Transfer entire contents of boot drive to larger drive

[Walter Alcaraz]

Hello,

I was wondering what was the best way to transfer the entire contents of a
Windows XP loaded boot drive to another new hard drive?

The exact same computer will be used. This way there should be no issues
regarding re-authorization of Windows XP. My computer currently has a 40 GB
hard drive as its C: drive and boot drive. The entire 40 GB is one partition.

I am now interested in replacing that 40 GB boot drive with a 120 GB drive.
Both the 40 GB and 120 GB hard drives are Western Digital Caviars, so that
should remove one possible contention.

I want to transfer the entire contents of the 40 GB drive to the 120GB drive.
There is actually a little over 30 GB of OS/Program/SwapFile data that would
be transferred.

I want to be able to make it such that it is seamless, so that for all intent
and purposes the 120 GB drive "looks" like it was originally there in the
first place.

The 40 GB drive will be wiped afterwards and used as the main drive in another
less powerful system.

Would Norton Ghost and/or PowerQuest's DriveImage work?

----- Walter

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You may wish to visit the support website of the manufacturer of your
new hard drive and see if they have a free utility program that you can use to
accomplish this task. For example, if you have a new Western Digital drive,
you can download their free Data Lifeguard Tools which includes "drive-to-drive
copy capability" (Ref: http://support.wdc.com/download/).

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Hello,
|
| I was wondering what was the best way to transfer the entire contents of a
| Windows XP loaded boot drive to another new hard drive?
|
| The exact same computer will be used. This way there should be no issues
| regarding re-authorization of Windows XP. My computer currently has a 40 GB
| hard drive as its C: drive and boot drive. The entire 40 GB is one partition.
|
| I am now interested in replacing that 40 GB boot drive with a 120 GB drive.
| Both the 40 GB and 120 GB hard drives are Western Digital Caviars, so that
| should remove one possible contention.
|
| I want to transfer the entire contents of the 40 GB drive to the 120GB drive.
| There is actually a little over 30 GB of OS/Program/SwapFile data that would
| be transferred.
|
| I want to be able to make it such that it is seamless, so that for all intent
| and purposes the 120 GB drive "looks" like it was originally there in the
| first place.
|
| The 40 GB drive will be wiped afterwards and used as the main drive in another
| less powerful system.
|
| Would Norton Ghost and/or PowerQuest's DriveImage work?
|
| ----- Walter

 

[Walter Alcaraz]

Yeah, I tried Data LifeGuard's copy utility. The only problem is that it
doesn't copy EVERYTHING. Open/Locked files and various registry files are
ignored.

I want one that makes an exact copy of the source drive (not sector-by-sector
though) on the new drive.

I'm trying PowerQuest's DriveImage.

----- Walter

You may wish to visit the support website of the manufacturer of your
new hard drive and see if they have a free utility program that you can use to
accomplish this task. For example, if you have a new Western Digital drive,
you can download their free Data Lifeguard Tools which includes
"drive-to-drive
copy capability" (Ref: http://support.wdc.com/download/).

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------


| Hello,
|
| I was wondering what was the best way to transfer the entire contents of a
| Windows XP loaded boot drive to another new hard drive?
|
| The exact same computer will be used. This way there should be no issues
| regarding re-authorization of Windows XP. My computer currently has a 40 GB
| hard drive as its C: drive and boot drive. The entire 40 GB is one
partition.
|
| I am now interested in replacing that 40 GB boot drive with a 120 GB drive.
| Both the 40 GB and 120 GB hard drives are Western Digital Caviars, so that
| should remove one possible contention.
|
| I want to transfer the entire contents of the 40 GB drive to the 120GB
drive.
| There is actually a little over 30 GB of OS/Program/SwapFile data that would
| be transferred.
|
| I want to be able to make it such that it is seamless, so that for all
intent
| and purposes the 120 GB drive "looks" like it was originally there in the
| first place.
|
| The 40 GB drive will be wiped afterwards and used as the main drive in
another
| less powerful system.
|
| Would Norton Ghost and/or PowerQuest's DriveImage work?
|
| ----- Walter

 

[auerbach]

Acronis TrueImage should do this for you. www.Acronis.com.

Afterward, it's a great utility for backing up your drive(s).

Alex

 

[bole2cant]

I suspect you have used the Windows version of Lifeguard. It doesn't work. Try
the DOS version. It does work.

-Doug

=======================

 

[Walter Alcaraz]

DOS!? Barf!

------ Walter

I suspect you have used the Windows version of Lifeguard. It doesn't work. Try
the DOS version. It does work.

-Doug

=======================

 

[I'm Dan]

Careful, your simple-mindedness is showing. Do you try to move a doormat
while you're standing on it? Do you expect to be able to change a car tire
while you're in the car driving down the road? If you want to move Windows,
it's best not to be booted into it. No open/locked files issues, and the
app doesn't need to do any special gymnastics. Bole2cant has the right
idea: use the DOS version. It's a graphical interface anyway, so you don't
even need to know it's DOS. *Can* it be done from within Windows? Yes --
DriveImage can do it ... in about 100MB vs. a single 1.44MB floppy with
Lifeguard (or DOS DriveImage, or DOS Ghost, or BootIt-NG). I'll take the
simple, efficient solution every time.

DOS!? Barf!

 

[Alex Nichol]

I was wondering what was the best way to transfer the entire contents of a
Windows XP loaded boot drive to another new hard drive?

The exact same computer will be used. This way there should be no issues
regarding re-authorization of Windows XP. My computer currently has a 40 GB
hard drive as its C: drive and boot drive. The entire 40 GB is one partition.

I am now interested in replacing that 40 GB boot drive with a 120 GB drive.
Both the 40 GB and 120 GB hard drives are Western Digital Caviars, so that
should remove one possible contention.

What I use is BootIT NG, from http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware -
30 day full functional trial)

Download, to its own folder, extract from the zip, run the bootitng to
make a boot floppy.

With the new drive plugged in as slave/secondary, boot the floppy,
Cancel Install, entering maintenance, then click on Partition work.
Highlight your C: on HD0, then click Copy. On left select the new
drive (HD1), highlight the Free Space in it, and Paste.

You might then consider a resize up a bit. At the size you mention, I
would leave the free space so as later to make a new separate partition
in it

Now click on 'View MBR' and in it highlight the entry for this new C
partition and click the 'Set Active' Click 'Write Standard MBR' and
Apply.

Close out, swap the disks to make the new one the one that boots, and
reboot into XP. The old one is untouched - you might usefully retain it
to put backups on