Replacing System HD

[dknguyen]

Hello. I was wanting to replace my current system harddrive with another one. Obviously, I don't want to sit down for 8 hours and reformat and reinstall everything. Does anybody know how I can copy my current system harddrive to the new one so I can just open up my PC and plug the new HD into the booting SATA port and be done with it?

 

[killivolt]

Dual boot system. If you don't you may be sorry.

Hello. I was wanting to replace my current system harddrive with another one. Obviously, I don't want to sit down for 8 hours and reformat and reinstall everything. Does anybody know how I can copy my current system harddrive to the new one so I can just open up my PC and plug the new HD into the booting SATA port and be done with it?

Install a new Operating system then add the old hard as a slave. Copy all the files over.

I know you don't want too. But I was sorry I didn't because mine was a raided system and striped. Now I may loose everything.

I'm wishing I would have done a dual boot. Maybe even trying something other than just windows.

Besides the clean install is worth it.


kv sorry

 

[davidbball13]

it will not take 8 hours. to install xp it takes be 35 minuets on a pentium M. it you get a usb encloser for you hard disk you can copy all of your files via usb. so it should not take that long. plus you can let everything copy over night

 

[Mikebits]

it will not take 8 hours. to install xp it takes be 35 minuets on a pentium M. it you get a usb encloser for you hard disk you can copy all of your files via usb. so it should not take that long. plus you can let everything copy over night

To reinstall XP might not consume much time, but to reinstall apps can turn into quite a project.

Take a look at a disk cloner util like ghost from symantec or maybe Maxblast.

 

[Torben]

Personally I would do the following:

o Install the new drive in the computer while leaving the old drive still installed.
o Boot a Linux live CD and use the dd command to clone the old drive to the new drive.
o Use a partition manager (say, gparted) to resize partitions on the new drive to use the extra space on the new drive.
o Shut down the machine, remove the old drive, and move the new drive to the interface the old drive was attached on.
o Boot and check that it worked.

That method would copy everything byte-for-byte, including partition tables and the MBR (hence the partition resize step) so if that's not what you want then this is probably not the method for you.

There are also variations on this method which can make it easier, and even Linux live CD distros designed specifically for disc forensics which can help as well (e.g. https://www.e-fense.com/helix/index.php), but I'd just go ahead and use dd.


Torben

 

[dknguyen]

I searched around and found a software called Acronis Easy Migrate that'll do the job and it has a 14-day trial which is good. Thanks all.

 

[Pommie]

Please keep us informed how you get on as I may want to do this myself in a couple of weeks.

Thanks,

Mike.

 

[ericgibbs]

Please keep us informed how you get on as I may want to do this myself in a couple of weeks.

Thanks,

Mike.

hi Mike,
If your drives are Seagate, go to their site and download the Hard Drive Cloner, then transfer it to a CD.

Leave your existing 'C drive' as is, connect the new drive to the 'D drive' cables. Change the Boot order to the CD drive as the boot drive.

Place the CD in the drive and start the PC.

Follow the CD menu instructions.

This will clone 'C' to 'D' bit for bit.

Fit the newly cloned 'D' drive into the 'C' Cabling, change the Boot back to 'C' and thats it.

Normally you would would upgrade to a larger capacity drive, but providing the total drive usage of the C drive is less that the size of the new drive it will do the clone OK.

To save time,before cloning, clean and prune the 'old C' remove all unused rubbish and then defrag.

If you are not a Seagate fan, I am sure the manufacturer must have something similar.

EDIT: finding link.

https://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index....toid=7add8b9c4a8ff010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

EDIT: Its also a good idea to download from the web, 'Driver Grabber, or 'Drive Capture'
These programs will copy all the system Drivers into a Driver folder, copy the folder to a CD, then on reinstallation, point the installers to the CD.

Important EDIT:
Downloaded the latest version from Seagate its ' MaxBlast' , install it onto the existing Hard Drive and run it.
Use the 'Disc Utilities' option on the Maxtor MaxBlast menu.

No intermediate CD copy required

 

[Mikebits]

I searched around and found a software called Acronis Easy Migrate that'll do the job and it has a 14-day trial which is good. Thanks all.

I looked at their website. Looks a bit on the hmm side, I would go with a more reputable outfit considering what is at stake. I guess it depends on how much you value your data.

 

[picasm]

I searched around and found a software called Acronis Easy Migrate that'll do the job and it has a 14-day trial which is good. Thanks all.

