Getting a new hard drive.....have some questions

Gremmie · Feb 6, 2003, 10:58 PM

I just ordered a 120GB Special Edition WD drive, and I have a few questions about transferring stuff to it. Right now, I have a 60GB drive that is almost full, and I want to transfer all of my files from that drive to the new WD hard drive. I was thinking I could just drag and drop the C: drive onto the D: drive, which will be the WD drive, in Explorer, but I was just wondering if there is a better way.

sinjin · Feb 7, 2003, 03:44 AM

if your os is on c:\ then you'll end up with quite a big mess if you simply cut/paste to the 2nd hdd. unless you only plan on moving non-system files (pics, app installs, porn, etc). but if you desire the western digital hdd to be your primary, then you'll have some work ahead of you.

-={420}=- · Feb 7, 2003, 05:31 AM

I would recommend using the latest version of PartitionMagic.

Mystik · Feb 7, 2003, 05:40 AM

Depends.

If you're using Win9X, you can just do a cut and paste..
Make sure you "Show All Hidden and System Files" and deselect your SwapFile
because it won't be able to copy that (due to it being in use)..

Else, it's best you just make the WD Primary, format it, install your OS, then
copy all your files from your 60gb, reinstalling programs as necessary..

Tempmeyes · Feb 7, 2003, 08:22 AM

Another not so good but amusing way to do the transfer is to clone your 60gb to your 120gb. This will get everything over to your new drive, but strange things can happen.

RIV@NVX · Feb 7, 2003, 08:41 AM

You haven't made more than one partition of 60gig drive?

Redon · Feb 9, 2003, 02:54 AM

Gremmie, here's the skinny..... may not be the easiest way, but I just did this operation about a month ago.

1) Go to the Western Digital web site and download Data Lifeguard v10.0
2) Install your 120 on the second plug on your cable, and jumper it as a slave
3) Check your bios to make sure it's properly detected
4) Use the Data Lifeguard software to format, partition, and copy _all_ files to the slave drive (the 120)
5) Swap the drive positions on the cable and rejumper them (120=master, 60=slave).
6) Check bios is all good
7) Boot and scoot! Now wipe your old drive and away you go.

This will even work with XP, which originally I had thought would be a big problem. Good luck!

Gremmie · Feb 9, 2003, 07:30 AM

That's sounds great Redon. But I have a question about the Data Lifegaurd. Did you transfer files from a WD drive to another WD drive? Do you think it would it matter if the files I'm transfering be a Seagate?

ToshiroOC · Feb 9, 2003, 07:34 AM

It shouldn't matter Gremmie - the computer just sees a device that functions as a hard drive - so long as it works properly, the computer can't tell the difference between different hard drives (excluding matters of performance and size, which won't affect things...)

EDIT: Though if the proggie is from WD, it might check the device information and not let you run it if you are using a non-WD drive. What are you transfering to/from? Both Seagate?

EDIT EDIT: D'oh, I really should read from the top down

I'll edit one last time with what I really think

EDIT EDIT EDIT: Ok, here: I think the proggy should work even if it isn't WD->WD, because they want customers to be able to transfer from other company's hardware to theirs

The source drive shouldn't matter, since they are all almost the same to the computer... however, if you are really worried about it, contact WD and ask em yerself

Redon · Feb 10, 2003, 03:28 AM

Hey Gremmie, no probs there, I used Data Lifeguard to transfer my OS, etc from a Quantum Fireball to my new WD 80 gig HD. You'll be fine.

Gremmie · Feb 11, 2003, 07:33 PM

OK....I got the new hard drive installed and copied my old drive to my new WD drive. After setting it as the master drive, I found that WinXP boots up slow, and it seems to take a while to open some stuff. I think this is because all my shortcuts still point to the C:, when my WD is labled as the D: drive. Is there something I can use to change all the program paths to point to the D: instead of C:? Or is there someway to get my WD drive labled as the C: instead of the D:?

Redon · Feb 11, 2003, 08:15 PM

OK Grem, your new one (120) is your D drive and your old one is your C drive? Did you swap cable positions when you changed the drives between master and slave?

I would make sure your new drive is the master (jumper and cable), and then remove the old drive completely. Boot your system to make sure everything works, if it's all good, I would then install the second drive (old one) as a slave (jumper and cable), and wipe it clean. When you boot with only the new drive installed, XP should assign it to be the C: drive, and it will confirm it's bootable and the OS is functioning properly.

