• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

How to migrate my C-Drive (Active/Windows) from an old HDD to a new HDD

S

Shaitan00

Member
Here is the situation - currently I have a C-Drive (PATA, Primary Master) that is 10GB (with Windows XP SP2) and this isn't enough to run my system correctly (I have been using it at 300megs free for months, just running a scan disk causes a "windows low-disk space" issue on my c-drive).

My computer specs:
- Asus P4C800-E Deluxe Motherboard (2xSATA, 1xATA 133, 2xATA 100/66/33)
- 5 HDDs in order, all are PATA (10GB, 20GB, 160GB, 60GB, 260GB)
(so these occupy 5/6 of my available PATA slots)
- 1 DVD-burner SATA (on SATA1)

So - I went out and bought a SATA-II 250GB hard disk that I want to use to replace my C-Drive (10GB) and D-Drive (20GB) [primary master & slave] as I think they are too small to keep in my system at this point...
Now this is where things get complicated ... ideally I would like to do the following:

- Backup (ghost? direct copy/paste? etc...) my C-Drive and D-Drive onto DVDs or another one of my HDDs
- Remove the physical C-Drive (10GB) and D-Drive (20GB) from my system
- Install the 250GB SATA-II drive (I'll move my DVD to SATA2 and use SATA1 for this drive)
- Break/partition my new 250GB drive into 2 parts (that will become my new C-Drive and D-Drive)
- Restore my C-Drive (THIS HAS WINDOWS XP SP2 ON IT !!!) and D-Drive onto these new partitions
Main idea is - not to need to format/re-install windows at all - would be a huge hassle that I don't want to deal with 🙂


Questions:
- How can I accomplish this? The part that I am stuck at the most is the partitioning and restoring of my C-Drive (Windows), when I boot how will I partition the new drive, make one ACTIVE and somehow LOAD the ghosted C-drive backup (can I put it on multiple DVDs and make them bootable or something?)
- What would be the best way to "backup" these drives? Ghosting? Can this work with such LARGE drives as it would take multiple DVDs?
- Would it be a bad idea to leave the other 3 PATA drives where they are or do I have to change them PATA slots (from Secondary to Primary or just leave them on Secondary and have Primary empty)
Is any of this even do-able or am I just dreaming?

Any help, hints, or ideas would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks,
 
Ghost is a proprietary Symantec product. What you want to do is clone your old drive to the new drive, then switch drives. The best tool for this is Acronis TrueImage 10 with a bootable CD that it creates. Your OS thus does not enter in to the cloning process.

Some HDD OEMs also provide free cloning software, but they are much more limited in capability.

The old rule of thumb applies - always have at least 10% of your total drive capacity as freee space.
 
My recommendation would be to back up important data (music, pictures, saved games, emails etc etc) on to DVDs or spare hard drive space and then do a fresh install of Windows on your new hard drive. It will be easier and cheaper to do it this way rather than what you have posted. That being said if you really don't want to format/reinstall then it should be possible to accomplish that.

If you were to do this I would do the following. Using Norton Ghost back up your current operating system install on to DVDs. Then back up important data on to more DVDs or spare hard drive space. Remove the two drives and replace it with the new drive. Boot the computer with the Ghost DVDs and it should began to install everything. Once you have the Operating System reinstalled and working use Norton Partition Magic to add a logical partition to the new drive (creating the desired C and D drives). I have not done this specifically but it should work.
 
Second on Acronis. I just did what you need to do for my sister-in-law. Her HD had even less free space. What would normally take about 15 minutes, took 2 hours to do because her drive was so full. Acronis must use the free space on the source drive for something.

I'm not knocking Acronis, I'm just telling you what to expect. I clone drives fairly regularly, and it's usually a short process.

Acronis came up at the start and said it would be 2 hours and 1 minute and that's how long it took.

Poke around at the Acronis site, you might be surprised what the demo version of their software will do. Unless things have changed with v10. I'm still using 9.0.
 
No matter how you decide to migrate the data, I recommend you buy ANOTHER hard drive (500GB or larger) to use as a backup drive. Put it in an external USB, Firewire, or SATA housing. Use it to make ongoing backups of your data.

With five hard drives, it's likely you will have a hard drive failure every three years or so.
 
corkyg: I know ghost is owned by Symatec, I think I already have a pruchased copy of it here so that would not be a problem.. As for using Acronis 10 TrueImage, you mention that my OS would not enter the clone process, I am not 100% sure what you mean seeing as my main goal would be so that I do not need to re-install windows xp, so doesn't that mean it NEEDS to be part of the cloning process?

nchavie: so it is possble? even if I am changing HDD controlers for my Windows active partition (going from my Primary Master PATA to SATA1) - that isn't going to cause problems.

boomerang: doesn't bother me if it takes 24 hours as long as it works 🙂
 
boomerang: Did you also change Hard-disk Controllers when doing it for your sister-in-law or did you clone it back onto the same one? I want know if I HAVE TO do a windows repair afterwards or if simply loading the Ghost image (bootable) is enough ..

Thanks,
 
What corkyg meant about the OS not being in the cloning process is that you don't access TrueImage through the OS. So, the OS's files aren't in use and it can copy those files, which is exactly what you're looking for.

You asked about the PATA's master/slave stuff. It makes no difference if there's not master on the channel, not in my experience anyway. But, two drives on one cable will be a bit slower than one cable per drive, so spread them out over the three cables anyway.
 
