Computer pros - migrating old system drive to new drive without re-installing?

[Newc]

Ok, so it appears that every program in the world wants to clog up my 12GB system drive with miscellaneous files, even though I specify to install the program itself on my 250GB drives. Over the years, this has left me with about 60MB free, and I get constant popups from XP about running out of space on C:\

I bought a new 80GB drive, but I'm not interested in reinstalling everything and sitting through 3 weeks worth of system and program updates that want to ask me a frikkin question every 3 seconds, so is there any way to make XP SP2 copy itself and everything on C:\ to my new drive, reboot itself so it can rename the new drive C:\ and remove the old one from the system, and not get any crap about it from the OS?

[buzzsaww]

Norton Ghost or some drive cloning software? Maybe? Never tried it myself always like the benefits of a fresh install.

[VoiceX3]

Matt,
There is a program by Symantec called Ghost that will clone one drive to another. You boot to your ghost floppy disk with the 2 drives you want to copy from and to both connected to your system. In the menu select disk to disk and the 2 drives will show up on a selection screen and show the size of each so that you can't get confused. It will ask which drive is your source, select it and click next. It will ask which destination drive, select it and click next. Then it will tell you that the destination drive will be overwritten and anything on it will be lost, click ok then start. The whole process usually takes about 5 to 15 minutes depending on how much data will be transferred. I do this all the time at work and it works great.

[mm2002]

+1 for Ghost. I've been using it for years, and never a problem. However, if you're running NTFS file system you'll need at least Ghost 2003, as the older versions will only recognize FAT32

[rjohnstone]

+2 for Ghost.
If you don't want to buy Ghost, there is also a freeware program out called HD Clone.
Works great

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/hdclonefree.html

HDClone Free Edition enables you to move the content from an entire hard drive to another, larger one. The program installs itself on a bootable floppy or CD, and include it`s own operating system, so it runs completely independent from Windows. Once HDClone has created the bootable floppy or CD for you, you can use it to boot your computer and copy the drive content to the new (installed) drive, using a graphical interface. The free version is perfectly suitable to upgrade your existing drive to a larger one. It supports IDE/ATA/SATA hard disks and is able to copy up to 300 MB/min. The latest version now supports USB mouse and keyboard as well as USB 1.1 drives.

[Carbuff]

If you are buying the 80gb drive new retail it will come with software to do just that. Maxtor calls it maxblast. The latest version works for xp and NTFS. If your drive is not retail packaged you can still download the software from maxtor. I believe all the drive manufacturers have a version of this software. You just have to follow their instructions. Its important with xp that the drive is installed as the primary master C when the formatting takes place or you will end up with the drive being D and it will screw up all you programs. Ghost is cool too. Many people swear by it.

[nateb]

If you are buying the 80gb drive new retail it will come with software to do just that. Maxtor calls it maxblast.

+1

Used it many times. Pretty much effortless transfer. Just got to set drives up as primary and slave.

-Nate

[Spivonious]

Another +1 for Ghost.

Alternatively, if you have another computer, stick both your 16GB and 80GB in there and copy the files over in Windows. At least I think that would work...

[rjohnstone]

Another +1 for Ghost.

Alternatively, if you have another computer, stick both your 16GB and 80GB in there and copy the files over in Windows. At least I think that would work...

Nope... the new drive would not be bootable and any file that is in use by the system will not be copied either.

That's why products like Ghost exist. They make a bit for bit copy of the source drive.

[VoiceX3]

Another +1 for Ghost.

Alternatively, if you have another computer, stick both your 16GB and 80GB in there and copy the files over in Windows. At least I think that would work...

I don't think so.

[SeventhSon]

Another +1 for Ghost.

Alternatively, if you have another computer, stick both your 16GB and 80GB in there and copy the files over in Windows. At least I think that would work...

No way.

Ghost or some other drive image copy program. By "drive image copy" i mean byte-by-byte exact clone of the source drive.

[charvelguy]

+1

Used it many times. Pretty much effortless transfer. Just got to set drives up as primary and slave.

-Nate

I was in the same boat not to long ago.. I picked up two WD 80gb at Target on clearance for 35.00 a piece. They came with data transfer software called data lifeguard. Maxblast is the same for Maxtor.. both work fine. You may have to work through some icon issues or a few bugs but for the most part.. it should be an exact copy with more space in your partitions.

[MOSHWITZ]

+ 10000 for ghost,, i have my entire recording system Ghosted and it has saved me TWICE!!!!

MATT,,,,shoot me a PM bro

MOSH ON
DAVE

[Newc]

Thanks for the help

It is a retail WD drive, so it's got the Data Lifeguard program with it.

I'll give it a shot first, then if it doesn't do right I can always try that HDClone or Ghost.

[DonP]

I found this helpful as well - thanks guys.

One question - How does it deal with drives with multiple partitions?

Also, I run SCSI - any issues with that?