Second Hard Drive Xp

Hi all,

Here's what I would like to do.

I have XP SP2 machine with 250GB hard drive.

I would like to add a 75GB hard drive from my old 98SE machine and make it the boot drive converting the original 250 GB drive to a video file storage device only.

Is there an easy/inexpensive way to transfer everything from the 250 to the 75 including the OS etc and making the larger drive the slave, without having to start from scratch and reinstall everything?

Any other traps and/or tips for young players I should look out for?

dins

 

I'm assuming that you have under 75GB used on your current 250GB hard drive.

In a corporate environment I use Norton Ghost and it just takes a couple clicks to copy one HD to another. If you know someone you can borrow a copy of that from, it is very easy. I'm not really sure of any free or inexpensive alternatives. A program that will copy all data from one HD to another will allow you to do exactly what you're looking for.

From what I've heard (never had a reason to try it) it is impossible/unreliable to do this type of copying in a windows environment. Ghost and like programs usually come with some sort of boot disk option.

 

Thanks Cyrid, but "borrowing" the software isn't an option and my video files on the larger drive have pushed the used capacity over the 75 gb size.

Maybe this is getting too hard.

dins

 

What brand HDD are you getting? Some manufacturers offer cloning programs for their new HDD's such as:

* Maxtor: MaxBlast
* Western Digital: Data Lifeguard Tools

You would still need to get your 250GB drive below 75GB though...

 

Technically you don't have to copy the video files, thus you're most likely no where near the 75GB.

 

Hi,
I use Acronis True Image http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/, it allows to do exactly what you're looking for and if you want to compare it to Norton's Ghost - it's cheaper. Also if you trust serious IT reviewers - check out this comparison between Acronis and Ghost http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,123202,00.asp
So - all stakes are for Acronis True Image if you're looking for something inexpensive, yet reliable.

Good luck with your search for the best!

 

I agree with plaphon, True Image is a very good alternative to ghost. I also found this on MG http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=146. But for the same price, I'd go with Acronis which is a better known name. No word yet on a free alternative, but I'll keep an eye out for you.

 

Thanks all.

I already have the hard drive from my old computer: it's a quantum. Do I need to re format it to use with XP it used to be used with 98SE?

dins

 

XP can read FAT32 drives (win98) just fine. Later you can convert the drive to NTFS if you wish (Recommended).