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| Thread ID: 52877 | 2005-01-01 22:03:00 | Replacing hard drive | John H (8) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 309584 | 2005-01-01 22:03:00 | Hi folks This may be covered by the FAQs, but unfortunately they are not all available at the moment . My son's computer (a bitsa) has one 4Gb drive which he has nearly filled . I want to replace it with a new higher capacity drive, but I am unsure how to proceed . I guess one way forward would be to do a backup of all of his data, then replace the hard drive and do a fresh install, booting from the OS disk (he has Win XP Home which I bought for him when the ungrateful wretch moaned excessively about problems with 98SE) . . . I could then reinstall all of his programmes and data so he would have a fresh beginning . My first question then - is this the best way to go? Second question - the other way to go (I guess) is to do a drive image, replace the drive, and then install the drive image . This is the bit that I am confused about . Do I connect his computer to my LAN, save the image to one of my computers, and then reinstall? (I have Power Quest Drive Image 7 . 0 on my computer . ) Abject apologies to the experts out there if this seems a dumb set of questions, but I am only starting to get familiar with the innards of PCs . :blush: Thanks for any assistance from the gurus :) |
John H (8) | ||
| 309585 | 2005-01-01 22:10:00 | It might be better reinstalling XP on the new hdd, install whatever programs you want on it, and add the old one in as a slave . Once the new hdd has XP etc on it, copy the docs etc from the old hdd . And then either keep the old one as slave / format it and/or then pull it out of the system . |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 309586 | 2005-01-02 00:54:00 | a simular but different approach, to Speedy's put the secound drive in as a secoundary master or slave to the primary and if you have drive image do a disk to disk copy.Then swap the drives round ie primary goes to secondary ide channel or master becomes slave and vise versa or install the secound hard drive as already described then copy the data to the secound drive leaving the first drive for the OS only but this method has the disadvantage of if the older drive with the os fails you will need to reinstall the os. or Burn data to cdrw change hardrives install xp copy data back to hardrive this will mean reactivating xp (very easly done over the net). and repatching etc One word of advice though if you decide that you are going the reinstall path make sure you know what devices you have in the pc, video card sound (make and model)etc and ideally you have the drivers on disk if not get them before reinstalling good luck |
beama (111) | ||
| 309587 | 2005-01-02 05:50:00 | When you get your new hard drive installed, regardless of whatever method you use, partition the drive into at least 2 partitions. C: for the OS and programs, usually about 6 to 8 Gb and another D: For your files. eg. Music, Docs, Videos etc. The main advantage is that it isolates your data that you cant replace from Windows that you can replace | i-gordon (962) | ||
| 309588 | 2005-01-02 21:40:00 | Thanks folks. Very helpful. Given my son's unusual influence computers and other electronic equipment :badpc: (it seems to happen just from him looking at them) I may go for a fresh install, but there are other hints in your three posts that I will use as well. Thanks again from a hardware newbie :stare: |
John H (8) | ||
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