"Joselox" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote...
> Bottom line is, I want to pass all my info to the new HD, then format my old
> HD and finally install Windows on the new one. Is that possible?
Without a HD cloning utility such as Norton Ghost, not quite in that order...
First disconnect the old drive (power and data cables). Don't move any files
off it yet. You can physically remove it if you are not going to permanently
re-install it, but you will have to temporarily reconnect it later.
Connect the new drive as Primary Master, boot from the Windows CD and install
Windows. Install any applications you want.
Reconnect the old HD, either as Primary Slave or Secondary Master. You may have
to go into Disk Manager (right-click on My Computer, then Manage, Disk
Management) to assign a drive letter to it. Copy all your data files to your
new HD. You may find a lot of data in the "Documents and Settings" folder under
your login name, so you may also want to copy that folder into a temporary
folder in My Documents on the new HD until you find them all). Disconnect the
old HD,
AFTER you have run the computer with the new HD for a while (several days or
weeks), and you know you have all your data copied, you can repartition and
reformat the old HD. If you may want to use it as an emergency bootable drive
later, put a Primary partition on it (but do NOT make it "active" if you are
going to keep it connected in the computer); if you are only going to use it for
data or data backup, make it an Extended partition.
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