How Do I Copy a Hard Drive?

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Guest

My hard drive on my computer is just about full. I am running XP
Professional. I purchased a portable hard drive. I want to copy everything
I have on my old drive to the new one. I want to be able to run all of my
programs and applications on my new hard drive without going through the old
one. Do I have to install XP on the new one, or is there a way to simply
copy the entire contents (data and software) to accomplish this? Thank you.
 
there are lots of programs out there that let you "copy' or "clone" a hard
drive.Check the website of the HD manufacturer...............but since all
you want to do is move your programs over not your Operating System you
cannot simply move programs you can move all of your saved work/files by
simply dragging and dropping but programs would need to be reinstalled on
the new drive.To create space on the old drive maybe just moving your work
would be enough....if not you will then have to decide which programs to
delete on the old drive and reinstall on the new.
decisions.....decisions

peter
 
My hard drive on my computer is just about full. I am running XP
Professional. I purchased a portable hard drive. I want to copy
everything
I have on my old drive to the new one. I want to be able to run all of my
programs and applications on my new hard drive without going through the
old
one. Do I have to install XP on the new one, or is there a way to simply
copy the entire contents (data and software) to accomplish this? Thank
you.
Click to expand...

Let me understand this. You want to copy programs to the external hard
drive and run the programs from the external hard drive? That's not a good
idea. Running from an external hard drive will be slower. Also some may
not run because the their entries in the registry will be pointing to a
different location.

Move data files to the external hard drive and keep programs and the OS on
the internal drive.

If you mean something else then please clarify it.
 
Almost all programs and applications will have registry references to the
original location of their installation.

You can't install XP on an external drive as far as I know.

Don't know why you can just uninstall such programs and apps, then install
on the external drive. Save your personal data first.
 
JMU_G said:
My hard drive on my computer is just about full. I am running XP
Professional. I purchased a portable hard drive. I want to copy
everything I have on my old drive to the new one. I want to be able to
run all of my programs and applications on my new hard drive without going
through the old one. Do I have to install XP on the new one, or is there
a way to simply copy the entire contents (data and software) to accomplish
this?
Click to expand...

Mu.[1] You will need to reinstall your programs on the drive you want to
run them from. Be aware that if you install them on a portable drive that
just because the drive is portable does not mean the programs are: You
will only be able to run programs installed to the portable hard drive on
the machine that you installed it from while the drive is connected.


[1] http://wiki.ursine.ca/mu
 
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