replacing my hard drive.. help with switching stuff over? please?

[caitlion]

alright so i got 2 new hard drives for christmas, a 120gb and a 160gb. before i just had a 30 gb. i am not good with computers at all.. so i am trusting my moms bf that i dont have enough room for all 3. he tried putting a new holder thingy (sorry to get so technical) in, but blahblah it wouldnt fit or something. anyway. i have to get rid of my 30gb which has all of my passwords stored on it (a lot i have forgotton), the settings are exactly how i like them, it has all the programs i need. how should i go about transferring as much of that as i can onto the new hard drives? the passwords are especially important, but so are the programs because i cant remember where i got a lot of them. the settings i can just change i guess. any help or suggestions would be much appreciated! thank you

edit: sorry to sound like your parents

 

[minendo]

Use a cloning program. Both WD and Maxtor include cloning programs with their drives.

 

[KingNothing]

Norton Ghost has always served me well.

 

[caitlion]

Originally posted by: minendo
Use a cloning program. Both WD and Maxtor include cloning programs with their drives.

thats what i was thinking but he said something about it copying the operating system and messing something up. is he just stupid?

also, will that copy the programs? and will the maxtor program work with any brand? i have a maxtor (the 160gb) and a seagate (the 120gb).

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: caitlion

Originally posted by: minendo
Use a cloning program. Both WD and Maxtor include cloning programs with their drives.

thats what i was thinking but he said something about it copying the operating system and messing something up. is he just stupid?

also, will that copy the programs? and will the maxtor program work with any brand? i have a maxtor (the 160gb) and a seagate (the 120gb).

He is st00pid. The clone will copy everything.

I've done it hundreds of times with no problems.

 

[NutBucket]

The programs will make an exact copy of your 30gig drive onto either drive you got. Now, I'm not sure if the Maxtor software will work with any brand nor have I tried it. I personally prefer Norton Ghost as well. The programs are pretty simple to use and won't mess up your data.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

I haven't completed my switchover because the MaxBlast software only works if you copy from a Maxtor drive to a Maxtor drive....

 

[caitlion]

i asked him where the software was that came with the maxtor and he got all bitchy and told me hes already tried 3 times and it didnt work. he says he tried with the 160 which already has winxp on it and with the 120 which has nothing. blahhhh. ill ask him if hes tried norton ghost yet.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
I haven't completed my switchover because the MaxBlast software only works if you copy from a Maxtor drive to a Maxtor drive....

Not true. The software requires that only one of the drives be a Maxtor.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: caitlion
i asked him where the software was that came with the maxtor and he got all bitchy and told me hes already tried 3 times and it didnt work. he says he tried with the 160 which already has winxp on it and with the 120 which has nothing. blahhhh. ill ask him if hes tried norton ghost yet.

In order for it to work, the new drive has be empty.

 

[caitlion]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
I haven't completed my switchover because the MaxBlast software only works if you copy from a Maxtor drive to a Maxtor drive....

maybe thats why.. i have no fvcking clue what the original 30gb is.

 

[caitlion]

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: caitlion
i asked him where the software was that came with the maxtor and he got all bitchy and told me hes already tried 3 times and it didnt work. he says he tried with the 160 which already has winxp on it and with the 120 which has nothing. blahhhh. ill ask him if hes tried norton ghost yet.

In order for it to work, the new drive has be empty.

but he tried it with the empty 120gb :-/ this is too frustrating, i wish all 3 would just fit.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: caitlion

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: caitlion
i asked him where the software was that came with the maxtor and he got all bitchy and told me hes already tried 3 times and it didnt work. he says he tried with the 160 which already has winxp on it and with the 120 which has nothing. blahhhh. ill ask him if hes tried norton ghost yet.

In order for it to work, the new drive has be empty.

but he tried it with the empty 120gb :-/ this is too frustrating, i wish all 3 would just fit.

They would as long as you have enough IDE ports.

 

[dman]

The clone programs will copy from any brand source drive to their brand destination. I've done it as well, works fine. Just plug the 30GB and one of the other drives in, run the utility to copy the drive, and then unplug the 30GB and make the drive you just copied the primary / master drive. All should be good at that point.

Or you could buy an external USB Case ($30-50) and put one of the new drives in that and use it as a backup drive, and leave the 30GB as primary. Just be sure to read up on what case to get some of them are not so good from what I've read...

 

[caitlion]

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: caitlion

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: caitlion
i asked him where the software was that came with the maxtor and he got all bitchy and told me hes already tried 3 times and it didnt work. he says he tried with the 160 which already has winxp on it and with the 120 which has nothing. blahhhh. ill ask him if hes tried norton ghost yet.

In order for it to work, the new drive has be empty.

but he tried it with the empty 120gb :-/ this is too frustrating, i wish all 3 would just fit.

They would as long as you have enough IDE ports.

all 3 are in right now.. but he said the 120 isnt very stable and could end up falling on the motherboard.. i dunno wtf he did but now im scared hehe.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: caitlion

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: caitlion

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: caitlion
i asked him where the software was that came with the maxtor and he got all bitchy and told me hes already tried 3 times and it didnt work. he says he tried with the 160 which already has winxp on it and with the 120 which has nothing. blahhhh. ill ask him if hes tried norton ghost yet.

In order for it to work, the new drive has be empty.

but he tried it with the empty 120gb :-/ this is too frustrating, i wish all 3 would just fit.

They would as long as you have enough IDE ports.

all 3 are in right now.. but he said the 120 isnt very stable and could end up falling on the motherboard.. i dunno wtf he did but now im scared hehe.

Use some drive rails and place it in a 5.25" bay.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
I haven't completed my switchover because the MaxBlast software only works if you copy from a Maxtor drive to a Maxtor drive....

Not true. The software requires that only one of the drives be a Maxtor.

Any idea why my version keeps telling me that it cannot copy from the original drive because a Maxtor drive was not found?

 

[caitlion]

hes being an ass now. he said i can do it but when he did it it copied everything and then said there was an os error.

 

[dman]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
I haven't completed my switchover because the MaxBlast software only works if you copy from a Maxtor drive to a Maxtor drive....

Not true. The software requires that only one of the drives be a Maxtor.

Any idea why my version keeps telling me that it cannot copy from the original drive because a Maxtor drive was not found?

Maybe you aren't making the new drive primary? Perhaps it checks for that now.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
I haven't completed my switchover because the MaxBlast software only works if you copy from a Maxtor drive to a Maxtor drive....

Not true. The software requires that only one of the drives be a Maxtor.

Any idea why my version keeps telling me that it cannot copy from the original drive because a Maxtor drive was not found?

What version of Maxblast?

 

[djNickb]

Use ghost

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: caitlion
hes being an ass now. he said i can do it but when he did it it copied everything and then said there was an os error.

Then he obviously has no clue what he's doing. There's gotta be another AT'er nearby who can fix you up. What you want to do is trivial.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: minendo

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
I haven't completed my switchover because the MaxBlast software only works if you copy from a Maxtor drive to a Maxtor drive....

Not true. The software requires that only one of the drives be a Maxtor.

Any idea why my version keeps telling me that it cannot copy from the original drive because a Maxtor drive was not found?

What version of Maxblast?

I want to say 4.0, but it's at home so not positive...

 

[caitlion]

alright im trying this software:
hdclone
good idea bad idea?

 

[kt]

Just use Ghost. It's proven to work well (in most cases). If you don't have Ghost, just have someone with Ghost installed create a boot up disk for you. You can create and restore image using the boot up disk.