New Hard Drive

[Matthew Shaw]

I have Windows XP installed on a 40GB hard drive with the NTFS file system.
As I have now run out of space I am going to purchase a 200GB hard drive.
Since I have a lot of personal files making up the majority of my used 39ish
GB's, I don't really want to move these to disks etc. I know nothing about
installing hardware etc. so bear with me.

Basically, I thought I could make the current 40GB hard drive a 'slave' and
install the new 200GB hard drive as the master. Could I then set up Windows
XP on the new hard drive and then just transfer my files across in Windows
explorer? Is this possible? Will I have to do anything to the old hard drive
apart from changing that jumper?

Also, since I will be using the same copy of Windows XP, will this pose any
kind of problem? Once all my files are transfered from the old hard drive to
the new hard drive, I will reformat the old hard drive. Will this cause any
problems? I am thinking about the two different installations of Windows XP,
I don't want to reformat the old hard drive if somehow important Windows
files are still linked to the old hard drive that will end up stuffing up
the new installation.

Am I going about this the right way? In the end I want to move my personal
files from the old hard drive to the new hard drive and then use the old
40GB hard drive for backups and archiving (the new one is actually faster).
Is there an easier way? Can you point me to any related resources?

Thanks!

Matthew Shaw

 

[Guest]

Seagate and Maxtor supply wonderful software CDs with their retail packaged
Hard drives.

They allow you to boot up into Windows and use the CD to format & partition
the new drive and then to clone the old C Drive to the new drive.

You then shut down and reconfigure the new Drive onto the Primary IDE
controller as Master, with the old drive being best placed as Master on the
Secondary IDE controller.

You reboot to Windows and all should be fine!

If you use other prducts then you may need to format under Disk Management
and then buy Ghost to do the clone.

Prior to installation of the new drive, if you don't have cloning software,
you will need to use Files and Settings Transfer Wizard [FAST] to export all
your personal data, plus the Favourites, user names and passwords for all the
stuff that uses them, plus your email etc.

Either way, cloning is much faster than a full reinstallation of XP.

A full installation of XP [plus service packs] and then all your application
software can take 6 - 8 hours compared with 30 to 40 minutes for cloning.

Once you have installed all the software, you then have to use FAST to
import all your personal information from the old drive: that is if you
didn't clone the old drive.

 

[DL]

Install new drive as slave, uninstall apps and custom install to new drive,
simply copy data files to new drive
Unless of course you really want only one hd

 

[Matthew Shaw]

Oh good, thanks for that. The 200GB drive is a seagate (as is the present
40GB drive).

Seagate and Maxtor supply wonderful software CDs with their retail
packaged
Hard drives.

They allow you to boot up into Windows and use the CD to format &
partition
the new drive and then to clone the old C Drive to the new drive.

You then shut down and reconfigure the new Drive onto the Primary IDE
controller as Master, with the old drive being best placed as Master on
the
Secondary IDE controller.

You reboot to Windows and all should be fine!

If you use other prducts then you may need to format under Disk Management
and then buy Ghost to do the clone.

Prior to installation of the new drive, if you don't have cloning
software,
you will need to use Files and Settings Transfer Wizard [FAST] to export
all
your personal data, plus the Favourites, user names and passwords for all
the
stuff that uses them, plus your email etc.

Either way, cloning is much faster than a full reinstallation of XP.

A full installation of XP [plus service packs] and then all your
application
software can take 6 - 8 hours compared with 30 to 40 minutes for cloning.

Once you have installed all the software, you then have to use FAST to
import all your personal information from the old drive: that is if you
didn't clone the old drive.

I have Windows XP installed on a 40GB hard drive with the NTFS file
system.
As I have now run out of space I am going to purchase a 200GB hard drive.
Since I have a lot of personal files making up the majority of my used
39ish
GB's, I don't really want to move these to disks etc. I know nothing
about
installing hardware etc. so bear with me.

Basically, I thought I could make the current 40GB hard drive a 'slave'
and
install the new 200GB hard drive as the master. Could I then set up
Windows
XP on the new hard drive and then just transfer my files across in
Windows
explorer? Is this possible? Will I have to do anything to the old hard
drive
apart from changing that jumper?

Also, since I will be using the same copy of Windows XP, will this pose
any
kind of problem? Once all my files are transfered from the old hard drive
to
the new hard drive, I will reformat the old hard drive. Will this cause
any
problems? I am thinking about the two different installations of Windows
XP,
I don't want to reformat the old hard drive if somehow important Windows
files are still linked to the old hard drive that will end up stuffing up
the new installation.

Am I going about this the right way? In the end I want to move my
personal
files from the old hard drive to the new hard drive and then use the old
40GB hard drive for backups and archiving (the new one is actually
faster).
Is there an easier way? Can you point me to any related resources?

Thanks!

Matthew Shaw