Moving Active Partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter TrickTrash
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T

TrickTrash

Recently I've noticed that one of my 2 Hard Disk Drives may be about to
fail; It's behaving erratically and occasionally refusing to boot.

This HDD is where I have my C drive; My other has most of everything else.

I can physically reorganize everything pretty easily, so putting my C drive
on the second, safer drive.

My question is: Is this a sensible thing to do ? What problems will I
encounter, shifting the OS to a different drive ? What about the links to
the partition with all my applications on ? What about Windows itself ?
Will this effect the "Votes" from the hardware and so effect my installation
? Do I really have to start afresh with a Clean Install, god help me ?

_______________________________
| C: OS | H: Backups | HDD 0
_______________________________

_______________________________
| D: Progs| E: Data| F: Games| ETC | HDD 1
_______________________________


I'd appreciate any advice

yours

TrickTrash


NB: I suppose this setup will infuriate the Anti-Partition Brotherhood, who
will want to convince me of the error of my ways, the offence I'm causing to
the Computing Gods, Hallelujah; My answer is, look at the flexibility my
set up gives me now. And in many, many other ways. I may be an
anachronism, but at least I'm not a fanatic.
 
You would have to free up space on the second drive as unallocated, then use
an image program that supports partition copy. It would be easier to just
replace the failing drive with a new one and do a complete image.
 
Dave

I have the tools to do as you suggest, but I've never done this before and
what i'm really trying to find out is; what are the unintended consequences
of taking an image and putting it on the other HDD.

Thanks for your reply

yours

TrickTrash
 
TrickTrash said:
Dave

I have the tools to do as you suggest, but I've never done this before and
what i'm really trying to find out is; what are the unintended
consequences of taking an image and putting it on the other HDD.

Thanks for your reply

yours

TrickTrash
Click to expand...

Risks associated with cloning the partition:
1. All damaged Operating System files will be cloned from the old drive
to the new drive. If you are already experiencing boot problems, it is
likely that, at a minimum, you will need to run System File Checker (sfc) on
the cloned disk.
2. For the average user, a hard disk experiences its most extreme usage
when installing an Operating System, and when cloning the disk. There is a
high risk, therefore, that the failing disk will die in the middle of the
clone process (been there, done that).
Steve
 
Og

Thanks for your reply.

You don't mention the MBR -something I know next to bugger-all about- or the
MFT, ditto. Do I have to worry about this ? Or am I overcomplicating
things, which seems probable ?

I've got Images of C: backed up which I believe I can use, but what's the
problems with installing an Image onto a new drive ? Is there a difference
between an Image and a Clone ?

It's probably simple enough, but not having done it before, I'm unsure and
want to get it right.

yours

TrickTrash


I've already got Images backed up from which
 
TrickTrash said:
Og

Thanks for your reply.

You don't mention the MBR -something I know next to bugger-all about- or
the MFT, ditto. Do I have to worry about this ? Or am I overcomplicating
things, which seems probable ?

I've got Images of C: backed up which I believe I can use, but what's the
problems with installing an Image onto a new drive ? Is there a
difference between an Image and a Clone ?

It's probably simple enough, but not having done it before, I'm unsure and
want to get it right.

yours

TrickTrash


I've already got Images backed up from which
Click to expand...

1. Image = Clone
2. The MBR is contained within the cloned image.
3. Take it easy -- cloning an image to a new drive, if unsuccessful, will
not "damage" anything other than your ego.
4. Read the directions that came with your imaging program to lean how to
restore an image to a different hard drive. Follow those directions
step-by-step.
5. If the new drive fails to boot, recognize that failure is part of the
learning process and repeat steps #3 and #4.
Good luck,
Steve
 
Steve

Thanks for your explanation; It makes all the difference to KNOW -rather
than suspect- I'm on the right track. I'm pretty sure of my ground now &
I'll give it a whirl. It's easy enough to do, what with True Image &
PartitionMagic etc. And my ego has taken enough knocks not to be too
sensitive anymore.

I appreciate your help

yours

nick
 
You are welcome, Nick.
Steve

TrickTrash said:
Steve

Thanks for your explanation; It makes all the difference to KNOW -rather
than suspect- I'm on the right track. I'm pretty sure of my ground now &
I'll give it a whirl. It's easy enough to do, what with True Image &
PartitionMagic etc. And my ego has taken enough knocks not to be too
sensitive anymore.

I appreciate your help

yours

nick
Click to expand...
 
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