How to copy an OS parition to another HD

[rimmi2002]

Hi I am running Windows XP SP3 off of 160gb Seagate Drive. I recently purchased a 1TB drive and wanted to transfer the contents on the my 160gb drive to the 1TB drive file for file so then I can run my OS off the new drive.

Is this possible or should I reinstall from scratch? Any recc'd software that is the best at doing this OS transfer. Doesn't have to be free. Any recc'd will be very helpful. Thanks.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

There's usually software that comes with new hard drives that help copy data over.

 

[Bill Kunert]

I use Seagate Disc Wizard. you can get it off their website. Works on my Seagate and Western Digital drives.

 

[rimmi2002]

if I do a disc copy...will I be able to run the OS off the new disc...or do I need to change any configuration for it? For example make it the active partition. I don't one of those deals....where I copy the disk and it works fine, but when I pull the old one then my system no longer works cause the old disk was the active disk.

Also bought an OEM drive. So came with no wires or software. Will look for my old Seagate software.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: rimmi2002
if I do a disc copy...will I be able to run the OS off the new disc...or do I need to change any configuration for it? For example make it the active partition. I don't one of those deals....where I copy the disk and it works fine, but when I pull the old one then my system no longer works cause the old disk was the active disk.

Also bought an OEM drive. So came with no wires or software. Will look for my old Seagate software.

No you can't do a simple copy, you need to use some type of imaging software. I have not personally used Seagate's DiskWizard but it is available for download from Seagate here.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: rimmi2002
I am running Windows XP SP3 off of 160gb Seagate Drive.

I recently purchased a 1TB drive and wanted to transfer the contents on the my 160gb drive to the 1TB drive file for file so then I can run my OS off the new drive.

Is this possible or should I reinstall from scratch?

Any rec'd software that is the best at doing this OS transfer. Doesn't have to be free. Any rec'd will be very helpful. Thanks.

I was running Windows Vista HP SP1 off a 160GB Toshiba drive.

I recently purchased a 320GB drive and wanted to transfer the contents of my 160GB drive to the 320GB drive D2D (disk-to-disk) so I could run my old OS off the new drive.

I used a proggie called Clonezilla to do this - and a Thermaltake BlacX Docking Station (since it was a lappy and only has room for one drive).

Clonezilla is kind of a kludge, but it worked!

I ended up with an exact bit-for-bit mirror image of my original drive, in a 160GB partition on my new 320GB drive - with 160GB of unpartitioned free space remaining. I used the unpartitioned free space to install a second OS - openSUSE 11.1 - which I can dual-boot into, e.g. I have two OSs on the same drive now, and I'm thinking about installing a third OS soon, in another partition.

That's the proggie I would recommend... Clonezilla (and, yes, it's *FREE*) 😉

 

[Blazer]

the seagate download is 'Acronis True Image', imo the best in imaging.