Moving to a Bigger HD Problems

[Don Miller]

I have win2KSP3 on my C drive and am running out of space (20gb). I have a
120gb drive in F that's empty. What I want to do is to just copy all the
files, particularly the system files, from C to F, then I'll swap the drives
and boot from C (was F). When I tried doing that I found I couldn't copy the
files because NTUSER file was "in use" (or something) and the copying
aborted. I thought I could boot from my Win2K CD but it always wants to
setup Win2K instead of just letting me copy from C to F (and my floppy disk
drive is dead).

Is there a way I can copy the files from C to F, swap the drives, and then
have the computer boot like it always has? Thanks.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

You have to use a disk imaging tool such as DriveImage
or Ghost. If you're reluctant to spend the money on these
products then you can do it with advanced Windows
commands, provided that you
- have access to another Win2000 PC
- have your Win2000 installation CD
- have the patience to execute a dozen or more Command
Prompt commands
- are prepared to move disks from one PC to another.

Having your data files mixed in with your system files is
not a particularly good idea. You would be far better off
if you partitioned your 120 GByte disk like so:

Drive C: - 10 GBytes (Win2000 & applications)
Drive D: - 110 GBytes (Data)

This implies that you move your data files out of the
way before you perform the imaging operation.

 

[Ghostrider]

I have win2KSP3 on my C drive and am running out of space (20gb). I have a
120gb drive in F that's empty. What I want to do is to just copy all the
files, particularly the system files, from C to F, then I'll swap the drives
and boot from C (was F). When I tried doing that I found I couldn't copy the
files because NTUSER file was "in use" (or something) and the copying
aborted. I thought I could boot from my Win2K CD but it always wants to
setup Win2K instead of just letting me copy from C to F (and my floppy disk
drive is dead).

Is there a way I can copy the files from C to F, swap the drives, and then
have the computer boot like it always has? Thanks.

The better way of copying files, especially from a system drive to a
new system drive, is to use an image file of the partition. Both Ghost
and DriveImage are well-suited for this.

But there is another concern in doing the swap to Drive F, as proposed.
What is the file system being used --- FAT32 or NTFS? There is a max.
partition size limitation for FAT32, meaning that the current Drive F
will need to be partitioned to fit that maximum size (? 32 GB). It
should be done before copying the Ghost or DriveImage image file to
it.

 

[Don Miller]

My F drive is NTFS. I made my initial post somewhat simpler than it really
is. Actually, I have data that I do not want to lose on F (where I want to
move the new system files). Will Ghost or DriveImage write over my data
files when copying the image?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My F drive is NTFS. I made my initial post somewhat simpler than it really
is. Actually, I have data that I do not want to lose on F (where I want to
move the new system files). Will Ghost or DriveImage write over my data
files when copying the image?

have copy

All imaging programs will displace whatever is on the target
partition. If you have data on the target disk that you wish to
preserve then you must first repartition the disk (e.g. with
PQMagic) and move the data out of the first partition to create
room for the image to be transferred.

This problem does not exist if you use Command Prompt
commands - but it's tedious!

 

[Don Miller]

So where does one find instructions for using the (tedious) Command Prompts
to copy from one drive to another? (with Ghost and DriveImage ~$60 and
PMagic another $60 tedious begins to sound cost effective)

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If you are really keen to follow this path then I will take the
time to write down the instructions. Note that I never use
them - PQMagic and DriveImage are so much easier to
use, and extremely powerful. If you intend to get PQMagic
then I recommend that you get DriveImage rather than
Ghost, since both come from the same stable.

 

[Don Miller]

Thanks, I've got to think about this one. It sounded like one xcopy would
work. BTW, as of 12/5 PQ is in the Symantec stable and Driveimage info is
now redirected to there.