New Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chuck
  • Start date Start date
C

Chuck

This question should REALLY test the people around here who know their
stuff.

I bought a new hard drive. I use two drive, partitioned into six partitions
total. I wish to make my new drive the boot drive. I have already
partitioned and formatted the new drive and am in the process of drag-n-drop
copying all C: drive (windows XP Home boot drive) to the new partition.

Here is the question: Which files will NOT copy for me, and how do I
overcome the absence of these files without a full re-install, and perhaps
without needing to "Activate" it again. I have the full install CDROM, so I
can re-install if I must, but what a headache.

I have copied all the files I could, and I'm about 40MB short (63 files).

Thanks for the help
Chuck
 
"Really test",don't think so...To copy C: drive to new hd,simply format the
hd (new),go to run,type:XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS
window,when its thru,youre finished.Also,D: being the new hd,you can sub-
stitute theletter if asigned diffrent one.Also,new needs to be slave on
same IDE
cable as C:
 
Chuck

There is absolutely NO WAY that copying and pasting an OS to another drive
can give you a fresh working installation.. in the time it has taken you so
far, you could have installed from the CD and had yourself a working
system..

If you do not know how to install from CD.. go to this website..

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com

All you need to know is there.. good luck..
 
Andrew E.

Yet again, you demonstrate no understanding of the original question, and
the advice you give is misleading and wrong.. I would suggest that you set
up another computer and try out some of your arcane ideas on it to see if
they actually work BEFORE posting them to other people..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/user
 
This I agree with, but wouldn't I be able to do a "repair" of the OS after
drag-n-drop of 98% of the files?

Chuck
 
Chuck

98% of the files may or may not include files that XP needs to be able to
boot.. there are many hidden and system files that will not copy over..
essentially, a repair install would take as long as a new install, and you
will still have to re-install updates..

When Windows installs, it doesn't just copy files to a hard drive.. were it
that easy..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/user
 
Hi, Chuck.

No. The 2% of files that you can't copy are the Registry files, which hold
all the information for your installed applications, among other things.
And the boot sector is NOT a file, and can't be copied by a file-copying
program, but it is critical to the boot process. Also, the copy program
cannot mark the partition on your new HD Active (bootable).

Moving up to a bigger HD is one of the most natural and common improvements
we all make to our computers. Microsoft SHOULD have made this process easy
and intuitive, but they DID NOT! :>( If you scan this newsgroup, you will
find hundreds of users asking the same questions you are asking.

Several variations are possible, but the basic pattern goes like this:

1. Install your new HD as secondary or slave, temporarily. Use the
software that comes with your new HD (usually Ghost or something similar) to
create the System Partition (almost always C:) and, if different, the Boot
Volume (where the \Windows folder resides) to the new HD, and copy the
contents. (This gets the old Registry onto the new HD, but it is still
configured to match the old HD configuration - and you still need a boot
sector.)

2. Remove your old HDs from the computer and LEAVE THEM OUT until after
WinXP is up and running on your new HD.

3. Change the jumpers on your new HD and install it as primary master.

4. Boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and do an "in-place upgrade" as instructed in
this KB article:
How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q315341

(or on the Michael Stevens page that Mike Hall told you about)

The upgrade is not complete until you have your firewall and antivirus back
in place and have visited Windows Update to be sure you have all the
critical updates installed. The in-place upgrade will take as long as a
clean install, because it completely reinstalls WinXP itself, but it will
preserve the applications installed in your Registry that you Ghosted to
this HD in Step 1, while updating the Registry to fit your new hardware
configuration. And it will write your new boot sector into your new System
Partition on the new HD.

5. Shut down and install your old HD(s) as secondary or slave.

6. Boot into WinXP and use Disk Management to create and format any other
partitions and logical drives that you need or want. You can simply Copy
files from your old HDs to your new ones. Disk Management will
automatically assign "drive" letters to the volumes on your old HD; you can
work with these, or change the assignments to suit your new disk
configuration.

Of course, if preserving your applications is not important, it's much
simpler to simply remove the old HD, clean install WinXP on the new HD, then
go to Step 5. Then create your new volumes, reinstall your apps, and copy
(or restore) your data.

RC
 
You can do this with a basic copy if you have the source and destination
drives as slaves of another installation (on a third drive). Then you
can either Ghost across or indeed XCOPY, with some messing about to
ensure the system boots (you write the boot track using a utility).

But a re-install isnt to hard and less effore really (no screwdriver
needed) as long as you dont want to repoduce many copies.
 
Hi,

Go to ebay and get Ghost for about $20. Use it's clone option and it'll
make an exact bootable copy of your old drive onto your new one. I use
it every week this way for backing up everything on my drive.
--

---==X={}=X==---


Jim Self
AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

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http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)
Technical Counselor
 
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