Copy data from old Hard Disk to New

I have a hardware question for knowledgable technical types on this site.

I have a Dell desktop---a Dimension 4550, running Win XP Home edition, 512 MB RAM---with 2 hard drives installed. The primary (of course) and a secondary, backup drive, which is all hard disks this desktop has room for. I also have a CD-RW drive and a DVD-ROM drive. There are no more available slots for any sort of drive.

The secondary, a puny 40 gig, is almost filled up. So I want to replace this secondary drive with a much larger hard drive (120 gig, whatever's available on sale at a good price). Problem is, I want to transfer the contents of the present secondary onto the new drive, but have no ready means of doing this.

I have an idea for a possible work-around solution, but want some expert opinions as to its feasibility.

I propose to use the CD-RW/DVD-ROM motherboard connection. Specifically, open up the case, disconnect the data ribbon cable at the mother board end that feeds these 2 removable media drives (and their power cables) and use this freed-up motherboard connection to connect the NEW hard drive into the system.

I would then reboot the machine, EXPECTING THAT THE OS WILL RECOGNIZE the new hard drive on the CD-RW drive/DVD-ROM connection for what it is.

• QUESTION: Does anyone know for sure that this part will work?

Then use Win XP's built-in Disk Management utility to partition the new drive (just one single), then ghost the contents of the old secondary onto the new secondary (or just drag 'n' drop the contents across as there is no real need for a mirror image copy.)

Then, of course, turn the computer off, swap secondaries, reconnect the CD-RW drive and DVD-ROM drives and reboot again. I assume that everything should again be properly detected by Windows XP and function properly---!?!?

I've never pulled a stunt like this before, nor heard of anyone who has.

Soooo, if anyone has done this successfully, or knows that it is doable without any glitches, or can point out more specific techniques or caveats for doing this successfully---OR MOST IMPORTANTLY KNOWS THAT THIS STUNT IS A DEFINITE NO-NO---I would very much appreciate your advice or suggestions.

Thanks very much for your time and attention.

TV Johns

 

You shouldn't need to partition the new disk, but there is nothing stopping you from doing so.
I would suggest just drag and dropping your files, especially if you don't make a 40g partition on the new drive.

This isn't really a work around, it is the standard method of temporarily hooking up an extra drive. The only thing you seem to have missed is checking that your BIOS is automatically detecting the contents of the IDE slots.

Should take you all of half an hour, mostly copying.

 

This is being made out as much more difficult or confusing than necessary. Just disconnect the opticals and put the new HDD on the secondary IDE cable. Boot with a Ghost 2003 Boot Disk and copy your current secondary HDD to the new drive (Disc to Disc). When finished, shut down and reconnect as you originally suggested and then boot back up. Windows will recognize the drive and as Christer said, will ask you to reboot. You're done. You may need to check drive lettering in Disc Management but you should come out OK on this front too.

If all HDD's are jumpered CS, you don't have anything to worry about. If your current drives are jumpered master and slave then you first have to jumper the new drive Master or CS and then jumper it as slave under the "new" setup when it replaces the old drive.

 

My sincere thanks, and a couple more questions

My thanks to all 3 of you who responded to my post. Your posts were most helpful and instructive.

However, your comments, particularly those of Rockster2U, leave me with a couple of questions (sorry to be a further bother, but I've never used Ghost in this manner before, and when I get ready to do the deed, given my current schedule, it kinda needs to move right along, taking a half hour as David suggests---which for me, I interpret to mean 1 hour ± half a day):

1st: You mention "Boot with a Ghost 2003 Boot Disk..." I do have Ghost 2003. And by boot disk I assume you mean use the bootable CD the application comes on to boot to what Norton calls the "recovery environment "? I don't notice any provision for a bootable floppy (I probably shouldn't mention floppies—that pretty much dates me as a user, I suppose. )

Also, the Ghost package I have also includes a Ghost 9.0 disk as well as Ghost 2003. I have a passing familiarity with the 2003 version, but know nothing about the 9.0 version. Any particular advantage to using 9.0—extra bells and whistles, better user interface. My personal experience with other apps is that the more they are "improved" and "updated" the less I like them—though I suppose Ghost could be an exception, maybe—?

