Duplicating old hard drive to new hard drive.

B

Bill

I want to swith to a new hard drive and copy the exact
hard drive contents and etc. that I have on my current
hard drive to the new hard drive. The original hard drive
operates using Windows XP Professional. Is there a
program the will work under Windows XP Professional to do
this or other easy way? I prefer not to reinstall
Windows and all the programs from scratch on the new hard
drive.

Thanks,

WLM
 
I

I'm Dan

Bill said:
I want to swith to a new hard drive and copy the exact
hard drive contents and etc. that I have on my current
hard drive to the new hard drive. The original hard drive
operates using Windows XP Professional. Is there a
program the will work under Windows XP Professional
to do this or other easy way? I prefer not to reinstall
Windows and all the programs from scratch on the
new hard drive.

The simplest and most reliable way is to use a simple disk copy utility from
the drive manufacturer. Many manufacturers (Seagate, WD, Maxtor, to name a
few -- though not IBM) have free software specifically for your intended
purpose. If you don't get a floppy disk with your new HD, you can often
download it from the manufacturer's website. To use, it's as simple as
plugging in both HD's, boot from the floppy, copy one HD to the other,
remove old HD, put new HD in its place, and reboot. Do not install the new
HD first and try to format it with XP; just put it in bare and boot the
utility floppy. (Many people make this mistake, which gives XP a chance to
give the new HD a different drive letter, which can screw things up.)

Very important: do *not* leave the old HD installed as a slave when you
first boot the new HD. Get the system back up and running with the new HD
by itself first. After the new HD is running properly as a single-HD
system, you may reformat and install the old HD as a slave if you want.
 

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