Re: Replacing HDD without reinstalling

Shenan Stanley wrote:
parlins wrote:
My notebook's hard disk drive (30GB) almost entirely used up. I
want to replace it with a larger capacity say 60GB. But I want
"everything" in the old HDD to be transfered or copied to the new
one without reinstalling OS, programs, data files, etc.
How can I do that? OS WinXP Pro SP2. Thanks.

Disk imaging utility..

parlins wrote:
Will "using imaging utility" can copy-clone the new HDD? From 30GB
image to 60GB HDD: what happen to the empty 30GB? Is it in a new
partition? Sorry if my question is not "smart", I am new to this.

Gotta start somewhere..

Search using Google!
http://www.google.com/
(How-to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html )

Searching for "What is a Disk Imaging Utility" comes back with:
(For example)

http://www.pcanswers.co.uk/tutorials/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=11179&subsectionid=607&subsubsectionid=0

Which says:
-----
All disk imaging tools work from the same principle. Instead of copying data
from a drive one file at a time, an imaging utility will create a binary
image of a partition by copying data from the drive sector by sector. In
other words, whatever is on the drive at the time it is imaged will be
stored in an image file in the same manner. When an image is restored to a
partition, the contents of the image file are returned to the partition one
sector at a time. In this way, disk imaging is almost like taking a picture
of the physical partition and storing the information as one large file.
-----

Some examples of well known/well tested imaging utilities:
-----
Symantec/Norton Ghost
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/

Acronis True Image
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage

BootItT NG
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html
-----

Those are - by no means - the only drive imaging utilities. If you had been
replacing a desktop hard drive - I wold have said to use the utility that
comes with the retail boxed hard drive you would likely be buying. I cannot
say the same utility comes with the 2.5" laptop drives.. However - it can
probably be downloaded from the corresponding manufacturer and used to
transfer the operating system and all files to the new drive.

As for the "smart" comment - it was/is not directed at you - it is part of
my signature - in every post/reply I make on the Microsoft newsgroups.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


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