so much easier to have ALL the applications and settings etc.
(basically the whole o/s) from the old 10g hard drive.
So what is a free, and relatively easy way of doing this ?. I have seen
some posts on the www, saying ..

1. Copy n Paste by making the old 10g a slave
2. do some sort of xcopy command jobby, with /s/e/r/v /k/f/c
3. Use the maxblast diskette i made(but never needed) to make a copy during
the re-partitioning/format

I am useless with computers, but i DO know that it's not just a case of
pasting Applications, as they will not ,then, have Registry entries
assigned, which could Balls my system up.
I made 2 partitions on my new HD, 1 was 50g, the other 30g. Can i now, wipe
this new HD clean and re-format it and try again, but this time get a copy
of the old drive on it? Am i allowed to keep trying till i get it right, and
how do I acxtually DO THE COPY, I will be gratefull if somebody explains
which is the Tried and tested way.
I have put the old 10g back in my PC to access this newsserver, as my
outlook express was playing up, hence all the posts coming at once that had
failed beforehand, NOT a case of a serial-poster... OK?

Here's Hoping ya can help me out... - Fred - Compaq Deskpro,XP pro,
Pentium 111, 650 mhz,
 
FWIW, I'm sure there are a 1001 ways to do this, but here's what I do and
have been doing for many years. Perhaps not the easiest solution, but it
works and is very safe.

How To Clone Old HD To New HD And Make New HD Bootable

1) Visit http://www.bootitng.com and download BootIt NG. Unzip the file and
execute BOOTITNG.EXE to create the bootable floppy or CD, your choice
(accept the defaults). Now shutdown the PC.

2) Assuming old HD is master on primary IDE controller (IDE1), move old HD
to slave on IDE1, or master on secondary IDE controller (IDE2). Install new
HD to master on IDE1 (replacing old HD). Be sure to get HD jumpers setup
correctly! Use cable select (CS) if unsure.

3) Now boot the BootIT NG floppy/CD. When the Welcome to Setup screen
appears, select Cancel, follow the prompts, and you will be taken to the
BootIt NG desktop, now select the Partition Manager.

4) Your new HD will be displayed by default (HD0). To see the contents of
the old HD, select HD1 (in the upper left corner). To clone HD1 to HD0,
select the first partition on HD1, hit Copy, switch to HD0, select the
freespace, and hit Paste. In all likelihood, you'll probably want to expand
the partition to take advantage of the increased drive capacity. Select the
newly cloned partition, hit Resize, choose a new size (if the file system
type is of type FAT, you can convert to FAT32 as well), then hit OK. Repeat
for each partition on HD1, in order.

HINT: If you are cloning a Windows XP partition based on FAT32 and intend to
convert to NTFS later, then once copied, select the cloned partition, hit
Slide, and choose the "Align for NTFS" option (the size parameters will be
disabled), and hit OK. This will ensure the NTFS conversion results in 4K
allocation units. If you don't do this, then the conversion to NTFS will
result in only 512 byte allocation units (not nearly as efficient).

5) At this point, although all the partitions on the old HD (HD1) have been
copied to the new HD (HD0), the new HD is NOT yet bootable, we'll correct
that now. Select HD0 from the upper left corner. Hit View MBR, and in the
dialog, you will notice four entries in the MBR (Master Boot Record). Each
entry w/ a non-zero address represents one of your cloned partitions.
Select the bootable partition (usually the first MBR entry), hit "Set
Active", and the partition will indicate Active status. Now hit "Std MBR",
this will initialize the boot loader in the MBR. Finally, hit Apply to save
the changes.

6) Hit Close, remove the BootIt NG floppy/CD, and hit Reboot. Your system
will now reboot as before but using the new HD. Before rebooting Windows,
you may wish to shutdown and remove the old HD (see notes below).

