Replacing Hard Disk

[Bill]

I don't know if this is right place to ask, but I will
give it a try.

I would like to replace my 30 Gb 5400 RPM hard drive with
a 60GB 7200RPM one.

I would prefer not to reinstall windows XP Pro all over
again. Can I install the new drive as a slave and copy
the OS files to the new drive somehow? Then swap the two
drives so the new is master and old is the slave?

Thanks

[larry samuels MS-MVP \(XP Shell/User\)]

You will need to install the new drive as master and the old drive as
slave,then use BootIt NG,Ghost,Drive Image, or Partition Magic to clone the
old drive to the new disk.

--
Larry Samuels MS-MVP (Windows-Shell/User)
Associate Expert
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://home.triad.rr.com/faq/WNS2003%20FAQ.htm
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
_____________________________________________
"Bill" > wrote in message
...
> I don't know if this is right place to ask, but I will
> give it a try.
>
> I would like to replace my 30 Gb 5400 RPM hard drive with
> a 60GB 7200RPM one.
>
> I would prefer not to reinstall windows XP Pro all over
> again. Can I install the new drive as a slave and copy
> the OS files to the new drive somehow? Then swap the two
> drives so the new is master and old is the slave?
>
> Thanks

[R. C. White]

Hi, Bill.

Your plan makes sense to me. After physically installing the new drive as
slave, boot to your old WinXP as usual and use Disk Management to partition
and format the new drive. Be sure the first (or only) partition is a
primary partition, so that it can be made bootable later.

Then use Xcopy.exe - with the proper switches - to copy everything from your
old drive to the new one. I usually use a command line like: xcopy C:\*.*
X:\ /c /h /e /r /k (Type xcopy /? to see the meaning of these and other
available switches.) These switches cause Xcopy to include all files in all
subdirectories, creating the identical directory structure on the new drive.
The new drive letter X: is variable, of course; it is only a temporary
designation, anyhow, because it will change (to C:) when you swap physical
drives later. You can speed up the Xcopy process by cleaning out such
things as your recycle bin, TIF, etc., before you begin.

When everything is copied, remove the old HD and install the new one as
primary master. Don't reinstall the old HD just yet. At this point, you
can't boot to the new drive because it doesn't have a proper boot sector.
Xcopy will have copied all the FILES, but the boot sector is not a file and
Xcopy can't deal with it. So, you will need to boot from your WinXP CD-ROM
and let it "Repair" the copy of WinXP which it will find on the NEW Drive
C:, using the fixboot command from the Recovery Console.

That oughta do it. Then you can install the old drive as a slave, if you
like, and use Disk Management to handle any further partitioning,
formatting, drive letter assigning that you may need to do.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"Bill" > wrote in message
...
> I don't know if this is right place to ask, but I will
> give it a try.
>
> I would like to replace my 30 Gb 5400 RPM hard drive with
> a 60GB 7200RPM one.
>
> I would prefer not to reinstall windows XP Pro all over
> again. Can I install the new drive as a slave and copy
> the OS files to the new drive somehow? Then swap the two
> drives so the new is master and old is the slave?
>
> Thanks

[NoNoBadDog!]

Most new disks come with a software disk that will do exactly what you want.
I just replaced the old 30GB HDD in my son's computer with a new Western
Digital 120GB 7200rpm SE (*MB Cache) drive, and I used the utility that came
on the enclosed floppy disk to move everything from the old drive to the new
drive, swictched the drives and jumpers, rebooted, and reformatted the old
drive using Disk Management under windows.

Bobby

"Bill" > wrote in message
...
> I don't know if this is right place to ask, but I will
> give it a try.
>
> I would like to replace my 30 Gb 5400 RPM hard drive with
> a 60GB 7200RPM one.
>
> I would prefer not to reinstall windows XP Pro all over
> again. Can I install the new drive as a slave and copy
> the OS files to the new drive somehow? Then swap the two
> drives so the new is master and old is the slave?
>
> Thanks

[Donald Link]

You will need some type software to copy your system totally. My Maxtor
came with MaxBlast which all I had to do was to do as you did with setting
up new drive as slave and their software copied this completly and
perfectly. Just be sure your new drive has the software to this. Most do.
I am fairly sure Western Digital has it also. Otherwise you may have to
spend extra for software.




"Bill" > wrote in message
...
> I don't know if this is right place to ask, but I will
> give it a try.
>
> I would like to replace my 30 Gb 5400 RPM hard drive with
> a 60GB 7200RPM one.
>
> I would prefer not to reinstall windows XP Pro all over
> again. Can I install the new drive as a slave and copy
> the OS files to the new drive somehow? Then swap the two
> drives so the new is master and old is the slave?
>
> Thanks

[Dan (Still going in circles)]

You can also go to the manufactures web page and get some of the
software from them.


Dan (Still going in circles)

On Tue, 27 May 2003 21:02:26 -0500, "Donald Link"
> wrote:

>You will need some type software to copy your system totally. My Maxtor
>came with MaxBlast which all I had to do was to do as you did with setting
>up new drive as slave and their software copied this completly and
>perfectly. Just be sure your new drive has the software to this. Most do.
>I am fairly sure Western Digital has it also. Otherwise you may have to
>spend extra for software.
>
>
>
>
>"Bill" > wrote in message
...
>> I don't know if this is right place to ask, but I will
>> give it a try.
>>
>> I would like to replace my 30 Gb 5400 RPM hard drive with
>> a 60GB 7200RPM one.
>>
>> I would prefer not to reinstall windows XP Pro all over
>> again. Can I install the new drive as a slave and copy
>> the OS files to the new drive somehow? Then swap the two
>> drives so the new is master and old is the slave?
>>
>> Thanks
>