Advice on HDD migration

[MingDragon]

My system contains IDE channel and SATA (faster channel) on the MoBo. I originally (long ago) opted for the OS and files on the primary or only 320g IDE HDD. I would like to change that arrangement so the only HDD is a SATA 500g. I currently have Windows Vista 64-bit running and I would like to move everything in one action to the new SATA drive, remove the IDE HDD, let the BIOS move down the boot sequence chain to the SATA drive and function as if nothing happened other than the speed of access.

Any suggestions on how to do this without the tedious process of re-installing Vista, applying the service packs and settings? The utilities I see that boast easy transfer require re-installation of the OS and the transfer program to restore the image. I want something like the old DOS XCOPY function that can run from the command line from a CD to copy everything on the primary drive to the secondary drive, exactly as it worked. (Never understood why MS wouldn't include a transfer utility application with every version of Windows.)

 

[Guest]

I'd forgotten how easy stuff was with DOS XCOPY-- so long as you got all the /qualifiers right. That was before MS went control freak on how many copies of Windows you could run and started locking the copy of Windows to particular hardware.


I think most pros use Norton Ghost to do what you want -- personally I found early versions kinda confusing but that was a long time ago. I fear, though, that Windows may start bleating that you're using different hardware (i.e. the hard drive) so you may have to re-register.

 

[MingDragon]

Thanks for the reminder. I have Ghost, DriveImage, PartitionMagic which I abandoned with Vista. I'll see if I can get one to work. Not to worry about re-registry, it takes more hardware changes than one to invoke the registration. I actually installed Vista 32-bit on an entire new build without issues. MS just asks for the license key for installation.

 

[MingDragon]

Oop, that reply didn't come out right. Corrected, I re-installed Vista 32-bit on a completely new build because the original installed system had a catastrophic failure. Since I couldn't duplicate the exact hardware configuration I just started over. I was worried that MS wouldn't let me port the licensed copy of OS or the Office Suite even though my original installation was toast. The re-installation proceeded as a "clean install" and didn't disrupt the license.

 

[MingDragon]

Fihart and others.

Would the Data Lifeguard Tools, shipped with retail WD hard drives work for copying an IDE to SATA boot drive? It contains a utility called drive-to-drive copy for upgrading the boot drive to a newer drive. Just wondering if it would perform the copy from an IDE to SATA using different controllers. Anyone tried this?