Installing a new boot drive on an existing system

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I would like to take my existing boot drive (15g) and replace it with a
larger drive. Ideally I would just like to somehow clone my boot drive onto
the new drive so that I do not have to do anything else, like re-install
software, users or xp.

Please forgive my ignorance, but I cannot find this answer, tho I have found
things, such as making backups, that sound similiar but they still leave me
with questions.

I have xp pro, sp2 and all other current updates applied. The new drive
will have 1 partition only.

Are there any FAQ's or turotials on how to phrase searches and terms to use.
 
Rich, you are probably looking for a drive imaging program. Acronis True
Image is very good. Ghost is another.
 
No, he needs a cloner, not an imager. Even True Image
can do that since he want to take the entirety of the
source drive and make the entirety of the destination
drive. Otherwise, he'd have to use Ghost or Casper XP
to transfer just one partition.

What I would advise, since it is such a simple utility to use,
is Casper XP. It's a cloning utility that does just cloning,
and it was written expressly for WinXP/NT/2K. It can even
be downloaded for a free 30-day trial from:
www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp/ . Hey! It's free.
Try it. I've been using it once a week for about a year,
and I liked it enough to pay for it.

Unlike Ghost, it doesn't need .NET Framework to be on
the system, Casper XP doesn't need rebooting after the
cloning operation, and it's cheaper than Ghost if he wants
to buy it.

As with all WinNT/2K/XP clones, disconnect the source
drive that contains the "parent" OS before firing up the
clone for the 1st time. Otherwise, the clone will get
confused. You don't even have to re-jumper the HDs when
doing this because the removal of the primary HD causes
the secondary HD to move up to the head of the HD boot
order, and the clone will therefore boot as if it were on
the primary HD. Eventually, though, and especially if you
want to use both HDs at once, the HDs should either be
re-jumpered to make the clone-containing HD the Master,
or the BIOS's HD boot order should be re-set to put the
clone's HD at the head. Then when the clone boots up
the clone (not knowing it's a clone) will call its own
partition the "C:" Local Disk, and if the "parent" OS is
visible to it, it will call the old OS's partition the "D:"
Local Disk (or some other letter).

*TimDaniels*

Rich Barry said:
Rich, you are probably looking for a drive imaging program.
Acronis True Image is very good. Ghost is another.



RichSr said:
I would like to take my existing boot drive (15g) and replace
it with a larger drive. Ideally I would just like to somehow
clone my boot drive onto the new drive so that I do not have
to do anything else, like re-install software, users or xp.
[......]
I have xp pro, sp2 and all other current updates applied.
The new drive will have 1 partition only.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Tim, I thought that cloning and imaging was the same thing. Anyway,
CasperXP sounds like a great deal if you can use it
fully operational for 30 day free trial. I would definitely go with that.
 
Rich Barry said:
Tim, I thought that cloning and imaging was the same thing.
Anyway, CasperXP sounds like a great deal if you can use it
fully operational for 30 day free trial. I would definitely go with that.
Click to expand...


Cloning involves a sector-for-sector copy, the clone becoming
an exact byte-for-byte copy of the original partition, boot sector
and all, onto another partition of the same or a different hard drive.
Backups for emergency use (such as for stock day-trading) in
the case of a hard drive crash or file corruption, where the clone
must be immediately bootable, is what clones do well. Clones
are also the best way to upgrade to a larger hard drive since it
involves a one-step data transfer from one hard drive to another.

Imaging involves making a *file* (which can be compressed)
which may be stored on various media as would any other file.
To regain a functioning OS, one first has to "restore" that file to
its original form on a partition. Archiving usually involves making
an image file which can be stored on multiple CDs or DVDs or
an external USB hard drive.

As for the Casper XP 30-day trial version, there is some obscure
functionality that is not included, but for the purposes of simple
cloning, it's all there. Again, the beauty of Casper XP is that it
is simple to use, it can take a single partition from among
several partitions and put it among several existing partitions
on the destination hard drive (which True Image can't do), and
it doesn't require .NET Framework (which Ghost requires),
and Windows continues to run throughout the operation and
it doesn't require a restart afterward. On the other hand,
Casper XP can't do imaging - something the other copy and
backup utilities take pride in.

*TimDaniels*
 
Tim, thanks for taking the time to explain the difference. At least
one of my many misconceptions has cleared up.
 
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