copy contents of old hard drive to new hard drive?

[aaronep]

I have Windox XP and have just installed a larger hard drive on my
computer. It is a second hard drive. What is the best software to use
to copy the entire contents of the original first hard drive (hard
drive zero) to the second hard drive? Should I use GHOST vsn 2003,
Partition Magic 8, or some other application program. I intend to keep
both hard drives on the computer, but desire to retain contents of
original hard drive for back up purposes in case 1st HD fails.
best, Aaron

 

[Donny Broome]

Norton Ghost is definitely among the best. You can pick up a copy of Ghost
2003 (which is ALL that is needed) on eBay for less than $20.


--

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Check with the new hard drive manufacturer so as to see if they offer a "free"
utility to "clone" the hard drives.

 

[Anna]

I have Windox XP and have just installed a larger hard drive on my
computer. It is a second hard drive. What is the best software to use
to copy the entire contents of the original first hard drive (hard
drive zero) to the second hard drive? Should I use GHOST vsn 2003,
Partition Magic 8, or some other application program. I intend to keep
both hard drives on the computer, but desire to retain contents of
original hard drive for back up purposes in case 1st HD fails.
best, Aaron

Norton Ghost is definitely among the best. You can pick up a copy of Ghost
2003 (which is ALL that is needed) on eBay for less than $20.
Donny Broome
http://www.broomeman.com/tech/

Aaron:
I would echo Donny's comments re the effectiveness of Symantec's Norton
Ghost 2003 program as a systematic and routine backup program. The enormous
advantage of a disk imaging program such as Ghost is that it creates an
exact copy of your source drive including your operating system and
installed programs. So if & when the time comes when you need to restore
your system you have at hand a "clone" of your working drive allowing you to
become operational again with a minimum of fuss & bother.

If all you were interested in was a one-shot copy of the contents of your
old drive to a new one, then Yve's suggestion of using a disk copying
utility available from the manufacturer of your new HD has merit. If you
purchased a retail, boxed version of the HD, that utility will be included.
Otherwise it can usually be downloaded from the manufacturer's site. The
disadvantage of using this type of utility for routine disk imaging
(cloning) purposes is its generally slow speed (as compared with disk
imaging programs such as Ghost) and its (usually) somewhat awkward
interface.

But do consider the Ghost 2003 program for your present purpose and its
subsequent use as a systematic backup program. You'll be glad that you did.
If you (or anyone) are interested and would like step-by-step instructions
for using the Ghost 2003 program (using a Ghost bootable floppy disk or
bootable CD to perform the cloning operation, which is my preference) so
indicate and I'll post them.
Anna

 

[aaronep]

note to all: I tried to use Ghost to clone contents of primary hard
drive to new hard drive but was not successful. I did use DISK MANAGER
software that came with the Hitachi hard drive and was able to copy all
of the files from the original hard drive to the new hard drive.

I then instructed the bios of my computer to boot up from the second
hard drive, but error message appeared on the computer's screen saying
this was not possible.

What should I do to have computer boot up from new hard drive? All
replies welcomed!

Aaron

 

[Bob]

note to all: I tried to use Ghost to clone contents of primary hard
drive to new hard drive but was not successful. I did use DISK MANAGER
software that came with the Hitachi hard drive and was able to copy all
of the files from the original hard drive to the new hard drive.

I then instructed the bios of my computer to boot up from the second
hard drive, but error message appeared on the computer's screen saying
this was not possible.

What should I do to have computer boot up from new hard drive? All
replies welcomed!

Aaron

Has the new drive been jumpered as master or slave?

 

[aaronep]

it has been jumpered and cabled as a slave. Aaron

 

[Bob]

it has been jumpered and cabled as a slave. Aaron

I believe that you will need to set it up as master on the primary IDE.