Upgrade computer to bigger HD

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Bird222

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 1, 2000
Messages
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I would like to Ghost my complete hard drive to a larger one. I had done this a while back but ran into problems so I thought I would ask for the proper procedure first. I have Ghost 2003 and WinXP Pro. I would like to just install the new harddrive in the computer and Ghost it over and then remove the old hd. Please help.

TIA
 
I think you have to create a ghost image ... then extract this image to another harddrive

... if you just want to transfer all the content of an old harddrive to a new one ... there is a floppy utility that will come with a retail harddrive, or if OEM ... you can download this from the manufacturer's website ...
 
I think there was some problem with drive letters. Also sysprep was needed for something, I think.
 
there won't be a problem with drive letters as long as you switch the drives after the copy ... sysprep is for when you are changing mobos with different chipsets ... but I never got this working in XP the two times I tried it ...
 
I do disk-disk copies all the time, there is nothing special about it. Boot to a floppy/cd with ghost. run ghost, select image-disk-to disk, select your source and target, specify volume size and let it go. No extra options or command line switches needed...

You don't need to run sysprep, if all your changing is the HDD. As mentioned, that's for major changes in hardware, or for images that will be deployed to different equipment.

When you purchase a new HDD it'll come with drive imaging software (if you didn't have ghost available), its much slower than ghost, however, so use that...
 
I think I found what the problem was before. You have to delete the mounteddevices key(s) before you make the image. Are you saying that you are able to clone your HD without doing this and you have no problems?
 
Bird222 said:
I think I found what the problem was before. You have to delete the mounteddevices key(s) before you make the image. Are you saying that you are able to clone your HD without doing this and you have no problems?
Click to expand...

I have done this a couple of times ... with ghost, and with the utilities from WD and Maxtor. In fact ... the Maxtor utility will work with WDs and vice-versa. The deal is, before you reboot ... remove the old harddrive ... there is a chance that it won't even boot if both harddrives are installed, since both will have the MBR's marked for booting ...
 
It's the same computer, right? Just the hard drive is changing? If so, you don't have to do anything special. You put both drives in....ghost from one to the other (cloning) and then remove the source. You'll have to change the jumpers on the new one after ghosting, but there's nothing else to do. I've done it hundreds of times with various ghost versions. I've been using Ghost for 6 years now....never had a problem.
 
I just bought a WD Raptor 74Gb. Problem is the retail box didnt come with a CD or Floppy with any software? I have Norton Ghost on a floppy from years ago when I bought a 20GB 7200rpm HD. But will that old version work with NTFS? or will it probably only work with FAT32? I was worried b/c its so old it might not support the things I need.
 
try it and find out...


if it doesn't speak NTFS, it'll tell you.
 
Igthorn said:
You can download WD's Data Lifeguard Tools from their web site.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1124
Click to expand...

I'm trying that right now, its been on "Please Wait, analyzing hard disk subsystem..." for like 20 minutes now.

I think it might be hung up?! Anyone know how long this is supposed to take?

EDIT: Nevermind, I found in a FAQ that you may need to disconnect CDRW/DVDRW drives while using it. Tried it, and its working now. At least it got in to the program and is currently copying old HD to new HD partition. only about 9% :(

at least I got it working.... now just time to wait.
 
chrisf6969 said:
I'm trying that right now, its been on "Please Wait, analyzing hard disk subsystem..." for like 20 minutes now.

I think it might be hung up?! Anyone know how long this is supposed to take?

EDIT: Nevermind, I found in a FAQ that you may need to disconnect CDRW/DVDRW drives while using it. Tried it, and its working now. At least it got in to the program and is currently copying old HD to new HD partition. only about 9% :(

at least I got it working.... now just time to wait.
Click to expand...
I think they intentionally nerf the software so it's not fast enough for business use. I recently copied a drive with this software and it took ages, but worked.

How did it go?
 
