How to copy one hardrive to another

[jermocide]

Hi,
I was wondering if any of you know if there is a way or if there is software to copy one hardrive from one machine to a different hardrive on another machine and keep desktop icons, startup shortcuts, programs, ect. I saw a guy do it using xcopy. He copied all the contents from the one hardrive into a folder on the new hardrive. He than used explorer to move system files over, windows files over, desktop files over, ect. It worked pretty good but there were some applications that he still had to install. Do any of you know an easier way or a software that can be used, if not can you tell me step by step type instructions on how to do what this guy did. I am not extremely familiar with DOS so you would have to tell me the syntax and swithes for any dos commands used.

Thank you in advance
Jermocide [sig][/sig]

 

[edfair]

Better way is with the program "GHOST". Requires the drives to be in the same machine. Entire filesystem is duplicated. This is assuming that you have duplicate systems.
You could xcopy between them if you are networked.
You can use laplink or a later version for windows.
You can use windows copy for most of the stuff if you are networked.
The problems will have to do with hardware differences. Would be better to reinstall and copy data.
[sig]<p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>
[/sig]

 

[jermocide]

Thanks Ed
The machines would be different. Here's the gig, Its basically changing out a few of the old computers on the network with new ones. I was hoping there would be an easy way without reinstalling all the applications and keeping the users shortcuts, ect. without having them complain about how they did this or that on their old computer. However I guess I could just copy thier destop folders and startup folders over and reinstall any programs that don't take. As far as the system folder and windows folder I know not to copy over existing files when copying those two folders over. Do you know of any other folders that I should be careful of when copying over or any other tips I should be aware of. Any comments are as always much appreciated. Also,thank you for the quick response
Jermocide [sig][/sig]

 

[edfair]

I'll leave those responses to others. There are lots of little glitches involved for which I'm totally unprepared. I've done it but every one is different and I have to struggle through it like you will. [sig]<p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>
[/sig]

 

[Alt255]

My compliments to you Ed, there are no easy solutions in this area. Ghost and Drive Copy are easy to use but I don't believe, and I sincerely hope, there will ever be a product that successfully merges the contents of two hard drives.

Our jobs would be burnt toast, eh?
[sig]<p> <br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href=

http://www.vorpalcom.com>A

plain black box</a><br>[/sig]

 

[jsauce]

I love DriveCopy. I think that it will accomplish the task you are looking for. [sig]<p>John D. Saucier<br><a href=mailto:jsauce@netadvances.com>jsauce@netadvances.com</a><br>jsauce@diablo2.com<br>
Use The second email if the first doesn't work.[/sig]

 

[edfair]

But if you reinstall completely you will be able to do what should have been done the first time. DOCUMENT!!! From bios settings, fdisk settings, OS settings, install order, phone numbers , passwords, etc. Will make it easier the next time because it'll have to be done again. [sig]<p>Ed Fair<br><a href=mailto: efair@atlnet.com> efair@atlnet.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. <br>
Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.<br>
[/sig]

 

[ctlitigation]

Dear Jermocide

Why don't you install your new hard drive as a slave on the old pc and then copy all from your master over to your slave drive. Your gonna have to open each individual pc anyway when your updating.

Let me know how it goes.

[sig][/sig]

 

[jermocide]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the info. The computers are all networked. So we just copied everything over via the network. It turned out pretty good. We still had to install a few programs, and we did take the time to document.
Jermocide [sig][/sig]

 

[Guest_imported]

mis jermoucide,
It is very simple sulotion you have just
use xcopy command to transfer data old to new drive
and able to you start this proccess you have making
a startup disk a curent windows or any o-system you have use.Then you have complet xcopy copy command and transfer all data your old drive to new drive then simply you have boot computer a startupdisk 1.44 can you mak first. after you boot computer a flopy disk(startup)simply you have trnsfer system in command a:sys c: system has transfer then you boot computer harddrive your computer simply work previously any installation and network setting but all proccess begin you start first you have new hard
drive making partion and after partion you format it ok...

 

[zefir]

More a question than an answer:

FAT 16 System, each partition with 2 GByte
Computer has
Harddisk 1 on Master IDE 1
Harddisk 2 on Slave IDE 1

Remove Harddisk 2
Insert Harddisk 3

Copy Content of Harddisk 1 to Harddisk 3 by Windows (here
Remove Harddisk 1
Insert Harddisk 3 on place of Harddisk 1

Will the computer do exactly the same as before ?
How must Harddisk 3 be formatted ?
Harddisk 1 has a primary DOS partition
Can Harddisk 3 have also a primary DOS-partition ? Finally it must !

