Hi
I have a basic computer (Pentium 2). It is ready to do with basic programs on it, Wordprocessor, Spreadsheet, Fax Program and the hdd is partitioned into 2 sections....Me O/S (It runs great for me) on it. I use this for my fax machine basically. Now I have a spare hdd from another tossed computer in storage (it's good) Seeing that this computer has many years on it already I thought if it is possible to transfer all the data including O/S from the computer to the spare hdd as a backup. This way if the hdd fails in the working computer all I'd really have to do when this happened is to turn off the computer and remove the hdd and take the ready-to-go hdd out of storage and plug it in the computer and I'm back in business. Is there a way to get everything from the one hdd imported onto the spare hdd? Can I install the spare as a slave drive and do it this way? I don't want to buy any software.

seagate disc wizard should do the trick

Ray
Yes you can, but first install the spare hard drive as a slave and format it per your operating system. Then use the XCOPY command to transfer all the files including system files. Visit the microsoft knowledge base on the net it will tell you what switches to use with xcopy

Can I use another computer to fdisk and format the 2nd hdd. I have tried to format the slave inside the present computer but it only formats the 2nd partition of the hdd. When I try to format the 1st section of the hdd it runs into problems when it gets to the 2nd partition. I was going to fdisk and format it in this computer but when I do the dos settings it doesn't tell me which hdd it is going to restructure so I'm thinking with my luck it'll be doing C: hdd instead of the D: and E: For some reason I can't get the C: hdd out of the computer........really stupid design or you need to be Houdini to figure it out. So can I pull the hdd out and slip it into another computer as master and then reinstall after formatted? I want to get rid of the partition as well. It's only a 2 gig hdd. And to think hdd use to be 85mb and we thought they were huge.

Yes you can. If its a physicaly different HDD (hdd no. 2, not hdd 1/partition 2 etc) then create a boot disk with windows ME, turn off the PC and unplug the power etc.
Take out your primary HDD with the OS on it and put your 2nd HDD that you want to format into master jumper setting, and boot with the Boot disk you've created, then use the fdisk command to format the HDD, as per normal.. after format put it back to slave jumper setting and should be normal.

Mind you, there are third party apps that will make this easier for you, such as the before-mentioned Seagate Disk wizard, or your HDD manufacturer's setup utility (usually free download and use)..

WOW!!

XCOPY

I've used this many times... A long, long time ago. Ahhh DOS

It's all done now. I left in the hdd and got fjerase.exe from Fujitsu erased the slave drive contents and partition as well. Worked good. Too bad dos couldn't handle it. Anyways it saved me from taking the drive out of the computer. It's amazing how some companies make installing and removing parts ridiculously difficult. It's suppose to be a computer not a fortress.