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Adding 60gb drive is it better to copy from old drive or reinstall fresh?

S

Sharpedge

Member
I am adding a 60gb hard drive and i wanted to know is it better to use the software that came with it to copy my present 40gb drive or would a fresh install be in order?

The 60gb is ata 100 with a pci card while the 40gb is ata 66. The 40gb is 85% full which takes it awhile to load programs hence my moving to the faster drive. Everything works, just slow. I would prefer to just copy but if it would be better could reinstall.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

System
P3V4X w/600mhz Intel P3 EB
Maxtor hard drive 40gb
Annihilator 2 32mb
36X CD-ROM
8/4/32 CD-Writer
SB Live The original one

Thanks Again
 
From my experience, a fresh install is usually more stable. This is especially true for win9x versions. If you have no problems with the os on the 40 just do a copy to the 60.
 
Using MaxBlast or partition magic to copy bootable partitions usually works out well... Look at it this way, if things don't turn out well then u reinstall, but if they do, you've saved yourself the time of install and setup. It's worth a try
 
Do what MistaEng has said in his post is it's stable...but i'd reccemend to not delete the data on 40gb drive till your satisfied that everything's running fine.
 
i would always go with, start from fresh. Even on the same hard drive you will notice a speed improvement due to the way windows starts to slow down due to clogging.
 
Copy from the old to the new. Once you're satisfied the new drive is functioning the way you want, format the old drive, and in your free time install fresh and set it up the way you want.

And then, you guessed it, format the new drive and copy from the old.

I do it this way when I want to do a fresh install. This way I don't have to rush and still have a fully funtional computer in the mean time.

Jumper both drives as master and just switch the IDE cable. Otherwise, your BIOS may not be happy with an operating system on two drives. It may want to run in compatability mode.
 
if you have norton ghost or powerquest drive image you can just clone it and restore it. just like other companies do with recovery disks. btw, there really isn't a big performance difference between ata100 and ata66. i hope you mean 7200rpm and 5400rpm.
 
if one drive i s faster than the other one (i.e. 7200RPM) then use this faster drive for you OS as it will load much quicker than a 5400 drive. ^

dave
 
The fact that you are installing a new HD is only relevant in the sense that (a) you are in housekeeping mode anyway, so maybe you want to tie up a lot of loose ends at once, and (b) you conveniently have a complete backup of your system on the old HD, so if you have problems with the reinstall you can always go back to your original setup.

I have this ongoing urge to reinstall Windows from scratch -- there are a lot of little things that just don't work quite right -- but so far have resisted. If you are going to do it though, then (a) make sure you have a complete backup (b) make sure all your old software disks are around, including things like CD Keys (c) remember what all your old customized settings were, and how you got them; you may find yourself wondering how the heck you got things configured in a certain way.

It is the fear that I won't be able to get some piece of hardware or software to work right, or that I'll have to go back and find the disks for some old version of a program so I can install its upgrade that I have now, that has dissuaded me from a complete reinstall. But, knowing that you can easily go back to that old HD may make you feel a little bolder. In particular, you might find that you're 90% of the way through the reinstall, but can't remember how your email program was configured or something like that. So, swap back to the old HD, check it out, and finish your reinstall.
 
billx--admittedly, I haven't used Drive Copy, but do use DI. DI might take 40 minutes to image 15 gigs. I can't remember for sure. Nowhere close to 7 hours. I'm not saying I don't believe you.....but, I've gotta think something's wrong.

rw120555--Continue to resist that urge. I've resisted since '96 and 3 mobo changes, and hope to resist through W2K Pro overinstall.
--Randy
 
First and foremost thank you for your input to my question. I went ahead and imaged the old drive to the new one. Then once satisfied with everything I am going to take your advice and reformat the old one and reinstall, still being able to use my computer in the mean time. Just in case anyone else has a similar question. I installed a 60gb Maxtor Hard Drive 7200RPM ata/100, the other drive is a 40gb Maxtor 7200RPM but ata/66. I did see a big speed improvement from one to the other, but this could also be due to the increased size as well as speed. It took the Maxtor tools provided on their disk 21 Hours to copy from one hard drive to the other. I have no idea how long it would have taken Norton Ghoust to perform the same process, but that was the only thing that seemed to long. Installing and configuring the bios when without a hitch.

Again thank you for your ideas, suggestions and comments. I know I can always look to this community for assistance.
 
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