Hard drive ignorance

[Grimbones]

Well obviously there has to be a way to transfer the data from one hard drive to another, is this at all possible? If so, would anyone intstruct me on how to go about doing it? thank you!

Also, if i do this, can i avoid buying a new OS for my computer?

 

[natto fire]

ummm, hook both hard drives up, copy. Voila.

If you want to make it easier look for a program called Norton Ghost.

 

[Grimbones]

Ummm...and how do i just randomly copy a hard drive?!

Also i guess this would mean i don't need a new OS

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

Please clarify what you are asking. Do you want to simply copy some files from one hardrive to another or do you want to clone your hardrive to another. Please clarify

 

[Grimbones]

Clone the hard drive i already have.

 

[imported_Bunter]

Powerquest DriveCopy or Norton Ghost will copy the contents of a hard drive, and generally do it well. I've always used DriveCopy myself.

When you ask about not needing a new copy of the OS, can we assume you are talking about a new hard drive in the same computer? If so, you are probably okay. If you are talking about porting everything from one hard drive to another that will wind up in a different system, the answer is probably not. You would need the OS CD for the many different drivers, at a minimum.

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

Norton Ghost is a way to go. Are you trying to clone the drive to replace the OS drive in a new computer?

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

Originally posted by: Bunter
Powerquest DriveCopy or Norton Ghost will copy the contents of a hard drive, and generally do it well. I've always used DriveCopy myself.

When you ask about not needing a new copy of the OS, can we assume you are talking about a new hard drive in the same computer? If so, you are probably okay. If you are talking about porting everything from one hard drive to another that will wind up in a different system, the answer is probably not. You would need the OS CD for the many different drivers, at a minimum.

What he said. He posted the same time I was replying but his question is important

 

[Grimbones]

Well since i'm planning on getting a Raptor, i wanted to put all my information from my old drive onto it, so that i wouldn't have to pain-stakingly go through the process of adding all my old games and such. But i would probably put my old drive on the same computer as a slave drive afterwards, and i'd probably just wipe all the information on it too

 

[Grimbones]

Perhaps that's just making things more complicated, i just want the games and such to load up faster!

 

[imported_Bunter]

Afraid I can't say for sure. I've never used DriveImage or DriveCopy to move from an EIDE to a SATA. Since they both essentially boot through DOS to avoid open files on the hard drive, there is a good chance they would have no idea what that strange thing we call an SATA interface is (probably do not have a resident driver for it).

When I moved data from an EIDE to twin Raptors (RAID 1), I did it through the BIOS of an ASUS A7V8X, which supports a mixed EIDE / SATA RAID 1.

Unfortunately, I'm away from home this week for word and can't try booting DriveImage to see if it would see the SATA hard drives we have.

 

[Grimbones]

Hmm, well thanks for the help, i guess i'll ask again later, or i could always just start over from scratch!

Also i'm getting an Abit KV8 max3 mobo, not sure if it has any cool features like your asus!

 

[capricorn]

I'd also mention the free version of HD clone, which will let you go from a smaller to larger drive. Not sure about the IDE to SATA portion of the question myself.

<edit>

It would appear to be a "no" from their site.