I got a 160GB HD that I use with my HDadvance kit for the Sony PS2. I don't really use it as much as I should or could, so I was thinking of swaping the 160GB with my 40GB I got in my PC right now.
Is there a way I install the 160GB into like a USB HD Bay and then first format and then move everything from my old HD over to the new one?
Example:
40GB HD (Windows XP, Games, BYOND) --> 160GB HD
thanks.
ID:185367
 Feb 20 2006, 3:36 pm
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No I just wanna use the USB device to transfer the data to the new HD.
See I have a Form Factor PC and It only allowes space for ONE HD. | |
Shades,
I would get a copy of Symantec Ghost (useful program, worth the money). Then I would open up my computer (this is possible with SFF cases, I have two Shuttles) and then hook up both hard drives (it may be unattractive, but it is temporary) and then use Ghost to dump the image from the smaller drive to the larger one. Once that is done, unhook the small drive and clean up your cabling and enjoy the free space. If that is a bit much for you, you can just back up your important data (documents, saved games, etc) on to a USB flash device or external HDD. Then swap the internal HDDs, reinstall Windows and all of the latest drivers, etc (Which isn't that bad of an idea). And then enjoy free space and a fresh Windows install. ~DasFalke | |
That would be your best bet, but you probably don't really need Ghost. Just copy and paste.
Even if you only have one drive bay and your motherboard only has a single IDE socket, you can still set up one as the master and one as the slave and leave one outside the case for the duration of hte transfer. | |
Shades wants to "copy" his Windows install (in addition to his documents) to the larger hard drive. Copy and Paste will not successfully copy Windows to the other drive. However, that method will work great for moving over any documents, music, etc...
~DasFalke | |
DasFalke wrote:
Shades wants to "copy" his Windows install (in addition to his documents) to the larger hard drive. Copy and Paste will not successfully copy Windows to the other drive. Why not? I mean, I've never actually done it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Of course you would need to make sure that you were copying all hidden and system files as well, but that's not too hard. Please tell me if there's something I'm overlooking. =) | |
The master boot records and various other non-files Windows creates when you run the installer =P you wouldn't be able to boot into Windows very easily until you fixed the MBR and even then there's very little chance it'd run on the files alone I believe Windows has tons of information it stores on the drive that isn't actually considered files.
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Nadrew wrote:
The master boot records True, there is that. I believe Windows has tons of information it stores on the drive that isn't actually considered files. Now you've gone and got me curious. What exactly, and where? | |
Not sure, but I know Windows takes up more drive space than the the files alone, with a fresh install of Windows you have your C:\Windows and your C:\Program Files, initially those both use up about 400MB of space, while the drive space manager is showing something like 520MB of space being used. I assume a little bit is the registry, but the registry on THIS system is only 40MB and this thing has loads of stuff on it. So there's a pretty good chance that it's got stuff stored on the drive in a method that Windows doesn't pick up as files so a simply copy/paste would leave them out. Doing it from Linux might work, but I haven't seen any extra files viewing a Windows partition from Linux either.
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I decided to just go through and try to get everything I want on DVD then put the new one in and just do a clean install.
Also I read that no matter how many times you format your computer, it keeps track of everything you do.. ever.. And it can be quite expensive to have it removed. But Id imagaine after a few years that would take up some space. | |
If you format your computer using quick format the data is still physically there but it is not listed anywhere. Someone with a data recovery program could go in and retrive these files. If you run a full format or a zero fill it gets rid of all the data and physically puts 0's everywhere on the disk. How much data is left is just based on what sort of format you do. Once you fill the drive up the older data will get overidden.
If you are worried about your files still being on there goto your disk manafacture's website and download their website, they normally have a utility to remove everything of the disk. Normally called "Low-level format" | |
Shades wrote:
Also I read that no matter how many times you format your computer, it keeps track of everything you do.. ever.. And it can be quite expensive to have it removed. It doesn't actually take up any space. See, hard drives store information magnetically, and even when you erase that information properly (by actually writing over it with zeros), tiny traces of the magneticalness (yes, I know that isn't a word) remain. What they do is analyse the hard drive platters with expensive forensic techniques, looking for those traces. In theory, from that they can work out what the previous data on the hard drive was. Or something like that. I'm certainly no expert. =) Thankfully, nobody would ever bother doing that unless the information was really really important to them! | |
I ended up burning what I wanted to a DVD and doing a copy over like that. Installed the new 160GB and have it up and running.
Nothing like a freash restart huh? | |
If you're talking about just moving your data from one IDE/SATA HDD to another IDE/SATA HDD you could use Symantec Ghost to make an image of your current HDD. If your 160GB HDD is a USB external drive then...I don't know, I don't even think you can boot Windows off of a USB HDD.
~DasFalke