[wicked23]

Set the old drive to master and new drive to slave. Boot from old drive. Then format new drive and set up partitions. Copy over data. Make new drive master and set old drive to slave. Now boot from new drive, format old drive then set partitions. Done.

[carnageX]

Ok, so here's a few questions:

How do i set a SATA drive to slave? And, I have 2 "drives" to copy over onto my new one (C: and D. How do I split up the new drive into 2 drives so I can copy C: to one drive, and D: to another drive on the new one? And when I tried to copy C: the first time (I set the new drive to boot the OS/set it to copy the Master Boot Record) it still said that my old drive was the System drive.

[littleman2030]

I myself have found the Ghost Boot disk alot easyer. You shouldn't have any problem with master or slave on eather drives, ghost will pick them up since they are not beeing booted to. And when you use the boot disk, it will copy over EVERYTHING. Thats the drive name, MBR, to a point that you wont see a diffrence at all just more space to store stuff and both partitions will be there. Just make sure you do a Disk to Disk and not partition to partition because then you wont get both partitions, just the one you chose. And make sure you choose the right drive when you choose the Source and Destination because if you choose the new drive as the source....it will make your drive with all your data as if it were new...........formated fresh with nothing on it new. Usualy, when I have a SATA and a IDE it makes the SATA number 1. If your not sure exactly and the capacitys match up, use the Local>Check in the Ghost bootup GUI and see what drive has your files.

[carnageX]

Ok, but where is the Local>Disk>Disk to Disk? I used the Ghost bootdisc, and I couldn't find anything like that, only "Copy Drive" and that only copies the partitions. I'm not sure what version of Ghost you're using, but if its an older version than 9, my functions may be in a different spot than yours. Thanks again for the help.

[carnageX]

Ok, I looked around the boot disc a bit, and here's the processes I think I'm supposed to go through:

IDE HDD's jumper set to Cable Select (hooked on a Master IDE Cable, and shows up as Master in BIOS/Boot Menu).

I kept the new HDD unallocated.

Booted Ghost

After Ghost booted: Advanced Recovery Tasks > System Restore > Restore Drives > Multiple Drives > added the C: drive backup image I made a few days ago,with the following settings:

[X]Verify backup image before restore
[ ]Check for file system errors after restore
[ ]Resize drive to fill unallocated space
Advanced Options:
[X]Set drive active (for booting OS)
Partition type:
[X]Primary Partition
[ ]Logical Partition
For advanced configurations:
[X]Restore Original Disk signature
[X]Restore MBR (Master Boot Record)

after checking those options, add the back up image for the D: drive with the following options:

[X]Verify backup image before restore
[ ]Check for file system errors after restore
[ ]Resize drive to fill unallocated space
Advanced Options:
[ ]Set drive active (for booting OS)
Partition type:
[X]Primary Partition
[ ]Logical Partition
For advanced configurations:
[X]Restore Original Disk signature
[ ]Restore MBR (Master Boot Record)

The backup images are being added to unallocated portions of the new HDD (a file system such as NTFS doesn't show up for it, just shows as Unallocated).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

So would those be the right steps to copy from the old HDD to the new one? And what will happen to the unallocated area of the HDD? Will it remain unallocated, or can I add that to the C: portion somehow? Or am I supposed to go into Disk Management > Right-Click on the unallocated drive > and select New Partition? Wouldn't this not allow me to add multiple back-up drive images if the entire thing is allocated?

Sorry if I confused you with that bit... Thanks a lot for the help.

[sPlAtOiD]

I think your making it too hard. You just boot with the Ghost disk and select copy drive in the next box it will show you which drive to copy you check the size to make sure its the small older one. then select it.
Then move to the next step { TO } hard drive it will show you the drive check to make sure its size to make sure its the larger new drive select next to copy to new drive.
It should take about 10 minutes or so. When done unplug the older ide drive and boot up with the new drive to test it.
If it works alright reattach the old drive as slave and boot up. Go into disk management and format the old drive. If it looks like the new drive is missing some space look also in disk management.
Ghost is a real simple program to use. It will make an exact copy of the old drive.

[carnageX]

When you guys are saying "boot with Ghost disc" that makes it sound like you want me to boot withthe Ghost boot disc, and boot off of the disc into DOS. And it sounds like you're explaining it to me to do it while I'm still in Windows, not in DOS, because I have Ghost already installed on my computer...

And, sPlAtOiD, you know that I'm trying to copy 2 drives (it's 1 HDD separated into 2 drives, my C: drive (general drive, in NTFS format) and my D: drive {a recovery portion of the drive that contains important system files and is in FAT32 format}) into 1 drive.

Here are the source drives (the ones I want to copy):
http://i7.tinypic.com/42td8j8.png

Here is the drive I want to copy to:
http://i12.tinypic.com/432z906.png
Am I supposed to add partition that drive in the Disk Management dialog, or can I leave it as is in that dialog?

Now, which of these options do I pick to copy the C: drive? (am I supposed to leave the Drive letter dialog set to <none> or do I pick a letter?)
http://i9.tinypic.com/2cq02et.png
And which of them do I pick for the D: drive?

This is kinda hard to explain, so I'll try as best I can... After I copy my C: drive over and make it so I can run off of that one, will it let me copy over my D: drive as well, without overwriting the other drive?

[littleman2030]

What will make this 10 times easyer is if you use a ghost boot disk from Ghost 2003. I did alittle testing and found out how I can get you one of these disks. You will need two floppy disks. Make the first one a 98 boot disk and the other have just the GHOST.EXE on it. You can get the GHOST.EXE off my FTP and a file from bootdisk.com that will make a 98 boot disk there as well. ftp://75.176.3.77 . Boot the PC up using the 98 boot disk, after you get to A:\ take the floppy out and insert the other with GHOST.EXE on it. Type in GHOST.EXE and it should start up ghost 2003 for you. Im sorry it has to be so difficult, I cant seem to find anywere that has a image of the ghost disk. After you boot up to ghost, you will see a MUCH easyer ghost and if you read my steps im sure you will be ready to go within an hour or two.

[carnageX]

Just one problem with that... I don't have a floppy drive, lol. I may be able to strip one off of my old computer though...

How do I make the first floppy a 98 Boot disk, if I may ask?

I've been wondering.... Would it just be easier to leave the D: drive on my old one, since I'm going to use that drive strictly as a back-up drive, and the D: drive has the important system files on it (it's just a recovery drive). So would it just be easier to copy C: to the new one, and then just delete that partition/make it a blank partition? Or is it gonna be easier to just do what you told me to do?

Sorry I've beenso difficult on this matter =\.

[littleman2030]

It's no problem at all carnageX, no one knows everything. I learn things every day about PC's, its just who has more experience. After you get through this problem....it will never be a problem for you again because you will know what to do.

The 98 boot disk, there is a file on the ftp named 98boot.exe. If you run that and have a floppy in, it will make that floppy disk a 98 boot disk.

What you say about deleting just the primary partition will work but would take a few more steps (more complex). I would recommend sticking to this procedure and if you have some spare time on your hands, you can play with it with another hard drive. Always a good way to learn stuff.