How do I move an installation of XP to new hard drive (same comput

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I have XP Home Upgrade installed on a 3GB hard drive, but I want to upgrade
to a bigger one, keeping it on the same computer of course. I cannot
uninstall XP because I upgraded from 2000, and a secondary hard drive would
not solve the problem--I need the space on the drive with Windows.
 
Drive Cloning would be a "One-Time" solution. If you do not use
Disk Imaging, I'd suggest now is a good time to invest in one. I use
and recommend Acronis True Image 9.01. If purchased, you should
create a full disk image and burn it to CD/DVD-R disks. Backups
to be effective must be stored off the PC on some media that is not
magnetic (Drive). Cloning isn't complicated, but if you install both
drives you can end up with Drive lettering & Boot issues with XP.
To be "Safe" using True Image, I'd create the Bootable CD-R and
perform the cloning operation outside of Windows XP to avoid the
issues mentioned above.
 
Most hard disks now come with cloning/ghosting software. I know my
last three (one Maxtor and 2 WD) did. The only issue you may have is
after you copy the drive onto the new one, make sure the bigger drive
is setup as "LARGE" in your BIOS instead of LBA. My system wouldn't
boot because my drive was setup wrong in BIOS, and I thought I had lost
everything.

Anyway, there are a few other minor problems with drive ghosting, such
as certain apps may need to be reinstalled, but it's pretty easy to get
up and running, assuming you have that disk copying software with your
new HDD.
 
In addition to the options suggested by others, it is super easy to do with
Casper XP from fssdev.com. It costs only $50. I've used it to upgrade all of
my computers to larger hard drives.
 
Asbestos said:
I have XP Home Upgrade installed on a 3GB hard drive, but I want to
upgrade to a bigger one, keeping it on the same computer of course. I
cannot uninstall XP because I upgraded from 2000, and a secondary
hard drive would not solve the problem--I need the space on the drive
with Windows.
Click to expand...


First, why do you say " I cannot uninstall XP because I upgraded from 2000"?
That doesn't prevent you from starting over with a clean installation of XP
if that's what you want to do.

But if you want to move the contents of the drive to a bigger one, you need
third-party software to do this. Many new hard drives come with such
software, but it yours doesn't, I recommend Acronis TrueImage, although
there are other choices like Norton DriveImage.
 
Ken Blake said:
First, why do you say " I cannot uninstall XP because I upgraded from 2000"?
That doesn't prevent you from starting over with a clean installation of XP
if that's what you want to do.

But if you want to move the contents of the drive to a bigger one, you need
third-party software to do this. Many new hard drives come with such
software, but it yours doesn't, I recommend Acronis TrueImage, although
there are other choices like Norton DriveImage.
Click to expand...

I say I cannot unstall it because I read it in one of the articles in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base (Article 303661): "Note If you upgraded from
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Windows 2000, or Windows NT 4.0, you
cannot remove Windows XP."

I could reformat but I've been having trouble installing XP on a clean
slate, it always gets to "Starting Windows" and powers down when I boot from
the XP startup CD (That's just before the menu where you can choose to
install, repair, or quit).

I'm not really sure how I was able to install it on the drive I'm using now,
so a method that doesn't involve erasing that breakthrough is preferable.
(Uninstallation was an option because I was assuming that it was a security
feature of XP that was preventing it from installing on another hard drive.)

The whole story is much more complicated, but hopefully I can put it all
behind me now. I bought Casper XP. Havn't tried it yet.
 
Asbestos said:
I say I cannot unstall it because I read it in one of the articles in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base (Article 303661): "Note If you upgraded
from Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Windows 2000, or Windows NT
4.0, you cannot remove Windows XP."
Click to expand...


That means you can't remove it and revert to the previous operating system.
It doesn't mean you can't delete it completely and clean install whatever
operating system you want. You can always do that.

But I just realized that you said something very strange in your original
message. You say you upgraded from Windows 2000 to XP Home, but that is not
possible. You can upgrade from 2000 to XP Professional, but not to Home.
 
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