best way to upgrade harddisk without reinstalling OS and softwares?

[cfman]

Hi all,

I need your help!

My C drive constantly ran low and even reached 0GB many times. This is my
big headache.

This time I really want to solve this problem.

I have purchased a 300GB harddisk. And how can I move the content of my old
harddisks(two 40GB harddisks partitioned into drives C, D, E, F, G, H, I) to
the new harddrive? I plan to retain one 40GB harddisk, so eventually I will
have 340GB harddrive in total.

My question is:

Is there a way to do the upgrade without reinstall the OS and all the
softwares? It seems to me that the drive letters will change also. So the
softwares will be in a mess.

Could you please tell me some easy steps to follow so that I won't make a
mess of my computer system? I am really a greenhand in computers.

Thanks a lot

 

[Val]

Most hard drives either come with, or you can download from the
manufacturer, a utility that will clone your current drive to the new one.
I've found that WD's utility works pretty well.

Val

 

[cfman]

Most hard drives either come with, or you can download from the
manufacturer, a utility that will clone your current drive to the new one.
I've found that WD's utility works pretty well.

Val

Are you sure it's an easy clone? As I said, I have two 40GB harddisks
partitioned into C, D, E, F, G, H, I,... will the clone program retain
everything the same including the drive letters?

Thanks

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Are you sure it's an easy clone? As I said, I have two 40GB harddisks
partitioned into C, D, E, F, G, H, I,... will the clone program retain
everything the same including the drive letters?

"Clone" means that it will make an exact copy.

Exact.

 

[Ron Sommer]

You did not need to post to so many newsgroups.

What version of XP are you using? SP 2?

Did you buy an IDE drive?

Do you know how to get into the computer Bios?
Did you put the second 40 GB drive in your computer?

1. Disconnect the CD drive and use the cables to connect the 300 GB drive.
2. Make sure the drive is jumpered correctly.
3. Start the computer and enter the Bios.
What size is listed for the drive?
127 GB?
If yes, then you are going to have to buy a card for connecting the 300 GB
drive.

Do not try to clone your old drives until the Bios is recognizing the 300 GB
drive.
--
Ronald Sommer

: Hi all,
:
: I need your help!
:
: My C drive constantly ran low and even reached 0GB many times. This is my
: big headache.
:
: This time I really want to solve this problem.
:
: I have purchased a 300GB harddisk. And how can I move the content of my
old
: harddisks(two 40GB harddisks partitioned into drives C, D, E, F, G, H, I)
to
: the new harddrive? I plan to retain one 40GB harddisk, so eventually I
will
: have 340GB harddrive in total.
:
: My question is:
:
: Is there a way to do the upgrade without reinstall the OS and all the
: softwares? It seems to me that the drive letters will change also. So the
: softwares will be in a mess.
:
: Could you please tell me some easy steps to follow so that I won't make a
: mess of my computer system? I am really a greenhand in computers.
:
: Thanks a lot
:
:

 

[***** charles]

Are you sure it's an easy clone? As I said, I have two 40GB harddisks
partitioned into C, D, E, F, G, H, I,... will the clone program retain
everything the same including the drive letters?

With XP you can change drive letters, other than c, after creation.

later.....

 

[PsP-Helper]

JUST GET A 320 GB USB 2.0 HDD and use your 40 GB for windows forget
copying the files over just change all ur dwnlaod links etc to ur new
USB HDD its easyer cheaper (£70) Portable and it dnt look too bad
neither look on www.Kellko.com search for USB 2.0 320gb You should find
sum for cheap as chips
I've got too and no way can i fill them up

 

[Noncompliant]

Can you tell the group:
If the drives are ide, scsi or what?
If ide, are current hard drives both masters, master/slave with each other
or what?
If ide, is there an ide cd and dvd, and what's its jumpering and relation to
the other ide hard drives, primary or secondary?
If ide, are you using the onboard ide ports exclusively, or an ide card
fully or partially for all ide devices?

 

[John John]

This is what I would do, it assumes that you only have one operating
system on your current disks and that it is on "C:" and that all other
partitions are data partitions.

1- Mount the new disk in the computer and create partitions on it to
hold the information currently held in the data partitions on the old disks.

2- Copy the information from the data partitions on the old disks to the
newly created partitions on the new disk.

3- Use a disk partitioning tool like BootIt NG and merge all the
partitions on the old hard disk containing the "C" partition into one
partition only. In other words merge them all into the "C:" partition.

That will leave you with the old hard disk with only one 40 gig "C:"
partition, that is the System and Boot volume. Your operating system
and all your programs will remain there, you will not need to reinstall
them. You will be able to reassign all the drive letters as you please,
except for the System and Boot volumes (C.

