New HDD, do I have to install OS again??

Brett_md

Brett_md

Member
Hey everyone,

So, I've got a 120 gb drive (IDE) that has XP installed on it and I use it as my primary with all my programs, files, etc.

I just bought a new 500 gb (SATA) and would like to make it my new primary drive and use the 120 gb as a secondary.

My questions:
Is there any way to copy/transfer/etc. everything from the old drive to the new drive? Especially XP? or will I have to install everything from scratch on the new drive?

This is my first attempt at installing a drive on my own. Any feedback would be great. Let me know if you need any other info.

Thanks
 
What you want to do is "clone" your 120GB drive onto your 500GB drive. If you try and just copy the information from one drive to the other, your OS will not boot. There are programs that do this. Norton Ghost is a popular one, but fairly expensive. I've also used DriveWizard, which doesn't have nearly as many features as Ghost, but it gets the job done and it's cheap.

There are some free alternatives as well:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml

But I cannot vouch for those, not having used them.
 
Check the website of your new drive's maker. There's more than likely a download of management software that will move everything from the old drive to the new one.

For example, when I moved all the data from my old 80GB WD HD to a new 160GB WD, I used WD Data Lifeguard Tools within Windows. Worked great.
 
OvenMaster said:
Check the website of your new drive's maker. There's more than likely a download of management software that will move everything from the old drive to the new one.

For example, when I moved all the data from my old 80GB WD HD to a new 160GB WD, I used WD Data Lifeguard Tools within Windows. Worked great.
Click to expand...



So, I checked out WD's website and found what you are talking about. I have follow up questions (in red). This is what their site says:

"The downloadable Data Lifeguard Tools now comes in both DOS and Windows versions and was written specifically for the installation of Western Digital EIDE hard drives Will this work with my SATA drive?. If your computer system already has a hard drive installed with an operating system of Windows 98SE or greater, you should use the Windows version of Data Lifeguard for best resultsI do have one installed. The DOS version is required if installing a hard drive in a new system without existing operating system support. If you plan on copying the contents of a boot drive Isn't that what I'm going to be doing?, Western Digital recommends using the DOS version of Data Lifeguard Tools."

So, is this just for EIDE, or will it work with my SATA? Also, at one point it sounds like I want to choose the "Windows Version" but then it also sounds like I want the "DOS Version"

Could you help clarify that for me? Thanks

And thanks for everyone's feedback.
 
If you specified a SATA drive on the WD website to find suitable software and then found the different versions of Data Lifeguard, I would imagine that you could use the offered versions for copying data from a PATA drive to a SATA drive. You need to specify that the SATA drive is set up in your BIOS with "IDE" support (=not RAID).

What this means is that after you install Data Lifeguard for Windows, you shut down your PC. Then open it up and find an empty SATA port, connect your new blank drive to it. Start your PC, go into your BIOS, and set your SATA ports to "IDE". This should be in your "Integrated Peripherals" -> OnChip Devices -> "SATA mode" settings. Save and exit and boot the PC. After you get your desktop, launch Data Lifeguard, go to Utilities, then Drive to Drive data copy. Your Source Path is your entire C: drive, your destination path is your new SATA drive, with whatever drive letter Windows assigned it when it was found upon bootup.

After all the data is copied, shut down the PC. Disconnect the PATA C: drive. Power up the PC and go into your BIOS again and set the boot sequence so that your Primary boot drive is your SATA drive. Save, exit, and reboot. You should be all set.

I used the Windows version to copy my C: PATA drive to a new PATA drive without a single hitch. The DOS version failed three times. Even if it doesn't work, you still have your PATA C: drive intact and useable. The data is not erased or deleted when copying to the new SATA drive.

Tom
 
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OvenMaster said:
If you specified a SATA drive on the WD website to find suitable software and then found the different versions of Data Lifeguard, I would imagine that you could use the offered versions for copying data from a PATA drive to a SATA drive. You need to specify that the SATA drive is set up in your BIOS with "IDE" support (=not RAID).

What this means is that after you install Data Lifeguard for Windows, you shut down your PC. Then open it up and find an empty SATA port, connect your new blank drive to it. Start your PC, go into your BIOS, and set your SATA ports to "IDE". This should be in your "Integrated Peripherals" -> OnChip Devices -> "SATA mode" settings. Save and exit and boot the PC. After you get your desktop, launch Data Lifeguard, go to Utilities, then Drive to Drive data copy. Your Source Path is your entire C: drive, your destination path is your new SATA drive, with whatever drive letter Windows assigned it when it was found upon bootup.

After all the data is copied, shut down the PC. Disconnect the PATA C: drive. Power up the PC and go into your BIOS again and set the boot sequence so that your Primary boot drive is your SATA drive. Save, exit, and reboot. You should be all set.

I used the Windows version to copy my C: PATA drive to a new PATA drive without a single hitch. The DOS version failed three times. Even if it doesn't work, you still have your PATA C: drive intact and useable. The data is not erased or deleted when copying to the new SATA drive.

Tom
Click to expand...



Very cool!! Thank you so much! I'm up and running, no problems. :D
 
PohTayToez said:
What you want to do is "clone" your 120GB drive onto your 500GB drive. If you try and just copy the information from one drive to the other, your OS will not boot. There are programs that do this. Norton Ghost is a popular one, but fairly expensive. I've also used DriveWizard, which doesn't have nearly as many features as Ghost, but it gets the job done and it's cheap.

There are some free alternatives as well:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml

But I cannot vouch for those, not having used them.
Click to expand...

wow, i came here to help, but i you helped mee!, iv'e been trying to transfer my xp os to my netbook's for quite a while now!, thanks, i'll see if it works!
 
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