Since the new drive is Sata and the old one is Pata, you could just use Ghost (or another image based method) to make an image of your current C drive and place it onto another hard drive, then put in the sata drive, remove the current C drive, then boot back into ghost and put the image onto the new 250gb sata drive.

You possibly could copy the drive right from the 10gb/C drive to the 250gb/sata drive as well.

Then again your going from Pata to Sata, so the drivers and boot order will need to be corrected.
As rebatemonger mentioned, best way (porbably the quickest too) is to puyt the sata drive in, reinstall everything, then copy the files off the 10gb, 20gb and the 60gb onto the 250gb drive, then wipe those drives clean and use them for something else (backups)
 
ADDAvenger / TG2: Thanks for all the info - this is starting to sound easier now 🙂
So - I'll be adding the new 250giger to my PC and partition/format it into 2 drives (J: at 100gigs - this is my target for my new C:\, and K:\ at 150gigs which will replace my old D: drive).

Then I can simply copy everything over from my current D: to K: and remove my current D: and reanme K: -> D: (and that is done for that) ...

Afterwards the only thing left is my current C: and the new target J:. So I assume I should use Acronis TrueImage, make a Copy of my C: (and store it on one of my other drives like I: that has 30gigs free) and then load it onto my J: (can't do a direct copy because of system files I would imagine). So far so good? At this point my J: should have everything my C: does. Then I can simply remove my current C: and in my BIOS set my SATA drive (J: / K🙂 as 1st boot device.

There is really only two last things I am not clear on:
- Is there anything I need to do to my J: partiton to make it my System Drive?
- How do I rename J: to C: so that when I do my windows REPAIR it does it on C: (I don't want to have my windows on a J: drive if possible).

Thanks!!!
 
I forget the exact order the BIOS will assign drive letters...think its IDE drives first, you may have to disable the IDE ports in the BIOS.
But over all, it would be better to just unplug all the other IDE drives, leave one CDrom in there and reinstall Windows, then plug the other drives in and copy the files.
 
Originally posted by: ADDAvenger
What corkyg meant about the OS not being in the cloning process is that you don't access TrueImage through the OS. So, the OS's files aren't in use and it can copy those files, which is exactly what you're looking for.
Click to expand...

Exactly! When you use the bootable CD that TrueImage prepares for you, you boot into a Linux variant GUI and your Windows OS is never part of the operation. That eliminates "share violations."

And, TI 10 is faster than 9, and can clone indovidual folders - 9 can't do that. The speed of the cloning operation depends primarily on two things - your CPU speed, and your HDD data transfer link speed. For an external, External SATA is the fastest, then Firewire, and lastly, USB.

And, for best results, optimize your source drive before cloning, and I find the Manual mode better than Automatic. (I like to control things, i.e., sometimes I clone from Slave to Master.)

As for Ghost - it is like most Symantec products - they are to be avoided. 🙂

 
I have used ghost 20-30 times its great, I have used the tools that come with a seagate drive to image drives and it also works fine and is pretty effortless I actually prefer it if your just going from one drive to another. Its free too.
 
Acronis or Ghost doesnt really matter, what will matter is if it will boot once he changes the boot drive from PATA to SATA (drivers, boot order, drive letter assignment)
 
There is really only two last things I am not clear on:
- Is there anything I need to do to my J: partiton to make it my System Drive?
- How do I rename J: to C: so that when I do my windows REPAIR it does it on C: (I don't want to have my windows on a J: drive if possible).
Click to expand...

You needn't rename your J drive to C. You'd beter change jumpers on the drives and plug the new drive in as a master drive ans the other as a second one. This way the operating system will recognize the first partition of the master drive as C: by itself. And Windows repair process will be executed on the C: drive. As for the migrating and cloning software, I'm also an Acronis user.
 
Originally posted by: corkyg
Originally posted by: ADDAvenger
What corkyg meant about the OS not being in the cloning process is that you don't access TrueImage through the OS. So, the OS's files aren't in use and it can copy those files, which is exactly what you're looking for.
Click to expand...

Exactly! When you use the bootable CD that TrueImage prepares for you, you boot into a Linux variant GUI and your Windows OS is never part of the operation. That eliminates "share violations."

And, TI 10 is faster than 9, and can clone indovidual folders - 9 can't do that. The speed of the cloning operation depends primarily on two things - your CPU speed, and your HDD data transfer link speed. For an external, External SATA is the fastest, then Firewire, and lastly, USB.

And, for best results, optimize your source drive before cloning, and I find the Manual mode better than Automatic. (I like to control things, i.e., sometimes I clone from Slave to Master.)

As for Ghost - it is like most Symantec products - they are to be avoided. 🙂
Click to expand...

But you don't need to create a boot disk to do this with Acronis (you can't create boot disks from the 30-day trial anyway). You can run the Acronis clone operation from inside Windows, Acronis will ask you to reboot and perform the clone on the reboot before Windows loads entirely. End result is the same.
 
I would recommend Acronis as well. 9.0 might work if 10 has problems. I had problems with Ghost, and had a great time with the Acronis free trial.

Back up or ghost your files from the old drives. Clean stand-alone files from the C drive as much as possible from the C drive so you would have more than 300 MB to work with.

I recommend you install your new drive and partition it as you want it to be.
Then use Acronis, or your image software of choice to move the image.

Image your main C drive first and when complete, remove your old C: and boot from the new image and check that everything works fine (where ghost failed for me).

If everything works fine, you can move your second drive, which can be done in windows. Once again, I suggest that once you get a successful image you put away the old drives as backups incase something goes wrong.

If everything works fine, the only thing you might have to do is reactivate windows, but everything else should be just fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top