Gremmie · Feb 11, 2003, 11:32 PM

I unplugged the old drive and set the WD as master with the cable and the jumper. When I booted up, it took my BIOS a while to detect the IDE devices. Then when I tried to boot to XP, it stopped booting right before the welcome screen. The screen with the little bars going across came up, but then the welcom screen never showed up. So I went in the recovery console, and the drive read as C:, but it won't boot into XP.

Edit: When I plug the old drive in again as the slave, my BIOS doesn't pause at all to detect the IDE devices. Also, I can boot to the old drive. Under the recovery console, the old drive is D:, so I put it into the boot.ini, and it boots up, although really slow.

Ryoko · Feb 11, 2003, 11:50 PM

did you partition it as ntfs or fat32?

if it's fat32, make sure the primary partition is set to active.

if it's ntfs or an active fat32 partition, the system files/windows may be corrupt. try repairing your install.

Gremmie · Feb 11, 2003, 11:56 PM

It's NTFS. Is there a way to repair XP without having to reinstall it?

Edit: Forgot to tell you that I tried to repair the install with the XP boot CD, but it told me that it couldn't find a drive connected to my system. This is when I have the WD in by itself. When I plug in the old drive with the WD as a slave, it tells me it can repair the XP installation on Drive D:, but I'm not sure which drive it's talking about.

Edit Edit: OK....i'm stupid. The reason my WD drive wouldn't be recognized alone because I still have the jumper set for Master.

Redon · Feb 12, 2003, 12:47 AM

From the WD site, does any of this sound familiar?:

Before installing a drive, you should check to make sure that the jumper settings on the drive are correct. In addition, check to make sure that the cables have been properly attached to the drive. If you need a description of jumper settings, or additional information on cabling, see the links below:

Jumper Settings

Knowledge Base Article on cable connections

Windows XP has the necessary tools to properly install a hard drive. The Data Lifeguard Tools or other utilities are not necessary. Please follow the appropriate step-by-step instructions for your configuration below (either a Single Install or Adding a Second Drive:

Single Install:
Set BIOS to AUTO for all IDE devices.
Note: Make sure your drive is identified on the boot up screen. If not, please refer to our knowledge base article on how to identify drives in your BIOS, here.
Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive and restart the system.
Note: If your drive is connected to a controller card, ATA/66/100 controller, or Raid controller, you may need to press the F6 key to load the driver for the controller before XP can find a hard drive to install to.
Once at the partitioning screen do the following:
Create the partition size you want by pressing C. If you are formatting using FAT32, each partition cannot be larger than 32 GB. Click on the following link for additional information on this limitation:
Microsoft's Knowledge Base. If you are formatting using NTFS, there is no size limit on partitions. After the partition(s) have been created and formatted, continue with the Windows XP installation.

Adding a Second Drive:

Set BIOS to AUTO for all IDE devices.
Note: Make sure your drive is identified on the boot up screen. If not, please refer to our knowledgebase article on how to identify drives in your BIOS, here.
Acess Disk Mangement by first clicking on the Start button.
Select Run.
In the text box type diskmgmt.msc and click OK
When Disk Management opens, a wizard may appear entitled: Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard.
Note: You must use this wizard to write a Signature to the drive otherwise, the hard drive will not work with the Windows XP. If the wizard does not appear, you may need to manually complete this process. For more information see the following knowledge base article:

How do I write a signature to a hard drive in Windows 2000 or Windows XP?

Using Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard:

Drives are numbered as follows: drive 0 being the boot drive and drive 1-3 are all other drives, (except CD’s the first CD is CD 0 the second CD 1 and so forth).
After clicking Next on the first screen you will select the drive you wish to install (in this case Disk 1). Next, select the drive to be initialized to continue.
The next screen shows the drive you selected to initialize. Make sure the drive is checked and click Next.
You will have the option to convert the drive from basic to dynamic storage. Leave this unchecked and click Next.
Click Finish.
For more information about Basic and Dynamic storage, access the following link:

What is the difference between basic and dynamic storage in Windows 2000 and XP?

Partitioning/Formatting:

Note: In two separate windows, on the right side of the screen, a graphical representation of the partitions on the installed drives will be displayed. The top window is for viewing a drive’s status, capacity, and file system. In the bottom window, you will see a representation of the drives in the system starting with the boot drive (drive 0). In almost all cases, you will want to work with the bottom window.

