Swapping and reformatting Drives

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Dye4Metal

New Member
Hello, i have Windows Vista 64x, 4gb of ram, AMD 3800+ on a 939 socket. Now i have two(2) hard drives hooked up, a 80 gig, which has all the windows software, and a 160, which i just have a documents folder of music and movies. Now i am upgrading the 160 to a 320, easy already formatted the 320 and coped files from 160, now is it possible that when i get rid of the 160 to change the drive name (now G) back to F so i dont have to worry about itunes and such? also i want to put the 80 gig on the 160, but i dont know how to copy the 80 to the 160? Is that Possible?


cliffs:

possible to swap drive names G to F?

possible to take the original 80gb hard drive that vista runs on and copy it to the 160 so it runs off that??
 
i dont see why not, i formatted and installed windows xp on my gf's hard drive in my laptop which i then put back into her laptop and it worked fine, so it should work :)

i dont know about changing drive destinations, wouldnt you have to swap them around to get that?
 
Dye4Metal said:
cliffs:

possible to swap drive names G to F?

possible to take the original 80gb hard drive that vista runs on and copy it to the 160 so it runs off that??
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Yes, there are several tools you can use to backup then restore your OS partition to the 160GB drive. Check out Macrium Reflect. I have used this recently to move an OS from a dying drive to a new one.

You can easily change the drive letters back as well, though if you are going to eliminate one of the drives anyway, you may not have to. You can reconfigure iTunes to use any folder as your music library anyway. Just make sure you point it to the folder on your new drive and you won't have any problems.
 
how do i use the macrium reflect to exactly copy the 80 gig which is the boot drive and everything to the blank 160 so i can replace the 80 with the 160?
 
Dye4Metal said:
how do i use the macrium reflect to exactly copy the 80 gig which is the boot drive and everything to the blank 160 so i can replace the 80 with the 160?
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First, download and install the software. Second, back up your boot disk as a complete image to your new 320GB drive MBR and all. Third, restore that image back to the 160 drive. You can also look here for further, detailed information. Start with Disk Image>Backup. Also, this method assumes you have (or can have) all three drives mounted simultaneously.

I recommend this because you will also have a backup of your system you can hang onto for future needs. Now, you can also just do a fresh install on the 160GB drive and use the file transfer wizard or third party utilities to move your documents and settings over. But, you will most likely have to reinstall all your software as well.
 
so what would be the best way for me to go about having the 160 a plug and play basically of the 80?

backup the 80 to the 320 then run the backup onto the 160? can i just do a full copy to the 160? if it messes up i can just reformat the 160 and still have the 80, correct?
 
Dye4Metal said:
so what would be the best way for me to go about having the 160 a plug and play basically of the 80?
Click to expand...

If you are still referring to using the 160 as your system drive, try the Macrium Reflect route. If instead you are thinking of having the 160 as an external drive, just grab a compatible external case for it. I'm not quite sure what you are referring to here.


backup the 80 to the 320 then run the backup onto the 160? can i just do a full copy to the 160?
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Yes, several drive manufacturers do offer other disk copy utilities. Just grab the appropriate ones. I am not sure if they all (or if any) will also copy over the boot sectors which you WILL need. Macrium Reflect will do a bit for bit imaging of the drive including the boot sectors and even the "empty" space if you wish. It is also free. :)


if it messes up i can just reformat the 160 and still have the 80, correct?
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Yes, if there is a problem with the backup not working the way you want on the 160, you will still have a fully functional OS on the 80. Data copies and drive imaging by their nature are not intended to modify the data they are copying from.
 
im not getting how to image the 160? i have the backup saved to teh 320 and then when i go to restore image i find it in the 320 and then it only comes up with the 80 to restore? am i doing it wrong?
 
Dye4Metal said:
im not getting how to image the 160? i have the backup saved to teh 320 and then when i go to restore image i find it in the 320 and then it only comes up with the 80 to restore? am i doing it wrong?
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Oh, I'm sorry. I misunderstood you. :)

When you go to restore the drive, click the partition you want to restore. This will be the one you backed up (your 80GB drive). It is all by itself because it is the only drive image in the backup file you made. Reflect allows you to backup multiple drives to one backup file. After you click next you will be given the chance to restore that partition to any available drive in the provided list (your 160GB drive). It WILL overwrite whichever drive/partition you choose.

Let me know if that helps.
 
when i go to select the partion in the restore wizard the only one that shows up is the 80gb again. i dont know why the 160 wont show up
 
Yeah, if you can see it under My Computer, then it is mounted.

What do you get when you select "next" again on the screen where you check the partition you want to restore?
 
it says to locate the image, which i select the 320 i put the backup file onto. then it goes to partion selection and it only has the 80 listed
 
Dye4Metal said:
it says to locate the image, which i select the 320 i put the backup file onto. then it goes to partion selection and it only has the 80 listed
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That is correct. That is the point I was referring to before. Select that, then hit next. You may have to select it again and hit next once more depending on what type of backup it was. You should eventually get to a window where it asks you which partition/drive to restore to. It will list all available drives on your machine.
 
i selected active? and now it says the partition i am restoring is smaller than the partition im over writing. should i take that new partition to 149gb (max) or the 74gb (minimum). what else is there involved
 
Dye4Metal said:
i selected active? and now it says the partition i am restoring is smaller than the partition im over writing. should i take that new partition to 149gb (max) or the 74gb (minimum). what else is there involved
Click to expand...


Active is what you want for a system drive, correct. Yes, the partition will be smaller, you can re-size it later if you need. I would go with the maximum allowed right now though (149GB) as that does sound like the full formatted capacity of your 160GB drive.
 
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