Can you replace a hard drive without loosing data (backup&restore)

[Guest]

My hard drive is malfunctioning sparatically so I bought a new one. The old
drive has approximately 12GB of data/applications. Is there any way I can
backup the entire hard drive and make a boot CD so I can restore the OS, all
applications/programs and data? I also have an external USB hard drive with
enough space to hold the back up. Background info: Dell 8100, Windows 2000
Pro then upgraded to XP Pro. I did a backup of the old drive to the external
USB drive; can I clean I install XP Pro on the new hard drive in a dir of
WINNT, then use the restore command and restore the entire old hard drive
contents on the new harddrive because the old drive installed under WINNT?

 

[Guest]

I think that maybe you best option would be to create 2 partitions on the new
drive. The main partition could have windows on it only. Then from the new
partition you could use the restore feature and expand the backup on the old
drive to the 2nd partition of the new drive. The second partition should be
the exact same size as your previous drive. Then you could "reinstall" with
your windows cd
and it may create a dual boot and possibly do a repair on partition 2 to
syncronize the system files...... this is only an idea of sorts.

 

[Guest]

Not understanding that but thanks. Maybe I phrased my problem wrong, if not
then maybe give me a few more hints on doing this! Problem, old hard drive
is faulty. It is still intact though so I am wondering how I can do a
bootable backup of it (12 GB of data/apps) and then remove that hard drive
install a new formatted hard drive (80 GB), insert the backup media and start
the computer then do an "old fashioned restore" where all programs, files,
documets etc are placed on the new harddrive

 

[Anna]

My hard drive is malfunctioning sparatically so I bought a new one. The
old
drive has approximately 12GB of data/applications. Is there any way I can
backup the entire hard drive and make a boot CD so I can restore the OS,
all
applications/programs and data? I also have an external USB hard drive
with
enough space to hold the back up. Background info: Dell 8100, Windows
2000
Pro then upgraded to XP Pro. I did a backup of the old drive to the
external
USB drive; can I clean I install XP Pro on the new hard drive in a dir of
WINNT, then use the restore command and restore the entire old hard drive
contents on the new harddrive because the old drive installed under WINNT?

Bill:
Consider another approach - one that you can use now and in the future for
making routine systematic backups of your system...

First of all, we're assuming that your old malfunctioning HD has had no
negative effect on the data on that drive - that is to say that the OS is
without system files corruption and that all your programs and created data
on that drive are similarly functional and without corruption.

If that is so...

Consider using a disk imaging program such as Symantec's Norton Ghost
(specifically the 2003 version) or Acronis True Image to "clone" the
contents of your old HD to your USB external HD. In this way you will have
(for all practical purposes) a duplicate of your old HD including your OS,
your programs & applications, your created data - in short, everything
that's on your old HD. You could then clone the contents of the USB EHD to
your new HD after it is installed. And you would have a complete backup
still residing on your USB EHD should, at some later date, you need it to
restore your system.

Another approach in the same vein, but perhaps more practical in your
current situation would be to install your new HD as a secondary drive and
use the disk imaging program to clone the contents of the old HD to that new
one.

You could (and should, in my view) use the disk imaging program as a routine
backup program in the future. A particularly good idea would be to use your
USB EHD as the recipient of the clone on a routine basis.

This disk-to-disk cloning process is relatively simple to undertake and
relatively quick in its execution. And most of all - it's very effective as
a comprehensive backup system.
Anna

 

[Guest]

Taking those steps Anna, do i understand correctly, install and format the
new HD and then I have to install the XP before I can clone it, adnthen
everything will function?

 

[Anna]

Taking those steps Anna, do i understand correctly, install and format the
new HD and then I have to install the XP before I can clone it, adnthen
everything will function?

Bill:
No, there's no need to format the HD after you install it. And there's no
need to install the OS on the new HD. The disk cloning process will
automatically take care of that.

Simply connect your new HD as a secondary HD on whatever IDE connector is
available (I'm assuming this is a PATA, not a SATA HD). Make sure you've
jumpered it correctly. After you've cloned the contents of the old HD to the
new one (as described above), I assume you will want to connect your new HD
as Primary Master. So take care of that and make sure it's jumpered
correctly. You can re:connect your old HD as either a Slave on the Primary
IDE channel or anywhere on the second IDE channel should that be more
convenient and use that second HD for storage or whatever.

Just one thing - when you undertake the disk cloning process make absolutely
sure that you correctly identify which is the source disk (your old HD) and
which is the destination disk (your new HD). You certainly don't want to mix
them up, right?
Anna

 

[J/M]

Anna's solution is perfect.

