Installing new hard drives

[Guest]

I am wanting to install two new 250gb ata133 hard drives in my computer. They
will be (eventually) replacing the currently installed 40 gb hd that operates
as the master drive in my system. I have a msi socket A mb that does not
support raid. Can some one please recomend a stream lined method of bringing
my two new hard drives into the system to replace the older smaller one?
Since I cannot do a raid setup wtihout a raid controler (that I do not have )
I will be using one of the new hds as the master and the second as a slave of
course.
I was thinking about installing one as a slave, formatting, and loading
xp and then transfering files. then removing the old small hd , switching the
newly formatted drive to master and then installing the second new hd as the
slave and going from there. But I am not sure that would work. ANy thoughts?

 

[Guest]

Actually with IDE hds its a snap to install.Simply put one new hd as slave
on the same IDE cable as current C: (40 GB),in xp format the hd.Once thru,
go to run,type:XCOPY C:\*.* D: /c/h/e/k/r In the DOS window,agree to all,
once its thru,C: OS is now on the new hd.Also,D: being the new hd but if
asigned diffrent letter then use that letter instead.Also,XCOPY only works
with
IDE hds,not SATA.Also,you should format the 40 GB & the other 250GB & set
both as a page file in system properties.Also,youre controller regulates
the hd
speed,some/most only run at 100mb/s,they do make PCI IDE RAID controllers,but
the MB/s is only a little more than regular IDE controller speed.

 

[Anna]

I am wanting to install two new 250gb ata133 hard drives in my computer.
They
will be (eventually) replacing the currently installed 40 gb hd that
operates
as the master drive in my system. I have a msi socket A mb that does not
support raid. Can some one please recomend a stream lined method of
bringing
my two new hard drives into the system to replace the older smaller one?
Since I cannot do a raid setup wtihout a raid controler (that I do not
have )
I will be using one of the new hds as the master and the second as a slave
of
course.
I was thinking about installing one as a slave, formatting, and
loading
xp and then transfering files. then removing the old small hd , switching
the
newly formatted drive to master and then installing the second new hd as
the
slave and going from there. But I am not sure that would work. ANy
thoughts?

scktA:
Your intended approach is a sensible one, i.e., fresh installing XP on one
of the new 250 GB HDDs and moving/copying your user-created data from your
old 40 GB HDD to the new one. But you do understand that you will have to
fresh install all your programs onto the new drive, right? You cannot (in
most cases) simply copy the programs/applications from your old HDD to the
new one.

On the other hand - you can "clone" the contents of your 40 GB HDD to one of
the 250 GB HDDs through the use of the disk copying program that will be
included with a retail boxed version of the new HDD - this program is also
available in most cases from the manufacturer's website. In this regard you
might also want to consider purchasing a disk imaging program such as
Acronis True Image that you could use to clone the contents of your 40 GB
HDD to the 250 GB HDD. The advantage here is that most users find the
Acronis program easier to use than the manufacturer's disk copying program
and the program also can be routinely used for backup purposes. (I assume
you're planning to use your second 250 GB HDD for backup/storage purposes.
And, of course, you can use your old 40 GB HDD for that purpose as well).

BTW, Acronis (http://www.acronis.com) has a 15-day trial version of their
program available for download. Give it a try. If you're interested I can
provide you with step-by-step instructions for using that program.

I don't recommend using the DOS xcopy command as recommended by a respondent
to your query. Nor is there any need for "page file" manipulation.
Anna

 

[DL]

Just to add, if you clone the current to the new drive, once completed
shutdown.
Connect new as master, disconnect old.Reboot.
Assuming all ok shutdown connect old as slave, reboot then copy data

I am wanting to install two new 250gb ata133 hard drives in my computer. They
will be (eventually) replacing the currently installed 40 gb hd that operates
as the master drive in my system. I have a msi socket A mb that does not
support raid. Can some one please recomend a stream lined method of bringing
my two new hard drives into the system to replace the older smaller one?
Since I cannot do a raid setup wtihout a raid controler (that I do not have )
I will be using one of the new hds as the master and the second as a slave of
course.
I was thinking about installing one as a slave, formatting, and loading
xp and then transfering files. then removing the old small hd , switching the
newly formatted drive to master and then installing the second new hd as the
slave and going from there. But I am not sure that would work. ANy

thoughts?

