Formating a new hard drive

by jregu1 Jan 30, 2007 2:44AM PST

I have an HP Media Center Edition 876x running Windows XP, SP 2. I recently bought a new, larger hard drive for my computer and I want to transfer everything over to it and use it as my master drive.
I have a couple of questions about this.
1. First of all do I or should I do this or just leave the old C: drive as it is? (I read that it would be better to switch)
2. what format should i use when i initialize it?
3. do i need to do any allocating on it?
4. After it is formated do i just copy everything over using something like Acronis software or just drag and drop?
Thanks for your help. I am sure i will have more questions later.

John

Discussion is locked

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Do you have Recovery CDs yet?

by linkit Jan 30, 2007 3:54AM PST

You will need these CDs at some point no matter what you do. An option is to use the HP Recovery CDs for a fresh install.

Does the computer have a recovery partiton on the current hard drive?

HP and Compaq Desktop PCs - Recovering the System after the Hard Drive Is Replaced

Purchasing Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost is not necessary. The free software from the new hard drive maker can clone an image of the old hard drive onto the new one, but this may be complicated if the new hard drive is SATA.

Is the new hard drive an SATA model? (What's the model number?)

Format with NTFS for XP.

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Swapping hard drives...

by John.Wilkinson Jan 30, 2007 3:58AM PST

Whether you keep your current drive as the master or switch it over to the new one is up to you. Just keep in mind that unless the new hard drive runs at a faster speed or has a larger buffer there would be no performance increase. Unless you are pushing the limits of your current hard drive with most of the space used for installed software (not music files, videos, etc.) you would be better off not investing the time and effort. Instead, connect the new drive as a slave and use it for storage of your multimedia collection, saving the primary older hard drive for Windows and your applications.

If you do decide to make the switch, start by going to the hard drive manufacturer's website and seeing if they supply software that enables you to clone one hard drive to another. (There are problems with simply copying over files and it's cheaper than purchasing Acronis.) Maxtor, for instance, offers MaxBlast for those with at least one Maxtor hard drive in the mix. It will handle the formatting, file, transfer, etc. for you with a series of prompts.

Personally, I prefer NTFS over FAT formatting due to the advanced security features offered in Windows XP as well as its increased efficiency. However, if your current installation is FAT or you are networked with other FAT-formatted systems it may be the natural choice.

Hope this helps,
John

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HOW COMPUTER HARD DISK FORMATING IS DONE

by Emanuel Laurent Jul 25, 2007 8:42PM PDT

1.I WANT TO KNOW THE PROCESS OF FORMATING COMPUTER HARD DISK
2.WHAT THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN FORMATING HARD DISK
3.WHAT DOES THE WORD FORMATING MEAN?
4.HOW MANY OF HARD DISK FORMATING IS THERE?

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Re: formatting

by Kees Bakker Jul 25, 2007 8:56PM PDT

1. How to do it depends on the OS. What it does: putting an empty file system on the partition, while erasing everything that's on it.
2. What kind of file system you want. And if it's OK to erase the current contents.
3. Putting it in the right format.
4. Don't understand your question. Can you reformulate it?

Hope this helps.

Kees

Formating a new hard drive

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