HardDrive Transfer without loosing Data

T

tylerL

New Member
Hello gang , I currenltly own a laptop with 30G Hard drive, and I ran out of space...How Do I transfer all the information from the 30G to a 100G I'm planning to buy ?
Would I loose all the data in my 30G ?
Would I be able to safely transfer exactly what I have in my 30G including windows xp w/out any problems ?


Thank you all in advanced.
Great forum/
 
well.. OS i dont know.. maybe, but you can use norton ghost, or put the 3ogig in an external enclosure and transfer the files there, a flash drive works well too, as with a CD / DVD
 
First things first! tylerL needs a Welcome to the Computer Forum! http://www.computerforum.com/70672-official-welcome-thread.html and the always needed reminder to all new members to review the http://www.computerforum.com/52038-forum-rules.html

And now we can give him some advice on the different options available. Without a burner for the laptop there you will need an alternative like an external usb hard drive enclosure that oscaryu1 has already mentioned. Since laptop drives are 2 1/2" not the usual 3 1/2" seen in desktops that would be the most likely preferred method for a copy and paste type "backup" of all files.

The external enclosure method wouldn't need any special software while having a dvd burner available would allow a more permanent means of backing up your files by way of creating data dvds. There you would need to install a program usually retail for this.

DeepBurner and some others are freeware types with some limits seen but could work there. The two free versions of that program are found along with the retail product at http://deepburner.com/?r=download

Another method is to create iso disk images where data is compressed. The free version of BurnOn is easy to work with for burning iso images to cdc/dvds. It will take take several disks depending on the actual amount of data to be preserved. But not all of the 30gb is data. The OS and softwares also take up a good deal of drive space. BurnOn is found at http://www.burnworld.com/burnoncddvd/
 
Since Windows would be seeing a new fresh installation on a large drive using any disk cloning program would be an error. For the exact same size, make, and model drive that would work. But for cloning to the obvious mismatch the important files burned to data dvds would be far better. The clean install of Windows on a brand new primary on a brand new drive works for the best there.
 
I agree with knrcho in using ghost. It's worth every penny just because you can use it to transfer all the info from one HDD to another and everything will run as if it were originally installed on that HDD. It will also save you a lot of trouble if you ever catch one of the nastier trojans or viruses out there.
 
If you clone an infected drive you will bring that to the next one. If both drives identical a clone often works out. When reviewing different softwares for this the name Acronis comes up as a better alternative for a retail product. But don't forget the hardware profile that is created when installing XP and the new Vista versions out.

An alternative to cloning is having a spare drive lying around you can format transfer files and folders over to and then see a good fresh install of Windows on the new larger drive you put in. Then you won't have to worry about problems with Windows from a bad clone while still having all files intact.
 
Acronis is another software actually one of the better for cloning and creating disk images. The first thing to know is the actual total amount of data in size is to be transferred, cloned, or simply backed up on removable media. Do you have a cd or dvd burner would be the first step if no second drive for direct copy is available?

Forget cloning or creating data disks if you are using only a read only type. After the fresh installation of Windows was seen on the new drive you would need to directly copy files from the old 30gb to the new 100gb model. Copy and paste, copy and paste, etc. then.
 
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