Complete Hard Drive Transfer-True or False?.

I currently run an Intel Pentium 4 CPU, 2.00Ghz 1.99GHz,1.00GB of Ram Computer and I want to totally transfer everything on that drive unto a 250GB, 8mb Cache, 7200 RPM Ultra ATA/133 Maxtor Hard Drive. Below are the instructions I was given by a friend to make the successful transfer without any glitches.

Can someone who is an expert at this look through the instructions and tell me if there is anything missing or wrong there. I just thought I should a get a second opinion in case there was something my friend over looked which someone else might spot.

Thanks for your help.


There are a few things that you will need to check and probably some software that you need.

1) Make sure that your PC is compatible with hard drives that are larger than 137GB.
It's not entirely uncommon for some motherboards/IDE channels to be unable to read a hard drive of this size.
If your motherboard isn't compatible, you will need to format the drive with more than one partition.

2) Make sure that your using the right kind of hard drive cable.
There should be an ATA 133 cable in the box with your new hard drive.
If not you will need to purchase one, any good pc store will have them.
Give them the make/model of your hard drive and they'll be able to get the right cable for you.

3) In order to make an exact and bootable copy of your current hard drive you will need software that will do this.

Power Quest's Partition Magic or Norton's Ghost will both do this.

I'm used to Partition Magic but not Ghost so I'm going to proceed as if your using that.
Always remove power from the PC when changing any hardware!!! (i.e. pull the plug even when it's not on)

1) Make a bootable CD of partition magic and verify that you can boot from the disc and start the PM software.

2) remove your current hard drive and IDE cable.

3) set the jumpers on the new hard drive to "cable select" see this diagram http://service.maxtor.com/rightnow/images/maxtor_quantum jumpers.htm

4) lay your new hard drive in the chassis and attach it to the new cable.
put the new cable into the same slot the original hard drive was connected.

5) boot the computer and hit the key on your PC that allows you to enter the system BIOS (usually DEL, F1 or ESC)

6) have the bios "auto-detect" the new hard drive.

7) reboot and enter bios again. set the pc's boot order to "Floppy, CD, IDE-0 (new hdd)"

8) reboot again and using the bootable cd, boot into the partition magic software.

9) verify that PM (partition magic) can see the new hard drive.

10) if PM allows you to do it at this point, check the new hard drive for errors (just a safety precaution)
11) shut down the PC.

Ok, so far so good. Now to move the data from the old drive to the new drive.

1) remove the new hard drive from the IDE cable

2) check the old hard drive jumper and set it to cable select.

3) put the old hard drive on the IDE ribbon cable connecter farthest away from the motherboard.

4) put the new hard drive on the IDE ribbon cable between the motherboard and the old drive.

5) boot into the system bios and "auto-detect" the drives. reboot.

6) set the bios boot order to "Floppy, CD, IDE-0" (should still be set) reboot again.

7) using the PM bootable cd boot into partition magic

Ok, now the fun.. and long part of the process.
In PM you should have 2 hard drives, the original and the new one.
You'll know the new one from the size report of the disc.
Probably, the new drive will not be formatted or partitioned.
If it is, !!! delete all partitions from the drive !!! (Careful to select the correct drive or you'll ruin your original installation irretrievably)
then select the original drives partition and simply copy it to the new drive.
PM will probably want to reboot your machine, possibly several times in order to complete the copy.
Once completed, you should be ready to go.

Shut down and take out the old hard drive
Put the new hard drive on the IDE ribbon cable at the very end furthest away from the motherboard.
Reboot into BIOS, autoselect the drive and set your boot order.

Reboot, and keep your fingers crossed.
The new drive should boot and look just like the old drive.

That's about as detailed as I can get without actually being there.
Always, be careful when dealing with power cables and hardware.
Be sure to ground yourself as much as possible.
Always touch the outside metal of the power supply before touching any other components!

 

A long list indeed, I recently copied all the info from a 60Gb to a 120Gb HDD using partition magic PM (this was not my first time though).

The remarks that I would make regard HDD>137Gb. Make sure that your mobo is 48bit LBA enabled. From the HW you have, I would say it is. Also your o/s need to be able to recognise HDD also. If you have XP sp2 then this will also be fine.

Normally, with PM I make sure I copy drive content in dos mode. So connect 2nd HDD ie 250Gb to mobo make sure its set on slave if main drive is master. Then go to bios and make sure that the 250Gb has been correctly detected and then reboot to PM in dos mode and just copy everything.

Good luck

 

Thanks for all the tips so far guys.

risk_reversal is there a way I contact you in private?. Maybe through MSN or YIM?. Can you please PM me on how I can contact you?. Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks.

 

I'm sorry if you feel I overlooked your post, which is not the case, as indicated in my first sentence.

As you mentioned this forum is also to help others, which I understand and am aware of.

My asking risk_reversal to contact me was in regard to something else and not to get private tech support. It probably didn't occur to you that I may know risk_reversal from another site which is understandable.

No offence intended and I hope non taken.