Transfer to new hard drive

[OGC]

I have a desktop computer with a 10 gig hard drive. I would like to transfer everything from it to a new, bigger drive.
This is a small desktop machine and there isn't any room to just add the bigger hard drive and use it for storage.

I don't want to reinstall xp or the applications.

I know it isn't as easy as copying everything from the old hard drive to the new one and swapping the drives, but it seems that there should be a fairly easyway to do it.

Any ideas ?

[feralBoy]

There are programs, like norton ghost that will do this for you. you basically hook the new hard-drive up to your computer and clones the hard-drive onto the new drive. There may be some free software out there that does it, but i'm not sure.

[Bob Impact]

Just make sure that your Sheepy Points transfer, then you have to ban all of your old data on the old drive.

[MadMatt]

There are programs, like norton ghost that will do this for you. you basically hook the new hard-drive up to your computer and clones the hard-drive onto the new drive. There may be some free software out there that does it, but i'm not sure.

Along with this, you may want to get an external USB drive hookup to help with the job. Use a ghost program to transfer the image to the new drive that's hooked up externally.

[patsopinion]

I have a desktop computer with a 10 gig hard drive. I would like to transfer everything from it to a new, bigger drive.
This is a small desktop machine and there isn't any room to just add the bigger hard drive and use it for storage.

I don't want to reinstall xp or the applications.

I know it isn't as easy as copying everything from the old hard drive to the new one and swapping the drives, but it seems that there should be a fairly easyway to do it.

Any ideas ?


u have xp on a 10 gb hd?
what else is on there- like one notepad document?

[OGC]

Along with this, you may want to get an external USB drive hookup to help with the job. Use a ghost program to transfer the image to the new drive that's hooked up externally.

I do have an external USB hard drive enclosure and a copy of Ghost.

So if I put the new hard drive in the enclosure and then hook it up to the computer, I can use norton ghost to make an EXACT copy of the old hard drive on the new one ?

Once that is done, is it as simple as powering off the computer and swapping the drives ?
The computer won't care that the old drive was 10 gig and the new one is 80 gig ?

[OGC]

u have xp on a 10 gb hd?
what else is on there- like one notepad document?

There isn't much else on the hard drive, I stripped the XP installation to the bare minimum and I am using this machine to schedule my recordings of the WFNY show, and as a print server

[OGC]

before I do the transfer to the new drive, should I partition the new drive so that I am transfering to a partition that is the same size as the old one ?

[RogerPodacter]

You cant just swap in a new drive with the same OS install on it, i dont think. But then again i never tried this. I always just did a clean install on a new drive. I think the norton ghost options sound the best.

[MadMatt]

I'm speaking in theoreticals too - I have never tried this "live." I know the theory but have never experimented, so I would look into it a little deeper if I were you. Check the Ghost website for info and maybe their messgae board for tips.

[feralBoy]

before I do the transfer to the new drive, should I partition the new drive so that I am transfering to a partition that is the same size as the old one ?

I personally wouldn't partition it. You don't want your c: drive to be 10gb. It's too small and will likely cause performance issues. If you you clone it onto a single partition you shouldn't have any problems. I believe norton ghost will clone onto a single partition, other programs might not be able to. but you can always repartition your drive afterwards using partition magic.

[OGC]

I'm speaking in theoreticals too - I have never tried this "live." I know the theory but have never experimented, so I would look into it a little deeper if I were you. Check the Ghost website for info and maybe their messgae board for tips.

I will check out the Ghost website for some info but the good thing about this is that I have nothing to lose other than time. Even if it doesn't work I still have the original drive intact to put back.

[dantheone]

I would stay away from Norton Ghost for data backups. I would get an external USB hard drive and just copying your files there and perhaps burn them also on CDs or DVDs as an off site backup solution.

I only use external USB for my backups.


I hope that helps

:smile:

[badmonkey]

There isn't much else on the hard drive, I stripped the XP installation to the bare minimum and I am using this machine to schedule my recordings of the WFNY show, and as a print server

If that's all you plan to do with it anyway, I'd just copy essentials to the usb backup, remove the old drive, put the new drive in and do a fresh install of XP and the software you use for scheduling/recording. It shouldn't take too long and you know there's no residual crap left over from old installs/uninstalls/virii/spyware/etc.

I beleive that ghosting will require both drives to be connected anyway. You will need an operating system to run ghost to put the image on the new drive. Even if the image is saved on an external usb drive, you'll need XP and the drivers installed to access that drive to grab the image and put it on the new drive.

If it were me, I'd skip the ghost and go for the fresh install.

Badmonkey

[OGC]

If that's all you plan to do with it anyway, I'd just copy essentials to the usb backup, remove the old drive, put the new drive in and do a fresh install of XP and the software you use for scheduling/recording. It shouldn't take too long and you know there's no residual crap left over from old installs/uninstalls/virii/spyware/etc.

I beleive that ghosting will require both drives to be connected anyway. You will need an operating system to run ghost to put the image on the new drive. Even if the image is saved on an external usb drive, you'll need XP and the drivers installed to access that drive to grab the image and put it on the new drive.

If it were me, I'd skip the ghost and go for the fresh install.

Badmonkey


The reason I hesitatie to do a fresh install is that I got this computer off eBay and don't have the XP disc or a registration number. Also there never was too much stuff installed on this computer so i don't have too much concern about the residual stuff.

I am going to try to burn the image to a dvd and then put the new hard drive in and boot from the cd drive and transfer the image to it.

Like I said before, if it doesn't work, I'll just put the old drive back and be right where I started.

[badmonkey]

Ebay strikes again!!! My dad did the same thing to me except I have a previously abused install of XP and he's lost his disks so I can't format. I uninstalled everything I could to minimize the extras he installed. That box now just receives Lenay's show and puts it on a storage drive. I think anything else would kill it.

Good luck!

Badmonkey

[OGC]

Yeah, I stripped off all of the software and crap that wasn't needed. I only use this machine as a Ron and Fez stream recorder, and a print server. If I am able to change to the bigger hard drive, I'll use it for a little storage.