Help Transferring Data from Old to New Hard Drive?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Hello:

I have a WD 80GB hard drive in my computer at the moment and I'm
running out of room on it. This drive has 2 partitions on it.

I'd like to buy a new and much bigger HD (definitely another WD) and
would like to be able to copy or transfer all the data from the old HD
to the new drive. I mean OS and all. Is it possible? If yes, is there
an easy to do this?

My computer is 3 years old - AMD Athalon 1.2 GHz with 512MB memory.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[Jim]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Here's one way, and it's FREE:

1) Download BootIt NG ( http://www.bootitng.com ). Unzip, execute
bootitng.exe, and create the floppy disk (or ISO and burn it, your choice).
Set aside for now.

2) Shutdown PC and move old HD to either slave on primary IDE channel, or
primary on secondary IDE channel. Just so long as it becomes the
subordinate HD (to the new HD).

3) Boot the BootIt NG floppy (or CD). When the Welcome screen appears, hit
Cancel (to abort the install). Follow the prompts to the desktop, then
select Partition Work.

4) Your new HD should be listed as HD0 (and verifiable as such since it has
no partitions). The old HD should be HD1, and all partitions listed when
selected. Simply Copy and Paste your existing partition(s), one by one,
from HD1 (the old HD) to HD0 (the new HD). Following the Copy of each
partition, feel free to Resize it (most people are moving to larger HDs, so
this is to be expected).

5) Once all partitions are copied, make sure HD0 (the new HD) is selected
and hit View MBR. Make sure the bootable partition is listed first *and*
marked active (it normally is, but if not, do so now, manually). Hit Std
MBR, hit Apply, then Close to exit Partition Work. Remove the floppy/CD and
shutdown.

6) Remove the *old* HD, reboot, and you'll be running off the new HD!

When XP reloads, it will probably want to reboot (the new HD will be seen as
a new device). Rebooting is not really necessary, but do so if you wish. I
recommend keeping the old HD off the system and untouched for a while until
you feel comfortable that all is well with the new drive. Consider it your
backup! If anything goes wrong, you can always start the whole process over
and try again. The procedures I've outlined are NON-DESTRUCTIVE to your
original HD and data! Once you feel confident all is OK, you can add the
old HD back, clean it up (use BootIt NG again, if you like), and use it for
data storage, perhaps.

HTH

Jim


"Lucky Dog" <luckydog@home.com> wrote in message
news:6dru70l5fbhamtvc78p6206ks944kgiubl@4ax.com...
> Hello:
>
> I have a WD 80GB hard drive in my computer at the moment and I'm
> running out of room on it. This drive has 2 partitions on it.
>
> I'd like to buy a new and much bigger HD (definitely another WD) and
> would like to be able to copy or transfer all the data from the old HD
> to the new drive. I mean OS and all. Is it possible? If yes, is there
> an easy to do this?
>
> My computer is 3 years old - AMD Athalon 1.2 GHz with 512MB memory.
>
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Lucky Dog <luckydog@home.com> writes:
>I'd like to buy a new and much bigger HD (definitely another WD) and
>would like to be able to copy or transfer all the data from the old HD
>to the new drive. I mean OS and all. Is it possible? If yes, is there
>an easy to do this?

Data can often just be copied across.
Applications/programs take more work.
And the OS likely more work than that.

Some drives come with software to help migrate some of your stuff.

I've seen fairly cheap software at the office supply stores
that promise to know enough to migrate data and applications,
like MS software under Windows, from an old drive to a new drive
or maybe it was from an old computer to a new computer.
They claim to be easy to use, based on the outside of the box.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Thu, 15 Apr 2004 23:35:12 -0700: written by "Jim" <null@null.com>:

>Here's one way, and it's FREE:

~snip~

Thanks. I'll be trying this in the near future.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

In article <6dru70l5fbhamtvc78p6206ks944kgiubl@4ax.com>,
luckydog@home.com says...
> Hello:
>
> I have a WD 80GB hard drive in my computer at the moment and I'm
> running out of room on it. This drive has 2 partitions on it.
>
> I'd like to buy a new and much bigger HD (definitely another WD) and
> would like to be able to copy or transfer all the data from the old HD
> to the new drive. I mean OS and all. Is it possible? If yes, is there
> an easy to do this?
>

Easiest? Back everything up for safety, then get a
drive imaging program like Norton Ghost. Hook both the
new drive and the old drive up at the same time and
ghost from the old to the new. Hook the new up, and
disconnect the old one and reboot.

