How to move files from one drive to another?

[slow Eddy]

Added a bigger hardrive, but how do you move files?

I just added a 160 gigabyte hard drive as my 30 gig was filling up and giving me messages that it was close to full. I forgot to ask the technician whether it should be formatted any particular way. So that's one question: How can I check if things are set up correctly?

And second: How do I actually move files to the new hard drive? Do I just put a shortcut on the desktop and drag n' drop the old files onto it? Will they completely move from one disc to the other or will it just add a copy if I do it this way?

If it matters I have the basic XP edition windows.

Thanks -- Ed

PS - If this is not the place for this level question, do you know of a better suited one?

 

[taltamir]

it should be formatted in NTFS. right click on it in my computer and select properties and see that it is.

You just go to my computer, double click the old drive, then open my computer again, and double click the new drive, and then move items from one to another just as you would between directories. I do not recommend dragging and dropping, select what you want, right click, select copy or cut, and then paste it where you want it to go. There are a bunch of ways to copy or move stuff in windows...

Also. You shouldn't just move everything. Some things need to be where they are, like programs... first thing you should do really is let the drive break in, so it does break on you and you lose data... COPY a bunch of stuff to it, leave the computer on for a few days... than try to use the drive, if it still works, all is good... but i had a few drives break that way so now i break them in.

After it is broken in... You should right click on "my documents" on your desktop, and change the path from C:\stuff to D:\stuff (assuming the new drive is D). it should ask you if you want to create it, say yes, and than if you want to move data there, say yes. wait as it moves the data over. afterwards my documents will reside on D drive, and just make sure to put new stuff on it.

 

[slow Eddy]

Thanks for the reply Taltimir.

You said:

"You just go to my computer, double click the old drive, then open my computer again, and double click the new drive, and then move items from one to another just as you would between directories. I do not recommend dragging and dropping, select what you want, right click, select copy or cut, and then paste it where you want it to go. There are a bunch of ways to copy or move stuff in windows..."

But doesn't copy/paste leave the file in the old harddrive as opposed to moving it to the new one?

Also, do you have an opinion on any of the programs that move the files automatically? I went to one, xxclone, and it looked good till it warned me that any of the files I already had copied onto the new drive would be deleted if I were to continue. So I stopped.

Last, I did change the documents file as you suggested and it is changed but it seems to be acting odd (takes like a minute or so whenever I drop a very small fiel into it). It tried to copy the files (a lot) and didn't get far as I left it on all night and it seemed to get stuck. But like I said the path did change anyway.

 

[Elixer]

In explorer, you select whatever files, and right click, select 'cut'. Then on the new drive 'paste'.

You can also use the HD's maker utility disc, they usually have a mirror/clone option you can use, and do it that way. That copys everything over onto the new HD.

 

[rarebear]

I would sellct COPY and Paste and if x-fer worked then DELETE origianl files...

Somethimes in mid stream you get error or crashes or some other problems..

 

[taltamir]

i suggested copy so that you can break in the drive, copy stuff to the new drive, use it for a few days, if it doesn't die in the first week, THEN delete from the original drive... 1/10 drives die in the first few days of use... those that don't last for many years.