Provide that you do not have an OEM edition of XP you should be able to do
this comfortably.
Some limitations apply to OEM editions, however it may be possible to
perform these actions. To be sure of this, check with Microsoft technical
support. Dial your local number.
If you were lucky enough to have chosen a Maxtor or Seagate HDD, then you
should have been supplied with or can download the Maxblast or Seatools
software.
These allow you to boot to a CD or maybe you will need to make one from the
download, and then prepare the new drivew and clone the old one.
All instructions are supplied.
Should oyu have chosen another product then you will need to get Ghost 2003
[or later version] and follow these steps.
1. Install the new HDD jumpered as a slave drive on the same IDE cable as
your current C Drive [for convienience only]: don't move the CD ROM.
2. Boot up into BIOS and perform an IDE detection in order to 'set' BIOS
with the new Hardware.
3. Windows and Partition and Format the new Drive:
click Start> Run>
Type in 'compmgmt.msc' and press 'OK'
click on Disk Management
right click on the new Disk and choose your option - Partition it first then
Format
DO NOT ASSIGN A DRIVE LETTER
once finished shut down the PC
4. Start up the PC and Boot off the Ghost CD
5. Work throught the options step by step to copy 'clone' C Drive to new Drive
Once finished shut down the PC.
6. Disconnect the power cord and reconfigure the hard drives, the new HDD
will now need to be jumpered as a master drive and have the IDE connection of
the old drive, disconnet the IDE cable from the old drive and plug it into
the new drive.
7. Jumper the old HDD as Slave and connect it to the same IDE cable as the
CD ROM. Leave the old drive disconnected from the power supply for the time
being.
8. Get your Windows XP installation CD out and have it ready to use.
9. Boot up the PC.
10. If Windows fails to load, giving error messages, this is OK. You will
need to perform a repair installation to set XP to the new HDD.
11. Boot off the Windows XP CD. Perform a Repair Install by following the
step by step below.
When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.
Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows
installations.
Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to
start the repair.
Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not
press any key to boot from CD when the message appears. Setup will continue
as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will
remain intact.
12. Windows will reboot and all your personal files and applications will
be available.
13. test the functions, just to be comfortable that everything is as it was
with the old HDD.
14. Shut down and disconnect the power cord.
15. Plug the power connector into the old HDD.
16. Boot up into BIOS and perform an IDE detection in order to 'set' BIOS
with the 'new' Hardware, being the old HDD.
17. Power up into Windows and format the old HDD. It can be used for movies
and other data. You should also use it to store an 'image' of your C Drive
as backup. Read about this in Ghost.