2nd: Rockster2U, you mention that if the old drives are configured Master and Slave, I must configure the new drive as Slave, once drive copying is done, even though I may have jumpered it CS to initiate the copy process. I don't remember how my original Dell-installed drive was configured nor how I jumpered the first secondary I now wish to replace.

Just for curiosity, If the two present drives aren't jumpered CS, and I were inclined to change the original Master drive and the new Secondary to CS, say once the drive copy process is accomplished, that would be doable without any problems, would it not?

Also, I notice the Ghost manual—actually printed out on real paper (I'll have to save that, the Smithsonian may want it some day for their archeology wing)—states that the new drive does not need to be formatted, all of you were right on about that, BUT the manual also mentions under "Copy Drive Wizard Options ":

"Resize drive to fill unallocated space," which is defined as "Automatically expand the drive to occupy the destination drive's remaining unallocated space." --???-- I don't know what that means and so can't tell if this is a needful step to realize the new drive's full capacity or what.

Also, further below this option is another option that sounds important: Destination partition type defined as "Click *Primary Partition* to make the Destination (new) drive a primary partition." Also similar to to create a Logical partition.

From you folks and the manual, the drive does not need to be formatted, but is there still a necessity or any advantage to partition the new drive by choosing this Primary partition option when using Ghost Drive Copy routine?

Again, my thanks and appreciation for your time and attention.

TV Johns

 

You don't need a ghost boot disc.
A regular boot disc will be fine, but you will need ghost.exe and ghosterr.txt present on a partition, disc or on a second floppy (which you swap the boot disc for after you have reached the c:> prompt). You just navigate to the directory which contains ghost.exe and run it.
For making a clone of a local drive onto another local drive, the version of ghost won't make much difference at all. If you have an old copy of ghost 6.0 anywhere, it is possibly better than the later versions, as it was small enough to fit on a floppy disc and leave room for the system files.

Just set disc which contains windows as your primary master, your data disc (the new one) as the primary slave, and your optical drives as secondary master and slave (the one you use most as master). Is there any particular reason you want cable select?

Unallocated space is surplus space which occurs when the disc/partition being imaged is larger than the disc/partition from which the image was taken. If you don't choose to resize into allocated space, your imaged disc will have unpartitioned space remaining (your old drive was 40gb, say the new one is 120 gb, then you will have a 40gb partition containing a copy of your old drive and 80gb of unpartitioned space). If you do choose to resize into unallocated space, then said unallocated space is incorporated into the partitions the image creates. In your case one single 120 gb partition. I'd recommend you do resize into unallocated space.

You don't need to set your new disc up with a primary partition, but it makes no difference either way for a slave drive, as far as I know.

 

Again, I like to keep things simple and will tend to echo Christer's comments re: a couple of things. You can make a Ghost boot floppy with 2003 and it will take care of all your needs here. I too cable everything HDD-wise as CS and don't use master/slave designations - haven't for several years. Just remember, your master is on the end or terminating connector and slave on the intermediate connector. I can't say much of anything about Ghost 9 because I've never used it either - 2003 has always done the job for me since switching from PQDI a few years back and I have no interest in using #9 so I too will head to the Smithsonain when and if the invitation comes. 2003 will resize your cloned drive so cloning a 40 to a 120 will leave you with a 120 and no unallocated space.

 

Thanks Again!

Again my thanks for your patience and clear explication. In the combination of all of your posts you 3 have given me everything I needed.

I have sampled several online help sites over the years, and this Windows BBS help site, in my estimation, out shines all the rest.

I have always recommended it to any user I talk to who has any interest in finding help on line. And with the sorry state of tech support from more and more software and hardware producers, this site only increases in value over time.

Thanks for your time and attention.

TV Johns