New Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marcus
  • Start date Start date
M

Marcus

I have a new hard disk drive - how do I move everything
from the old one to the new one. If I try doing this from
within XP (File Manager) the transfer stops as some files
are in use.
 
-----Original Message-----
I have a new hard disk drive - how do I move everything
from the old one to the new one. If I try doing this from
within XP (File Manager) the transfer stops as some files
are in use.
.
First be sure all of your AntiVirus programs,help
Click to expand...
centers, messenger, internet security,etc (any programs
that may be running in the background, are off before
attempting. I've found If both drives are attached to the
same ATA cable, the best practice is to have both drive
jumpers to Cable select, with the ATA cable on the
original Drive as "master" and the new drive as "slave".

You may also need/want to change the CDROM jumper...Where
are you dong the transfer from??? Is this just the
windows interface??
 
-----Original Message-----
I have a new hard disk drive - how do I move everything
from the old one to the new one. If I try doing this from
within XP (File Manager) the transfer stops as some files
are in use.
.
Click to expand...

To copy the entire drive, you CANNOT properly do this from
within Windows. You need to do it from DOS, either
manually (which is tedious at best) or using a utility
such as Norton Ghost or Powerquest DriveCopy.

Trying to copy the entire drive to a new one while Windows
is running is like trying to replace the motor of a car
while it's running. There are ALWAYS files in use when
Windows is running, so even if you could copy them, you'd
end up with incomplete/corrupted files.
 
You can't just copy of your files from one hard drive to another and then
remove the old hard drive. You will need to do a fresh install of XP on the
new drive.

Before doing so I would disconnect the old drive from the IDE cable and
disconnect the power to it. Then make your new drive the Master by changing
the jumper. Do a fresh install of XP. After XP is up and running with all
drivers and everything installed, shut down the computer, then connect your
old drive as a Slave. When you start up your computer XP will find your old
drive and assign it a drive letter. At that point you can copy your files
over from the old drive.

NOTE: You cannot copy programs only data files that correspond to programs.
For example, if you have Quickbooks, if you were to copy the whole
Quickbooks directory from the old hard drive to the new one, Quickbooks
would not run. Your data would be moved but the program itself has to be
re-instaslled. So it is a good idea to have all software that you use close
by so you can re-install it as needed.
 
Can't do this with Windows running.

Format the new drive with the SAME FILE SYSTEM you are
currently using. Then from DOS, use Norton Ghost to copy
the drives. It will not work if you are attempting to
ghost a fat32 drive to NTFS either, or vice versa. Must be
Fat32->fat32 or NTFS->NTFS.

Once done, set your jumpers for the new drive and off you
go.
 
-----Original Message-----

centers, messenger, internet security,etc (any programs
that may be running in the background, are off before
attempting. I've found If both drives are attached to the
same ATA cable, the best practice is to have both drive
jumpers to Cable select, with the ATA cable on the
original Drive as "master" and the new drive as "slave".
That also depends on what kind of Hard drive your
Click to expand...
installing along with the software.
You may also need/want to change the CDROM jumper...Where
are you dong the transfer from??? Is this just the
windows interface??
Recommended by MaxBlast..
I was trying to find out what and where you found "XP
Click to expand...
File Manager" and how "if you try doing this from within
XP (File Manager), as my reaction to reply as
did "anonymous" and "Jay" with the same advice..
unfortunately I've had no luck with Norton's Ghost, it
would crash before it finished (I went through 3
attempts, used 19 CDs), & supposed to take 8 CD's to
create. Naturally I gave that up. Maybe you'll have
better luck!
 
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