moving system to a new hard drive

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Joe H. - 25 Nov 2003 16:48 GMT

I have XP installed on a drive that is starting to fail.
I'd like to move the windows installation to my other hard
drive (it's a different physical drive). I can't find
anything in the knowledge base on this. Anyone have any
ideas on how to do this? Will the install CD help me at
all?

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Timothy Daniels - 25 Nov 2003 17:25 GMT

> I have XP installed on a drive that is starting to fail.
> I'd like to move the windows installation to my other hard
> drive (it's a different physical drive). I can't find
> anything in the knowledge base on this. Anyone have any
> ideas on how to do this? Will the install CD help me at
> all?

Use an imaging utility such as Norton Ghost, PowerQuest
Drive Image (version 2002 will do), Acronis True Image,
Future Systems Solutions Casper XP, etc. No re-installation
of the OS or apps will be necessary. You can buy Casper XP
online for $45 at www.FSSDev.com. I've never used Casper
and I haven't read any reviews about it, but it was written
expressly for Win2K/WinXP. I *have* used Drive Image
2002 (after struggling unsuccessfully with the more recent
7.0 and 7.01 versions), and it did work for me. Indicate
on the dialog box that you want to do a Drive Copy and
not just make an image (which is for backup/restore).

*TimDaniels*

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Timothy Daniels - 25 Nov 2003 17:41 GMT

> > I have XP installed on a drive that is starting to fail.
> > I'd like to move the windows installation to my other hard
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> on the dialog box that you want to do a Drive Copy and
> not just make an image (which is for backup/restore).

I should have added:

After you copy the drive,
1) Disconnect the old drive and connect the new drive in its place.
2) THEN (and ONLY then), boot up the new drive for the
first time. It's necessary that the system not see the
the old drive during this initial process. Thereafter, you
can reconnect the old drive where you want it and do
what you want.

*TimDaniels*

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Michael Stevens - 30 Nov 2003 11:18 GMT

Imaging is the best way to go, and check your hard drive manufacturer for
updated software to copy the old drive to the new.
Maxblast Plus versions 1.30 and newer provide an image copy utility that
will allow you to copy all the information from one hard drive to another
drive. The software currently supports FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS partitions.

Maxblast II plus http://tinyurl.com/275m

BootIT NG from Terabyte
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/
Drive Image from Power Quest
http://www.powerquest.com/
Symantec Ghost.
http://www.symantec.com/servsupp.html

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Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
xpnews@bogusmichaelstevenstech.com
http://michaelstevenstech.com
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Timothy Daniels - 30 Nov 2003 17:45 GMT

> > I have XP installed on a drive that is starting to fail.
> > I'd like to move the windows installation to my other hard
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> manufacturer for updated software to copy the old drive
> to the new.

So far, so good.

> Maxblast Plus versions 1.30 and newer provide an image
> copy utility that will allow you to copy all the information from
> one hard drive to another drive. The software currently
> supports FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS partitions.

MaxBlast (distributed with Maxtor hard drives) does file
copies, according to Maxtor, not byte-for-byte sector copies,
which "images" are.

*TimDaniels*

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