Only word of warning since the system is older, verify
that your motherboard supports drives larger then 127GB.

The other cheaper way if you're running out of room is
to simply get a firewire/USB card (unless your
motherboard has USB 2.0 ports instead of the old/slow
USB 1.x) and stick a drive in an external USB/firewire
enclosure (usually $30-$0 for the box).

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Thanks to Don, Same Guy and Toshi for your help. I really appreciate
the time you took to reply to me.


On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 02:06:58 -0400, Toshi1873 <toshi1873@nowhere.com>
wrote:

>In article <6dru70l5fbhamtvc78p6206ks944kgiubl@4ax.com>,
>luckydog@home.com says...
>> Hello:
>>
>> I have a WD 80GB hard drive in my computer at the moment and I'm
>> running out of room on it. This drive has 2 partitions on it.
>>
>> I'd like to buy a new and much bigger HD (definitely another WD) and
>> would like to be able to copy or transfer all the data from the old HD
>> to the new drive. I mean OS and all. Is it possible? If yes, is there
>> an easy to do this?
>>
>
>Easiest? Back everything up for safety, then get a
>drive imaging program like Norton Ghost. Hook both the
>new drive and the old drive up at the same time and
>ghost from the old to the new. Hook the new up, and
>disconnect the old one and reboot.
>
>Only word of warning since the system is older, verify
>that your motherboard supports drives larger then 127GB.
>
>The other cheaper way if you're running out of room is
>to simply get a firewire/USB card (unless your
>motherboard has USB 2.0 ports instead of the old/slow
>USB 1.x) and stick a drive in an external USB/firewire
>enclosure (usually $30-$0 for the box).

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

yes, top posting. This post requires the entire quoted text below.

Jim,

Your advice below was incredible. The app you recommended was great and
easy to use. Your post below ought to be in a FAQ somewhere.

Thanks again.



Thu, 15 Apr 2004 23:35:12 -0700: written by "Jim" <null@null.com>:

>Here's one way, and it's FREE:
>
>1) Download BootIt NG ( http://www.bootitng.com ). Unzip, execute
>bootitng.exe, and create the floppy disk (or ISO and burn it, your choice).
>Set aside for now.
>
>2) Shutdown PC and move old HD to either slave on primary IDE channel, or
>primary on secondary IDE channel. Just so long as it becomes the
>subordinate HD (to the new HD).
>
>3) Boot the BootIt NG floppy (or CD). When the Welcome screen appears, hit
>Cancel (to abort the install). Follow the prompts to the desktop, then
>select Partition Work.
>
>4) Your new HD should be listed as HD0 (and verifiable as such since it has
>no partitions). The old HD should be HD1, and all partitions listed when
>selected. Simply Copy and Paste your existing partition(s), one by one,
>from HD1 (the old HD) to HD0 (the new HD). Following the Copy of each
>partition, feel free to Resize it (most people are moving to larger HDs, so
>this is to be expected).
>
>5) Once all partitions are copied, make sure HD0 (the new HD) is selected
>and hit View MBR. Make sure the bootable partition is listed first *and*
>marked active (it normally is, but if not, do so now, manually). Hit Std
>MBR, hit Apply, then Close to exit Partition Work. Remove the floppy/CD and
>shutdown.
>
>6) Remove the *old* HD, reboot, and you'll be running off the new HD!
>
>When XP reloads, it will probably want to reboot (the new HD will be seen as
>a new device). Rebooting is not really necessary, but do so if you wish. I
>recommend keeping the old HD off the system and untouched for a while until
>you feel comfortable that all is well with the new drive. Consider it your
>backup! If anything goes wrong, you can always start the whole process over
>and try again. The procedures I've outlined are NON-DESTRUCTIVE to your
>original HD and data! Once you feel confident all is OK, you can add the
>old HD back, clean it up (use BootIt NG again, if you like), and use it for
>data storage, perhaps.
>
>HTH
>
>Jim