How do you make an Exact Copy of IDE drive

[ahthurungnone]

I have an older Pentium 4 computer with extremely valuable CAM software (worth about $20,000). The software has been installed on an IDE hard drive and I need to upgrade the OS to Win7 (or at least Vista) in order to have access to our new file server. Upgrading the mobo, cpu, ram, etc is simple, but how do I make a perfect copy of the old IDE hard drive on a newer SATA drive to help system performance? I'm new at this, so I will need step by step instructions please. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[treefrog07]

I think there may two issues here.

1) To make an exact copy of the IDE HDD, you can use cloning software (usually available at the HDD mfr's website for free) that will clone the existing IDE HDD to the new HDD.

2) If you install W7 or Vista, you will have to reinstall the CAM software through that operating system. You won't be able to put W7 on a new HDD and run the CAM program from the old operating system's HDD.

So you will not be able to use W7 or vista to run your CAM software unless you load the new OS and install the CAM program in that OS.

 

[ahthurungnone]

I am planning on using an upgrade of Vista once all the files are moved to a new drive. As long as I still use 32-bit software I should be fine. Correct?

 

[treefrog07]

The MS upgrade path of XP to vista is here. It looks like it will depend on which version of XP you have and which version of vista you will need.

The MS upgrade path from XP to W7 is here.

If you are able to upgrade XP to vista and not lose your program, you may be able to upgrade vista to W7.