Changing my XP hard drive

[weberm]

I think the 30 GIG hard drive on my current computer is going to die at some point in the near future (and it's getting full). Rather than start with a fresh instal on a larger hard drivem I'd rather transfer the contents to a new larger drive so I don't have to reconfigurte everything back to my liking.

1) If I transferred the drive with XP on it to a new (larger) one, will XP think it's being pirated and shut down, requiring me to ask MS to reactivate it?

2) Is there an easy way to perform the transfer (I suspect "copy c: d:" will not be sufficient)?

 

[acewarlock]

You could do a Clone to the new drive.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[weberm]

Sounds great! How does one do that?

Will my instal of XP care if it's on a larger hard drive? I heard somewhere that XP keeps notes on the hardware it resides and shuts down if certain things change.

 

[vacunita]

Its called either Ghosting or Cloning. Norton ghost or Acronis True Image are 2 of the favorite apps to do this.

Basically you take the contents of a drive and transfer it sector by sector to another one.

In this case Windows isn't likely to mind since everything will be exactly the same. Except for the hard drive.





----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[acewarlock]

You would need a program like GHOST, but if you do a GOOGLE on the word CLONE HARD DRIVES you might find a free one.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[stduc]

IMHO TrueImage is the easiest app for a non- techie to use. It's as simple as installing it on your current drive with all features. Use it to burn a bootable CD. Reboot to that CD and check it boots OK. Shut down. Cable up the new drive. Boot to the Trueimage CD - choose 'clone new drive' Take care to go the right way and clone your old drive to the new drive. Shut down. Recable the hard drives - temporarily removing the old hard drive and re-boot. The system should boot to the new hard drive.

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]

 

[Rick998]

Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image are both great utilities but neither are free. If you need free then have a look at DriveImage XML, available from

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm.

I haven't used it myself but it looks like it should do what you want.

Hope this helps...

 

[wolluf]

New drive manufacturer will almost certainly have a (free) utility on their site to enable you to clone old drive to their new one.

Make sure you boot the new drive on its own (ie with old one disconnected) the first time after clone. You can then reconnect old drive as slave/second drive if you want to. Otherwise you may get issues with drive letters on your new drive's installation.

 

[PRPhx]

Something else that hasn't been mentioned. XP has a Files and Settings Transfer Wizard you might want to look at. It's located under start->programs->accessories->system tools.

 

[BadBigBen]

@PRPhx - that would only apply when transferring to a NEW install or different computer...

FOG - Free, Ghost-like Cloning Solution
FOG is a free open-source ghost-like imaging solution/rescue suite. A free alt. to Ghost, used to image Windows XP, Vista PCs using PXE, PartImage, and a Web Gui to tie it together. Includes featues like memory and disk test, disk wipe and av scan...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeghost/

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Lemon13]

when u image the old to the new drive, it might be that u need to reaktivate windows (noz always, had it once when i replaced a notebook hdd) but u have 30 days to do so before it locks

 

[TaffyRed]

Reactivating WinXP should'nt be necessary when cloning a drive. The only time this becomes an issue is if you change the motherboard.

 

[wahnula]

Another good free app is HDClone:

http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[SimonDavies]

XP will generally allow you to change upto 3 major internal devices before requiring reactivation. Simply cloning the drive won't be one of those.

One bit of advice that no one has mentioned, be very careful when you do the cloning that you're cloning the right way, the last thing you want to do is clone the new drive onto the old one.

Oh and for preference I would use Ghost to make both the clone but that's because I have been using it for years (ever since 2.04).

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[PRPhx]

Actually SimonDavies, your not entirely correct when it comes to the 3 major internal devices being changes. For all that are interested, here is a link from MS that explains re-activation (yes, I realize it's old, but I think it still applies. If not, I apoligize in advance)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457054.aspx#EDAA

 

[vecjjk]

I used the sofware that came with the new hard drive to "clone" the old one, and everything was good, except that Microsoft Word brings up an error when I try to open it: 'An error occurred and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please run Setup and select "Repair..." to restore this application.' However, when I click the OK button, it opens just fine, and I have no trouble. I can open new and existing documents, and save my changes with no trouble other than this message when I first start up Word. Any ideas on how to get rid of the error? I notice that the icon is not the normal Word icon as well.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[linney]

Do you have this location on your machine?

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 ?

If so does it have WINWORD.EXE in there?

Again, if so, and you click on it, does it open without errors? Is the icon familiar, and can you create a new shortcut to the Desktop?

Otherwise try the Office repair option.

 

[vecjjk]

My location is c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10. It does have WINWORD.EXE in there, and the icon looks correct. However, double clicking it produces the same error.

From within Word, I ran Help / Detect and Repair, selected "restore my shortcuts while repairing", but did not "select disgard my custom settings and restore default settings" (the defaults). It asked for the Microsoft Word 2002 disk, which is in my Works Suite 2002 set. I put it in the drive, and got the following error:
This patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer patch package."

Is this what you meant by trying the Office repair option? Any other ideas?

 

[JBruyet]

weberm,

Maxtor and Western Digital both have utilities for putting your old OS, files and programs on a new hard drive. Maxtor's version I believe is called MaxBlast. I don't remember what Western Digital's version is called. They are both free and both have worked fine for me.

Thanks,

Joe B

 

[wolluf]

vecjjk

Have you tried running the Works suite with Word install CD? It may have option to repair Word (full office install does, but I'm not so familiar with works/word). Or will the system let you uninstall and reinstall?