Copy hard drive XP

Hi, I got a new Dell computer with XP home pre-installled. I installed my old hard drive, and would like to transfer the files to the new drive. The old drive had XP Pro on it. I can't access most files in the old drive without logging on, and I can't access a log on screen. Is there a way to copy drive to drive without buying software that I'll just use once? I think I'll need a partition on the new drive for the old drive OS also? How do I do that without formating the new drive?

Thanks Geeks!

 

Most HardDrive manufacturers provide a free HD Copy utility along with other harddrive utilities, that comes with retail boxed HardDrives but could also be downloaded and used from the manufacturers web site (Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate, Fuji). I am not sure what brand you have but you have the use each manufacturer's own utility depending on the one you bought. Check out the Download section of this site, specifically the 'Drivese links: for Maxtor Drives Utilities section. Also on that section the freeware called HDCopy could work for you as well.

 

As long as one of the hard drives present in the machine is manufactured by the company providing the utility they will usually format and copy a drive from any manufacturer.

 

you might also try the files and transfer wizard that comes with XP ... although youwill have to boot from your old drive in order to use it to copy your old settings

also to get permission to access your old drive you must go into safe mode and change the permissions

 

How do I change permissions under safe mode? Or would I be better off changing the jumpers on the drives to swap master/slave so the old drive boots up?

 

For IDE Drives:
Master-Slave jumper settings can be done by the proper placement of the little plastic plug(with a wire inside to complete the circuit) in the back of the HardDrive generally right next to where you connect the data ribbon cable (the flat cable). There might be a small diagram providing you the jumper settings on the drive itself, if not check the manufacturer site for the related info.
Primary or Secondary drive settings are done by the way the Drives are connected to the IDE connectors on the mobo. Usually the one colored other than Black is meant for ATA-66/100/133 Drives and also look at the mobo manual it should indicate which connector is #1 and which one is #2, drives connected to the #1 port automatically assumes the 'Primary' position. So a drive with jumpers set to 'Master' and connected to #1 IDE port would be detected as: Primary Master in BIOS. Another drive with 'Slave' settings connected to the same channel (IDE data cable) would be Primary Slave, if connected to a separate cable then Secondary Slave and so on...