replacing master HDD...

[Red96TA]

I've got two HDD's at the moment...a 40gb master and an 80gb slave. Today, I bought a Maxtor 200gb and would like to install it as my new master. Is there a way to transfer everything over from the old master to the new master without a fresh windows install?

[budz]

On the maxtor installation cd you should be able to copy from the old hard drive to the new one. Also there should be instructions that came with the maxtor hard drive, it shows you how to transfer to the newer drive. You can also check maxtor's website. make sure you install the LBA BIG DRIVE ENABLE patch on your old drive that way the patch can be transfered to your big 200 gb hard drive. you can download it from maxtor's website. some motherboards don't support LARGE HARD drives. I'd give you the link for the download but I'm at work.
Good luck!

[ViRaL1]

I'd recommend Norton Ghost. Other people like TrueImage. I've never used it myself, but other people say it works well. You may want to make sure your mobo supports 48-bit LBA, unless you're planning on the IDE controller that MAY have come with your drive. If you do that, it may present an entirely different issue if you want to use the 200 as your boot drive.

What's the model NUMBER of your mobo?

Should be MS-65xx.

[Red96TA]

According to the paperwork I've read in the installation manual, I don't need a controller after XP SP1...correct?

[ViRaL1]

In order to take full advantage of large drives (>137GB) you need both hardware AND software support. If your mobo doesn't support it, you'll need to use the Maxtor ATA controller.

Hint: SOME MSI mobos don't support large drives on the main IDE controllers but DO with the onboard RAID controller. Take mine for example. I have a 250GB Maxtor, but it will only work on the onboard RAID connector because 48-bit LBA wasn't part of the main chipset when my mobo came out.

[Red96TA]

FINISHED!

The MaxBlast3 utility that the HDD came with did everything for me. It changed my bios to accept >137gb HDD's...then all I had to do was set up the new drive as a slave and MaxBlast transferred all my files from the old master to the new master...shut down the computer, swapped the drives, and viola....worked like a charm!

Thanks guys.

[budz]

The MaxBlast3 utility that the HDD came with did everything for me. It changed my bios to accept >137gb HDD's...then all I had to do was set up the new drive as a slave and MaxBlast transferred all my files from the old master to the new master...shut down the computer, swapped the drives, and viola....worked like a charm!

Glad to hear you got it to work!!