Switching Hard Disks

[edlemur]

When I first made this build 2 years ago, I figured I would never need more than 160gb (my emachines only had 60gb and I had only used 30 ). Turns out I'm wrong. With only 13gb left on this HDD, it is definately time for some more space. I have my eyes set on a 500gb Seagate drive at Compusa for $60. I had read somewhere (perhaps it was from you, RM ) that the 160gb WD drives were slow.

1. Is it possible move my windows installation (as well as ALL of my data) from my 160gb hdd to my new 500gb hdd?
I think this might be possible with Vista's partition manager. Is there a significant chance that I might lose some data through this?
2. Or would it just be easier to install Vista on the new hdd and then move all my data from my old hdd over?

Spank you in advance

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you buy a new Seagate drive, their Diskwizard software will allow you to clone your old HD onto your new HD. Just remember to unplug the old HD after the clone operation, before you attempt to boot off of the new HD.

 

[edlemur]

Tanks!
I'm getting an OEM hdd though, so I have DLed diskwizard. Would you say I'm mostly safe from losing any data through diskwizard?

 

[abaez]

Why not just install a fresh vista on the new machine, plug in your old hard drive once done, and move your data over? Always good to start fresh (especially after 2 years) plus you'll have all of your old data.

 

[magreen]

Why not just use the new drive for data and programs, and keep your existing drive for the OS? You can have more than one hdd in a machine.