Transferring Windows to a new hard drive

[em0rej]

Please help, my operating system is currently on a 10gb hard drive w/c is just 5400rpm (drive c), this is my primary master drive with a 30gb 5400rpm drive as slave (drive d), i just installed a new 80gb SATA partitioned into two 40gb drives (drives f & g). My question is how do i transfer my Operating System into Drive G without reinstalling windows, i've read about ghost and how do i use it? when i do this does my Drive G automatically become my primary drive? thanks in advance. :giddy:

 

[kangaruffian]

Harddrive manufactures website have handy tools for that.. like this http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...oftware+Downloads/Top+Downloads&downloadID=58

 

[crashyyz]

em0rej

a great tool for this is called Acronis True Image 9.1. I tried a free tool out there called HDClone and because there were bad sectors on my HD .. it failed.. True Image worked awesome!

you should start with a clean drive, with no partition. the tool will clone your old drive to the new drive. the only stipulation is that the new drive is the same or larger than the old one. now as far as i could tell .. whatever the old drive size is, the new drive will be that size. ie. 10gb to the 80gb drive will give you one partion at 10gb and 70gb will be left untouched. you format the remaining 70 within windows. best thing to do .. because it's alot to type is to check it out.. read the instructions. it's actually pretty simple.

i've heard that ghost for whatever reason isn't that great.. and I must say .. i was only missing two .dll's on reboot with the new drive cloned and setup jumpered as master. greabbed those off a .dll download site and been cruising since.

hope this helps some..

 

[iss]

if you want a drive cloner that is easy to use try Casper XP.

 

[wlknaack]

The clone function in GHOST will work just fine. The instructions are easy to follow.

Some points you will not find in the instructions:

1) You will need SATA drivers installed in the partition to make it bootable (they are not in the source HDD you are cloning). So you should have these drivers on a floppy so you can install them once the clone is complete.

2) Do not partition the SATA before cloning; the HDD should be in the condition as if it just came out of the box. Since you have partitions, you should wipe the HDD clean so as to remove the partitions.

3) When you complete the clone do not reboot. Shut your system down with the power switch. Open up the case and remove the power cables from the two IDE HDDs. Reboot. WinXP will assign the SATA the drive letter C: and create a partition signature, and store the information in the Registry. Note: If you reboot with the original C: (IDE) drive connected, WinXP will make the SATA un-bootable. You can reconnect the two IDE HDDs after the SATA is bootable.

Items 2 and 3, above, are the way to avoid the following: A) The old WinXP must not see the new partition before cloning, and B) The new WinXP must not see the old WinXP when rebooting after the completion on the cloning. If either, or both, of these rules are violated, the SATA will not boot.

Good Luck.

 

[wlknaack]

1) You will need SATA drivers installed in the partition to make it bootable (they are not in the source HDD you are cloning). So you should have these drivers on a floppy so you can install them once the clone is complete.

Of course, as an alternative, you could install the SATA drivers on your current HDD before you clone.

 

[em0rej]

thanks guys

thanks guys for all your help