Transfer XP to New Hard Drive

[Guest]

I have XP Home SP2 on my C drive and everything is working fine. I want to
add a larger hard drive and move my system to the new drive. Can I just copy
the contents of my C drive to the new drive and boot from that drive (change
the bios)? Then can I redesignate the new larger drive as my C drive and
relegate the old drive to D? Thanks.

 

[Gordon]

I have XP Home SP2 on my C drive and everything is working fine. I want to
add a larger hard drive and move my system to the new drive. Can I just
copy
the contents of my C drive to the new drive and boot from that drive
(change
the bios)? Then can I redesignate the new larger drive as my C drive and
relegate the old drive to D? Thanks.

Why not do it the other way around? Install the new drive as a slave and
move all your data to it.....much easier.

 

[Anna]

I have XP Home SP2 on my C drive and everything is working fine. I want to
add a larger hard drive and move my system to the new drive. Can I just
copy
the contents of my C drive to the new drive and boot from that drive
(change
the bios)? Then can I redesignate the new larger drive as my C drive and
relegate the old drive to D? Thanks.

gesully:
If you purchased a retail, boxed version of your new HDD it would come with
a disk copying (cloning) utility on the CD that was packaged with the drive.
This utility is also nearly always available from the HDD manufacturer's
web site.

So, using that utility, you can "clone" the contents of your "old" HDD to
the new one and you'll have a bootable functional new HDD. (We're assuming,
of course, that the OS on the old HDD was non-corrupted and perfectly
functional along with all the other programs & data you had on that drive.)

You didn't say what type of HDDs you're working with. Assuming they're PATA,
and not SATA, hard drives it would probably be best to connect your new HDD
as the Primary Master following the disk cloning operation and use your old
HDD as either a Slave to the new PM or connect it either as Master or Slave
on the Secondary IDE channel of your motherboard. I assume you know how to
do these things.

So following the disk cloning (copying) operation, disconnect the old HDD,
connect the new drive as PM as described above, and boot to it. Make sure
all goes well. Then you can reinstall/reconnect your old HDD as described
above.

You might want to consider using a commercial disk imaging/disk cloning
program such as the Acronis True Image one that's frequently favorably
commented on in this newsgroup to perform the disk cloning operation. It's
not a particularly expensive program and it can serve you well in the future
as a routine backup system using your "old" HDD as the recipient of the
backup. In general, many users find these types of programs easier to use
and quicker in operation than the free utility provided by the HDD
manufacturers, especially for routine backups.
Anna

 

[DL]

You can Copy, provided you use a specific App to do so.
Once done the PC should be shutdown the old drive disconnected, new
designated as master, BEFORE you reboot

There are usually utilities available on the HD manu sites for this copy
procedure.
However if you have MS Office 2003 or higher you may find problems in using
this method

Acronis True Image would be a better App to use, it can also be used in your
backup regime

 

[Poprivet]

I have XP Home SP2 on my C drive and everything is working fine. I
want to add a larger hard drive and move my system to the new drive.
Can I just copy the contents of my C drive to the new drive and boot
from that drive (change the bios)? Then can I redesignate the new
larger drive as my C drive and relegate the old drive to D? Thanks.

No. Not that way, anyway.

What you need to do is "clone" the old drive to the new drive. Depending on
where you buy the new drive, it should come with a clone utility disk.
Otherwise you'll have to find one to use.

 

[Lil' Dave]

I have XP Home SP2 on my C drive and everything is working fine. I want to
add a larger hard drive and move my system to the new drive. Can I just
copy
the contents of my C drive to the new drive and boot from that drive
(change
the bios)? Then can I redesignate the new larger drive as my C drive and
relegate the old drive to D? Thanks.

You have a general idea. Like other replies, I say cloning is what you're
looking for.
What I like to do when using clone is remove the original hard drive first
and put it aside. After 30 days or so, if all is well with the clone as the
boot drive, reinsert the old drive for your own purposes.

Brown box or otherwise not retail drives don't come with instructions,
pictorial illustrations for installation, and some kind of cloning software.
You're obviously new at this, get the retail version.

If ide drive, always replace the ide ribbon cable when adding a new one or
replacing an old one. The retail version comes with it.

You may also need a pigtail to supply the new hard drive if you retain the
old one onboard. Check by opening the PC and looking at the modular plug
connected to the hard drive with 4 wires. If there's no others hanging
around the PC's innards unused, you'll need a pigtail. This is for ide and
scsi. SATA uses a different power connector.
Dave

 

[Guest]

Anna, How do I tell the difference between SATA and PATA? Thanks.
George

 

[Anna]

Anna, How do I tell the difference between SATA and PATA? Thanks.
George

George:
I assume you're asking me about the physical differences between the two
disks in terms of how you can visually identify which is which.

A SATA is a SerialATA HDD while a PATA HDD is a ParallelHDD. The PATA HDDs
are the "old style" HDD (although very common) - you can usually tell it's a
PATA HDD by noticing that the data (signal) cable connected between the
drive and the motherboard's connector is a flat, wide ribbon-like cable.
It's quite different from a SATA data cable which is a much narrower type of
cable.

There are quite a few technical differences between the two types of hard
drives but again, I assume all you want to know is how you can quickly
determine what type of drive(s) are installed, or will be installed in your
machine.
Anna