Tips on replacing original (main) C:Drive?

[Captain Satellite]

Hello,
How would I go about changing Crive? I have the CDs that came with the computer, would that be enough or do I need the Windows program? I also own Acronis True Image if that will help. Happy Holidays and thanks for all the help this year!

[mysts]

I recently did just that. I removed the c:drive and put in a larger one. I then used Acronis to clone the old to the new. Rebooted and it fired right up. If you need more details just yell.

[edDV]

The new drive, if the consumer package, probabaly includes disk clone software.

[Captain Satellite]

Thanks for the replies. Ed, I was going to replace my 2 year old 250gb with a new 1TB drive, but then it occurred to me that I should make that my Crive instead. I don't know if I still have anything that came with the 250gb drive. I imagine my Acronis True Image program could accomplish the same thing. Correct? Thanks for all the help you have always provided, Ed, it is very much appreciated.

mysts, How could you have removed the old drive first then cloned it? Yes, details would be great!

[mysts]

I used an adapter to plug the old drive into a USB2 port. Acronis picked it up and cloned it to the new drive.
If you do it this way-your new drive will have the same partition size and format as your old one. You can adjust the partition size with your OS which I assume is Windows.
There are probably other ways to do what you want to do but I find this way works best for me.

[Captain Satellite]

Thank you for your help.

[Krispy Kritter]

Speed wise, the new drive likely isn't much if any faster. So why not simply add the 1TB HDD as a secondary drive. Save yourself a lot of hassle.

[SLK001]

Speed wise, the new drive likely isn't much if any faster. So why not simply add the 1TB HDD as a secondary drive. Save yourself a lot of hassle.

I agree with Krispy. My OS is on my smallest drive (250GB). I have two 500GB for video editing and movie storage.

[mstone321]

If you need to "clone" a drive, a free Acronis alternative is XXCLONE. Read the documentation!

http://www.xxclone.com/

[Captain Satellite]

You guys lost me, thanks anyway!

[Captain Satellite]

Speed wise, the new drive likely isn't much if any faster. So why not simply add the 1TB HDD as a secondary drive. Save yourself a lot of hassle.

Kritter,
What I want to do is replace my original C drive that is almost seven years old. What I want to do is take the secondary 250gb drive that is currently in there and make that my main drive. I then want to make my new 1tb drive my secondary drive. So I'm pretty sure that is what you're suggesting, correct? I'm going to use my Acronis hardware to copy files from my C drive to the 250gb. I hope I'm on the right track.

[SLK001]

Use Acronis to clone your current C: drive to the newer 250GB drive. Then pull out the old 250GB and put in your newer 250GB drive. The move should be transparent to your system.

[Captain Satellite]

I hope it's that easy. Thanks!

[Seeker47]

I recently did just that. I removed the c:drive and put in a larger one. I then used Acronis to clone the old to the new. Rebooted and it fired right up. If you need more details just yell.

In some earlier threads, I initiated discussion of transferring / transporting existing Windows without having to do a reinstall. In that situation, it was not a hard drive change, but replacing a MB that had a critical failed component with a supposedly identical MB . . . but there were still driver and other problems that had to be overcome, because Windows regarded this as being different hardware. At the time, I was overlooking the fact that I did have Acronis on hand. If I understand this right, Acronis claims to be able to move your Windows --essentially intact -- to a whole new computer, not just to a new or larger hard drive. (I've used it to do hard drive migrations before, and more often with success.) Can anyone confirm from actual usage whether or not it can also do this if changing computers ? And how well ? To manage that, it would have to be able to overcome various Windows issues, and this would be very significant info for many of us.

[SLK001]

I've never had to perform an "activation" of XP. Perhaps you could apply this registry key and it would prevent the need to activate:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Make XP Register with Microsoft Unnecessary (Windows Update)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion]
"RegDone"="1"

I don't know if it really is just this simple, but I do know that the activation requirement can be turned off. Maybe this is all that is required.

[RabidDog]

Cloning to a new computer most likely would fail, unless the new comp used essentially the same hardware.. otherwise all the drivers etc would be wrong. I would say you would be lucky to get it to boot into windows at all, something as simple as upgrading the CPU can sometimes send windows into a tizzy.

[Nelson37]

The software can make an exact duplicate copy of an existing drive, but no software can predict what drivers and settings would be needed for any major hardware change.

If this drive is seven years old, most likely you have accumulated a large number of drivers, DLL files, and registry settings for software that is no longer used or needed. I would recommend you take advantage of the opportunity to get a free upgrade of your system speed and re-install from scratch, using only those drivers and programs currently needed.

Activation is no problem as long as you have the authorization sticker, even without there are other options.

[Captain Satellite]

It's the same computer. I've restored the original drive to 'out of the box' specs in the last six months. What would the problem be?

[Captain Satellite]

In my best Gomer Pyle voice, "Surprise, Surprise"!, 'Hardware Initiate Failed'. Maybe it's time to replace my brain instead - hah!

I have a 2002 computer so I had to buy adapters to hook it up. Does anybody know what the problem might be. It sure would be nice not to kiss off 110.00!

[Captain Satellite]

Got it - Merry Christmas!

[mysts]

I have been following this thread since your first post and would be interested in how you did it.
Please tell us the whole story. Others may learn from it.

[Captain Satellite]

If I were to post anything it would be on how NOT to do it - believe me!

[SLK001]

I have been following this thread since your first post and would be interested in how you did it.
Please tell us the whole story. Others may learn from it.

Actually, there's enough information in this thread to enable you to clone a new drive. It really is pretty simple. It is extremely simple if you have an open IDE (or SATA) port on your system. If you don't have an open port, just remove (temporarily) the connector from an optical drive and plug in your to-be-cloned drive there. Run your favorite cloning software (Acronis True Image) and just follow the wizard for cloning drives. Then just swap the two drives. Since this new drive is going into the same system as the one being removed, there is no issue with drivers, etc.

Total time < 1 hour.

[mysts]

If you go back to the beginning of this thread you will see that I was the first one to respond.

[handyguy]

Easy. Use Acronis: Add New Disk