If your programs are not on C but in another one of the myriads of
partitions that you currently have, then unless you move them to a
partition with the same drive letter you will have to reinstall them.

John

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Are you sure it's an easy clone? As I said, I have two 40GB harddisks
partitioned into C, D, E, F, G, H, I,... will the clone program retain
everything the same including the drive letters?

Over and above the answers you've already gotten, why do you have *seven*
partitions. That's enormous overkill for almost everyone. Except for those
running multiple operating systems, almost everyone is best off with no more
than two partitions.

What do you use each of those partitions for? Most people with so many
partitions have created such a structure because they have an erroneous
understanding of how things work. For example, some people put all their
installed programs in a separate partition because they think that if they
ever have to reinstall Windows, at least their programs won't have to be
reinstalled. In fact, that's false; all programs, except for a rare trivial
one, have many associated files and entries pointing to them within Windows,
in the registry and elsewhere. So if Windows gets reinstalled, your programs
have to be reinstalled too.

This might be a good time to think seriously about simplifying you partition
structure dramatically.

 

[Terry]

Are you sure it's an easy clone? As I said, I have two 40GB harddisks
partitioned into C, D, E, F, G, H, I,... will the clone program retain
everything the same including the drive letters?

Over and above the answers you've already gotten, why do you have *seven*
partitions. That's enormous overkill for almost everyone. Except for those
running multiple operating systems, almost everyone is best off with no more
than two partitions.

What do you use each of those partitions for? Most people with so many
partitions have created such a structure because they have an erroneous
understanding of how things work. For example, some people put all their
installed programs in a separate partition because they think that if they
ever have to reinstall Windows, at least their programs won't have to be
reinstalled. In fact, that's false; all programs, except for a rare trivial
one, have many associated files and entries pointing to them within Windows,
in the registry and elsewhere. So if Windows gets reinstalled, your programs
have to be reinstalled too.
[/QUOTE]

I have all my programs installed to one partition (at least all that LET
me). Buy my reasoning for this was to save space. I have 5 OS
partitions and they all share the data drive (D) and all programs are
installed to E. That way my OS drives are small (5 to 8 gig) and so is
my programs drive (currently 5 gig). I pointed all my Win OS's (98, Me,
w2k, XP) to install programs to E, thus only using one install for all
of them. Of course if I want to uninstall a program from any OS, I copy
the program folder, rename it, uninstall the program, then rename the
copied program folder back so the other OS's still access it. Isn't much
of a hassle as I don't uninstall programs often. This was important
when all 3 drives were 40 gig, but now only one is 60 gig, one is 120
gig and the newest one is 320 gig SATA.

But I also have 3 hard drives and make partition copies regularly to
other drives, so if one goes out I can quickly replace the drive, copy
the partition over and be back in business. I also have a redundant
data drive that is updated each day since data changes most often. Then
I also image to 2 external USB drives monthly (along with our 2 laptops,
iPods, etc).

Why do all this? Well, I've been the victim of losing 4 hard drives on
this machine and two on another over the last couple years (just had my
data drive die last week). Defective IBM's (GXP series), WD's.

I think the biggest error most make is thinking that creating separate
partitions keeps things safe, thinking that if drive C goes out they'll
still have their data on drive D, without even knowing that they are one
and the same drive.

--
Terry

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

 

[cfman]

This is what I would do, it assumes that you only have one operating
system on your current disks and that it is on "C:" and that all other
partitions are data partitions.

1- Mount the new disk in the computer and create partitions on it to hold
the information currently held in the data partitions on the old disks.

2- Copy the information from the data partitions on the old disks to the
newly created partitions on the new disk.

3- Use a disk partitioning tool like BootIt NG and merge all the
partitions on the old hard disk containing the "C" partition into one
partition only. In other words merge them all into the "C:" partition.

That will leave you with the old hard disk with only one 40 gig "C:"
partition, that is the System and Boot volume. Your operating system and
all your programs will remain there, you will not need to reinstall them.
You will be able to reassign all the drive letters as you please, except
for the System and Boot volumes (C.

If your programs are not on C but in another one of the myriads of
partitions that you currently have, then unless you move them to a
partition with the same drive letter you will have to reinstall them.

John

Great John! Thanks a lot!

Unfornately my OS is on C drive, and Programs is on D drive, other data are
on E, F, G, H, I drives.

There are so many partitions because I originally had two PCs each with one
40GB harddisk, then I combined them together...

What can I do now?

 

[cfman]

Can you tell the group:
If the drives are ide, scsi or what?
If ide, are current hard drives both masters, master/slave with each other
or what?
If ide, is there an ide cd and dvd, and what's its jumpering and relation
to the other ide hard drives, primary or secondary?
If ide, are you using the onboard ide ports exclusively, or an ide card
fully or partially for all ide devices?

