Moving OS to new drive

[Tatar]

I have a over partitioned and crowded 40GB HDD. I bought and installed a
second hard disk of 160GB. I plan to partition new disk into two: 4 GB page
file and the rest data files.

My question is how can I transfer the OS to the new disk or a external drive
or netword drive?

Afterwords I intend to Transfer data files to the new second disk.

Re-Format the first disk with single partition.

Move the OS and program files to the first disk.

 

[Gordon]

I have a over partitioned and crowded 40GB HDD. I bought and installed a
second hard disk of 160GB. I plan to partition new disk into two: 4 GB page
file and the rest data files.

My question is how can I transfer the OS to the new disk or a external drive
or netword drive?

no need. Why would you want to? see below. Besides you can't "move" an
OS, particularly Windows unless you use a cloning application like
Acronis TruImage

Afterwords I intend to Transfer data files to the new second disk.

Re-Format the first disk with single partition.

Move the OS and program files to the first disk.

just re-install. No need to move anything anywhere.

 

[Tatar]

My OS drive is full. I can not defragment it because it is full. Some
partitions are empty and the others are full. Can I not back up, remove the
partitions and and then restore?

 

[Malke]

My OS drive is full. I can not defragment it because it is full. Some
partitions are empty and the others are full. Can I not back up, remove
the partitions and and then restore?

No. You would need to image or clone the first drive with something like
Acronis True Image (my preference) or Ghost but the image would include all
the partitions as you've made them.

If two of the partitions hold only data - no programs - then you could image
just the partitions for the OS and program files and then you'd need to
mess about with something like Acronis Disk Director to increase the size
of each partition. It would be tricksy.


Malke

 

[Gordon]

My OS drive is full. I can not defragment it because it is full. Some
partitions are empty and the others are full. Can I not back up, remove the
partitions and and then restore?

What do you mean by "restore"? Do you mean you have a Restore CD?
just move ALL your data to the new HDD, then do a
format/partition/install on the old 40GB HDD....

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a over partitioned and crowded 40GB HDD. I bought and installed a
second hard disk of 160GB. I plan to partition new disk into two: 4 GB page
file and the rest data files.

My question is how can I transfer the OS to the new disk or a external drive
or netword drive?

Afterwords I intend to Transfer data files to the new second disk.

Re-Format the first disk with single partition.

Move the OS and program files to the first disk.

Read Malke's reply. I'll just mention one other thing: your plan to
have a separate partition for the page file is not a good one. The
main performance issue with the page file is the time it takes to move
the drive's read/write heads to and from it. The way to minimize that
head movement time is to put the page file on the most used-partition
of the least-used physical drive.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Why are you putting the page file on the same drive as the system? If you
are trying to improve performance that has the opposite effect. In order to
improve performance you need to put the page file on a separate drive on a
separate controller so that you can achieve asynchronius reads and writes.
Just putting the page file on a separate partition on the same drive just
makes the read write heads move further when switching between the page file
and the rest of the system. The key is the separate controllers.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Sorry I duplicated your advice, Ken. I did not read your reply before I
made my own.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Sorry I duplicated your advice, Ken. I did not read your reply before I
made my own.

Never a problem, Colin. I don't mind at all. In fact if two people say
the same thing, it lends weight to the opinion we both expressed.

 

[C.Joseph S. Drayton]

I have a over partitioned and crowded 40GB HDD. I bought and
installed a second hard disk of 160GB. I plan to partition new disk
into two: 4 GB page file and the rest data files.

My question is how can I transfer the OS to the new disk or a
external drive or netword drive?

Afterwords I intend to Transfer data files to the new second disk.

Re-Format the first disk with single partition.

Move the OS and program files to the first disk.

Hi Tatar,

1) Download the Hiren's 9.x or later boot disk.
2) Boot that Hiren's disk. Do a clone of the old disk to the new disk.
3) Physically switch the order of the drives (assuming you are using
cable select)
When you turn back on the computer, you will be booting from the new
hard disk.
4) Use the Hiren's disk to resize the partitions the way you want them.
(I prefer the PartitionMagic on the Hiren's disk though it has 4 or
five partition managers)
5) You're done

--

Sincerely,
C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T

CSD Computer Services
Web site: http://csdcs.tlerma.com/
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

 

[AJR]

Check the CD received with the new drive for instructions.