NOTES:

i) The procedures outlined herein are NON-DESTRUCTIVE to your old HD. If
you should happen to have any problems, you can always retry the procedures,
or even revert back to the old setup by simply placing the old HD back on
the primary IDE controller (IDE1) as master and removing the new HD (adjust
jumpers accordingly). Your system will be configured and boot EXACTLY as
before the new HD installation.

ii) If you decide to keep the old HD installed, beware that any partitions
on the old HD will appear within the booted OS as additional data
partitions. These partitions are usually assigned drive letters following
the last ATAPI devices (e.g., CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, DVD+/-R/RW) and/or removeable
storage devices (e.g., USB pen-drive, USB external HD) already installed.
It's your choice, you may wish to keep the old hard installed as a means to
re-clone should problems arise w/ the new HD. Or you might want to reformat
the old HD's partition(s) and use them for other purposes. Or perhaps
reboot BootIT NG, delete the old partitions, and create and format new ones.
The options are all there, it just depends on your personal preferences. Of
course, you can also remove the old HD and keep it safely tucked away as a
backup to the new HD. When you feel confident w/ the new HD, you could
reinstall it, clean it off w/ BootIT NG, and use it for any other purposes
you wish (e.g., periodically store images of the OS using BootIT NG).

iii) When cloning a Windows XP partition, you will most likely NOT have to
reactivate. Since activation writes to the partition (which you are merely
cloning) and a hard drive change is not itself enough to trigger
reactivation, it should not present a problem. But even if reactivation was
required for some reason, it's a trivial matter to call and get reactivated
w/ a five minute phone call. And if it's been 120 days since last
activation, the issue is moot. MS "wipes the slate clean" after 120 days,
meaning you can reinstall Windows XP and reactivate w/ ANY equipment changes
you deem necessary (a whole NEW system if need be), as if you had activated
for the very first time, no questions asked! So, at worst, it's a minor
inconvenience, more likely, a non-issue. I strongly recommend storing an
image of your OS immediately after activation so you can always return to a
given known state in case of viruses, data corruption, etc., w/o having to
concern yourself over reactivation.


HTH

Jim
 
Fred-C said:
I have just installed a new 80g hard drive, in replace of a 10g one.
Anyway,
I also did a re-installation of XP, but now i realise that it would have
been so much easier to have ALL the applications and settings etc.
(basically the whole o/s) from the old 10g hard drive.
So what is a free, and relatively easy way of doing this ?. I have seen
some posts on the www, saying ..

1. Copy n Paste by making the old 10g a slave
2. do some sort of xcopy command jobby, with /s/e/r/v /k/f/c
3. Use the maxblast diskette i made(but never needed) to make a copy
during
the re-partitioning/format

I am useless with computers, but i DO know that it's not just a case of
pasting Applications, as they will not ,then, have Registry entries
assigned, which could Balls my system up.
I made 2 partitions on my new HD, 1 was 50g, the other 30g. Can i now,
wipe
this new HD clean and re-format it and try again, but this time get a copy
of the old drive on it? Am i allowed to keep trying till i get it right,
and
how do I acxtually DO THE COPY, I will be gratefull if somebody explains
which is the Tried and tested way.
I have put the old 10g back in my PC to access this newsserver, as my
outlook express was playing up, hence all the posts coming at once that
had
failed beforehand, NOT a case of a serial-poster... OK?

Here's Hoping ya can help me out... - Fred - Compaq Deskpro,XP pro,
Pentium 111, 650 mhz,
Click to expand...

I just installed a new hard drive - Western Digital 80gb 8mb cache 7200rpm.
Being as its faster than my current 120gb 5400rpm drive I wanted to make it
the boot drive so I did what I always do and went to the manufactureres
website and downloaded their installation tools. Put the new drive in a
slave and used the software to partition and format it selecting the option
to make the new drive the boot drive rather than extra storage. It went
smoothly and then I swapped the drives round and booted up. I did need to
reinstall MS Office and Radlinker but that was minor and easily done.
Considering I had 60gb of applications and games it all went very well. No
farting around with DOS commands and bootdisks needed.
 
I have just installed a new 80g hard drive,
Click to expand...

Some HD makers have utilities that including cloning. If your HD is a
WD then get the cloning utility and make a clone.

