Upgrading HDDs, How to backup Windows/Apps/Files?

[HDBox2d1]

Hello, this will be my first time upgrading hard drives in my new computer.
I will be getting 2 hard drives.
1) WD Raptor 36GB
2) WD Caviar SE16 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s

I want to transfer windows, all my apps and all my misc. files.
Anybody have a favorite program they like to use for doing this?
I did a quick search on google and came up with Acronis True Image 8.0
http://www.infopackets.com/channels/en/windows/gazette/2005/20050323_acronis_true_image_8_0_review.htm
The program says "Great for Seamless Hard Drive Upgrades: Transfer Windows and all installed programs from an old (smaller) hard drive, to a new (larger) hard drive: a perfect solution if you're looking to upgrade your hard drive and don't want to reinstall Windows and all your applications on the new drive." .. How is transfering windows to the new hard drive possible?

I have a question, Do i need to have all 3 drives connected to transfer everything where i want it? I want my WD Raptor to be the Boot, Game, and Apps drive. I want to use the 250GB Caviar for my mp3s and random files. Do i install the raptor first, then transfer windows.. Then install the WD Caviar and do the transfer the mp3s?

Anybody have a good write-up on how to do this? I'm confused :( :confused:
I guess i'm a computer novis. I don't want to mess anything up in the process of upgrading hard drives.
Thanks for your time.

[tesfaye]

Well, you basically need to be sure that whatever program you use for imaging can find and read from the device that will be used to store the image. One of the big problems are CD or DVD writer compatability. Otherwise the process isn't too involved. You just need to familiarize yourself with the program that you will use. All you will really do is take an image and store it somewhere and dump it back on the new drive. Placing an image taken from a small drive onto a large drive should not pose any problems. It has never caused any for me and I do it quite frequently here at work since the Dells we use here at work don't all have the same sized drives. The image is 6GB size and was taken from a 20gig drive. I can put it on 30, 40, 60 gig drives without any issue. You aren't duping the computer so you don't need to worry about Syspreping in case someone else has mentioned this to you.

Where is everything right now? If your windows drive is smaller or contains less than 36gb of data then you should be fine with formatting the 250GB drive and using that to image the current drive. After you have done that then you can install your raptor and place the os back onto that drive. Then after testing and verifying that everything is ok, you can copy your mp3's from wherever they currently reside to your spiffy new 250GB drive.

[HDBox2d1]

Interesting. I will be installing a Plextor 716SA for my DVD writer. the program i listed says "Acronis True Image 8.0 recognizes all hard disks connected to the PC, along with a wide variety of removable media drives with P-ATA (IDE), S-ATA, SCSI, USB, IEEE1394 (Firewire) and PCMCIA interfaces including: CD-ROM / DVD-ROM and CD-R/W recorders and burners, magneto-optical drives, Zip and Jazz devices, and many others."
Allright. I'll download the program soon and look around the menus and options before i start the process. Allright, I will be placing half the image on a smaller 36GB drive and then the other half of the image on a large 250GB drive. I don't know if i could do that.

Thats cool, i don't know what Syspreping means. But yes, i'm not dumping the computer.

Right now my windows,apps,games and all my files are on my 250GB Hitachi hard drive on the C: My windows drive is 250GB.. I have hmm maybe 60GB used. Since i have 60GB used on my C: now.. Is it gonna be harder to do the image?
When installing raptor, how do i install the os to it? I also want my apps on the raptor,
Do i make 2 images? as in the image for os,games and then another for mp3s.
Thanks for helping. :)

[mjz_5]

stick in raptor and use Ghost to image the contents of your current boot to the raptor.. kinda like disk copy...

the mp3s and such should be easy

[tesfaye]

Or what Mjz_5 said. I'm used to storing images on a server so I didn't even think to do a drive to drive clone. :-)

[mjz_5]

Or what Mjz_5 said. I'm used to storing images on a server so I didn't even think to do a drive to drive clone. :-)

yeah, i stopped with that.. got sick of trying to find dos drivers for my gigabit NICs... what i do on all my systems is partition 10 gigs at the end of the hard drive and use ghost (partition -to- image) to make an image to the 10 gig system backup partition.

load up into windows.. and copy the images to my server for backup. i could also just burn them to a dvd and ghost them down using that.

