Best way to copy 1 hdd to another?

[Quad]

i'd like to move all my data, including my operating system, to another harddisk. i basically just want to take a mirror image and copy it onto the new hdd, and be able to boot like i normally do.
what's the best way to accomplish this? will xcopy do the trick?

thx in advance

 

[p0tempkin]

Ghost will do the trick.

 

[corkyg]

The fastest, cheapest, and easiest way is with PowerQuest's Drive Copy. Ghost is more complicated, more expensive, and slower.

 

[vampiro]

Look on the disk your mobo came with. Most manufacturers are now including Ghost with their mobos. It is the easiest and fastest utility I have found, even better than Drive Image, Drive Copy, or Partion Magic.

 

[Quad]

will i be able to run ghost from the drive that i want to copy?

i want to copy the current drive that i'm using. so if i install ghost on this drive, can i copy it? or must ghost be installed on a separate drive?

 

[Boonesmi]

heck i just hook up the new drive to my current pc, then in windows copy the whole thing over to the new drive (after a fresh format/etc) the only file you wont be able to copy will the the swap file but you wont need to copy it anyway cause windows will create a new one(the swap file is in your win directory "win386.swp&quot

the above works fine in win98, i dont know about w2k

if after doing that you try to boot from the new drive and you get an error saying windows isnt finding a bootable drive just use fdisk to set it as active partition

 

[Quad]

i can even copy the windows files...even though i'm running windows right now?

 

[Sugadaddy]

<< The fastest, cheapest, and easiest way is with PowerQuest's Drive Copy. Ghost is more complicated, more expensive, and slower. >>



Ghost complicated??? You boot from the floppy, and choose copy or write, and select your partition. I don't know what's so complicated about that...

 

[Boonesmi]

yup, you can even do it from the drive you are currently using, i do it all the time

just remember it wont let you move the win386.swp file

 

[Noriaki]

<< will i be able to run ghost from the drive that i want to copy?

i want to copy the current drive that i'm using. so if i install ghost on this drive, can i copy it? or must ghost be installed on a separate drive? >>

You probably could, but normally you'd just run ghost/di/dc etc from a floppy. They aren't very big programs.

Don't just use xcopy or drag&amp;drop in explorer.

This is not perfect. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

It's also significantly slower than DI or Ghost.

 

[Sugadaddy]

<< i can even copy the windows files...even though i'm running windows right now? >>



Ghost works in DOS, so yes you can copy the Windows files. You install it in Windows, make the floppy, and boot from it. That's it.

 

[vampiro]

<< will i be able to run ghost from the drive that i want to copy?

i want to copy the current drive that i'm using. so if i install ghost on this drive, can i copy it? or must ghost be installed on a separate drive? >>



Yes you can run ghost from the HDD you are copying from. I do it all the time. Just copy the ghost progam files to the HDD, go to DOS, and run the program. It is really easy.

 

[4824guy]

Check the maker of either of the HD;s that you have installed in that PC. Companies provide software will will copy over and image a entire HD. I know that Maxtor and WD do, you can download their software from either web sites for free.

Drive Image and Norton's also will work and provide you a way to image and back up your HD in the future also.

(shameless plug from me-Check the FS/FT forum for Ghost software)

 

[Squibby]

See the latest edition of PCMag (September 4?) for a rather detailed article on it. It might be online at ZDNet or PCMag.com, but I'm not sure. I think it was in the User to User section.

Squibby