copy old drive to new - bigger drive

[RBP]

Can anyone help with this?

Have 1 pc running win2k pro
hard drive C: 10GB (bursting at the seams)
2nd hard drive D: 40GB not full
I am down to a few hundred mb on C with all the usual messages - your hard drive is full blah blah

Is it possible to buy a new 40/80gb hard drive, copy the content of the fullish C drive (o/s etc) to new bigger drive.
then set the new drive to be the New (more room) master C: drive?
Thanks in advance ( I realise I may need norton ghost or such, don't want to buy unless I know it will do the job)

 

[Freestone]

Most drive manufacturers supply free tools to accomplish what you want. Check the website of the maker of the drive you want to buy for these tools prior to purchase.

 

[cdogg]

It's possible using the utility that comes with the new drive. You do not have to purchase any 3rd-party software (such as Ghost) to accomplish that.

You simply attach the new drive as a slave and run the utility (usually DOS-based) to format it and copy over the old drive's data. Afterwards, you can remove the old drive altogether and set the new one to master.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[RBP]

Thanks guys, can you confirm that I can copy not only the data on the drive, but the complete operating system as well.
I do have all of the original s/ware to reload the disk.
But there is no way that I want to if I can just copy all of it in one go.

 

[Frank4d]

the utility software that comes with hard drives (or is downloadable from the manufacturers website) copies everything on the old drive to the new one.

But a few words of caution... your old drive is 10GB, and so I suspect it is installed in an older computer that may not recognize the full capacity of large drives without a drive overlay (usually included with in the drive manufacturer's software), or a BIOS upgrade. Can you tell us what MOBO model you have?

 

[cdogg]

RBP,
Yes, when I said "data", I'm referring to everything on that drive. You won't have to reload a thing. The only caution should be what Frank4d mentioned.

However since you already have a 40GB drive that you can see fine, the only other barrier you will likely have to worry about is 137GB. So if you were to purchase a larger drive, you would need to first make sure you're motherboard supports 48-bit LBA (

http://www.48bitlba.com).

If not, then you will need to also purchase an ATA/100 or ATA/133 PCI card (Promise and Highpoint are two popular, reliable brands).

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[RBP]

Thanks for the help guys,
I don't suppose you could tell me a likely utility name( or where to look) to copy from one drive to another. MOBO is a couple of years old, a 663as pro, God knows who made it but the manual says "for socket A Athlon Duron processor" I have a 1 GHZ chip in it so I am happy to put another 40gig hdd in it.
The secondary drive is a Hitachi deskstar 40GB, so I would probably use same.
Thanks.

 

[paparazi]

RBP

663as pro sounds like a Jetway (any updates you may need are likely available here:

http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/product/amd/663aspro/663aspro.htm

Hitachi utilities here: but it looks like "Disk Manager" is no longer available to downloas and I think thats what you need.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#Installation

I found this tool, basically to copy a Drive Image (never used this one before) but this is the type of software you require to "Clone or copy" your existing drive.

http://www.gold-software.com/download8565.html

martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[Freestone]

The first two links clone drives, the last creates images. Credit for the links should go to bcastner.

Note from the Free Edition of the first link: "HDClone copies the data for you, you only have to add the gained space on the disk via some partitioning tool..."

It's not clear how the other two handle the free space.

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

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/DrvClonerXP.shtml

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/DrvImagerXP.shtml

 

[RBP]

Thanks for that guys,




ps.
I will remember to GIVE and not TAKE. Though I am not awfully high on the list of skilled practitioners.
RBP

 

[cdogg]

In your original question, though, you mentioned buying a new hard drive. Any utility you'd need would come with that as well.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884