Tim Cole said:
I know there's a post with various answers with some of these questions
answered, but I'm not sure all questions have been answered.
And, No, I can't afford a "professional," all they ever seem to do is
reformat, reload.
I need to install a larger primary drive but want to keep my WinXP OS and
many, many programs with their patches and upgrades intact. In effect, I
want to completely clone my present boot drive to another, larger boot
drive.
What software is best? Ghost, Aconis, or XXCopy? and what versions? I
want the easiest and the best, not necessarily the cheapest.
What process should I use? Can I install the new drive as primary (in
place of the present boot drive), format it accordingly (ntfs? can I do
that without XP in place?) then use a cloning program to transfer
everything from current primary to secondary while keeping or transferring
the boot sector?
Upon initiation of the new boot drive, will XP require reregistration?
(Bear in mind that I will still have my old boot drive available in case
of problems.)
Tim:
You will, of course, receive a fair amount of responses touting this or that
disk imaging program for the purpose you've indicated. Here are my views on
the subject which you, and others interested in this issue, might want to
consider.
First of all, if this is going to be just a one-shot deal, i.e., you're
solely interested in a one-time cloning of the contents of your old HD to
your new one and you're *not* interested in using a disk imaging program for
subsequent routine cloning purposes as a backup system, then probably the
most practical (let alone economical) course of action for you would be to
use the disk-to-disk copying utility that accompanies virtually every
retail, boxed hard drive. If you're purchasing a bare (so-called OEM)
version of the HD, the drive's manufacturer will nearly always have this
utility available for download from their website. In most cases these
utilities are not really suitable for routine disk imaging (backup) purposes
because of their (usually) slow data transfer rate of speed as well as their
somewhat awkward interface (at least in my opinion).
For a good many years I've worked with the Symantec Norton Ghost program.
The version we use is Ghost 2003. Within an XP environment, we've found that
version simple to use, straightforward in design, and effective in its
results. We prefer that program in comparison with the later Ghost 9 & Ghost
10 programs. If you're interested in the details of using that program, I'll
be glad to provide them in a subsequent posting.
We've also used the Acronis True Image 8 program and found that program to
be a fine disk-to-disk cloning program in terms of its simplicity of use and
its ability to get the job done. I can also provide you (and others who may
be interested) with step-by-step instructions for using the program if you
want them.
There are, of course, a number of other disk imaging programs available,
e.g., CasperXP, Image for Windows, etc. that I'm sure you'll be hearing
about.
As far as the XXCopy program you mentioned, I haven't worked with that
program in a long time so I'm not familiar with its current version, if
indeed there is a current version. I can only recall that I wasn't thrilled
with that program in terms of using it as a routine disk-to-disk cloning
program.
In terms of the basics of a disk cloning program such as the ones we've
mentioned, there's no need to partition/format a new drive prior to the disk
cloning operation. A clone is a clone is a clone. Following the cloning
operation, the destination disk, for all practical purposes, will be a
bit-for-bit copy of the source disk, including whatever file system was in
place on the source disk. As for what you call "reregistration" (I assume
you really mean "activation") that ordinarily will not be required if the
only change in your system will be a new HD.
And yes, you will ordinarily connect your new drive as Primary Master in
place of the old drive, and if you plan on retaining your old drive in the
system you can connect it as a Slave to the PM or connect it anywhere on the
second IDE channel.
Anna
