BleepingComputer.com: hdd copy

ok i am buying a new hard drive and i want to move all the files to my old harddrive to my new one, how do i do that

This post has been edited by jscc: 09 June 2009 - 10:01 AM

If you have imaging software, you can make a clone of the old drive and move it onto the new one. That will copy your old system entirely (operating system files, settings, data, etc). If you want a fresh start, and just need the files, hook the drive up using an external hard drive case, or an IDE/SATA to USB adapter, and then copy and paste the data.

thanks bro

Most of the support sites for the manufacturer of various drives have a utility in their download section to help you accomplish what you want to do

but wont just hooking up the full hard drive to the master and the new one to the slave or sec

If all you are doing is going to a lager capacity hard drive the quickest/easiest way I've found is XXClone.
XXClone will clone the old drive to the new & it will be exactly the same as the old.
The only program I've found that doesn't clone well is AVG anti-virus so I simply uninstall before cloning.

XXClone here,

http://www.xxclone.com/xxclone.zip

Set the jumper on the back of the new HD to Slave
Install the new drive as a Slave.
[You could leave it as Master & temporarily install it in place of the CD drive if the connections are the same]
Start XP & go to My Computer to see if the new drive is shown
If so right click on it & on the menu click Format
Format the drive to the proper file system [NTFS for XP/Vista].

If the new drive doesn't show go to the Control Panel
Double click Administrative Tools
Double click Computer Management
Under Storage click on Disk Management
All drives in the computer should show up
In the bottom box click on the new drive [probably D]
In the white box with the lines to the right of the drive listing right click & on the menu click Format
Format the drive to the NTFS file system

Close out back to the desktop
Open XXClone
On the first page that opens make sure the Source volume is C & the target volume is the new HD
Make sure there is a dot in the circle by "Back up the entire volume by copying all the files from scratch [ /backup1]
Click on Cool Tools
Click on Make Bootable
Where it says Boot Control put checkmarks in all 3 boxes
Click Start
You will be asked if you're sure , click yes, Ok, [can't remember exact word but proceed]
When that is done go back to Operation mode
Click on Start
You will be asked if you're sure , click yes, Ok, [can't remember exact word but proceed]

After the cloning is finshed turn off the computer & unplug it
Remove the new drive & set the jumper to Master
Remove the old Master drive & install the new drive in it's place
Install the old Slave drive
Start the computer
If all went right your new drive should boot to the desktop.

Put your old Master drive away for a backup. :wink

If you have any problems the online XXClone manual is here,

http://www.xxclone.com/ixcman00.htm

This post has been edited by fairjoeblue: 09 June 2009 - 10:51 AM

FWIW: I believe that some "brand name" systems complicate this move...by having the original hard drive "tattooed", http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls...mp;oq=&aqi=

Louis

jscc,

If you slave your new drive, you can just move files from the master to the slave (old to new). However, my next question would be, what are you trying to accomplish? 1) data backup?, 2) free space, 3) both?

If you are trying to free space on your master drive, and will be deleting the files from your original drive once they are moved to the new drive, you need to make additional copies of your data to another location.

The primary principle of data storage is redundancy. If your data only exists in one place, even if it is on a backup drive, your data is at risk!

Please let me know if you have any questions about data storage. I'm happy to help.