transfer xp and c:\ to new HD and MB

[tooly]

I know this question or similar has been asked many times. I've been
reading tutorials and help files for months now...always 'chickening' out.
But my C:\ drive is simply cram full now and something has to be done.

I've already purchased a new hard disk, but I can't see my way to purchasing
very expensive commercial programs simply to 'clone' my present C:\ drive
and all of windows system and registry files over to the new hard disk.

It is not just a clone I need, but to expand c:\ partition to the full new
hard disk...ergo, SPACE is the problem specifically for c:\ drive.
PartitionMagic is the only program I've found that can copy over a drive
while expanding the partition [I think it does this anyway]...but carries a
price tag of $100. The darn hard disk cost less than that.

There are free clone programs, but they would simply transfer present c:\
drive over to an equivalent partition...no space gained in C:...so no help.

I had realized that it looks like I will have to make a clean install...and
so the dread and the 'chickening' out. I have configurations of network,
downloaded commercial programs, video projects...you name it...and knowing
from past experience, I will most likely lose nearly all of it [data anyway]
on a clean install [I will make copies of everything of course...but it's
the damned registry of WinXp that gets you; that will be lost...requiring
NEW installs of everything].

So, before I make the suicidal plunge...I thought I'd post here one more
time asking for help just in case there's some option I overlooked. My
computer has become so sluggish now as to drive me crazy [assumed to be a
fragmented Hard disk that I cannot even defrag for lack of utility space].

BTW, since I'm doing this, I'm upgrading my MB and cpu as well...and there
will be 'xp upgrade' issues to boot [my version is the $100 upgrade
qualified by an old Win '98 OS...which I suppose, I'll have to install prior
to the XP...right?]. Sheese, I'll have all the damn MB, grapics, and bridge
drivers to contend with as well.

There has to be a better way.

 

[blacklotus90]

PartitionMagic is a great tool, but I can understand your gripes about
the price. Acronis True image is often better in these situations
(imaging/cloning a disk) and is cheaper at $49.99. If you're still not
willing to pay that, there is a 15-Day free trial available at
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/
That should work for what you need.

 

[AJR]

The following from your post does not make sense " It is not just a clone I
need, but to expand c:\ partition to the full new > hard disk.."
Basically - you would "clone" the C drive to the new HD then make the new HD
the master drive and the current C drive a slave drive (If you desire to
keep the old HD)
Once the new HD is functioning - you can either delete info on old drive or
reformat it.

Consider installing the second HD as a slave - move data from "C" to new
HD - or find someone locally to clone and switch drives.

 

[Ron Martell]

I know this question or similar has been asked many times. I've been
reading tutorials and help files for months now...always 'chickening' out.
But my C:\ drive is simply cram full now and something has to be done.

I've already purchased a new hard disk, but I can't see my way to purchasing
very expensive commercial programs simply to 'clone' my present C:\ drive
and all of windows system and registry files over to the new hard disk.

It is not just a clone I need, but to expand c:\ partition to the full new
hard disk...ergo, SPACE is the problem specifically for c:\ drive.
PartitionMagic is the only program I've found that can copy over a drive
while expanding the partition [I think it does this anyway]...but carries a
price tag of $100. The darn hard disk cost less than that.

There are free clone programs, but they would simply transfer present c:\
drive over to an equivalent partition...no space gained in C:...so no help.

Are you sure of this? Check the web sites for the manufacturer of
your hard drive(s). They almost always have a free disk cloning
utility available for download and so long as one of the disks in the
clone (source or target) is their brand the software will work.

And if you do end up with a same-size partition (unlikely in my
experience) then you can download the free fully function 30 day trial
version of BootItNG from www.bootitng.com and use it to enlarge the
partition on the new drive. With BootItNG you do not need to install
it - just create the bootable diskette or CD and use that for the
work.

I had realized that it looks like I will have to make a clean install...and
so the dread and the 'chickening' out. I have configurations of network,
downloaded commercial programs, video projects...you name it...and knowing
from past experience, I will most likely lose nearly all of it [data anyway]
on a clean install [I will make copies of everything of course...but it's
the damned registry of WinXp that gets you; that will be lost...requiring
NEW installs of everything].

