Newbie to 2 hard drive system

[Udgnim]

I have an existing 150 GB Hitachi hdd that has about 10 GB of space left, so I decided to spurge a bit and ordered a Velociraptor 300 GB from Newegg.

after some research, it seems I should move the OS and applications to the Velociraptor while keeping the data / page files on the Hitachi.

what I'm unsure / confused about is the correct process of moving apps / OS to the Velociraptor. Is there a program that will aid me in the process? Will I need to manually move everything? Will I need to do a fresh install of XP on the Velociraptor?

also, I'm not very familiar with partitions. I've read it's beneficial to put the OS on a small partition (what would be an optimal size?), but are there situations where additional partitions can be beneficial?

I primarily use the PC for gaming, listening to music, and browsing the internet.

thanks for any answers

 

[taltamir]

the main reason to make an os only partition, is so that you can reinstall the OS (with a reformat of that partition) without losing your files (they are the second partition).

All your suggestions are POSSIBLE ways to go about it. I personally would just do a clean install. (make sure you unplug ALL DRIVES EXCEPT THE ONE YOU INSTALL TO! for windows installations to avoid future boot problems)

If you want a program that just moves everything as is. You can use acronis software, i hear it is well liked. Or gparted and clonezilla which are free and open source

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: taltamir
make sure you unplug ALL DRIVES EXCEPT THE ONE YOU INSTALL TO! for windows installations to avoid future boot problems)

That's very bad advice for a novice. You end up with two HDDs, each with a boot sector, boot loader and MFT....THAT leads to problems.

ALL of MS's operating systems are designed for multi boot. You just have to install then in the order MS released them.

And to the OP:
You can not "copy" and OS, though you can "clone" a complete HDD.

 

[elconejito]

Personally, I'd stay away from partitioning. The only advantage I see is that you can reinstall OS/apps without bothering your data. The same can be accomplished by putting your data on the second hard drive. And if something bad happens to your hard drive you could lose both partitions anyway. Some people really favor it, your choice though.

A few other thoughts though... If you've only got 10GB left on your Hitachi, that means you've got about 140GB of data on it? Right off the bat you've already filled up half of the VR. Is all that actually programs and stuff or is it media (music, movies, etc)? If it's all programs, I guess there's not much you can do, but if it's media maybe a larger additional drive is called for.

The advice to pull all the drives if you're going to do a clean install is solid, but needs to have a solution for copying data afterwards... like attaching the old drive via USB to copy your data (just the data). Because even if you clone the drive, you still will end up with 2 drives each thinking they are the boot drive until you do something with the old drive.

Having said that, if your XP install is running fine, I would just clone it to the new VR using one of the tools mentioned above. I like Acronis TrueImage, but there are others out there.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

What you need is to clone your drive to the velociraptor.

Use this program:

http://www.clonezilla.org/

It is advanced but it is not too difficult to use if you read up.

This will create an identical copy of your Hitachi to the Velociraptor (think about how making a CD/DVD ISO is 1:1 copy -- same concept).

However, this means you will have 150GB used on your VRaptor. To make use of any additional space, once you are in windows create a partition with the free space available using "Computer Management" -- assuming you bought a 300GB Velociraptor.

 

[Paperdoc]

Personally, I'm not a fan of a separate Partition for the OS, but many do think that is best.

What you want to do is a classic story - update to a larger drive, "copy" absolutely EVERYTHING to the new larger unit (this really is CLONING), make the new copy use ALL of the space on the larger drive, and then have it take over as the boot drive. At that point it is best to disconnect or remove the old drive and leave it alone for a little while until you are convinced the new drive has absolutely everything you need. Then you re-connect the old drive and completely wipe it clean. That is, you delete any and all Partitions on it, then establish a new Primary Partition that is NOT bootable but uses all the disk's space, and finally Format that new Partition on the old drive. Now it's your data drive.

The two third-party software tools others have mentioned will do that job for you. However, you can get for free from Western Digital their Data Lifeguard Tools that will do that cloning job for you. If you buy a Retail Packaged drive it will have those tools among the software on a CD that comes in the package. If you buy a bare (OEM) drive, just go to the WD website for them. You'll have to choose the right version for your situation. You download and install the software on your existing hard drive and run it from there to make the clone to your new drive. Since WD makes these tools available free, they will only make a clone TO a WD drive as Destination - they don't care whose old drive you have already as the Source.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I'd follow taltamir's advice. Take your old hard drive out of your computer and reinstall Windows from scratch on the VR. When you put your old hard drive back in, make sure in the BIOS your VR is the top boot drive. You shouldn't have any boot problems or confusion if you do this.

Once both hard drives are in your system, you can then decide how you want to deal with the overcrowded old drive. As others have mentioned, you should use your VR for OS and program/game installs, and use your old hard drive for all your data storage (you can right-click Documents and Music folders, choose Properties, go to the Location tab, and move that folder permanently to your D: drive). That way you can easily reinstall Windows without losing any data. You have two hard drives, you don't need to mess around with partitions.

If you've been good about organizing your data storage already it should be easy to clean house. Just copy your storage folders over to your new drive long enough to wipe out the partition on the old drive, create a new one, and format it (as Paperdoc outlined). Double check you got everything off your old drive that you want before you wipe it (if you're unsure, then it's probably best to just do a Windows backup of the whole drive, which is what I do whenever I upgrade my wife's PC; then I just use the Windows Backup utility to pull the files out that she wants to keep).