Besides Norton Ghost, I'd recommend the program from the harddisk
manufacturer. For Maxtor it's Max Blast 4 and for Western Digital it's Data
Lifeguard Tools. They are reliable and FREE for their customers to download.
They also provide guildlines for your harddrive installation. I believe
other manufacturers do provide their own version of such program so take a
look at their support websites.

 

[Anna]

Anna's solution is perfect.

Besides Norton Ghost, I'd recommend the program from the harddisk
manufacturer. For Maxtor it's Max Blast 4 and for Western Digital it's
Data Lifeguard Tools. They are reliable and FREE for their customers to
download. They also provide guildlines for your harddrive installation. I
believe other manufacturers do provide their own version of such program
so take a look at their support websites.

While it is true that many of the HD manufacturers - among them WD, Maxtor,
Seagate, Samsung, Hitachi (and there are others) do provide free
disk-to-disk copying software that J/M mentions, our experience with them
has been less than sanguine as compared with the commercial products
previously mentioned.

Over the years our experience with these programs has not been entirely
positive. Simply stated, they don't always create bootable clones when they
should be doing just that. And it's not clear why sometimes they work and
sometimes they don't. I rarely use these programs any more, preferring to
work with disk imaging programs such as Symantec's Norton Ghost 2003 or
Acronis True Image. They're somewhat more straightforward to use in my view
and usually run at a much faster data transfer speed and the results are
more consistently satisfactory.

Having said that, I realize those considerations are not particularly
significant if the user is only interested in creating a one-shot clone for
copying the contents of his/her old drive to the new one. So, by all means,
if the user is merely interested is using that type of program as a one-time
effort to clone the contents of an old HD to a new one, give that type of
program a try.

But if you're considering (as you should in my opinion) using a disk imaging
program to subsequently systematically & routinely clone the contents of
your working HD to another HD for maintaining a near-failsafe backup system,
I would strongly recommend purchasing a commercial type of program such as
the ones previously mentioned.

J/M also mentions the fact that these types of manufacturer's programs also
provide guidelines for installing the manufacturer's HD. While there's
certainly no harm in perusing those guidelines/instructions to gain an
understanding re the physical installation of the HD, I recommend the user
*not* employ the software program provided by the HD manufacturer to
partition/format the new HD.

Should the user be fresh installing the XP OS onto the new HD, the XP
installation process will accomplish the partitioning/formatting process
just fine and without much ado. And if the user plans to use the new HD as a
secondary HD for auxiliary storage, he or she can use XP's built-in Disk
Management utility to similarly accomplish the partitioning/formatting
process. Again, it's a simple & effective process.
Anna

 

[Patrick Keenan]

My hard drive is malfunctioning sparatically so I bought a new one. The
old
drive has approximately 12GB of data/applications. Is there any way I can
backup the entire hard drive and make a boot CD so I can restore the OS,
all
applications/programs and data? I also have an external USB hard drive
with
enough space to hold the back up. Background info: Dell 8100, Windows
2000
Pro then upgraded to XP Pro. I did a backup of the old drive to the
external
USB drive; can I clean I install XP Pro on the new hard drive in a dir of
WINNT, then use the restore command and restore the entire old hard drive
contents on the new harddrive because the old drive installed under WINNT?

What I normally do in this situation is remove the drive from the machine,
and use an external USB2 drive case (which I don't bother fully assembling)
to attach it to another machine with enough free space.

I delete the two large temporary files in the root - hiberfil.sys and
pagefile.sys. They'll be rebuilt as needed, aren't critical to startup,
and removing them reduces the amount of data that has to be transferred and
the time it takes.

Then, I use Acronis True Image (there's a donwloable free demo version) to
create an image of the disk.

When that's done, and it doesn't take long, I simply disconnect the external
drive connector and pop on the new drive, and restore the newly-created
image to the new hard disk. I then mount the new drive in the system in
place of the old one.

Of course, you must pay a little attention to jumper settings as the USB2
drive cases don't always use the same settings as the system wants.

This entire process usually takes under an hour. It's been very reliable.

If you have two USB2 drive cases available, you can directly clone from the
old drive to the new one. This takes less time.

If you don't have the USB case or another system available, install the new
drive as a secondary drive in the system, install the TrueImage demo, and
clone the old disk to the new one. When done, shut down, and remove the
drives; set the new drive to be the master and don't reinstall the old,
failing one. Restart the system as normal, and delete the TrueImage demo.

HTH
-pk