switching external HD for internal one??

[Lisa Hetherington]

My 30 GHB HD is full...I have a 250 GB external HD...is there GB HD is
full...I have an external 250GB HD.
Is there a way to switch them?? Put the OS and everything on the external??
I know not of what I speak...it just seems I can be making better use of the
external one.

Windows XP SP2

....Lisa

 

[Bob I]

No the OS may not live on the external drive.But you could buy a larger
replacement for the internal drive.

 

[R. McCarty]

Even if you could transfer operation to the external, you wouldn't
want to or like the results. USB external drives usually max out at
around 30 Megabytes per second transfer rate. Trying to run XP
or applications from the external would be very slow.

 

[Lisa Hetherington]

Thanks Guys

Could I move My Documents to the external HD? I'm thinking not b/c it's a
system file.

....Lisa

 

[R. McCarty]

It's possible, the question is where the bulk of disk space on the 30
Gigabyte drive is consumed by - Windows/Programs or User Data.
Moving My Docs and other personal data may not alleviate your
space issue or do it for any length of time. Your best solution is to
buy a replacement drive and transfer your existing drive contents to
it.

 

[Anna]

Lisa:
There is a workaround for this but I'm not sure it's practical in your case
since it depends upon a number of factors and we don't have that information
at hand. So let me pose the following...

1. Re your 250 GB USB external HDD (it *is* a USB device, right?)...
Is it a commercial single-unit product? What I'm getting at is can the HDD
within the enclosure be removed (uninstalled) by the user (you)? Or, for one
reason or another, is this impractical? If it is impractical, read no
further.

2. But if the HDD in the USB enclosure could be removed, it could then be
installed as your primary internal HDD in place of your current 30 GB HDD.
But before doing so, using a disk imaging program such as Acronis True
Image, you would "clone" the contents of the 30 GB HDD over to the 250 GB
HDD. You could also use a disk copying utility that's nearly always freely
available from the website of the manufacturer of your HDD - the 250 GB
one - to undertake the same disk-copying process.

3. But we don't know if your 250 GB USB external HDD currently contains
programs & user-created data that you don't want to lose. If you cloned the
contents of your present 30 GB HDD to the external HDD as indicated above,
then *all* the data on that latter drive would be "gone with the wind".
(Unless, of course, you would first save whatever data is important to you
to some other media with the intention of later transferring such to the 250
GB HDD after it is installed as an internal HDD.)

(Keep in mind that a disk imaging program such as the one mentioned is a
valuable program that you can - and should - use on a routine basis in the
future to back up your entire system).

4. So, if up to now the above is "doable", then you (or someone) would need
to install the 250 GB HDD in your machine (following the disk-cloning
operation) as your primary HDD in place of the 30 GB one. And, if practical,
install the 30 GB drive in your USB enclosure.

As I've said, I really don't know if the above operations are practical for
you to undertake. Perhaps you have a friend/associate who is reasonably
knowledgeable about these things. It's really not a terribly complicated
process but obviously some knowledge about PCs is necessary to bring this to
a successful conclusion.
Anna

 

[Lisa Hetherington]

Well My Docs has 8 GB of files, music, photos, etc
That would help quite a bit, wouldn't it?

....Lisa

 

[Lisa Hetherington]

Thanks Anna.

The 250 GB HD is an Acomdata USB drive.
I'm not sure if the enclosure can be removed.

....Lisa

 

[R. McCarty]

Yes, it would.

Well My Docs has 8 GB of files, music, photos, etc
That would help quite a bit, wouldn't it?

...Lisa

 

[Anna]

Thanks Anna.

The 250 GB HD is an Acomdata USB drive.
I'm not sure if the enclosure can be removed.

...Lisa

Lisa:
I haven't worked with any of AcomData products so I'm not familiar whether
it is practical for an end-user to remove the HDD from one of their
single-unit commercial USB enclosures such as the unit which I believe is
that type you have. And even if it could be done there are possible warranty
issues to consider since in virtually every case an end-user opening the
enclosure and manipulating the HDD within would certainly result in voiding
whatever warranty is in effect.

Anyway, keep my possible course-of-action in mind. Perhaps in the by & by it
will become practical to undertake.
Anna

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

My 30 GHB HD is full...I have a 250 GB external HD...is there GB HD is
full...I have an external 250GB HD.
Is there a way to switch them?? Put the OS and everything on the external??
I know not of what I speak...it just seems I can be making better use of the
external one.

Keep the external one as it is, and buy a larger one for internal use.

Use cloning software to clone your 30G drive to the new internal
drive.

 

[dobey]

Keep the external one as it is, and buy a larger one for internal use.

Use cloning software to clone your 30G drive to the new internal
drive.

She is better off getting someone who knows what to do, to do it

80 GB HDDs are cheap, but 250 GB ones are probably best value atm.
Shouldn't be hard, but I wouldn't tell a novice to do it on their own...

 

[Noncompliant]

Try to be more prudent making use of the XP partition. Save all your data
on the external hard drive. Don't let XP lead you when saving your data,
you decide. Minimize application installations on the XP partition.

It may be possible to swap the 250 for the 30. But makes no sense to have
the 30 for a backup of the 250. Especially if you do partition image
backups.

Consider a 80 or 120GB as a replacement for the 30GB.

 

[Noncompliant]

Lisa:
I haven't worked with any of AcomData products so I'm not familiar whether
it is practical for an end-user to remove the HDD from one of their
single-unit commercial USB enclosures such as the unit which I believe is
that type you have. And even if it could be done there are possible
warranty issues to consider since in virtually every case an end-user
opening the enclosure and manipulating the HDD within would certainly
result in voiding whatever warranty is in effect.

Anyway, keep my possible course-of-action in mind. Perhaps in the by & by
it will become practical to undertake.
Anna

Yes, there's a warranty issue regarding entering an Acomdata enclosure with
hard drive provided in same. Simple to remove and install said hard drive.
Case uses anti-pilferage metal tape to detect entry.

I would recommend replacement with larger hard drive in the PC case. Maybe
80 or 120GB. Don't recommend any larger since I don't know if she's got 48
bit lba capable bios.