You will likely run into trouble if you try to mount both the new and
old HD at the same time, so take the old HD off the IDE controller
while you test the new clone HD. After you are satisfied with the
operation of the new clone HD, repartition/reformat the old HD to make
it look new to Windows.

You could use Acronis True Image to make the clone but it is not free
and the evaluation version is not functional IIRC.


--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!
 
I just installed a new hard drive - Western Digital 80gb 8mb cache 7200rpm.
Being as its faster than my current 120gb 5400rpm drive I wanted to make it
the boot drive so I did what I always do and went to the manufactureres
website and downloaded their installation tools. Put the new drive in a
slave and used the software to partition and format it selecting the option
to make the new drive the boot drive rather than extra storage. It went
smoothly and then I swapped the drives round and booted up. I did need to
reinstall MS Office and Radlinker but that was minor and easily done.
Considering I had 60gb of applications and games it all went very well. No
farting around with DOS commands and bootdisks needed.
Click to expand...

But you didn't clone it either. I believe the OP wanted to transfer
the content from his old HD to the new one.



--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!
 
Bob said:
But you didn't clone it either. I believe the OP wanted to transfer
the content from his old HD to the new one.
Click to expand...

Sorry I thought I made it clear thats exactly what I did - by making it the
boot disk that made sure all files were copied across then I just swapped
the drives around and set the jumpers accordingly and bingo I was up and
running on the new drive.
 
Sorry I thought I made it clear thats exactly what I did - by making it the
boot disk that made sure all files were copied across then I just swapped
the drives around and set the jumpers accordingly and bingo I was up and
running on the new drive.
Click to expand...

My mistake - I though all you did was format the new drive.


--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!
 
I bought Arconis True Image v8. Copies HD to HD no problem.
I keep 2 HDs in my PC, regularly copy the 'in use' one to the second, if the
first drive fails I can simply boot off the other.
 
I bought Arconis True Image v8. Copies HD to HD no problem.
I keep 2 HDs in my PC, regularly copy the 'in use' one to the second, if the
first drive fails I can simply boot off the other.
Click to expand...

Add a couple of removeable drive bays (Kingwin KF-23) with a spare
tray and another HD and you will have a disaster recovery system which
will take care of two problems: 1) failure of the boot drive; 2)
corruption of the boot drive.

You need the extra drive to create two generations of backups, so that
if the second drive accidentally becomes contaminated when you clone
the boot drive, you can use the third one. I have had to do that so it
is not an academic exercise.


--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!
 
..
Add a couple of removeable drive bays (Kingwin KF-23) with a spare
tray and another HD and you will have a disaster recovery system which
will take care of two problems: 1) failure of the boot drive; 2)
corruption of the boot drive.

You need the extra drive to create two generations of backups, so that
if the second drive accidentally becomes contaminated when you clone
the boot drive, you can use the third one. I have had to do that so it
is not an academic exercise.
Click to expand...

Sounds a good plan, one step further than mine.
Came in useful at the weekend when the regular HD started to fail, replaced
with a new one.
 
Sounds a good plan, one step further than mine.
Came in useful at the weekend when the regular HD started to fail, replaced
with a new one.
Click to expand...

I am always evaluating new s/w and more often than not it manages to
contaminate my machine to the extent that I do not care to undo its
effects, so I just make a clone before I install and if I have to I
swap the old drive back in - no muss, no fuss. It takes me 6 minutes
to clone my boot drive which is well worth it compared to hours of
frustration trying to clean up a bad install.


--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!
 
Done it - installed the 80 gig, and thanks to all who helped with 'posotive
feedback' .

Such a rare thing in these groups nowadays .. All the Best - FRED -
 
Done it - installed the 80 gig, and thanks to all who helped with 'posotive
feedback' .
Click to expand...
Such a rare thing in these groups nowadays .. All the Best - FRED -
Click to expand...

Not on this group. Almost everything that gets posted is informative
and helpful.


--

"One must realize that the world is a network of real and virtual
combat zones where the stakes are high, struggle is the primary
mode of being and only total victory is acceptable.
-- Sun Tzu, "The Art Of War"
 
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