Swapping Hard Drives.

[Devs Ad]

Hi.

The HD in my desktop is almost full - the icon has turned red

I have a spare cradle in the PC which currently has a drive in it which I fitted a year or so back for use as a back-up for important docs on the main HD.

Ok, chust bought a new, bigger, HD for the main drive. How the hell do I transfer EVERYTHING from my current main HD on to it - operating system, all software all files, the works?

I'm guessing if I slip the new drive into the second cradle, there should be some sort of SIMPLE cloning software for doing this? Or can I even right-click on 'volume C;' and paste it in to the new drive?! Can it be that simple?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[joinerjohn]

Acronis, backup and recovery,(ya have to pay for that) or Clonezilla software (free) DA. Should be a simple job to clone the HDD to the other drive.

[Someone-Else]

Can I ask why you would want to do that? Copy all the info from one nearly full HD to another HD and fill that up?

Why not cut all the "really important stuff" from the nearly full HD and paste it on the new HD and use the new HD to keep "really important stuff" on. Then when it gets full of "really important stuff" you can unplug it and plug in a new HD and start again.

[big-all]

chust put 2 and 2 together devs ad

[kellys_eye]

Transferrring the operating system and programs is a minefield - don't even go there.

Fit the second drive then use the opportunity to SORT your date into discoverable folders (I'll bet your data is all over the place???). Once you have all the data off I'd attempt a reformat and re-install of the operating system as this will likely improve the PCs operation no-end.

If you don't fancy a reformat (and the attendant re-install of all software) then running CCCleaner or similar should tidy up the HDD to a more usable condition.

Hint - when I install my HDDs I always keep the C:\ drive for ONLY the operating system. Partition the drive for C:\ and D:\ making C:\ around 1/3 to 1/2 the full HDD capacity and reserve it for only the OS and programs. All data is kept on D:\. This way, if I feel the need (ocassionally) I can reformat the C:\ drive without losing any data.

[Someone-Else]

kellys_eye, I genuinely don't know, so I am asking.

I have heard before, as you said "Transferring the operating system and programmes is a minefield" but why is that? (I am not even going to try, just, like I said, I am wondering.)

I have also heard of a programme called ghost by norton, I was under the impression that, it can copy a hard drive 100%. But from what I know of norton, it will probably only do it once, offer you loads of things you don't want, and will be expensive.

[Devs Ad]

Thanks all.

Kelly's Eye, what you suggest is what I did around a year or so ago - should have gorn for a larger HD then...

I agree that a reformat is fab for rediscovering your PC's lost performance, but I chust can't go through the whole SP updating and locating all that malarkey that I need - it chust takes months of updating this and that.

BUT, I agree - what I should do is spend some time sorting and getting rid. Should be fairly easy - get my 13-year old son on to it, 'cos it's his bludy video-editing software and files wot's filled it

[kellys_eye]

s-e the idea of 'copying' a HDD across to another disk implies a simple right-click, copy/paste of al the relevant folders but without using the correct procedure to gather ALL the files (hidden ones being the most pernicious) even missing just ONE file means the software won't work - either immediately or, most usually, right in the middle of doing something important! Sometimes even the 'structure' of the data (precisely where it is on the original disk) has to be maintained.

There are many 'hidden' sectors on every HDD too, all critically important to proper operation. If you run the defragmenting software on your PC it will show where these hidden sectors are and there are many, many megabytes of it!

Software manufacturers recognised this difficulty and produced the 'ghosting' software to simplify the procedure so, for most people, the process is transparent and harmless. But this assumes you are happy to purchase the software for that 'one-off' ocassion.

It is important to stress that simply COPYING the HDD over to another will not do the job.

[joinerjohn]

I agree that a reformat is fab for rediscovering your PC's lost performance, but I chust can't go through the whole SP updating and locating all that malarkey that I need - it chust takes months of updating this and that.

Dunno about months of updating DA. I re-installed my OS about a month ago. Within a week it had found all the updates for Win7. Admitted, some updates took longer than others, (SP1 took forever, then once that had d/loaded and installed, it found 174 updates all at once but now it's only finding updates about once a week (and most of these don't even require a re-start) )

[Someone-Else]

kellys_eye. Thankyou.

I guess its like having a jigsaw puzzle, a picture of the end product, and later you find a piece missing.

[joinerjohn]

Can I ask why you would want to do that? Copy all the info from one nearly full HD to another HD and fill that up?

Why not cut all the "really important stuff" from the nearly full HD and paste it on the new HD and use the new HD to keep "really important stuff" on. Then when it gets full of "really important stuff" you can unplug it and plug in a new HD and start again.

A correctly cloned drive (complete with the OS) can be used straight away in your computer. All your favourites, emails, updates etc will be on the new drive. Once done the new hard drive can be used to replace the old drive. (note, the new drive has a much higher volume as DA has pointed out.) Should DA wish, instead of a new HDD he could go for one of the latest SSD's (Solid State Drive) and benefit from faster access times to the disk.

[Someone-Else]

joinerjohn, I assumed you could use the new cloned HD as soon as it is done, but my question still stands. But I will put it another way.

What is the point of moving a load of junk from one box to another if all you are going to do is to fill the new box with more junk.

As Devs Ad did say, the only reason he needs a bigger HD is because of all the "junk" his son has put on the computer, having a bigger HD will just mean his son can put more "junk" on the new HD and fill that up too, which takes me back to the original question.

Would it not be a better idea to buy an external HD, move all of the sons (In this case its the son's) stuff onto the External HD, thereby keeping the main HD free, and when the new External HD gets full of videos, buy another one.

If it helps, I have a "dedicated" pc just for video editing.


oh, and what are gorn and chust? I can't find either of them in the dictionary.

[joinerjohn]

Because,, if you read DA's original post more carefully, you'll see he's just bought a new HDD to use as the main drive This is why he needs to copy the entire existing HDD (OS as well) to the new one. If he was to just copy the folders he wants, he couldn't use this as his main drive as there would be no OS on it. Comprende ?

[Someone-Else]

I did read and understand the post. He wants to install a new HD and use it as the main HD

But I have to ask, did you read why he wants to do it.

...........my 13-year old son on to it, 'cos it's his bludy video-editing software and files wot's filled it

So as I said, if he used another HD and moved his sons stuff to that, he would get his original HD back again, and would NOT need to move the OS to the new HD, only for his son to fill it up again.

Not to mention that he has the wrong idea of updates

........ it chust takes months of updating this and that.

[Devs Ad]

Thanks all - that's really helped to clarify what I should be doing now, and that's as s-e and k's-e have suggested above; get all the large files out off that 'main' C: drive and on to the 2ndary one.

JJ, I know I said 'junk' files, but I guess my son would beg to differ... Sadly, I have Vista on this PC, so the last time I did a restore, it was a 'mare of updating progs and drivers and all sorts - completely hellish.

So, cool thanks all - I'll shift the bulk of files on to the new drive which I'll make the slave one, and keep the main drive clear for all the progs and important stuff - ie mine...

Cheers