HardDrive copying question - So confused.

[jagged]

Ok, this may seem simple to some of you but I just do not know how to achieve my goal.

I have two physical hard drives (one is maxtor ata66 and the other is newer maxtor ata 133). I want to use the newer ATA 133 drive as my boot drive in win XP.

I know this is kind of complicated but,

ATA 66 drive is partitioned as C: (contains win98 - part of my dual boot system) AND also as E: (contains my WinXP)

ATA133 drive is not partitioned, just a big honkin drive referred to as drive H: by the XP operating system.

I want to transfer all my files (separate dual boot up files and all) from C: AND E: to the newer ata133 H: drive

I own a copy of Drive Image 2002 - but a little weary doing the big deed until I get a bit of feedback from real users.

How do I achieve my goal of turning my ata133 drive into the boot up disk? The think that is confsuing me in the abstract is how to switch the drive letters as well.

Big Thanks from a newbie.

[The PIT]

If you want to keep it simply use Drive copy or Nortons Ghost to copy the whole lot onto your new drive. You then set your new drive to master and see if everything boots properly. Your old drive will be safe while the new drive will have the partitions resized automatically to allow for the extra space. The drive letters will also be moved across.
Are you going to reuse your old drive ???

[jagged]

eventually I want to use the old drive for storage of mp3s, vids, etc. I am hoping to get a performance boost by having WIN XP load off the newer ata133 drive.

[Tjalfe]

using ghost will still work.. copy the whole lot, then when you have confirmed that everything is there and is working on the new drive, you can format the old one. Don't forget to change the drives across so the new boot drive is connected as the primary master ( I know you can change the boot order in all new BIOSes, but still windows will like it better if the new drive is connected the same way as your old drive was)

[UtwigMU]

PQDI 2k2 should do it. But it doesn't like to image drive on which it puts it's virtual floppy, so you'll need a bootable CD or a floppy.

As long as you don't wreck data on your old drive there should be no problem.

[jagged]

thanks!

[Gurm]

I think they've covered it, but my 2 cents...

My drive backup tool of choice is Ghost, and has been for some time. It's one of the few remaining useful tools from the Norton suite.

- Gurm

[Tjalfe]

.. Only useful as it has not changed much since Norton bought up the company that developed it

[UtwigMU]

Gurm: I haven't tried Ghost, since PQDI is working for me. But since I value your opinion, I'd like to hear, why would you choose Ghost over say PQDI?

[DirtFarmer]

Ghost, PQDI...are both programs I wouldn't want to be without. I have found many situations where one worked but the other wouldn't. And I can't say I have a strong favorite. They are both excellent programs. But my favorite Hard drive tool is still Partitionmagic. Hard Drive reorganisation tool extraordinaire. I am so thankful I don't still have to use FDISK. Yuck!

jagged, get your hands on a copy, you would solve your problem in no time.

[Marshmallowman]

ehh,...just partition/format your big drive and then copy all files in windows to the corresponding partions.

Then use fdisk/mbr to make the drive bootable?.

always worked for me?, never bothered with ghost..etc

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Marshmallowman
ehh,...just partition/format your big drive and then copy all files in windows to the corresponding partions.

Then use fdisk/mbr to make the drive bootable?.

always worked for me?, never bothered with ghost..etc

I don't think that will work. XP marks the partition somehow, as far as I understand. It gets confused when that information doesn't travel with the file.

[Marshmallowman]

yeah , your probably right, I do know win2k/xp both like to write signatures on the drives before they use them, esp with ntfs.

But it worked of me in win2k on several occasions, but can get a bit problamatic in win98.

I usually copy the stuff, remove the old HDD, reboot and check to see if it boots up properly.

If for some reason problems crop up, I still have the original, but I have never needed to resort to ghost..etc(so far)

I always take the simplest/laziest approach first...

[Kurt]

yep. the best way is to image the drive. you don't have anything to do thereafter. If you don't like the drive letter arrangement, simply use partition magic to move xp to the front of the disk, hide the win98 partition, let xp rename it's space to C:, set it as active and unhide the win98 partition. voilà

BTW, I was at a Powerquest conference the other day where they demoed their new V2i Protector backup software. All I can say is: FINALLY! It's a bit like drive image with automation, sth I've wanted for some time now... Of course this isn't exactly a scoop since the soft is out since a few months but I can't say I would have installed v1.0 on customers hardware... v1.1 is out now and v2.0 should be out by the end of May.

To make a long story short, you can finally image a whole server (it supports stop/start for services, scripting -undocumented yet, etc) in MINUTES. Restore time is minutes as well. Boot to their WinPE environment, select image, voilà. You can also do whatever with the images, send them over the network (SAN, NAS, etc) boot over PXE and whatnot (like mount the images as read-only drives etc).

V 2.0 should support differential backups and scripting and other goodies.

and erm...more to the point of the topic, the new V2i technology will be implemented across their whole product range by Q3 of this year (so expect new versions for all of their software).

[Gurm]

Utwig,

I don't necessarily prefer it over PQDI. But there was a period where some of the PowerQuest suite (Drive Image, Server Magic, etc.) were lagging a bit behind (while they focused on getting full Win2k support into Partition Magic, for example) and during that period I discovered Ghost. It works for me, first time every time.

Plus, I don't know if the latest Drive Image has options like running on USB or Parallel devices, backing up to bootable restore CD sets, etc.

- Gurm