[AND_YOU_ARE]

I'll first give my situation, I would like to know if there is anything that will help me do this.

I have installed xppro on a hard drive after wiping it clean, I do this every so often. But now I have a new hard drive and would like to make this one my system drive with the os and programs on it. I dont want to go through a whole day of installing evertying and doing software updates. Is there any software that will transfer everything from this drive to the new one? It was less than a month ago that I wiped the drive and ran a fresh install. Will windows still work and everything if I were to do this?

The current system drive is a 160gb seagate, while the new drive is a 80gb wd sata. I know windows makes a template of your hardware, will this change be a problem?

Thanks for any help.

[Samm]

You should be able to use some sort of drive imaging software.

I noticed your new drive is half the size of the old one. It might be an idea (if the old drive has only a single partition) to divide it into 2 partitions using partition magic or similar.
This way everything will be on the C drive & there will be an empty logical drive after it (large enough to hold image of C

Then you can create the image of the first partition & store it on the second partition.
When you add in the new drive, just restore the image to it from the old drive.

[AND_YOU_ARE]

What type of imaging software would be best for this?

[switch]

I use norton Ghost. This is a commercial product you have to pay for, but there may be others out there you can get for free.

As far as the drive size goes, it does not matter unless the drive you are imaging has more data on it than the new drive can hold.

I just ghosted an old 8 Gb hard drive to a new 40 Gb hard drive today. I have gosted a 120 to a 40, same way.

[gaara]

Yes, I use Acronis True Image and make frequent back ups of my drives, and I must say it is the most useful program I have ever come across.

Basically, you technically will have to install Windows so to speak, but you can then simply revert that OS to the image of your previous OS and it will restore all of your previous settings, files etc.

It is important to note that if your files paths or anything similar to that have changed, it can quite badly botch up your image and result in many of your programs not running.

I do believe you can also obtain some sort of cloning software which will actually "clone" your partition and allow to easily copy it to another partition, but I haven't used such a program before and I don't know all the fine details.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...cts/trueimage/

[AND_YOU_ARE]

I have norton ghost. Can I do this with ghost? Gaara, if I understand correctly, I have to install xppro on the new drive then load the ghost file on that drive?

What do you mean about the file paths and them changing?

I havent used ghost but have gone through and looked at it.

Will Windows have a problem with this new drive when it says it has been installed on a different drive?

[gaara]

I'm not familiar with ghost so I can't be certain, but I am certain you will have to install Windows anyways, since ghost is an application and requires an operating system to run.

As for the file path question, I'm sure this won't be problem, but just to fill you in, I'll explain just in case. Some applications install files to the OS partition regardless of where you have set the installation destination folder (Microsoft Office being an example). Let's say you write the image, then install Office. Then you restore the image. Although it may technically still be on another partition, it has other files on the OS partition that weren't carried over, therefore it can't find them and the program can't work.

Also, let's say your OS was originally installed under C:\Windows and when you install the new OS, it installs under D:\Windows. This basically means that all your previous files have file paths C:\Windows\*, and since they are now under D:\Windows\*, the OS will look for them under the original directory, won't find them, and will get confused and probably not work properly. Installing the OS to the same partition path name will resolve all these problems.

The only problems I can think of are the ones I've listed above, although computers ALWAYS have problems, it's ineveitable, so I couldn't possibly list them all.

[switch]

No need to install Xp on the new drive.

Ghost will run from a boot disc CD or floppy drive.

Ghost will make an exact image of one hard drive to another.

In doing so, this will automatically erase all data on the disk being written to.

After it is done, you make the new hard drive your master, boot it up and you will see that the image transfer created the EXACT image of your other hard drive. All of your programs, settings, data, etc... will all be in the same places, nothing will look or act different.

The only thing that will change is your storage capacity, going from 80 Gb to 160 Gb.

[Samm]

Switch is right, any decent drive imaging program should have the ability to be run from a bootable floppy disk or CD. You do not need to install an OS on the new drive first.

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Sounds good. I'll look more into ghost and how it works, then attempt this some weekend I have spare time. Thanks for the help.