NationStates Jolt Archive

Hey everyone,

this time I'm asking you computer experts for some help:

A friend of mine is running WinXP on his machine.

He's got a small HD with his OS on it.

He's got a large HD for storage.

Now he's got an equally large HD which should replace the small (with XP on it).

How do I "copy" the OS and all of the installed files and progs of Windows on the new harddrive with everything running and w/out any chances whatsoever?

It should look like the small HD has been swapped with an equally installed large HD...

I'd appreciate you help ;)

Thanks!

You could build an image an copy that on the drive? Perhaps :rolleyes:
Not too sure.
And don't know if windows won't complain either...
its quite sensitive to hardware changes, mine didn't restart after I changed the motherboard.
Not an expert so :D

Hey everyone,

this time I'm asking you computer experts for some help:

A friend of mine is running WinXP on his machine.

He's got a small HD with his OS on it.

He's got a large HD for storage.

Now he's got an equally large HD which should replace the small (with XP on it).

How do I "copy" the OS and all of the installed files and progs of Windows on the new harddrive with everything running and w/out any chances whatsoever?

It should look like the small HD has been swapped with an equally installed large HD...

I'd appreciate you help ;)

Thanks!

Like leos the best way is to image the original drive (win XP pro has a “backup” feature otherwise there is imaging software such as Norton ghost) and restore the image to the new drive when installed

Oh yeah! Thanks! I so totally forgot about making an image!!!

(And yes, Windows does complain - or at least, most of the progs have lost their links and Office wouldn't start at all...).

Oh yeah! Thanks! I so totally forgot about making an image!!!

(And yes, Windows does complain - or at least, most of the progs have lost their links and Office wouldn't start at all...).
Yeah hardware changes are iffy sometimes I have had a MOBO switch work but most of them fail with the hardware change

But personally I would look at a data copy (in this case not necessary) then a reformat reinstall … the performance increase from a format usually makes it worth your time

Hey everyone,

this time I'm asking you computer experts for some help:

A friend of mine is running WinXP on his machine.

He's got a small HD with his OS on it.

He's got a large HD for storage.

Now he's got an equally large HD which should replace the small (with XP on it).

How do I "copy" the OS and all of the installed files and progs of Windows on the new harddrive with everything running and w/out any chances whatsoever?

It should look like the small HD has been swapped with an equally installed large HD...

I'd appreciate you help ;)

Thanks!

Symantec Norton Ghost
Powerquest (Now also owned by Symantec) Partition Magic Pro

Both will image one drive onto another....

Yeah hardware changes are iffy sometimes I have had a MOBO switch work but most of them fail with the hardware change

But personally I would look at a data copy (in this case not necessary) then a reformat reinstall … the performance increase from a format usually makes it worth your time

If you're going to switch mobo's, the best option is to, before the switch, shift all the chip-set specific drivers to generic ones. Specifically all of the ones related to the AGP chipset, IDE chipset, PCI to ISA (if you have it) Processor/PCI, etc.

Another vote for using the built-in backup function. I'd probably add the drive as another IDE device, even swapping the cable from another device. Boot it and put the backup right there. Unless he bought the drive retail, they'll often come with disks that let you do what you want to do, pretty quick too.

If you have access to a Linux Live CD I think you can just tar the drive into one huge tarball that you untar to the new drive... I've never done it myself, so I don't know how well it would work.

If you're going to switch mobo's, the best option is to, before the switch, shift all the chip-set specific drivers to generic ones. Specifically all of the ones related to the AGP chipset, IDE chipset, PCI to ISA (if you have it) Processor/PCI, etc.

Well that's quite a suggestion, thanks! But my linux still works, and it is not to urgent to get the windows back working. And it needed a reinstall anyway...
But next time I'll bear that in mind (if I still got any need for windows by then)!

Thank you all very much for your advice - I will look more deeply into the whole backup/image thing again, maybe even this weekend.