...on these drives and it's an HP computer, then I think you'll need to format and reinstall the new drive mainly because XP will probably recognize the hardware differently and have problems with "activation" if going back and forth between hard drive cases and the actual computer case/tower. Some third party programs like Symantec's "Ghost" etc..might do it, but I've never tried it with XP.
The 5 GB D drive is actually a "Recovery Partition" which should allow you to reinstall the factory software and settings. Most HP and Compaq systems allow you to create a Recovery CD set which should do the same thing. Have you tried doing that? Heck, it might be possible to place the new drive in the tower, then use the Recovery CDs to format and reinstall. But then again, I think you'll need to "activate" the new installation which shouldn't be too big an issue as long as you've got the authentication key numbers.
Still, although it may take longer, I think it's better to start from scratch and let Windows create it's own new registry during the reinsallation of all the files and programs.
Hope this helps.
Grif
I may have to replace my 160 GB hard disk because it is showing 25 GB of bad clusters. I REALLY, REALLY want to avoid having to reload all my programs, because that will take about 16 hours (which I learned from having to do it three times already!).
I have an external drive case that presently contains a 40 GB drive that I use for data backup.
My computer is an HP Pavilion a362n, which has a drive partitioned into C:\ and D:\. D:\ holds about 5 GB of System Restore Console stuff, while C:\ holds everything else.
Question: Can I get a new 160 GB driev, put it in the external drive case, format it (with partitions C: and D: ), copy everyhting from the present partitions into the new ones, and then put the new drive in place of the old one in the computer??
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Vince

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