Whats The Best Way To Migrate From an Old Hard Drive To A New One?

Hello Sean!

Buy a copy of Norton Ghost 2003. (I don't know where You live but I guess they come cheap these days.) Read up in the manual on Disk to Disk cloning.

Install Ghost on the old HDD and have the wizzard create a Standard Ghost Boot Disk.

Do some housecleaning on the old HDD;
- delete temp files, including temporary internet files
- delete cookies
- delete history
- defragment

Shut down the computer and after jumpering it as Cable Select, connect the new HDD as Primary Slave.

Put in the Standard Ghost Boot Disk and start the computer. Do a Disk to Disk clone from the old HDD to the new HDD.

When the task is completed, DO NOT LET GHOST RESET THE COMPUTER but shut it down on the power switch.

Remove the old HDD and connect the new HDD as Primary Master. Restart the computer. The new HDD will automatically become C:.

After the computer has been started once on the new HDD alone, You can connect the old HDD as Primary Slave and use it for backups or whatever. Don't forget to change the jumpering to Cable Select.

(Your computer may be old and not able to handle Cable Select jumpering. If that's the case, jumper as Master or Slave but don't forget to change it when changing the position of the HDD's.)

Christer

 

Hello Chuck!

I guess that any flavor of imaging software will do the job. I don't know how simple it is with the others but "simple" probably means "what I'm used to ".

If Ghost was shutting down only, it would be OK but it actually resets/restarts the computer. The new HDD, connected as Primary Slave, will get drive letters that do not fit with the boot.ini file. I don't remember the exact details but depending on which OS, there may be problems with the computer not booting from the new HDD once it is connected as Primary Master.

When I did the operation a while ago, I followed the advice to not let Ghost reset the computer and to remove the old HDD and connect the new HDD as Primary Master before restarting.

For once ...... ...... I did as I was told and the computer worked well with the new HDD as Primary Master. Subsequently, the old HDD was connected as Primary Slave, reformated and is in use for backups.

Christer

 

Ghost can clone Partition to Partition. You would need to connect the new HDD as Primary Slave and partition it from within Windows. You would basically take the same steps as in my previous description but P to P and not D to D.

I am not 100% sure that the new HDD would boot after a P to P cloning but I believe that all boot sectors get copied to the cloned HDD.

Christer

 

As an aside:

My own backup strategy is to create images of the system partition, Partition to Image. The images are created to a different partition and a different HDD. (Yes, I have duplicate images.)

If I should need to replace the Primary Master, I would have to connect the new one, and install Windows XP fresh to do the partitioning. Next, I would restore the most recent image.

In Your case, Sean, if the computer doesn't start from the P to P cloned HDD;

- connect the old HDD as Primary Master and the new HDD as Primary Slave,

- create a Partition to Image of the system partition. Create it to a partition on the Primary Slave but not the intended new system partition,

- remove the old HDD and connect the new HDD as Primary Master,

- start the computer with the XP-CD in the tray and do a clean install and when finished,

- restore the image of the old C: to the new C:

(I do believe that P to P will render a bootable system but if not ...... ...... there are more ways to try.)

Christer

 

No need for that, just install WinXP directly and when prompted for verification of a previous OS version, temporarily insert the Win98-CD.

Christer

 

Abraxas,

Is that from experience?

The below is from clone maxx FAQ :

Christer