Matt said:
I recently purchased a new hard drive which I want to run windows off of
but
I have already reinstalled windows three times. I am pretty sure if I try
to
reinstall windows, it will stop working. Is it possible to just transfer
windows on to my new hard drive without reinstalling it?
What leads you to believe that after three installs of XP it won't work
anymore? I've installed XP literally dozens of times and it has never
stopped working except when I've changed out the hardware too many times and
had to call the activation center.
You will need third party software to "Clone" or Drive Copy - the contents
of the old drive to the new drive. There are several good programs for doing
this. Personally I use Acronis TrueImage but it is possible that the
manufacturer of the new drive has a drive copy program you could download
for free. When I do a drive to drive copy (or clone) as you wish to I
disconnect the old drive and remove it from the computer. Connect the new
drive. If the new drive is SATA just connect it. If this is an IDE drive you
need to ensure the jumper plug is set to Master. Now connect the old drive.
If the old drive is also an IDE then change the jumper to the Slave
position. Once the drives are installed boot with the drive copy software.
Ensure you copy the correct way OLD Drive-> NEW Drive. This may take a few
minutes to several hours depending on your system specs and the amount of
data being copied. DO NOT interrupt the transfer. When finished shutdown and
remove the old drive. Boot the computer for the first time with only the new
drive attached. Ensure it boots to the Desktop. If you plan to use the old
drive as a second storage device you may wish to reconnect, leave it as
Slave and boot to the Desktop. Use the Computer Management Console to delete
the partition on it and repartition as a Logical partition and format as
NTFS.
