Installing a new HD - two questions

So I'm buying a new, bigger and faster HD, but have a couple of doubts...

My plan is to (1) set the jumpers and install it as a slave drive, (2) format it NTFS, (3) copy the whole of my current (smaller, slower, FAT) C: drive to it, (4) power down, (5) remove the current drive and recycle it to charity, (6) re-jumper the new one to master and re-install it, (7) power up.

A couple of doubts:

a. Will the change in the C: drive serial number mess up anything in the XP registry?
b. Will that same change cause Microsoft WGA or Office WGA to refuse to recognise the new HD? (both XP and Office are kosher)
c. Anything else I should bear in mind?

(In case it's relevant, I also have a second HD, but it's not so old or slow, so I'm keeping it. I'll leave it right out of the workflow and shall simply reinstall it later when the main job is done. System specs in my profile if needed.

And yes, I know about the dangers of leaving sensitive data on hard drives, but there's nothing sensitive or pornographic on the drive I'm discarding, so I figure just reformatting it should be enough - charities aren't going to go to the expense of professional data recovery.)

There are sure to be some more elegant ways to do this, but I'm not particularly expert and, being a pensioner, one thing I do have plenty of is time, so I'll just go the easy slog route and enjoy a coffee while it's churning away....

 

Many thanks, Steve and Pete; swift and helpful as ever!

Yes, I'd thought about not being able to copy Windows files that are in use, and had intended to use DOS commands for the copying process (still have some old emergency boot floppies). But since you've pointed me to a free trial app, I'll use that. Hate to be a scrounger, but a sterling pension doesn't go very far in a euro country these days...

My major concerns were the Windows and Office WGAs and the registry, but as you assure me there's no problem there, I'll go ahead.

And yes, I saw the piece on the BBC News site about hard drives and sledge-hammers . As I said, I'm leaving nothing sensitive (like bank account details) on it - haven't done for years, the way hackers are going - but I'll try Eraser for the fun of it.

Thanks again and have a good weekend.

 

Thanks - that was kind, Pete! However, there's still a slight glitch...

I have d/loaded and installed Acronis Migrate Easy 7, as you recommended. I have formatted the new HD in NTFS. But when I go to clone the old C: drive to the new H: drive, using either automatic or manual modes, I notice -- when I get to the last screen to check all options before finally proceeding -- that AME7 wants to create the new drive in FAT32, like the old one. I've been backwards and forwards through all the options, but I can't find a way to make it clone (or copy) from FAT32 to NTFS.

I was hoping to take this opportunity to get rid of FAT32. As far as I'm aware, I can't convert the old drive from FAT32 to NTFS first, before cloning, without deleting all the data, right?

The only other option I could think of would be to boot to DOS and use XCOPY C: H: /S /F /H /K /O, and then remove the old disk and rename the new one as C: - or is that too easy to be true?

 

Once again, swift and helpful! And you're up late tonight, Pete...

If I'd only known that before (that I could convert FAT32>NTFS without losing data), I'd have done it years ago. I was assuming (for safety's sake) that trying to convert a whole drive could reformat it or otherwise mess up the data, so I've been holding off for just this opportunity to make the jump.

Yes, I'll do as you say, cloning first, then converting the new drive to NTFS and leaving the old one unchanged until I'm certain it's all worked out perfectly. As, in fact, Acronis also recommend in their help screens (except that they don't go into modifying the file system, at least, not anywhere I could find...).

But not tonight. I'm an hour ahead of you, and my eyes are already going square... I'll report back when it's all done, in case anybody else is following this thread and intends to do the same operations.

Thanks again.

 

Sorry for butting in Pete and Geoffrey but one point...

For others reading FAT32->NTFS shouldn't be a problem but backups are always advised. The opposite NTFS->FAT32 is not on though. Convert is a one way route. Once again my apologies but I thought it should be pointed out.

 

Thanks wildfire - that wasn't "butting in ", it was absolutely right. As the following problem proves (not sure whether this should now become a thread in the Windows XP forum, but since we started here...):

Haven't got around to copying files from the third, oldest, smallest HDD yet, nor to conversion FAT32>NTFS, because I'm stuck with a higher-priority problem. The cloning with AME7 went a dream - very foolproof, helpful screens, the lot. So I now have two HDDs with virtually identical content including all system files, and each with 2 partitions, one (newer/faster) labelled Disc 0 and with partitions D: and F:, and the older, original one labelled Disk 1 with partitions C: and E:. (Not the drive letters I would have chosen, but I'll get around to renaming them later...)

Trouble is, I can only boot from C: on the slower, older drive. If I try to boot from the new drive, I get as far as the black splash screen with the big Windows logo and the scrolling progress bar, then on to the two-tone blue screen with the smaller logo, but it sticks there and doesn't proceed to the page where you choose your account and enter the password. Dead in the water.

Have tried all possible permutations (I think!) of boot order in CMOS, jumper settings, order of HDDs on the ribbon cable, but I'm still stuck with running the OS on a slower drive. I can read drive D: OK, run programs from it, etc., but I can't boot from it. So glad I didn't delete the data on the old drive!

Where do I go from here - any advice, please?

 

Thanks, Pete. I'm pretty sure that's exactly how I did it, but I'll gladly (well, relatively gladly!) run through it again, as AME7 was pretty painlesss, as you said from the start.

As for removing the original drive after cloning, yes, I did, but then put it back on to check. In retrospect, glad I did, because that's where I'm booting from now. But even if I leave the new drive as the only (and therefore master) drive installed, it still mis-boots as described in my previous post.

In fact (now that I think carefully - should have kept a log, but wasn't anticipating all this), the problem started after everything seemed to have worked out well and I tried to install the oldest, 3rd drive (not involved in the AME operation at all) as a slave drive to recover some old files off it.

Let me follow your advice, do the cloning operation again and be sure I follow your plan, and then report back. A major hassle, plugging and unplugging HDDs in a dark, narrow corner all day long here...

One final thought before I begin - I've no idea of the difference between a logical drive and a primary partition. How do I tell the difference, and which should I be trying to install on the new HDD? In Disk Management, all four drives are described as "primary partitions ", and I have no unallocated space left to create a logical drive. So should I re-clone, but this time leaving an appropriate amount of unallocated space to create a logical drive, whatever that is? Is it any use if I send you a screenshot of Disk Management (in Italian!)?

 

Great - successfully booted from new disk!

I followed your instructions carefully, but I'm not totally convinced I did anything different this time. However, the result proves we were right...

AME does produce primary partitions, BTW - at least, in the Manual Mode no other option was available, and the colour-coding of the chart (the one showing the resumé of the choices you've made before you close your eyes tight and hit "Proceed ") showed only primary partitions. That was when "cloning "; when "adding a new HDD" I don't know, as I didn't use that option.

So far so good. I'm now exhausted after a whole day of crawling around with a screwdriver between my teeth like a pirate, and my blood pressure needs to come down. I've promised to take my wife to the cinema so shall tackle retrieving data from the old 3rd HDD and then FAT32>NTFS conversion (in that order) tomorrow (and maybe Saturday, if it goes on like this...).

Have a good evening and thanks for support.

 

95% resolved, and thanks for "holding my hand" through the scary bits. Have successfully recovered old files off the 3rd disk (which I shall later erase and discard), and successfully converted 3 out of 4 partitions to NTFS. For the 4th, the error-message is "not enough memory ", but I've already ordered another Gig from the local Computer Discount.

Hope this thread contains some useful stuff for others preparing to do the same operation.

For the record, the movie was Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino. My wife said I'm just as grumpy as his character Walt Kobinsky, just not as good-looking .

Over and out (for now...).