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General discussion

Installing new hard drive

Mar 15, 2007 1:21AM PDT

I just bought a new hard drive and I'm wondering what the best way to get all of the data from my old HD onto the new one is. I was thinking of installing it as a second hard drive and moving all of my files to the new one (keeping windows on the old one) but my computer only has one hard drive bay. Could I fix it in place with gaffer tape or something or will I have to stick with one HD?

If so, is there a way to copy everything from the old HD to the new one or will I have to reinstall everything?

Discussion is locked

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If I'm moving to the new drive...
Mar 15, 2007 1:26AM PDT

I just place it in the case so that it won't short out. Gaffer's tape would be one idea but tape tends to generate far too high a static charge when you peel it off the roll so I'd stick with cardboard or placing it in a smart and safe place so I could clone the old drive to the new drive. The drive maker supplies the clone software.

If I just want to copy the data files out I could opt for a nice USB 2.0 drive housing.

Bob

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Cloning
Mar 15, 2007 2:31AM PDT

Thanks Bob.

Cloning looks to be the best option. Is there free cloning software or will I have to shell out for Acronis or Norton Ghost?

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"The drive maker supplies the clone software."
Mar 15, 2007 2:39AM PDT

I usually give the drive maker's tools a shot if I don't have my Ghost or PING CD.

Bob

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RE: "The drive maker supplies the clone software."
Mar 15, 2007 2:48AM PDT

The drive didn't come with a disc and all I could find on the supplier's website (Hitachi) was a link to Acronis.

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Hitachi's clone software.
Mar 15, 2007 2:58AM PDT
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Thanks for the help Bob
Mar 16, 2007 9:33AM PDT

I cloned the drive using HDClone and it seems to be working fine, I have two more questions though.
When the program finished it said the clone was erroneous and it had made over 700 read errors. Like I said it seems to be working fine but is this likely to cause problems in the future?
Also, I understand the program creates a partion which is the same size as the source drive and leaves the rest of the drive unpartitioned. How do I partition it?

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Cringe.
Mar 16, 2007 11:44AM PDT

I hate it when things like that happen. I'm unsure of the age or such of the drive but some found ways to help the drive along such as placing in the chilly garage. Read http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7587_102-0.html?forumID=69&threadID=233644&messageID=2405026#2405026

If this was mine I would not touch the old drive until I gain confidence in the drive clone.

XP has a DISK MANAGEMENT console to work with the drive partitions. If you don't exceed XP's (I would need to hear more about your XP CDs to exceeed this) 127GB limitation I would look up GPARTED and resize the partition with that. Read http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-do-i-resize-windows-partition-with-open-source-software.html

Bob

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Might also want to test the HDD with the drive mfgs DIAGs.
Mar 16, 2007 4:08PM PDT

It'll tell you pretty quickly if there's a problem with the drive.
Given your observations.....I'd do it soon.

VAPCMD

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Thanks guys
Mar 17, 2007 1:22AM PDT

I ran the drive fitness test and it didn't come up with any problems. As far as I can tell the drive's working perfectly.

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(NT) Good to hear...just make sure you backup your data.
Mar 17, 2007 4:26AM PDT