Where info re moving data from HD1 to HD2

[Borg03051977]

I have 3 PCs and 3 HDs (1HD in ech PC)
A is 40GB EIDE (seagate)
B is 160GB SATA (Western Digital)
C is 160GB SATA (?? lasy to open PC again)

I need to swap the HD of PC A and B without doing a full reinstall on both.
I would like to clone them on C just in case something goes wrong and I need to revert.

Then I would like to copy data of B in hard disk A and vice versa, through PC C.

what software should I use? what do I need to know? Is there a website with relevant information?
eg:
Would it be a problem to read the date because it would have been on a different interface (EIDE <-> SATA)?
Would it be a problem when cloning the data from drive B to drive A since A is smaller (NB drive B currently has <10GB)
Similarly cloning drive A to B (NB drive A currently has > 20GB)

any help or pointers for information are greatly appreciated.
An article on THG would be great as people do upgrade their HD pretty often I guess and this operation would save the time to do a reinstall of windows and all the software and settings.

regards to all.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

When you say you want to swap hard drives of A and B, do you mean you want to end up with:

1. Computer A running computer A's installation of Windows on a 160GB drive and Computer B running computer B's installation of Windows on a 40GB drive

OR

2. Computer A running computer B's installation of Windows on a 160GB drive and Computer B running computer A's installation of Windows on a 40GB drive

?

Option 1 requires imaging the A & B hard drives to computer C and then imaging them back.

Option 2 requires driver reinstallations and a lot of prep work to make Windows installations run on a different motherboard.

 

[Borg03051977]

Option 1 is what i want.

any recomended software? I've found HDClone but it only clones from disk to disk and from small to large in the free edition so I wouldn't be able to copy the installtion on the 160GB to the 40GB (I'd like to get it free this is a one time off job for me)

Also when I clone the installtion of the 40GB drive on to the 160 GB drive will I end up with a partition of 40GB? and the remaining 120GB unpatitioned?

thanks for the help.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

OK. The problem you're going to run into is the cloning of the large drive to the small one. Most imaging programs won't do this. In fact, the only solution I see that will work properly is Partition Magic.

1. Disconnect both hard drives A & B from the computers, put them both in Computer C.
2. Boot the DOS version of Partition Magic (boot the CD-ROM).
3. Reduce partition sizes or otherwise form ~ 40GB of unallocated/free space on Computer C's hard drive.
4. Reduce the partition size of drive A down to the size of the data.
5. Reduce the partition size of drive B down to the size of the data.
6. Copy drive A's partition to drive C.
7. Copy drive B's partition to drive C.
8. Delete the drive A & B partitions from drives A & B.
9. Copy partition A from drive C to drive B.
10. Copy partition B from drive C to drive A.
11. Resize both A and B partitions to the full size of the drives. Make the partitions active.
12. Remove drives A & B, reinstall in appropriate computers.

 

[Borg03051977]

That sounds like a smart workaround !
if I use partition magic to copy partitions would that be similar to cloning? would that take the MBR and the other technical stuff to keep them working? I probably would have to switch off computer C to take off the drives and when I restart would it have 3 boot partitions?
would it matter that one of the drives is a SATA?

thanks

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Partition Magic makes exact copies of the partitions, but does not copy the MBR. If the MBR on the target disk is empty and you make a partition active, Partition Magic will write a new MBR there. However, that MBR will have a different Disk Signature (serial number). This can cause some problems with Windows bootup, and some programs that do product activation will require re-activation. There are ways around all of these problems, but they're all manual processes.

I looked at the user manuals for Acronis True Image, it will make an exact clone (including the MBR), and looks like it will allow a clone to a smaller disk as long as the total data doesn't exceed the disk size. Acronis True Image may be an even better tool for this task than Partition Magic. Also, Acronis True Image will allow you to image the A & B drives into image files on computer C rather than separate partitions like Partition Magic. This eliminates having to manipulate the partitions on computer C prior to the cloning process.

They also have a trial version, you could probably download that and try it out to make sure everything works before purchasing.