Moving to a new HD

[JOHN HARRIS]

I would like to upgrade my HD in a DeLL XPS system running Home Premium
(upgraded from XP Pro). Is there a step by step available somewhere on how
to best do this without having to go through the re-registration process
once the OS is on the new drive?

 

[Richard Urban]

No matter what method you use to move to another hard drive in the same
computer , there is a distinct likelihood that you will have to reactivate
your computer system.

The best way to accomplish the move is to use Acronis TrueImage HOME 10.0
build 4940 to copy your old hard drive to a newer and larger capacity hard
drive.

--


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!

 

[Tim]

Well, you don't have to re-register Vista after you change hard drives but
you might have to re-activate if MS decides that was enough of a hardware
change. There really isn't a method to (legally) avoid having to re-activate
once MS deems it necessary. But regardless, re-activation is relatively
painless in terms of the amount of time it takes. So, besides activation
being an annoyance in general, what's the issue?

Tim

 

[mxh]

I would like to upgrade my HD in a DeLL XPS system running Home Premium
(upgraded from XP Pro). Is there a step by step available somewhere on how
to best do this without having to go through the re-registration process
once the OS is on the new drive?

Your best bet is to use an imaging or cloning software (since all you are
doing is changing the system drive). If you don't have additional drives or
partitions, you can image the drive, burn the image to DVD and restore the
image to the new drive after you have installed it.

Depending on the drive you get, you may be able to download HD utilities for
free from the drive manufacturer. If the HD manufacturer provides no such
utilities, you could buy something like Acronis True Image, which works
great. I use it all the time for imaging my multiple drives on multiple
systems.

Imaging or cloning to the new drive should be a simple process. There should
be no need to re-activate, which really isn't that big of deal. The real
issue here is that you save a lot of time which would otherwise be spent
reloading Vista, drivers and software.

James

 

[Rock]

I would like to upgrade my HD in a DeLL XPS system running Home Premium
(upgraded from XP Pro). Is there a step by step available somewhere on how
to best do this without having to go through the re-registration process
once the OS is on the new drive?

The new drive should come with a copy utility to clone the old drive to the
new. If it's a white box drive, then download the utility from the drive
manufacturer's web site.

Another option is to use a commercial program to clone the old to the new,
such as Acronis True Image Home, version 10, as Richard said. It works well
in Vista with the added advantage that you now have an excellent backup and
recovery solution for use in Vista. Make sure you update it to the latest
version. Check the discount retailers for the best price (such as
Newegg.com), much better than from Acronis direct.

The key point, in the cloning, is after the cloning is done, before booting
for the first time from the new drive, remove the old drive so only the new
one is installed. After that you can reinstall the old drive, format it,
and use it as additional storage.