HD going bad..how to migrate to a new one?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff Wilson
  • Start date Start date
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Jeff Wilson

My HD is starting to make some loud whirring sounds, so I suspect it
is going bad. I would like to add a 2nd drive and move everything to
that drive and keep this one as a backup unti lit stops working
(assuming it stops at some point). Can someone point me to a FAQ or
information on how best to do this? Can I just add the HD and then
click and drag everything over to it in Explorer? I guess that could
work if I then rename my new drive to C:, otherwise all of my
software will look to the C:\ drive and the new drive will now be D:\.
I am sure there are many other things that I am not thinking of, so if
someone can refer me to a good site, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks!!!!!

Jeff Wilson
 
My HD is starting to make some loud whirring sounds, so I suspect it
is going bad. I would like to add a 2nd drive and move everything to
that drive and keep this one as a backup unti lit stops working
(assuming it stops at some point). Can someone point me to a FAQ or
information on how best to do this? Can I just add the HD and then
click and drag everything over to it in Explorer? I guess that could
work if I then rename my new drive to C:, otherwise all of my
software will look to the C:\ drive and the new drive will now be D:\.
I am sure there are many other things that I am not thinking of, so if
someone can refer me to a good site, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks!!!!!

Jeff Wilson
Click to expand...

Go to the drive maker's site.They usually have a freely downloadable
copying program.You cannot just drag all the files across to the new
drive :/



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My HD is starting to make some loud whirring sounds, so I suspect it
is going bad. I would like to add a 2nd drive and move everything to
that drive and keep this one as a backup unti lit stops working
(assuming it stops at some point). Can someone point me to a FAQ or
information on how best to do this? Can I just add the HD and then
click and drag everything over to it in Explorer? I guess that could
work if I then rename my new drive to C:, otherwise all of my
software will look to the C:\ drive and the new drive will now be D:\.
I am sure there are many other things that I am not thinking of, so if
someone can refer me to a good site, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks!!!!!

Jeff Wilson
Click to expand...

Youve got to use a utility as the other poster said you cant just drag
and drop.


You know what would be great? If you could RENT a hard disk.
Just rent one for $5-10 a day.

I keep getting bigger and bigger harddisks which get all messed up
from viruses or just messed up from too many weird installs.

you then have to go buy a HUGE extra hard disk and just keep it free
for reinstalls. Of course when you have it laying it around you fill
that one up too and then end up buying yet another disk twice the size
to back up the two hds that are now filled.

It gets ridiculous.

If you could just rent one anytime you could do reinstalls easy and
save your data.
 
Jeff said:
My HD is starting to make some loud whirring sounds, so I suspect it
is going bad. I would like to add a 2nd drive and move everything to
that drive and keep this one as a backup unti lit stops working
(assuming it stops at some point). Can someone point me to a FAQ or
information on how best to do this? Can I just add the HD and then
click and drag everything over to it in Explorer? I guess that could
work if I then rename my new drive to C:, otherwise all of my
software will look to the C:\ drive and the new drive will now be D:\.
I am sure there are many other things that I am not thinking of, so if
someone can refer me to a good site, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks!!!!!
Click to expand...

Almost all new hard drives come with installation software on a CD.
They make it easy to install a second drive and to transfer the OS
to it. Before you go for one of the giant drives, make sure your BIOS
can handle it. Some were limited to ~32GB, and even newer ones may
not handle a drive >137GB. WindowsXP requires SP1a for HDs >137GB.

Virg Wall
 
Jeff said:
My HD is starting to make some loud whirring sounds, so I suspect it
is going bad. I would like to add a 2nd drive and move everything to
that drive and keep this one as a backup unti lit stops working
(assuming it stops at some point). Can someone point me to a FAQ or
information on how best to do this? Can I just add the HD and then
click and drag everything over to it in Explorer? I guess that could
work if I then rename my new drive to C:, otherwise all of my
software will look to the C:\ drive and the new drive will now be D:\.
I am sure there are many other things that I am not thinking of, so if
someone can refer me to a good site, I would really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

If you don't have Windows XP you are probably alright. Install
the new drive and copy everything to it with XXCOPY (see
http://xxcopy.com). They will give you instructions for preparing
a complete clone, after which you can exchange the drives. In
general you would be wise to maintain such a spare drive, and use
the clone mechanism to back up to it.

However Microsoft in it's wisdom deems that you should not do
this, but should buy new operating systems, or get their
permission, before maintaining your machine.

If you are using Linux, you should have no difficulty whatsoever.
 
CBFalconer said:
If you don't have Windows XP you are probably alright.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chuck. I have XP, so that was another piece to the puzzle. The
whole "activation" nightmare. It sounds like you can call them for a
new HD activation but I really don't know how that works.

Jeff Wilson
 
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