Once you’re done initializing the disk, right-click in the unallocated space.
Then click on Create Partition.
A new wizard will appear: Create Partition Wizard. Click Next to continue.
On the next screen select either Primary or Extended Partition and click Next to continue.
You may assign a drive letter that is not in use by other devices if you wish, then click Next to continue.
Format the drive and select the type of format (NTFS or FAT32). Leave allocation unit size at default & label the drive as desired.
Enter the desired partition size. If using FAT32, your partition cannot be larger than 32 GB.
Click “Finish” when done.

Gremmie · Feb 13, 2003, 01:26 AM

I got everything up and running. This hard drive is damn awesome!! Just want to thank all the people in this thread who provided some assistance. Thanks all!

Redon · Feb 13, 2003, 01:52 AM

Rock On, Gremmie! Congrats! It took me awhile to figure it out, but it's really not that hard in the end. When I replaced my 6.4 with my 80, it was a HUGE improvement in speed and storage, a great upgrade!

Ryoko · Feb 13, 2003, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gremmie
I got everything up and running. This hard drive is damn awesome!! Just want to thank all the people in this thread who provided some assistance. Thanks all!

so what was causing problems?

Mystik · Feb 14, 2003, 08:08 AM

I don't think he was having problems in the first place.. just that he didn't know how to go about
copying all his stuff to his new hd..

but congrats!
i'm about to grab myself the 60GB size of the same family. =)

Feb 6, 2003, 10:58 PM	#1
Gremmie DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Cincy, OH, USA Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	Getting a new hard drive.....have some questions I just ordered a 120GB Special Edition WD drive, and I have a few questions about transferring stuff to it. Right now, I have a 60GB drive that is almost full, and I want to transfer all of my files from that drive to the new WD hard drive. I was thinking I could just drag and drop the C: drive onto the D: drive, which will be the WD drive, in Explorer, but I was just wondering if there is a better way.

Feb 7, 2003, 03:44 AM	#2
sinjin the last samurai Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 1,086 Rep Power: 0	if your os is on c:\ then you'll end up with quite a big mess if you simply cut/paste to the 2nd hdd. unless you only plan on moving non-system files (pics, app installs, porn, etc). but if you desire the western digital hdd to be your primary, then you'll have some work ahead of you. __________________

Feb 7, 2003, 05:31 AM	#3
-={420}=- DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 1,095 Rep Power: 0	I would recommend using the latest version of PartitionMagic. __________________ [COLOR=red]My eBay Auctions[/COLOR]

Feb 7, 2003, 05:40 AM	#4
Mystik i'm an errand. Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 237 Rep Power: 0	Depends. If you're using Win9X, you can just do a cut and paste.. Make sure you "Show All Hidden and System Files" and deselect your SwapFile because it won't be able to copy that (due to it being in use).. Else, it's best you just make the WD Primary, format it, install your OS, then copy all your files from your 60gb, reinstalling programs as necessary.. __________________ For as long as the sun shines, there will always be darkness. -- me.

Feb 7, 2003, 08:41 AM	#6
RIV@NVX Freedom is a feature. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Croatia, Rijeka Posts: 4,476 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	You haven't made more than one partition of 60gig drive? __________________ -- Vedran

Feb 7, 2003, 08:22 AM	#5
Tempmeyes DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Oregon, USA Posts: 32 Rep Power: 0	Another not so good but amusing way to do the transfer is to clone your 60gb to your 120gb. This will get everything over to your new drive, but strange things can happen.

Feb 9, 2003, 02:54 AM	#7
Redon DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 26 Rep Power: 0	Gremmie, here's the skinny..... may not be the easiest way, but I just did this operation about a month ago. 1) Go to the Western Digital web site and download Data Lifeguard v10.0 2) Install your 120 on the second plug on your cable, and jumper it as a slave 3) Check your bios to make sure it's properly detected 4) Use the Data Lifeguard software to format, partition, and copy _all_ files to the slave drive (the 120) 5) Swap the drive positions on the cable and rejumper them (120=master, 60=slave). 6) Check bios is all good 7) Boot and scoot! Now wipe your old drive and away you go. This will even work with XP, which originally I had thought would be a big problem. Good luck!

Feb 9, 2003, 07:30 AM	Thread Starter #8
Gremmie DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Cincy, OH, USA Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	That's sounds great Redon. But I have a question about the Data Lifegaurd. Did you transfer files from a WD drive to another WD drive? Do you think it would it matter if the files I'm transfering be a Seagate?

Feb 9, 2003, 07:34 AM	#9
ToshiroOC Unbiased. Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 4,812 Rep Power: 0	It shouldn't matter Gremmie - the computer just sees a device that functions as a hard drive - so long as it works properly, the computer can't tell the difference between different hard drives (excluding matters of performance and size, which won't affect things...) EDIT: Though if the proggie is from WD, it might check the device information and not let you run it if you are using a non-WD drive. What are you transfering to/from? Both Seagate? EDIT EDIT: D'oh, I really should read from the top down I'll edit one last time with what I really think EDIT EDIT EDIT: Ok, here: I think the proggy should work even if it isn't WD->WD, because they want customers to be able to transfer from other company's hardware to theirs The source drive shouldn't matter, since they are all almost the same to the computer... however, if you are really worried about it, contact WD and ask em yerself __________________ [img][/img] [color=White]Peace be with you, Joe.[/color] Driverheaven Staff Member (Supermoderator)

Feb 10, 2003, 03:28 AM	#10
Redon DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 26 Rep Power: 0	Hey Gremmie, no probs there, I used Data Lifeguard to transfer my OS, etc from a Quantum Fireball to my new WD 80 gig HD. You'll be fine.

Feb 11, 2003, 07:33 PM	Thread Starter #11
Gremmie DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Cincy, OH, USA Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	OK....I got the new hard drive installed and copied my old drive to my new WD drive. After setting it as the master drive, I found that WinXP boots up slow, and it seems to take a while to open some stuff. I think this is because all my shortcuts still point to the C:, when my WD is labled as the D: drive. Is there something I can use to change all the program paths to point to the D: instead of C:? Or is there someway to get my WD drive labled as the C: instead of the D:?

Feb 11, 2003, 08:15 PM	#12
Redon DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 26 Rep Power: 0	OK Grem, your new one (120) is your D drive and your old one is your C drive? Did you swap cable positions when you changed the drives between master and slave? I would make sure your new drive is the master (jumper and cable), and then remove the old drive completely. Boot your system to make sure everything works, if it's all good, I would then install the second drive (old one) as a slave (jumper and cable), and wipe it clean. When you boot with only the new drive installed, XP should assign it to be the C: drive, and it will confirm it's bootable and the OS is functioning properly.

Feb 11, 2003, 11:32 PM	Thread Starter #13
Gremmie DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Cincy, OH, USA Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	I unplugged the old drive and set the WD as master with the cable and the jumper. When I booted up, it took my BIOS a while to detect the IDE devices. Then when I tried to boot to XP, it stopped booting right before the welcome screen. The screen with the little bars going across came up, but then the welcom screen never showed up. So I went in the recovery console, and the drive read as C:, but it won't boot into XP. Edit: When I plug the old drive in again as the slave, my BIOS doesn't pause at all to detect the IDE devices. Also, I can boot to the old drive. Under the recovery console, the old drive is D:, so I put it into the boot.ini, and it boots up, although really slow. Last edited by Gremmie; Feb 11, 2003 at 11:51 PM.

Feb 11, 2003, 11:50 PM	#14
Ryoko American Soldier Join Date: May 2002 Location: Williamsburg, VA Posts: 1,725 Rep Power: 0	did you partition it as ntfs or fat32? if it's fat32, make sure the primary partition is set to active. if it's ntfs or an active fat32 partition, the system files/windows may be corrupt. try repairing your install.

Feb 11, 2003, 11:56 PM	Thread Starter #15
Gremmie DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Cincy, OH, USA Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	It's NTFS. Is there a way to repair XP without having to reinstall it? Edit: Forgot to tell you that I tried to repair the install with the XP boot CD, but it told me that it couldn't find a drive connected to my system. This is when I have the WD in by itself. When I plug in the old drive with the WD as a slave, it tells me it can repair the XP installation on Drive D:, but I'm not sure which drive it's talking about. Edit Edit: OK....i'm stupid. The reason my WD drive wouldn't be recognized alone because I still have the jumper set for Master. Last edited by Gremmie; Feb 12, 2003 at 12:43 AM.

Feb 12, 2003, 12:47 AM	#16
Redon DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 26 Rep Power: 0	From the WD site, does any of this sound familiar?: Before installing a drive, you should check to make sure that the jumper settings on the drive are correct. In addition, check to make sure that the cables have been properly attached to the drive. If you need a description of jumper settings, or additional information on cabling, see the links below: Jumper Settings Knowledge Base Article on cable connections Windows XP has the necessary tools to properly install a hard drive. The Data Lifeguard Tools or other utilities are not necessary. Please follow the appropriate step-by-step instructions for your configuration below (either a Single Install or Adding a Second Drive: Single Install: Set BIOS to AUTO for all IDE devices. Note: Make sure your drive is identified on the boot up screen. If not, please refer to our knowledge base article on how to identify drives in your BIOS, here. Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive and restart the system. Note: If your drive is connected to a controller card, ATA/66/100 controller, or Raid controller, you may need to press the F6 key to load the driver for the controller before XP can find a hard drive to install to. Once at the partitioning screen do the following: Create the partition size you want by pressing C. If you are formatting using FAT32, each partition cannot be larger than 32 GB. Click on the following link for additional information on this limitation: Microsoft's Knowledge Base. If you are formatting using NTFS, there is no size limit on partitions. After the partition(s) have been created and formatted, continue with the Windows XP installation. Adding a Second Drive: Set BIOS to AUTO for all IDE devices. Note: Make sure your drive is identified on the boot up screen. If not, please refer to our knowledgebase article on how to identify drives in your BIOS, here. Acess Disk Mangement by first clicking on the Start button. Select Run. In the text box type diskmgmt.msc and click OK When Disk Management opens, a wizard may appear entitled: Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard. Note: You must use this wizard to write a Signature to the drive otherwise, the hard drive will not work with the Windows XP. If the wizard does not appear, you may need to manually complete this process. For more information see the following knowledge base article: How do I write a signature to a hard drive in Windows 2000 or Windows XP? Using Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard: Drives are numbered as follows: drive 0 being the boot drive and drive 1-3 are all other drives, (except CD’s the first CD is CD 0 the second CD 1 and so forth). After clicking Next on the first screen you will select the drive you wish to install (in this case Disk 1). Next, select the drive to be initialized to continue. The next screen shows the drive you selected to initialize. Make sure the drive is checked and click Next. You will have the option to convert the drive from basic to dynamic storage. Leave this unchecked and click Next. Click Finish. For more information about Basic and Dynamic storage, access the following link: What is the difference between basic and dynamic storage in Windows 2000 and XP? Partitioning/Formatting: Note: In two separate windows, on the right side of the screen, a graphical representation of the partitions on the installed drives will be displayed. The top window is for viewing a drive’s status, capacity, and file system. In the bottom window, you will see a representation of the drives in the system starting with the boot drive (drive 0). In almost all cases, you will want to work with the bottom window. Once you’re done initializing the disk, right-click in the unallocated space. Then click on Create Partition. A new wizard will appear: Create Partition Wizard. Click Next to continue. On the next screen select either Primary or Extended Partition and click Next to continue. You may assign a drive letter that is not in use by other devices if you wish, then click Next to continue. Format the drive and select the type of format (NTFS or FAT32). Leave allocation unit size at default & label the drive as desired. Enter the desired partition size. If using FAT32, your partition cannot be larger than 32 GB. Click “Finish” when done.

Feb 13, 2003, 01:26 AM	Thread Starter #17
Gremmie DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Cincy, OH, USA Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	I got everything up and running. This hard drive is damn awesome!! Just want to thank all the people in this thread who provided some assistance. Thanks all!

Feb 13, 2003, 01:52 AM	#18
Redon DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 26 Rep Power: 0	Rock On, Gremmie! Congrats! It took me awhile to figure it out, but it's really not that hard in the end. When I replaced my 6.4 with my 80, it was a HUGE improvement in speed and storage, a great upgrade!

Feb 14, 2003, 08:08 AM	#20
Mystik i'm an errand. Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 237 Rep Power: 0	I don't think he was having problems in the first place.. just that he didn't know how to go about copying all his stuff to his new hd.. but congrats! i'm about to grab myself the 60GB size of the same family. =) __________________ For as long as the sun shines, there will always be darkness. -- me.