My god, how do I answer these technical questions? My two 40GB harddisks
work together, seems fine...

 

[cfman]

Over and above the answers you've already gotten, why do you have *seven*
partitions. That's enormous overkill for almost everyone. Except for
those running multiple operating systems, almost everyone is best off with
no more than two partitions.

What do you use each of those partitions for? Most people with so many
partitions have created such a structure because they have an erroneous
understanding of how things work. For example, some people put all their
installed programs in a separate partition because they think that if they
ever have to reinstall Windows, at least their programs won't have to be
reinstalled. In fact, that's false; all programs, except for a rare
trivial one, have many associated files and entries pointing to them
within Windows, in the registry and elsewhere. So if Windows gets
reinstalled, your programs have to be reinstalled too.

This might be a good time to think seriously about simplifying you
partition structure dramatically.

Great Ken! Thanks a lot!

Unfornately my OS is on C drive, and Programs is on D drive, other data are
on E, F, G, H, I drives.

There are so many partitions because I originally had two PCs each with one
40GB harddisk, then I combined them together...

What can I do now? Could you please list some steps? I am willing to follow
and to fix the previous problems... but it's going to be horrible if I have
to reinstall the OS and the programs...

Thanks again!

 

[John John]

Great John! Thanks a lot!

Unfornately my OS is on C drive, and Programs is on D drive, other data are
on E, F, G, H, I drives.

There are so many partitions because I originally had two PCs each with one
40GB harddisk, then I combined them together...

What can I do now?

I Would still do as I explained but I would reinstall my programs on the
newly merged 40 gig "C:" drive. As explained by Ken in his post, there
is no advantage in having the programs on a separate partition.

John

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Great Ken! Thanks a lot!

You're welcome. Glad to help.

Unfornately my OS is on C drive, and Programs is on D drive,

Not ideal, as I said, but not a catastrophe either. You might not want to
bother changing it, because it generally means you have to uninstall and
reinstall the programs.

other
data are on E, F, G, H, I drives.

Unlike programs, which not be easily moved from one partition to another,
it's very easy to move data.

There are so many partitions because I originally had two PCs each
with one 40GB harddisk, then I combined them together...

What can I do now? Could you please list some steps? I am willing to
follow and to fix the previous problems... but it's going to be
horrible if I have to reinstall the OS and the programs...

Just combine the data folders in one partition. No problem.

 

[Rock]

With XP you can change drive letters, other than c, after creation.

later.....

Let me clarify what you said. What you can't change after XP is installed
is the letter for the system drive (where the boot files are located) and
letter for the boot drive (where the Windows system files are installed).
[Yes it's counterintuitive but that's how MS designates the drives]. In
most cases they are one and the same and are labeled the C: drive, but it
doesn't have to be labeled C: and the boot and system drives can be
different.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

[QRtSH]

1) Download BING from www.bootitng.com
2) Make BING bootable CDR and test it (CMOS boot CD 1st)
3) If XP < SP1 and new HD > 137G, you MUST SP2 or SP1!
4) Unplug power, connect new empty HD to the system
5) Boot BING, cancel the first "install" prompt, go Partition Maint
6) Copy partition from old HD to new one
7) Apply MBR (not EMBR!) to new HD
8) Unplug power, remove old HD
9) Set new HD where old one was, and test-boot

Tips:
- don't boot new HD with old one present
- don't install XP with remov disks, USB sticks, extra HD present
- XP MUST be at least SP1, pref SP2, for HD > 137G

 

[Noncompliant]

My god, how do I answer these technical questions? My two 40GB harddisks
work together, seems fine...

Shouldn't be too difficult since you're replacing a 40GB hard drive, and the
information I asked for is pertinent when physically installing the new hard
drive.

 

[DWalker]

Hi all,

I need your help!

My C drive constantly ran low and even reached 0GB many times. This is
my big headache.

This time I really want to solve this problem.

I have purchased a 300GB harddisk. And how can I move the content of
my old harddisks(two 40GB harddisks partitioned into drives C, D, E,
F, G, H, I) to the new harddrive? I plan to retain one 40GB harddisk,
so eventually I will have 340GB harddrive in total.

My question is:

Is there a way to do the upgrade without reinstall the OS and all the
softwares? It seems to me that the drive letters will change also. So
the softwares will be in a mess.

Could you please tell me some easy steps to follow so that I won't
make a mess of my computer system? I am really a greenhand in
computers.

Thanks a lot

www.xxclone.com will do the trick. I have used it a couple of times and
it is great at enlarging the boot partition.

David