 

[Andy]

I am wanting to install two new 250gb ata133 hard drives in my computer. They
will be (eventually) replacing the currently installed 40 gb hd that operates
as the master drive in my system. I have a msi socket A mb that does not
support raid. Can some one please recomend a stream lined method of bringing
my two new hard drives into the system to replace the older smaller one?
Since I cannot do a raid setup wtihout a raid controler (that I do not have )
I will be using one of the new hds as the master and the second as a slave of
course.
I was thinking about installing one as a slave, formatting, and loading
xp and then transfering files. then removing the old small hd , switching the
newly formatted drive to master and then installing the second new hd as the
slave and going from there. But I am not sure that would work. ANy thoughts?

If you're doing a clean install from the Windows XP CD, then you want
to set the new drive as the first drive, i.e., as master on the
primary IDE motherboard connector, during XP installation. Otherwise,
the new drive would be dependent on the old drive.

 

[Guest]

I have done as Andrew E. suggested , formatted as drive E (not exactly as
suggested but my dvd is drive D) and then X copied from drive C . Bootable
and the original drive. It appears that all my windows stuff is on drive E...
Can I simply hook up drive E as drive C and boot from my new HD? Seems to
easy..

 

[Guest]

I have done as you suggested, worked out fine, just fine and didn't take very
long at all. As I wrote in my reply to Andy , it appears that everything on
my old HD (Cdrive) is now on Edrive (minus a few settings and what not). Is
it now possible to simply hook up E as C and boot from my new drive?

 

[peter]

By now you should have that drive hooked up as "suggested" by
AE..............did it work?????
peter

 

[Guest]

I did not do the "page file" set up. I'm not sure that I really want to do
that as I will be removing the old hard drive and building another computer
with it. I had the new hard drive set as disk 0 with everything on it and was
using programs and software from it ( hugely faster than my old drive )
but..... I could not set it as the system disk hmmm so I reformatted and am
going to try a different approach. Now , as far as I could tell I need to
have one of the new drives be the system disc to have my computer operate
without the old drives.

 

[peter]

The HD manufacturers usually have cloning software for free on their
websites....that work only with their HD.
Check it out.
It basically clones your old HD to your new HD.
install new HD in place of old and your up and running with the new HD being
the system disk
peter

 

[Guest]

As mentioned at my other thread (in reply to you) , as far as I can tell
Hitachi does not host the software on their site (english site). I think
perhaps a call to hitachi is in order to get some (hopefully ) concise info

 

[Guest]

Well , Ive tried all that I could think of that won't cost me money.... I
wonder how much time I have invested in trying to get this little computer
project done. Anyways, If hitachi does not have anything usefull to tell me
tomorrow I'm going to purchse the acronis software you suggested. If your
offer to assist me install the new drives still stands I might be taking you
up on it, depending on what hitachi has to say about their oem drives.

 

[Anna]

Well , Ive tried all that I could think of that won't cost me money.... I
wonder how much time I have invested in trying to get this little computer
project done. Anyways, If hitachi does not have anything usefull to tell
me
tomorrow I'm going to purchse the acronis software you suggested. If your
offer to assist me install the new drives still stands I might be taking
you
up on it, depending on what hitachi has to say about their oem drives.

scktA:
From what I've seen of your postings re this issue over the past few days -
both with this thread and an apparently more-or-less identical thread you've
started - you've been going 'round & 'round on this relatively simple issue
for days. Is there any reason why you couldn't do what you originally
contemplated, i.e., simply install XP on one of your new large-capacity HDDs
and transfer whatever user-created data from your old 40 GB HDD to the new
one?

Yes, you would need to fresh install whatever programs/applications you
wanted from the old to the new HDD, but is that a problem? If it is, then
using a disk imaging program such as the Acronis one mentioned (note the
free demo) would be in order.
Anna