So, before I make the suicidal plunge...I thought I'd post here one more
time asking for help just in case there's some option I overlooked. My
computer has become so sluggish now as to drive me crazy [assumed to be a
fragmented Hard disk that I cannot even defrag for lack of utility space].

BTW, since I'm doing this, I'm upgrading my MB and cpu as well...and there
will be 'xp upgrade' issues to boot [my version is the $100 upgrade
qualified by an old Win '98 OS...which I suppose, I'll have to install prior
to the XP...right?]. Sheese, I'll have all the damn MB, grapics, and bridge
drivers to contend with as well.

If you do upgrade the motherboard then you will have to do a Repair
Install of your Windows XP as per the instructions at
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Note that if your installed Windows XP has been upgraded to Service
Pack 2 and your Retail Upgrade CD is the original release or service
pack 1 version that you will need to create a new installation CD with
Service Pack 2 slipstreamed into it in order to do the Repair Install.
I use nLite (free) from http://www.nliteos.com/ for this. You will
also need your original Retail Upgrade CD and the complete Service
Pack 2 either on CD (order from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx)
or as a single download from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

And as a final note, if you do decide to do a clean install of Windows
XP (unnecessary in my opinion based on what you have described) then
there is no need to install Windows 98 first if you have an actual
Windows 98 installation CD. Just start the XP install from the CD
and it will ask you to insert the Windows 98 CD briefly to verify your
eligibility for the upgrade.

Hope this is of some assistance.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[tooly]

PartitionMagic is a great tool, but I can understand your gripes about
the price. Acronis True image is often better in these situations
(imaging/cloning a disk) and is cheaper at $49.99. If you're still not
willing to pay that, there is a 15-Day free trial available at
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/trueimage/
That should work for what you need.

To be fair to Symantec, the price for PartitionMagic is $70...not
$100...though I was sure I checked it several weeks ago and remember it
being $100 [but guess I'm mistaken or they came down on price or something].

If I were to use a program a lot, like a word processor or spreadsheet or
utility program...or even a game...$70 is not expensive. But truth is, I'd
probably use it this one time...and not again for years to come [if ever
again]. Partitioning or cloning hard disks is just something that most
people don't do very often [at least not anymore with all the hoops one has
to jump through]. It's one of those purchases where a consumer is 'over a
barrell'...like gas tax, mortgage points, thouroughfare road tolls, flood
insurance...and oh yea, software subscriptions...ha...where one just knows
they are getting 'fleeced'...but ya' gotta have it.

Making an 'image' copy should be no big deal anyway...just a transfer of
binary data, bit for bit...right? I don't see why one couldn't partition
the new hard drive to it's full capacity [say 200 gbytes]...and then just
make an 'image' copy of your old c:\ drive. In old DOS days, it was about
that simple.

But apparently 'cloning' a hard disk [what they call imaging these days I
suppose?] leaves the c:\ directory the same size it was as the old
one...ergo, if only a 10 gigabyte old c:\ drive, then a duplication of a 10
gigabyte c:\ directory on the new hard disk [and 190 gigabytes needing
formating to a new drive letter].

Someone like me needing more space in their C:\ drive is SOL. Unless
there's something I'm misunderstanding...and I've done a lot of tutorial
reading now.

 

[tooly]

I know this question or similar has been asked many times. I've been
reading tutorials and help files for months now...always 'chickening' out.
But my C:\ drive is simply cram full now and something has to be done.

I've already purchased a new hard disk, but I can't see my way to
purchasing
very expensive commercial programs simply to 'clone' my present C:\ drive
and all of windows system and registry files over to the new hard disk.

It is not just a clone I need, but to expand c:\ partition to the full new
hard disk...ergo, SPACE is the problem specifically for c:\ drive.
PartitionMagic is the only program I've found that can copy over a drive
while expanding the partition [I think it does this anyway]...but carries
a
price tag of $100. The darn hard disk cost less than that.

There are free clone programs, but they would simply transfer present c:\
drive over to an equivalent partition...no space gained in C:...so no
help.

Are you sure of this? Check the web sites for the manufacturer of
your hard drive(s). They almost always have a free disk cloning
utility available for download and so long as one of the disks in the
clone (source or target) is their brand the software will work.

