Steps to replacing a healthy solo hard drive

[Fis]

Newbie with a novice question:

How hard is it and and what are the steps to replacing a hard drive in a system that only has one solo hard drive cable and cage? The drive is healthy and I'd like to keep what's on it. Just want to swap out for a different size drive.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

well the cable that comes with a retail boxed harddrive is usually 2 device..but if your drive cage is 1 drive only..w/out knowing which case/manufacturer/OEM ..kind of hard to suggest a course of action..gl

 

[Fis]

It's a new hp pavilion running XP Home. It came with a 120G drive. I actually want to replace it with a much smaller drive and use the 120G elsewhere.

 

[Fern]

If you can get your hands on a copy of Norton Ghost, you can "clone" your original HD to the new one.

Clone is an advanced feature of Ghost, it'll will work going from a large HD to a smaller one as long as there is enough space on the smaller to hold the data. You'll end up with an exact bootable copy of the 1st HD.

I don't have win XP, and assume that you do. In which case you may end up with a problem. Apparantly, if win XP see's two identicle bootable HD's it gets confused and tries to do a "repair" which fouls things up. I have read about this, but of course not actually experienced it as I don't use that OS.

 

[Fis]

Since the PC is new, I don't have many settings or data that I care about. Could I just swap out the drive and then run an HP system restore utility of some kind?

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Fis
Since the PC is new, I don't have many settings or data that I care about. Could I just swap out the drive and then run an HP system restore utility of some kind?

depends on your hp disks(did you make your restore CDs ..? ) ..and if your main OS on your hp is in a partition on the 120GB rather than on a real CD ..

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: Fis
Since the PC is new, I don't have many settings or data that I care about. Could I just swap out the drive and then run an HP system restore utility of some kind?

Yeah, if you've got the HP configuration disks. IIRC correctly they come with the OS and drivers etc. If oyu don't have one of those, call them. My dad had them send him one for $10.

 

[Fis]

The drive is partitioned into a main partition and a "recovery" partition, however the manual says you have the option of deleting the recovery partition after you make a recovery disc.

So I made a recovery DVD. Now tell me if you see any risks with this approach:

1) Remove the 120GB hard drive. Don't erase anything.

2) Install a smaller hard drive.

3) Boot from the recovery DVD I made (according the manual, it will proceed with a new registration of windows).

4) If there's any problem, reinstall the 120GB drive.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Fis
The drive is partitioned into a main partition and a "recovery" partition, however the manual says you have the option of deleting the recovery partition after you make a recovery disc.

So I made a recovery DVD. Now tell me if you see any risks with this approach:

1) Remove the 120GB hard drive. Don't erase anything.

2) Install a smaller hard drive.

3) Boot from the recovery DVD I made (according the manual, it will proceed with a new registration of windows).

4) If there's any problem, reinstall the 120GB drive.

:thumbsup:

 

[Fis]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Thanks for the encouragement. This worked perfectly