Disk cloning - newbie - help

[Scorpio]

Hi. I would like to.. well, transfer one hard drive's installation of an OS and all its programs to another hard drive - and it seems a disk cloning program is what I need. Is this correct?

If it is, question: I have a new computer (the old OS installation is on my old computer), I've used this computer for a long time after stopping using the old one so don't want to replace this hard drive's OS/etc with the old one - but would like to install the old computer OS's installation on this computer's hard drive. Is what I need to do create another "partition", and then use the disk cloning with the destination being this computer's hard drive's second partition?

If THAT is correct.. help with partitioning and everything regarding that?

 

[Cromewell]

Disk cloning will be able to transfer all the OS and data but you can't transfer Windows to a new hardware set like that, you have to do a repair install for it to be able to boot but it's best to do a clean install. You do not need to format when you reinstall windows if you are putting it on a disk that is already partitioned/formatted.

 

[andy faith]

So you're saying that you want to have the current OS from your new PC AND an exact copy of your old OS and data on the new PC as well?
Also, what are the 2 OS's?

 

[Scorpio]

Thanks for your responses.

andy: That's exactly what I want (both OS's, same PC). The two OS's are both Windows if that complicates things lol, Windows ME (old) and Windows XP - Media Center Edition.

The thing is, however, I don't much care to have the old OS around - I just have some things on the old computer that I would like to keep indefinitely but are specific to the installation on that computer. It's stuff that is non-transferable (to my knowledge - it's not just simple files I could copy and place onto the new computer, etc)(unless the OS comes along with it).

The reason why I want to junk the old hard drive/computer is because in its current condition I'm not sure how much longer it is going to last. I used that computer for several years, the last 1-1 1/2, maybe 2 years tops, of its use was without a cover, with its innards exposed - all the wires, and whatever else hardware parts.

Lots of dust had its time to get in there, and it only makes sense it probably damaged things - right? To be honest, I'm not even sure if it works (boots up) anymore. It's been like 10 months since I finally moved it away from my computer area for good never to be touched again, and it's just been sitting there open and bare like when it was being used for all this time.

Of course, I'd test if it works when it came down to me actually attempting to "transfer" everything. The reason I suggested transferring the old OS to this computer's hard drive was so I didn't have to go out and buy a new hard drive just to transfer then buy one of those special bags that people use to store hard drives.