My current hd is about to die, so I picked up a new one. My current drive is the bootable c: drive, which is what I want my new hd to be. I want to install the new hd, make it the bootable c: drive, and copy over all my data files, and then make my old hd a backup drive and designate it the d: drive. What's the order for doing this? Thanks.
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Question regarding backing up info to new hard drive
- Thread starter tbhandari
- Start date
tbhandari,
Leave your existing drive as is. Set your new drive as slave. Use the utility cd that came with your new drive and do a drive copy. Your existing drive will be the source and the new drive will be the destination. This will copy the entire partition from the existing drive to the new drive.
Then remove your old drive and set your new drive to master.
If your old drive is about to die as you have indicated then using it for a backup drive makes no sense nor should it be considered reliable especially for the use of storing backups and should be shelved.
Leave your existing drive as is. Set your new drive as slave. Use the utility cd that came with your new drive and do a drive copy. Your existing drive will be the source and the new drive will be the destination. This will copy the entire partition from the existing drive to the new drive.
Then remove your old drive and set your new drive to master.
If your old drive is about to die as you have indicated then using it for a backup drive makes no sense nor should it be considered reliable especially for the use of storing backups and should be shelved.
- Thread starter
- #3
Thanks. But what if I want to put a fresh install of the OS on my new hd, instead of just copying the contents of the old drive over? How do I deal with naming the drives?
Could I do something like install the new drive as master and the old drive as slave. Install the OS on the new drive, and then copy the contents over? Or will there be some sort of conflict because the slave drive will also be read as C:?
Could I do something like install the new drive as master and the old drive as slave. Install the OS on the new drive, and then copy the contents over? Or will there be some sort of conflict because the slave drive will also be read as C:?
Without knowing the OS the answer has to be based on generic windows.
There is information stored in the registry regarding your programs and data. If your hard drive isn't a clone your registries will be different and copying your programs and data will leave your programs incomplete and probably inoperative.
The drives name differently as they boot up. So the old drive will become D:. This happens when the system searches for valid primary partitions. The primary master if valid becomes C:, any other primaries in the search path become D: and higher, followed by logicals in the same search path order, incrementing the drive identifier.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
There is information stored in the registry regarding your programs and data. If your hard drive isn't a clone your registries will be different and copying your programs and data will leave your programs incomplete and probably inoperative.
The drives name differently as they boot up. So the old drive will become D:. This happens when the system searches for valid primary partitions. The primary master if valid becomes C:, any other primaries in the search path become D: and higher, followed by logicals in the same search path order, incrementing the drive identifier.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
- Thread starter
- #5
Sorry. The OS is Windows ME (no laughs please). I basically want to reinstall everything on the new hd. I'm overdue for a fresh OS install. So it sounds like I should install the new hd. Create a primary c: partition on it. Install the OS and all my apps on the new hd. Then connect my old drive as a slave (which means that no programs will run on it, but I'll at least have access to all the files), and boot up.
So you're saying that even though my new hd is set to be the primary c: partition, when I boot up with both the new hd as master and the old hd as slave, windows won't have any conflicts in being able to read and copy info over from the old hd to my new one. Is this right?
So you're saying that even though my new hd is set to be the primary c: partition, when I boot up with both the new hd as master and the old hd as slave, windows won't have any conflicts in being able to read and copy info over from the old hd to my new one. Is this right?
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