[tesfaye]

Ok, actually not what Mjz_5 said. If your current drive is 250GB and that's where all of your data resides then you may not be doing anything with that new 36GB drive except reinstalling Windows on to it.

If you were to move all unneeded files from your current 250GB to the new 250GB drive first and possibly nuke some programs that wouldn't be too much of a hassle to reinstall then you could end up with under 36GB and maybe successfully image to the new Raptor. It's not recommended to image to a smaller drive but I haven't heard any negative reports about it.

You could move your media and clean up the drive then use a repartitioning program to get that partition down to 36GB and then clone it over to the Raptor.

If I were you I would check the Acronis support site about cloning from a larger drive to a smaller one when the actual amount of data to be written would in fact fit on the smaller target drive.

[tesfaye]

yeah, i stopped with that.. got sick of trying to find dos drivers for my gigabit NICs... what i do on all my systems is partition 10 gigs at the end of the hard drive and use ghost (partition -to- image) to make an image to the 10 gig system backup partition.

load up into windows.. and copy the images to my server for backup. i could also just burn them to a dvd and ghost them down using that.

I hear ya. I use Ghostcast here and while the desktops share the same NIC as the laptops the laptops use a different setting on the floppy for the IRQ. If I use the wrong floppy (which you would think would work because of the similarity) the transfer runs up until 300MB or so and then halts. I have had limited success with Ghost and DVD writers. It didn't like my plextor!

[HDBox2d1]

Hard to understand all this talk :(
tesfaye: I sorta wanted to have my apps and games loaded on the 36GB drive.. along with my os. Can i do that easy?


[QUOTE=tesfaye
If you were to move all unneeded files from your current 250GB to the new 250GB drive first and possibly nuke some programs that wouldn't be too much of a hassle to reinstall then you could end up with under 36GB and maybe successfully image to the new Raptor. It's not recommended to image to a smaller drive but I haven't heard any negative reports about it.
[/QUOTE]


Meaning delete easy programs to reinstall such as winamp,nero and aim, small programs. To try and get all my C: down to 36GB of used space? Then create the image

Allright, i'll check their site. Damn, the program didn't like your plextor? scary
Any more information?

[HDBox2d1]

I could always start over from scratch right.
Just take out the old Hitachi 250GB and install Raptor and Caviar and then load windows on the raptor and just reinstall all my programs on Raptor. and move all my mp3's to the new Caviar manually.. Is that a good idea?
Since i can't *really* understand how to do the image and HD transfers, this is a way around it.

Hmm if i wore to do that.. I would nee to reinstall HL2. Is the key only good for one install?
I bought half life 2 in its retail box. I thought once you installed and registered your key, you can't use it again.. true?

[tesfaye]

Meaning delete easy programs to reinstall such as winamp,nero and aim, small programs. To try and get all my C: down to 36GB of used space? Then create the image
Yes, you want to make sure that the total amount of data will fit on the target drive. The problem is whether or not the imaging software will be able to resize the file system to fit on the new drive while it's being applied. If you resize the partition prior to imaging then the imaging software will only know that it is dealing with a 36gig partition and then it will apply without a problem to the new disk.

I could always start over from scratch right.
Yes, installing Windows on the 36GB raptor will be fine and then you can copy the music afterwards to the 250GB.

Hmm if i wore to do that.. I would nee to reinstall HL2. Is the key only good for one install?
Your HL2 key should work for another install. I use Steam and can play on any machine with a Steam install as long as my login is valid. Steam has a FAQ on this. Also check the FAQ on the proper way to back up your save game info and preferences.

[HDBox2d1]

Yeah i thought you had to make sure both data numbers were the same size.
Good deal, i'll see if i should just start over and install windows on the raptor. We'll see
Nice,good to know about the Steam info.
Thanks for your help tesfaye :thumbup: