Hard Drive Question

drwho · Sep 21, 2009, 10:23 PM

I have a question about my son's computer. Last week my son got into some website that totally screwed his computer up. Since this computer was kinda old to begin with I took my daughter's old computer I had built her for college and used it for my son's new computer. Yesterday, after making some slight modifications to it I installed Vista on it and with all the updates and the programs he needed. And then looking at the hard drives later I realized I had installed everything on the 40 gig drive instead of the 80 gigs drive. The 40 gig drive is almost full already. So my question is, can I move everything from the 40 gig drive to the 80 gig drive without having to start all over? And what do I do when I make the transfer so the 80 gig drive will be recognized by the computer ?

Bolletje · Sep 21, 2009, 10:43 PM

I think you can make an image and transfer it to the other drive. You can maken an image with Acronis True Image for example .

drwho · Sep 23, 2009, 01:39 AM

Thanks for the suggestion, Bolletje.

BlueMak · Sep 23, 2009, 02:25 AM

I think you will save time to just reinstall it.

GigaWatt · Sep 23, 2009, 02:32 AM

my thoughts too...

shaman9876 · Sep 23, 2009, 03:02 AM

Most drive manufacturers have a free tool like diskwizard DiscWizard | Seagate (manual)
http://www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf for seagate and Maxtor, uses same tool, that allows you to transfer old drive to new one directly. Then change the settings in bios to boot from the 80 gig. I have done it many times. You just have to have one of their drives to do it. ie.. Seagate / Maxtor hard dive for diskwizard. Both drives don't have to be from same company for it to work. Western digital has the same type of software for their drives WD Support . I don't know about other brands I don't use them sorry.

drwho · Sep 24, 2009, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shaman9876

Most drive manufacturers have a free tool like diskwizard DiscWizard | Seagate (manual)
http://www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf for seagate and Maxtor, uses same tool, that allows you to transfer old drive to new one directly. Then change the settings in bios to boot from the 80 gig. I have done it many times. You just have to have one of their drives to do it. ie.. Seagate / Maxtor hard dive for diskwizard. Both drives don't have to be from same company for it to work. Western digital has the same type of software for their drives WD Support . I don't know about other brands I don't use them sorry.

Thanks Shaman, I'll look into that.

comp_ali · Sep 27, 2009, 01:03 PM

You can also try this one , it is free for personal use DriveImage XML Backup Software - Data Recovery Product

CDsDontBurn · Sep 27, 2009, 10:45 PM

imna vote for the acronis disk image software as well as i've used that successfully before myself.

and i went from my full 74GB Raptor to a brand new 250GB HDD with direct disk copy from the raptor to the 250GB drive. nothing was lost and everything worked just like if the 74GB Raptor had never been removed from my system.

Simmie · Sep 28, 2009, 09:23 AM

try reinstalling,transfer will take longer

shaman9876 · Sep 28, 2009, 10:50 PM

@simmie- I have transferred with the above products including Arconis and they take only 20-30 minutes to do it. A full re-install can take days depending on software. ie 40 min to install, 2-3 hours of updates depending how many you need not including any software installs. Don't forget data backup and recovery. It is not uncommon for a reinstall to take day's depending how much tweaking a person does. So transfering is always faster if you have the means.

MitchRapp · Oct 9, 2009, 08:51 PM

/format + reinstall is the way to go here. It's a new install, so you won't lose any data really...

may I suggest upgrading drives before that? 120gb IDE's are cheap, and if the "old" computer uses SATA ... you can get a 640gb SATA for under 80$

Sep 21, 2009, 10:23 PM	#1
drwho HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Carol Stream, IL Posts: 572 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Hard Drive Question I have a question about my son's computer. Last week my son got into some website that totally screwed his computer up. Since this computer was kinda old to begin with I took my daughter's old computer I had built her for college and used it for my son's new computer. Yesterday, after making some slight modifications to it I installed Vista on it and with all the updates and the programs he needed. And then looking at the hard drives later I realized I had installed everything on the 40 gig drive instead of the 80 gigs drive. The 40 gig drive is almost full already. So my question is, can I move everything from the 40 gig drive to the 80 gig drive without having to start all over? And what do I do when I make the transfer so the 80 gig drive will be recognized by the computer ? __________________

Sep 21, 2009, 10:43 PM	#2
Bolletje HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 1,224 Rep Power: 79 System Specs	Re: Hard Drive Question I think you can make an image and transfer it to the other drive. You can maken an image with Acronis True Image for example .

Sep 23, 2009, 01:39 AM	Thread Starter #3
drwho HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Carol Stream, IL Posts: 572 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: Hard Drive Question Thanks for the suggestion, Bolletje. __________________

Sep 23, 2009, 02:25 AM	#4
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,465 Rep Power: 349 System Specs	Re: Hard Drive Question I think you will save time to just reinstall it. __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

Sep 23, 2009, 02:32 AM	#5
GigaWatt Now In Color :D Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Macedonia, Skopje Posts: 2,116 Rep Power: 81 System Specs	Re: Hard Drive Question my thoughts too... __________________ It's not schisophrenia... it's just a voice in my head...

Sep 23, 2009, 03:02 AM	#6
shaman9876 HardwareHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: USA, WI Posts: 80 Rep Power: 62 System Specs	Re: Hard Drive Question Most drive manufacturers have a free tool like diskwizard DiscWizard \| Seagate (manual) http://www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf for seagate and Maxtor, uses same tool, that allows you to transfer old drive to new one directly. Then change the settings in bios to boot from the 80 gig. I have done it many times. You just have to have one of their drives to do it. ie.. Seagate / Maxtor hard dive for diskwizard. Both drives don't have to be from same company for it to work. Western digital has the same type of software for their drives WD Support . I don't know about other brands I don't use them sorry.

Sep 27, 2009, 01:03 PM	#8
comp_ali Sniper Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Egypt Posts: 10,469 Rep Power: 339 System Specs	Re: Hard Drive Question You can also try this one , it is free for personal use DriveImage XML Backup Software - Data Recovery Product __________________

Sep 27, 2009, 10:45 PM	#9
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,779 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	Re: Hard Drive Question imna vote for the acronis disk image software as well as i've used that successfully before myself. and i went from my full 74GB Raptor to a brand new 250GB HDD with direct disk copy from the raptor to the 250GB drive. nothing was lost and everything worked just like if the 74GB Raptor had never been removed from my system. __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Sep 28, 2009, 09:23 AM	#10
Simmie HardwareHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Botswana Posts: 68 Rep Power: 0	Re: Hard Drive Question try reinstalling,transfer will take longer

Sep 28, 2009, 10:50 PM	#11
shaman9876 HardwareHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: USA, WI Posts: 80 Rep Power: 62 System Specs	Re: Hard Drive Question @simmie- I have transferred with the above products including Arconis and they take only 20-30 minutes to do it. A full re-install can take days depending on software. ie 40 min to install, 2-3 hours of updates depending how many you need not including any software installs. Don't forget data backup and recovery. It is not uncommon for a reinstall to take day's depending how much tweaking a person does. So transfering is always faster if you have the means.

Oct 9, 2009, 08:51 PM	#12
MitchRapp a.k.a. pepiman Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Montreal Posts: 998 Rep Power: 51 System Specs	Re: Hard Drive Question /format + reinstall is the way to go here. It's a new install, so you won't lose any data really... may I suggest upgrading drives before that? 120gb IDE's are cheap, and if the "old" computer uses SATA ... you can get a 640gb SATA for under 80$