Upgrading HDD Question

OK... just double checking my facts here before I proceed.

I have a Dell Dimension 4600 Pentium 4 / 2.6G Processor / 1G RAM / (2) 40G Seagate HDD.

I have ordered up a 300G Seagate HDD to replace my C Drive which will then become my D Drive.

If I toss in the new 300G HDD as D Drive, format it and then copy ALL of C Drive onto it... I should be able to swap the drives and be up and running with no issues -- right?

Not sure if Seagate comes with a setup CD that has the swap program but will use that if it does.

Can anyone confirm all this? Or do I re-install all onto the new HDD?

Thanks...

 

You will have to freshly install Windows and other programs onto the hard drive, but you can copy data and work across with no problems.

 

er would it not just be simpler to clone the entire drive? No need for the fresh install of the os then.

 

If you want to clone the hdd you will need to buy a program like norton ghost. I used this program before and it works really well.

That would be your easyest way of doing what you want.

 

Western Digital and Maxtor hard drives come with their own drive cloning software and I would think that Seagate provides a similar utility to clone your old drive, thus avoiding having to re-install your OS and programs.

I'd suggest going to the Seagate website to confirm that this is the case with Seagate drives also.

With the Maxtor and WD utilties I've used, it's quite easy as long as you pay attention and read the instructions. Western Digital's program is called "Data Lifeguard" or "Digital Lifeguard" if I recall correctly. You install your new hard drive as a slave drive first and then run the accompanying software and select either "Set up my new hard drive for additional program and data storage" or "Set up my new hard drive as my new boot drive" (the latter is apparently what you'd like to do). And then you let the cloning software run and it clones your old boot drive to the new one -- that is, it copies over everything from your old hard drive to the new one in such a way that the new drive will boot your OS and run your programs without having to reinstall the OS or any of your programs.

Then you have to shut down, switch the drives around (or at least the data cables), make sure you adjust jumper settings on the drives so that the former slave is now master and the former master is now slave (or use the "cable select" jumper setting if your BIOS and both drives support it). Then boot up and reformat/repartition your old drive once you've confirmed that the new drive is booting properly and all is well.

I've used both Maxtor and WD drive utilities without any problems, but I wouldn't zap anything from your old hard drive until you've used the new hard drive for awhile and are satisfied everything is working fine.

As I said, both Maxtor (which has been bought out by Seagate or WD) and Western Digital provide such utilities on an accompanying CD-ROM with their hard drives at no additional cost. I'd be suprised if Seagate doesn't do the same and you should be able to find out on their website.