I need to copy my C drive to D without reinstalling XP

[imthebadguy]

My C Drive is a 120GB that I need to take out, so i wanna copy evertthing thats on it (about15gb) to the D Drive(200GB) currently the D has data on it which cant be erased, so how do i copy everything thats on the C to the D and then be able to take out the C and just boot from the other drive

 

[Tarrant64]

Hmm. Good question. I suppose you may be able to partition the D drive to about 20gb's for room to copy. Then copy the entire contents of your C drive to your partitioned D drive(, let's call it drive X). I think what should happen is when you reboot it will pick up that partition(drive X) as a windows OS and boot from there.

Just a thought, could be wrong.

 

[Budman]

Norton Ghost.

 

[Tarrant64]

Can Norton Ghost do specifically what he wanted?

 

[imported_Kensai]

You'll need to repartition D drive, and then use ghost to transfer C onto the special partition on D drive.

 

[rkoenn]

First question: Do you mean you would like to use your existing XP by duping it onto the current D drive? If so I would suggest that it appears you have plenty of space still on C so first copy all the data off D onto a new folder on C (assuming C has enough space available to do this). Then using something like Norton Ghost and possibly some of the hard drive manufacturers utility programs, dupe the C drive onto D. You need to do this as a dupe and not just a file copy, otherwise it will not work. If you don't have enough room on the current C for all the data, you will need to copy the data somewhere else in the interim, another drive would be best. I have done it with Ghost just fine, I am uncertain the hard drive utility programs will do it with XP but they might.

 

[harrkev]

Norton ghost costs money - a lot of money. Knoppix linux should be able to do it for the cost of a CD-R. Just google it. You should be able to find instructions on cloning a drive with it.

 

[imthebadguy]

Originally posted by: rkoenn
First question: Do you mean you would like to use your existing XP by duping it onto the current D drive? If so I would suggest that it appears you have plenty of space still on C so first copy all the data off D onto a new folder on C (assuming C has enough space available to do this). Then using something like Norton Ghost and possibly some of the hard drive manufacturers utility programs, dupe the C drive onto D. You need to do this as a dupe and not just a file copy, otherwise it will not work. If you don't have enough room on the current C for all the data, you will need to copy the data somewhere else in the interim, another drive would be best. I have done it with Ghost just fine, I am uncertain the hard drive utility programs will do it with XP but they might.

yeah i wanna use the existing xp by dumping to the D, i have ghost and the space, so i think ill try your method

 

[willstay]

There is one tricky way without using any third party tools if your OS is XP, 2000 or 2003. And that is by Mirroring.

It gets little tricky when you have data in both the drives. If I am to do, I would follow these steps.

1) Copy all your data from Disk2 to Disk1.
2) Now Disk2 is free for mirroring.
3) Mirror your Disk1 to Disk2. (this will copy everything that is in Disk1 to Disk2. Including your OS and data from first step).
4) Just unplug your Disk1. This way you are able to boot from Disk2 without having to reinstall your OS and all data saved.

Note: To enable Disk Mirroring, you must turn both your drives to 'Dynamic Volumes'.
Note: Disk Mirroring tool is located at Adm Tools->Computer Management->Storage->Disk Management. Right click the Disk at lower window and select 'Upgrade to Dynamic Disk'. After restarting, right click at the same place to mirror. When mirror is complete, detach your first drive.