And if you do end up with a same-size partition (unlikely in my
experience) then you can download the free fully function 30 day trial
version of BootItNG from www.bootitng.com and use it to enlarge the
partition on the new drive. With BootItNG you do not need to install
it - just create the bootable diskette or CD and use that for the
work.

I had realized that it looks like I will have to make a clean
install...and
so the dread and the 'chickening' out. I have configurations of network,
downloaded commercial programs, video projects...you name it...and knowing
from past experience, I will most likely lose nearly all of it [data
anyway]
on a clean install [I will make copies of everything of course...but it's
the damned registry of WinXp that gets you; that will be lost...requiring
NEW installs of everything].

So, before I make the suicidal plunge...I thought I'd post here one more
time asking for help just in case there's some option I overlooked. My
computer has become so sluggish now as to drive me crazy [assumed to be a
fragmented Hard disk that I cannot even defrag for lack of utility space].

BTW, since I'm doing this, I'm upgrading my MB and cpu as well...and there
will be 'xp upgrade' issues to boot [my version is the $100 upgrade
qualified by an old Win '98 OS...which I suppose, I'll have to install
prior
to the XP...right?]. Sheese, I'll have all the damn MB, grapics, and
bridge
drivers to contend with as well.

If you do upgrade the motherboard then you will have to do a Repair
Install of your Windows XP as per the instructions at
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Note that if your installed Windows XP has been upgraded to Service
Pack 2 and your Retail Upgrade CD is the original release or service
pack 1 version that you will need to create a new installation CD with
Service Pack 2 slipstreamed into it in order to do the Repair Install.
I use nLite (free) from http://www.nliteos.com/ for this. You will
also need your original Retail Upgrade CD and the complete Service
Pack 2 either on CD (order from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx)
or as a single download from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

And as a final note, if you do decide to do a clean install of Windows
XP (unnecessary in my opinion based on what you have described) then
there is no need to install Windows 98 first if you have an actual
Windows 98 installation CD. Just start the XP install from the CD
and it will ask you to insert the Windows 98 CD briefly to verify your
eligibility for the upgrade.

Hope this is of some assistance.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

Thanks for your post Ron Martell.

I've upgraded MBs several times now...but always forget the details. Yea, I
remember now XP upgrade asks for qualifying OP disk [for me, Win 98]. Glad
you reminded me; may have installed win98 first.

Part of me 'wants' to start over. I guess we all get like this as our
computers slow down over time...all sorts of extraneous stuff in our
registries, deleted programs, left over spyware stuff, who knows...maybe
even viruses or residuals thereof. Sometimes my computer now goes into
cyberspace for long 'vacant' pauses...and sometimes double clicking on
certain desktop icons does not work. Sometimes though. Nothing is
concrete...just little 'ghost problems' that are intermittent, hard to pin
down, but make for lousy computer performance. I would wager that this is
the normal user experience these days. Funny, I remember 100 mhz cpu
computers performing better for routine stuff. Today we have all this
firepower...but we are more likely than ever to end up with sluggish
machines. Why is that? So much is malicous in today's world. I had one
spyware program that destroyed my winsock driver...and I'm still crippled
slightly from a 'repair'. Yea, part of me would like to do a clean
install...but then, in a few months I'd be right back where I started I'm
sure.

You're right though. A clean install would present headaches for
months...and most likely all sorts of lost stuff that I'd overlook
beforehand. I'm most worried about purchased stuff off the internet. I've
long forgotten things like key codes and serial numbers, or where I stored
all the information [it's somewhere in all them piles of files].

I have three hard disks on this computer and well over 300 gigabytes of
volume, but my darned C: drive was allocated only for 12 gigabytes...which
at the time seemed gargantuan.

But a clean install would probably nullify most of the program info on my
other drives also...right? Because everything executable is logged somehow
in Windows registry to work these days...right?

And then my C: drive is FAT32. It hasn't really caused me any problems yet,
but one would like to be able to get their system up to date with latest and
greatest when they do these upgrades, here meaning NTFS.

Lots of constraints in all this...not well designed if you ask me...or
something. User gets squeezed.

AS you can see, I'm still putting this off. Can't make up my mind what to
do. Clean install or some makeshift cloning and repair install?