It took hours and then I shutdown and disconnected the old drive. Rebooted with the new drive and it was missing windows files, wouldnt boot, etc.
I tried repairing it, but it didnt seem to work. :mad:

I fell asleep while waiting for it.... but it probably took 2 1/2 - 3+ hours and didnt even work!!

I ended up doing a fresh install of WinXP and then copied over some of the config files from games, etc. I had already backed up all of my docs, songs, etc.. on to a DVD so I was good to go on that.

The new drive is about twice as fast as my old one which is nice!
A little faster boot time, much faster game level loading.
 
Seems I'm too late, but this is a little guide that has serverd me wonderfully time and again.

1) Create a bootable floppy disk:

format a: /s

2) Copy format.com and fdisk.exe to this bootable floppy.

3) Unplug all hard drives except for the new hard drive. Set the hard drive to Master (or Single, if it is a Western Digital)

4) Reboot using the floppy disk, but make sure that you enter the BIOS, and set all EIDE port settings to "Auto", and run fdisk.exe from the a:\ prompt. When given the option to enable large disk access mode, select "y."

Check to see that there are no partitions on this drive. Create a partition of the desired size (most folks will choose the maximum size), and when asked if you want to set this partition to be active, select "y."

4) Exit out of FDISK (or else your changes will not take place), and once you see the DOS prompt, reboot again using the floppy disk.

5) When you get to the DOS prompt again, format the new partition:

format c: /s /u

6) Read a book, watch TV, or whatever you want to do while the long and slow formatting process is progressing.

7) Once the drive is formatted, turn off your computer. Disconnect this drive, and put it on the Secondary IDE port as a Master / Single. Reconnect your old hard drive to the Primary Master, and reboot your computer. Once you get to your Windows GUI, open up a MSDOS prompt. This must be done from within Windows itself, and not a command prompt boot.

8) Type the following command:

xcopy c:\*.* d:\ /r /i /c /h /k /e /y

9) Finish your book, or TV program while the files copy over.

10) Once the copying is finished, shut down your computer, and reconnect the new hard drive back to the Primary Master, and put your old hard drive in some safe place, unless you want to keep using it. Re-attach all of your other IDE peripherals as they were before, and boot your computer again.

11) Your drive should be ready to go, and in the process, you actually did a defragging job in it as well.
Click to expand...
 
I have cloned my two different make of drives successfully with GOST 2003, which is compatable with all their other 2004 stuff, by using a floppy made by installed GOST 2003 option.

These drives are the same size.

I also want to clone to a larger drive like you in future.....There should not be problems from what I heard....I did not change any options when cloning, just DIsk to Disk and go.

Clone from HDD on IDE-1:Unplug CDR/DVD & CDRW from IDE-2, plug in disk to be cloned there, and boot with floppy, then copy Disk to Disk. Finished, reboot & switch off. Then disconnect original disk from IDE-1, and connect IDE-1 to newly cloned disk, and reconnect CDR/DVD & CDRW. switch on and boot from 2nd disk....No problems so far.
 
inc said:
Seems I'm too late, but this is a little guide that has serverd me wonderfully time and again.
Click to expand...

Damn that looked like it would have been a nice plan!

I still could do it, I guess, so all my stuff would be EXACTLY like it was before. (but then all my reinstall work would have been wasted)

Oh well, its nice and clean with out the extra clutter I had before. Though I still need to reinstall a few games & apps.

I still have the old harddrive, I just disconnected it, but its still untouched as far as files go. I'm going to print out those directions and in case I need to do a reinstall for whatever reason, I will have the 40GB just how it was. (perfectly set up)

P.S. Wouldn't It have a problem trying to copy the pagefile on the drive?
 
Copying Disk to Disk with PCDOS/GOST, always worked for me, and then you have a proven working copy, which you know works.

You should not connect both drives and boot through to windows, so for safety leave this stiffy in till finished . With seeing two OS's, it may bugger something....
 
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