There are several utilities available for cloning drives.
A popular free (for personal use) one is Driveimage XML
I have not tried it yet but it seems to get some good reviews.
eg:
https://lifehacker.com/software/feature/hot-image-your-pcs-hard-drive-with-driveimage-xml-326086.php

 

[Space Varmint]

I just went and got a new computer and went through the drudgery. It took me more like about 3 or 4 days to set it all back up. But looking back from the other side. It is a far cry better. It's just something we have to do I would say about every 4 years max. Other wise you got a machine that just can't cut the mustard.

Speaking of which, I have met people who sit around writing viruses all day. On the internet. See I program in MASM. So what I'm saying is your old machine just wont survive the attacks forever. Your using a desk top console? Yeah, back everything up which you should do anyway, then get the new hard disk and I would seriously consider putting some new hardware behind it. New mother board and more RAM. The more RAM you got the less your hard disk has to work doing virtual memory stuff.

Don't bother with any short cut programs. You'll just export the viruses too.

 

[Mikebits]

Speaking of which, I have met people who sit around writing viruses all day. On the internet.

Why am I not surprised?

 

[ericgibbs]

Why am I not surprised?

hi Mike,
If I had my evil way, people caught writing a virus would have both their hands chopped off at the wrist...

The punishment should be extreme, these losers are a canker on society.!

 

[Space Varmint]

hi Mike,
If I had my evil way, people caught writing a virus would have both their hands chopped off at the wrist...

The punishment should be extreme, these losers are a canker on society.!

Nothing I could do about it. He lives in Spain. He did teach me about the "invalidate" word ptr instruction. It flushes the TLB (Translation Look aside Buffer) so that you can modify Page Table Entries. Believe me. After that, no memory is off limits but if Windows discovers you changed them you will get a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). I found out to stop that, all you have to do is redirect the two Debug Interrupts.

 

[dknguyen]

I don't care enough about viruses to reformat. Everything I have is double backed up so I'll only reformat unless forced to (my second last PC had to be reformatted every month). The PC is far more than I need right now too so no need for any RAM upgrades. It's only a few months old. I mainly got it because...suprise!...my old PC couldn't support any more harddrives. And 4 months later my memory requirements have skyrocketed 300% I'm already out of memory. So I'm rearranging the harddrives inside so the ones I added 2 months ago will be the system drives, the old ones will be data drives, and the new ones I'm getting will be the new backup drives.

 

[rita.jones56]

hi Mike,
If I had my evil way, people caught writing a virus would have both their hands chopped off at the wrist...

The punishment should be extreme, these losers are a canker on society.!

Agreed, they should get life in prison at the very least. They are the scum of the earth.

 

[HiTech]

Learn how to slipstream the OS and other existing pgms onto a disc so you can install them easily. You can create an "unattended install" disc to ease everything for you and is very handy for future installs.

**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream_(computing)

Without a doubt, I would do a fresh insall of the OS and other key pgms. when installing a new HDD. Why bugger up a new device with erroneous and redundant files.

 

[Space Varmint]

I don't care enough about viruses to reformat. Everything I have is double backed up so I'll only reformat unless forced to (my second last PC had to be reformatted every month). The PC is far more than I need right now too so no need for any RAM upgrades. It's only a few months old. I mainly got it because...suprise!...my old PC couldn't support any more harddrives. And 4 months later my memory requirements have skyrocketed 300% I'm already out of memory. So I'm rearranging the harddrives inside so the ones I added 2 months ago will be the system drives, the old ones will be data drives, and the new ones I'm getting will be the new backup drives.

Well, I don't know about you but I'd rather do a clean install. It's a head ache but you know it will be right. If you have the original archived (packed) program files, that's all the better. Re-install them. If all you port over to the hard disk is data files, it will be running sweet! Free of trash.

 

[dknguyen]

Well, I don't know about you but I'd rather do a clean install. It's a head ache but you know it will be right. If you have the original archived (packed) program files, that's all the better. Re-install them. If all you port over to the hard disk is data files, it will be running sweet! Free of trash.

I find there's only trash if you mis-maintained the PC to start with. When I upgraded PCs, my old PC became like that within 2 weeks after I started letting people use it.

 

[Space Varmint]

I find there's only trash if you mis-maintained the PC to start with. When I upgraded PCs, my old PC became like that within 2 weeks after I started letting people use it.

Well you go ahead and use one of those high fangled johnny come lately programs if you want but if you do it manually you know what your getting pretty much. Plus you get to set it up the way you want it. Better safe than sorry. You might use some program and then have to go back and strip it all down again and start over. Just a kindly word of advice.