How to move everything to a new hard drive

[Leon Feder]

I have a 10gb hard drive and want to go out and get a larger (50-80gb) hard drive to replace it. How do I go about copying everything (including the OS) to this new, larger drive so that it can replace my old, slow, small one? Is there freeware to handle this?

Thanks in advance.

============================
Leon Feder

 

[Rod Speed]

I have a 10gb hard drive and want to go out and
get a larger (50-80gb) hard drive to replace it.

Just watch out, with a hard drive that small, there is a reasonable
chance that the system will have a problem with drives over 32GB.

Not an insoluble problem, but it can be a bit of a hassle.

How do I go about copying everything (including
the OS) to this new, larger drive so that it can
replace my old, slow, small one?

Thats pretty easy, but particularly with the NT/2K/XP family
of OSs, you need to do it the right way for minimum hassle.

Is there freeware to handle this?

Yes, if you are running Win9x or ME.
http://xxcopy.com/
http://xxcopy.com/xxcopy10.htm

Dont listen to those who will undoubtedly tell you
that you can use the standard xcopy, its got some
real problems that can bite in that situation.

 

[Leon Feder]

Rod,

Thanks, I'm running WinXP. What is the "right" way to get a new drive to
replace my old one?

============================
Leon Feder

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks, I'm running WinXP.

What is the "right" way to get a new drive to replace my old one?

The only real trick is to initiate the clone of the entire drive
from the 'rescue floppys' or the distribution CD with something
like ghost or drive image AND THEN ELECTRICALLY
DISCONNECT THE ORIGINAL DRIVE before the first
boot of XP on the copy on the new drive. In other words
dont let XP see the original and the copy on the first boot
after the copy has been made. It will whine a little about
having found new hardware when it first boots off the new
drive, and will ask to be allowed to reboot. Let it do that.

THEN you can connect the original drive again, normally
with it set as the slave now, and do what you like to it,
format it and use it for a destination for backups etc.

 

[Barry OGrady]

Just watch out, with a hard drive that small, there is a reasonable
chance that the system will have a problem with drives over 32GB.

Not an insoluble problem, but it can be a bit of a hassle.

Like my BIOS won't handle greater than 32 gigs but my drives are 120 and 60 gigs?

Thats pretty easy, but particularly with the NT/2K/XP family
of OSs, you need to do it the right way for minimum hassle.


Yes, if you are running Win9x or ME.

Some fool will tell you that you can do that with Windows explorer, but you don't have
to believe them, even though it worked for me.
I substituted a 10 gig for a 425 meg in a computer running Windows 98SE. I put the
10 gig in as a slave and copied all the files, put the 10 gig as primary master and booted
away.

http://xxcopy.com/
http://xxcopy.com/xxcopy10.htm

Dont listen to those who will undoubtedly tell you
that you can use the standard xcopy, its got some
real problems that can bite in that situation.

-Barry
========
Web page: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~barry.og
Atheist, radio scanner, LIPD information.

 

[Rod Speed]

Like my BIOS won't handle greater than
32 gigs but my drives are 120 and 60 gigs?

I just meant that there are a variety of fixes available
when the system has a problem with drives over 32GB.

Some fool will tell you that you can do that with Windows explorer,
but you don't have to believe them, even though it worked for me.

Yep, it depends on the pairing between the short and long file names
on the original drive. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.

And its pointless not using xxcopy anyway, it eliminates
that problem and does a background copy as well and
you dont have to fart around with the swap file etc either.

I substituted a 10 gig for a 425 meg in a computer running
Windows 98SE. I put the 10 gig in as a slave and copied all
the files, put the 10 gig as primary master and booted away.

Like I said, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.