Drive Imaging

[mattpsu]

I'm wondering if it is possible to image my primary hard drive which is running windows xp pro and is 320gb onto a smaller 160gb drive and have the 160 replace it.

The 320gb drive only has about 90gb used, with the OS on a 15gb partition and data on the other, so would imaging software be able to transfer everything or does that only work if you have another drive of the same size? I'd like to use the 320gb drive in another machine, but only if I can get away with not having to reformat and install everything again on the old one.

 

[g-paw]

You should be able to do this with a program like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost given the data on the image doesn't exceed the size of the drive. I have Acronis and it does does this. You can image the entire drive or just the partition with the OS and programs. Once you image the drive to the 160 disconnect the 360 for the first boot and then reconnect the 360. I'd format and delete the 15GB partition once the 160 is up and running

 

[edklite]

as usual g-paw is correct, I like to recommend cloning your hdd instead, imaging is not perfect and lot of times may not work, but a clone(copy) always works and does not need another app to read it.