Hard drive copying

[Slice]

Hey guys I just installed a SATA 80 gig drive and want to exactly copy my IDE drive to it, then I want to switch it so that it is the bootable drive which I pretty much know how to do. My question is how to copy the entire drive over included the boot sector etc.

[Oscar(WCFD)]

To copy hhd to hhd, turn off swap file and reboot.
from the run cmd. type "x copy c:\*.*/e/h/k/r/c D:"
The D: being what ever drive you want to copy to.
when finished dont forget to turn the swap file back on, shut down the comp. unplug the old drive and set the new one to master and restart, you should be good to go.

[Slice]

To copy hhd to hhd, turn off swap file and reboot.
from the run cmd. type "x copy c:\*.*/e/h/k/r/c D:"
The D: being what ever drive you want to copy to.
when finished dont forget to turn the swap file back on, shut down the comp. unplug the old drive and set the new one to master and restart, you should be good to go.I will try that thanks, am I going to be able to rename the new drive letter back to C?

Nevermind I figured out how to change the drive letters. Copying over now...

[Oscar(WCFD)]

I will try that thanks, am I going to be able to rename the new drive letter back to C?

If you make the new drive the master and the old one to slave, when you reboot the comp. will automaticly set the new one to C: and the old one to D:
make sure that the master drive is pluged into the end connector on the cable.

[Slice]

If you make the new drive the master and the old one to slave, when you reboot the comp. will automaticly set the new one to C: and the old one to D:
make sure that the master drive is pluged into the end connector on the cable.
It's a SATA drive. ;) I just need to set it to the boot drive in bios. Then I will put the old drive back in on the ide cable and format it. Already 45 min in to copying.... The drive was almost full so I am guessing a couple hours more.

[Slice]

Well that didn't work. :( Guess I need to shell out 30 bucks for some kind of drive copy program I guess.

Also something is odd because now that I am comparing the two drives the new drive is about 2 gigs less then the original drive where I copied from, which tells me some stuff didn't get copied over. I am wondering if that command was right or there needs to be another / or somthing....:confused:

[Oscar(WCFD)]

strange.....that has always worked for me. :confused:

here is some info on xcopy from microsoft's site
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/xcopy.mspx

[Death Engineer]

Slice,

Check with the manufacturer of the HD. I know WD, IBM and Maxtor all have utilities that will do what you are talking about (or at least used to for IDE -- not sure about SATA). It's not a bad place to start before spending some dough.

Personally, I like to reformat when I change hard drives. It serves as a good way of periodically cleaning up. Whatever works for ya though. If you do buy something, let us know how you like it.

[Slice]

Slice,

Check with the manufacturer of the HD. I know WD, IBM and Maxtor all have utilities that will do what you are talking about (or at least used to for IDE -- not sure about SATA). It's not a bad place to start before spending some dough.

Personally, I like to reformat when I change hard drives. It serves as a good way of periodically cleaning up. Whatever works for ya though. If you do buy something, let us know how you like it.
This is a Seagate drive and it came drive only from Newegg. My current drive is fine and has about 65 megs worth of programs and files on it. For me to do a clean install would take days... My time is worth more then days for $30. LOL. I am planning on keeping the second 80 gig drive for files and stuff but really want the OS and programs on the 150 SATA drive as it will be much faster. I will check on Seagate's website, thanks for the advice!

[JIMINATOR]

try the diskwizard app, i haven't used it, but i imagine it should do the same as the rest.... http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

[Slice]

Yeah I found that on their site and it actually worked! The only thing was I had to reactivate winblows and actually had to call in to get the new key. I really hate Microsoft sometimes.... Thanks guys for the advice! :)