Who knows a precise answer ?



[sig][/sig]

 

[jsauce]

Won't work, since the new drive won't be bootable. The boot files need to be placed in the boot sector of the new drive, first it would have to be formatted with the /s option, which will install the system files, then you could copy the files over. [sig]<p>John D. Saucier<br><a href=mailto:jsauce@netadvances.com>jsauce@netadvances.com</a><br>jsauce@diablo2.com<br>
Use The second email if the first doesn't work.[/sig]

 

[Puckster]

Ok ..Use Ghost (norton Ghost Now )to copy the HDs
Then use Partion Magic to 'Merge' the partitions..

Works for me

Puck™

 

[zefir]

Thank you for replies !
Zefir tried this:
Formatted harddisk 3 by boot disk using Format C:/S
Made primary DOS partition and enabled this for start
Made extended DOS partition and logical drives
Copied content of harddisk 1 to harddisk 3
Furtheron as above.
(highly complex system: 3 calibrated color printers, 1 B/W printer,
1 tape, 1 scanner, 1 film scanner, 1 digital camera,
1 CD copier.., thus old fashioned relative stable Windows 95)

Harddisk 3 instead of harddisk 1 boots and works correctly on DOS level.
Windows results in severe error.
New installation of Windows repaired the system.
Probably a result of changing environment, using different
types of harddisks ???
It is of course a good advice to take other tools, but nevertheless
the above questions should be discussed !

http://www.fho-emden.de/~hoffmann

[sig][/sig]

 

[hoym]

I wish to move my old harddisk, 120Gb IDE with WinXP+SP1 to my newly built PC , so that i don't have to re-install everythings.

However, I notice that the Chipsets and devices on my new machine is different with the old one. Should i do something before OR after the migration.

Anybody can help ? please.

 

[garebo]

hoym, if you are moving one hard drive to a new pc, then, on the last boot before you are going to do this, go to device mgr and set as much as you can to standard, default drivers, ide, video, and whatever else, set all to windows standard default settings and drivers. Also , remove drivers for all pci devices that arent moving over to the other pc.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[hoym]

Thanks ! garebo

 

[kmcferrin]

There are a couple of problems using XCopy in this manner, for anyone who was considering it.

1. If you are using a FAT filesystem with 255 character filename support (ie, Windows 95), then you could end up with some misnamed files. It has to do with the way long filenames are stored in the FAT table (FILENU~1.EXE, FILENU~2.EXE) and how the numbering is assigned. If you have a lot of similarly named files there can be problems.

2. If you are using and NTFS filesystem, the resulting filesystem will possibly have different ACLs than the source filesystem. In other words, if you had a folder restricted on hte source PC that folder may not be restricted on the destination PC. If you need to copy files/directory trees while keeping the ACLs intact, use a tool that copies the ACLs as well (like RoboCopy).

In general, for applications such as this one you are best off using a bitcopy application like Ghost, DriveImage, etc. Even if the hardware is different, you can boot into safemore, delete the old hardware, and let Windows re-detect the hardware when it's done. It usually takes a few boots, but it seems to work OK.

 

[KenB]

I worked on a Contract to refresh 900 networked Desktop systems. The old systems=Dell Optiplex 160/170 with Windows2k: new systems=Dell Optiplex 280SX with WindowsXP Pro. The systems came from the vendor (VAR) pre-configured with the OS and Applications installed but no other changes.
We used a program called Alteris PC Transplant or something like that. It was used on the old systems first to pull the user settings off the old PC and store them on the network drives. You then uninstalled the old system and installed the new system and pushed the user settings bach to the new PC. When the user logged in the next day the only thing that was different was a faster system. Even the Wallpaper and Icons were the same. There are several other PC transplant software packages including one built into the latest release of Zenworks.
I have also used Ghost to clone similar PC systems using the network cards and a crossover cable. Ghost lets you build two floppies with different IP address and one is the master and one is the slave.

HTH
Kenb

 

[bcastner]

Ghost is for essentially identical machines.
Have you considered F.A.S.T.?

http://aumha.org/win5/a/fast.htm

There are reasonable third-party products. The LapLink folks even offer for a limited time their new product for this as freeware. Act fast.

http://www.laplink.com/