Pour old HD into New HD

[eman6]

I have a Notebook with 40GB and have recently purchased a 80GB USB hard disk to replace the smaller one and keep it as external.
You can imagine I need to 'pour' everything 'as is' from the old into the new without need to re-install.
It looks like Windows XP does not provide a means to transfer system files, does it.
I am not willing to purchase a utility to do that unless I really have to, simply because I will be using it most probably ONCE.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[bcastner]

You are likely going to be unhappy without a third-party utility.

I like Acronis True Image, and Symantec Ghost Version 9.0,

The native XP utilities for files and setting transfer are unlikely to help you.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/crawford_november12.mspx

 

[bcastner]

I should note that many of the OEM drive manufacturers offer freeware utilities that could help.

They are usuallly listed as drive installation or setup utilities.

 

[gpalmer711]

purchased a 80GB USB hard disk to replace the smaller one and keep it as external

Are you saying that you wish the external drive to be your windows boot drive? or that you wish to copy all data to the external drive and then swap them over?

If it is the 1st one as far as I am aware there is no way of doing this, USB devices are only given drive letters once you are in Windows, therefore Windows would not boot as it can't see your drive.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[eman6]

It's the second.
I want to replace the old 40GB by the new 80Gb.

 

[tmehanna]

You have no choice but to image the drive or do a partition copy using utilities like the ones bill metioned. Copying files simply will not work, so save your time, nothing in windows will do that for you.

 

[allteltec]

It also is nice to have a full system back up that you can use to recover from bad viruses and HD problems. I still like Ghost 8, Bill is there a way to use ghost 9 from DOS to do a recover I tryed Ghost 9 an at first look did not see any.

 

[bcastner]

Not from DOS with Ghost 9.0
Acronis True Image will create a startup CD.

 

[tf1]

Acronis True Image is the way to go. Once you have the new drive in place, you will be able to use Acronis to keep compressed backs on the old drive in case of a HDD disaster.


Regards: tf1

 

[allteltec]

Most of my back ups are for Note Book PC's I use the Ghost 8 corp. Plug in for Bert Pe I back up to external USB 2 or FireWire HD's and Bert Pe has always fould the USB and FireWire hardware.

 

[bjdobs]

I have a copy of ghost that came with Systemworks 2003 which works well to DVD and or peer to peer ... however local HD to HD is useless unless the destination drive is formatted as fat32. Has this been fixed in Ghost 9 and or Acronis?

 

[eman6]

Gentlemen
I just noticed we are using the VB forum for HD copy stuff.
Either we go continue this thread in a different forum, or SOMEBODY TELL ME HOW TO dO THIS WITH VB, DARN IT. ;-)
Hey just kidding guys no hard feelings.
It's just so frustrating.
By the way, in case somebody missed my earlier comment:
I DON'T WANT TO SPEND A PENNY ON A UTILITY I WILL BE USING ONCE EVERY YEAR OR TWO. ;-((

 

[gpalmer711]

This is not the VB Forum - it is the XP forum.

If you don't want to spend money then follow bcastners advice

I should note that many of the OEM drive manufacturers offer freeware utilities that could help.

They are usuallly listed as drive installation or setup utilities.

Go to the website of your HD manufacturer and download their utility - however it may not work as you are using a USB drive.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[eman6]

My apologies
I have posted this problem on the VB forum too, hoping to have a few lines in VB from someone that can do the job.

As for the manufacturer of the HD I purchased, it's Samsung.
I could find only one DOS utility, which could not read from the USB.
Maxtor and WD use the same utility, which I tried and failed.
WD says if trial fails once for any reason it will not work a second time unless the HD is reformatted.

I'll give that another try tomorrow.
It's approaching midnight now here in the land of the Switz.

 

[eman6]

Dear all
The DataLifeGuard tools utility software downloaded from Western Digital (which is essentially the same like the one provided by Maxtor and named MaxBlast) offers what I need.
It was tricky because there were two main options regarding a new hard disk installation. one of them is the copy disk to disk, which was wrongly recommended for this case. The other option regarding New hard disk installation/setup actually gives the possibility to set the new drive as boot drive. It copies your entire drive into the new one (I'm ignoring partitions here, assuming each has only one). This did the job for me. At the end of the copy you click next and it shuts down. You switch the laptop (or PC) on again and the setup will be accomplished (be patient a bit).

Thank you all for trying to help.

Happy new year.

Eman 2005

 

[Naro]

Re: Bcastner 12/28 comment:
Does the Acronis True Image startup disk allow me to then access an external USB drive. The free trial version is sufficiently crippled so that I'm not sure it will..

I'm considering using Acronis to create the image on a Maxtor One-Touch, and would like to be able to restore the image or clone therefrom, without having to take the intermediate step of re-installing my OS.

 

[bcastner]

I honestly do not know.

 

[tf1]

I use True Image. I am almost certain that when I downloaded the trial version it allowed me to create a boot disk and go all the way through running a back up to the point of actually making the backup. Purchasing the full version gave me the release code which then allowed the final step. (Though the trial boot CDR was scrap!)

Nothing was crippled in the trial version as such, it just didn't allow the final step. I tried several different backup/ghost image trial version and I chose TrueImage because it was the ONLY one that was able to create a boot CDR that recognised a USB keyboard, a wireless mouse and a USB and Firewire external HDD without even being prompted. All the other failed at identifying and supporting at least one device.


Regards: tf1

 

[Naro]

Thanks.
The retail version really isn't that costly, so I'll give it a try.