fputman said:
I have XP Home as my operating system on the original 40G hard drive, which
is now full. I have also installed a 160 G hard drive, which has lots of
space left. The PC is about 4 years old and I am not getting the
performance
I once got. Is there a way of installing HP on the new drive and making
it
the new boot drive without losing data?
Thanks
Frank Putman
Yes there is.
You will have to use a program, such as Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost
(programs I have personal experience with) to copy your original drive to
the new drive.
1. You will have to clear off the new hard drive, no partitions and no
information. As this is a new drive, it is likely in that condition anyway.
If you have already stored information on this drive, make it go away. The
drive copy utility included with the two programs above assume that the new
drive is pristine/cleared (new).
2. You will want to clear out your temporary files from the user temp
folders and from the Windows temp folder. Clear out the temporary internet
files, choosing off line files also. Empty the recycle bin. This will make
the copy process go faster.
3. Now you want to run chkdsk from the command prompt window. The correct
syntax is:
chkdsk c: /f
4. Chkdsk will tell you that it can't check the drive because it can not
lock some files. It will ask if you want to check the drive when you reboot
the computer. Type: Y, then press enter. You can now close the command
prompt window.
5. Reboot the computer. Chkdsk will run. When the computer reboots back
to the desktop, open the event viewer and go to the applications window.
Look for an entry called winlogon near the top. This is the result of the
chkdsk session you just ran. Read the results. If you see that there are any
bad clusters on your old drive - **STOP**. The chances of getting a perfect
drive copy will be affected if there are bad clusters. At this point, I
would suggest a clean install of Windows XP on the new drive, with the old
drive physically disconnected from the system to prevent contamination from
the new install.
If you have to go this route, you will have to install your motherboard
drivers, download all Windows Updates, reinstall all hardware drivers,
reinstall all programs you wish to use - you get the picture, I'm sure.
6. If there are no bad clusters on the old drive, you can copy it to the
new drive and be fairly certain of a competent copy.
7. Now you want to defrag your old hard drive. It will make the copy
process go faster.
8. Jumper the original drive to be a master with a slave. Jumper the new
drive to be a slave.
9. Using one of the two programs, initiate the copy module. You want to
have the copy program check the old drive for errors before the copy and the
new drive for errors after the copy has completed. You want to make certain
that you choose verify copy. These options may be in a box under advanced
options. Search for them as you advance through the copy wizard in the
program you use.
You want to make the new drive active/bootable. Check closely for this box
and place a check in it. When you get to the last screen, start the copy
process.
NOTE: if the power fails, or is otherwise interrupted, you will have to
start over. This includes turning off the power to the computer prematurely.
10. After the copy has been completed, exit the program. Now, shut down
the computer. This is very important! DO NOT reboot the computer. If you do
a reboot, you will have to start the process all over as you don't want the
new system to see the old system at this time. If it does, your computer may
not boot properly, or be otherwise affected.
11. After the computer has shut down, disconnect the old drive. Now
jumper the new drive as single drive - no slave.
12. Turn on the computer. It should boot into Windows if you have done
everything right.
--
Regards,
Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)
Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
