Moving an OS to a new hard drive.

[charles kuchar]

The secretary's computer's hard drive is getting a little shaky and rather
than have to reinstall everything i just want to move everything to a new
hard drive. I have taken one and installed basic XP on it. My plan is to
put this hard drive into her machine as a secondary drive and then copy
everything from the old drive to the new drive and then make it the master
and boot on it. Theoretically this should work but does anyone have any
practical experience doing this and is there a better way to do it? Thanks,
charlie

 

[S.J.Haribabu]

Hi Charlie,

Yes, it works in the way.

Install OS with latest updates on new harddisk
Add the old harddisk as a secondary on the same machine.
Copy the data files to the new harddisk. (only the data files can be
copied, no program files)
Remove the old harddisk (if you wish)

Thanks,

(e-mail address removed)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[charles kuchar]

I need more than the data files. Actually no data files are involved since
data resides on the server. I need all her applications ported over... So
why can't i just copy everything on the hard drive?
charlie

 

[Gerry Voras]

Try using symantic ghost or driveimage. Either will just dupe your old
drive onto the new one.

 

[charles kuchar]

Thanks. I had an older version of Ghost but it only works with fat drives.
Ordered the new one that works with XP. I hope it will make a copy on the
fly like driveimage does. charlie

 

[Geoffw]

will work if the new computer is substantially the same as
the old one otherwise an "in place" upgrade may be needed
after the new machine is imaged

Geoff

"charles kuchar" <[email protected]>
wrote in message

 

[Colon Terminus]

Ghost works well.

Don't let XP "see" the new hard drive.
Install Ghost.
Make a Ghost boot disk.
Turn off the machine.
Install the new hard drive.
Boot from the Ghost boot disk
Run Ghost.
Turn off the machine.
Remove the old flakey hard drive.
Ensure the new drive is master.

Boot Windows. Windows will find and "Install" new hardware. It might require
you to reboot as well.