A little computer help please.

[Tasmaniak]

Hey folks, I will be changing my hard drive in a few days and I wanted to know if I am able to copy the contents over to it and not have to re-install windows.

[VS Omega]

There sure is mate, if you're upgrading to a larger hard drive you should look into acquiring some software called "Norton Ghost" (or google some other "imaging software"), what they do is effectively copy the entire partition, windows and all your data onto the other hard drive, after this you may be limited to the size of the original disk on your new big drive, but then you can get a program called "Partition Magic" to resize it dynamicly

[vh-holden]

why not keep the old harddrive and have more space? or is it on the way out?

[The1985divo]

why not keep the old harddrive and have more space? or is it on the way out?

Alwayz best to have the OS on the bigger drive

As said above Norton ghost is great, can do it all in windows once all copied over just unplug the old one and make the new one master and you are on your way, if you are going to keep your old drive as a extra hard drive youll need to format it b4 you put it back in as the computer will not like two hard drives wit windows on it :P

Just ask if ya need more info

[vh-holden]

why do you have it on the bigger one? I've got 37GB and 200GB in the case, and then 300GB external. The two big drives are purely for data, and are both almost full. Windows and all the programs are on the smaller drive cos they use less space. Also makes it easier for if i need to get my info off the drive.

[The1985divo]

why do you have it on the bigger one? I've got 37GB and 200GB in the case, and then 300GB external. The two big drives are purely for data, and are both almost full. Windows and all the programs are on the smaller drive cos they use less space. Also makes it easier for if i need to get my info off the drive.

never said you HAD to, it is just advised, not a huge problem if you have it that way

[vh-holden]

nah, i wanna know what the advantages are. I might rearrange my junk.

[MBS206]

Ahh, most computer technicians and admins (I'm an ex-admin here) would advise you to put the OS onto a drive of minimum 10GB, but choose the smaller drive of the two (If you have a 200GB, and a 40GB, put the OS and programs on the 40GB!)

This makes formatting later, quite alot easier. All of your data which you save to is on the 200GB, when the time comes, format the 40gb, and you still have all of your data, just need to reinstall your programs.

Why format ALL of your data and OS?

[vh-holden]

Ahh, most computer technicians and admins (I'm an ex-admin here) would advise you to put the OS onto a drive of minimum 10GB, but choose the smaller drive of the two (If you have a 200GB, and a 40GB, put the OS and programs on the 40GB!)

This makes formatting later, quite alot easier. All of your data which you save to is on the 200GB, when the time comes, format the 40gb, and you still have all of your data, just need to reinstall your programs.

Why format ALL of your data and OS?

yep, that's what i did at the start of the year when i did a format. all the data was safe, and i had a fresh drive to start on.

[burnz]

replacing a 450 seagate i used norton ghost
too easy

[Tasmaniak]

essentially I'm going from a 160GB Seagate up to two 450GB Seagates.

[stocky]

Alwayz best to have the OS on the bigger drive

i disagree with that. i have a seperate partition for my os install. its just easier to avoid problems later on. ive had my windows corrupt so many times, forcing me to format the partition. if i had everything on that drive, id lose all my data, games, videos, music, everytime that my computer screwed up.

now, for the original question. i switched my hard drive contents over a few months ago.i have used partiton magic for the entire job. you can use it to copy the entire contents of the drive over. i normally find it easier just to reinstall windows.

[Tasmaniak]

I would normally re-install everything I have except for the fact that I no longer have a clue where my software is.....it's travelled 10,000 miles but then again it could still be in storage back in Australia. I really don't know!