[RESOLVED] copying old hard drive onto a new hard drive

[fdiskfixesall]

I was told it is possible to copy your old hard drive onto a new hard drive without using any aftermarket software or hardware. Is this true and how can you do it?

thanks

[dsolodow]

Sort of. The drive manager program that comes with most new, retail drives can do this if you have it setup the drive. Just make sure not to install the overlay. Personally, I'd go download a demo version of Powerquest drive image, and use it. It will time out after a few weeks, but you only need one shot...

[AlienDyne]

You could also use Norton Ghost.
Amazing disk clone utility!



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When a good one meets some of the best...
I've died and gone to heaven!

[fdiskfixesall]

I was asked this question at a job interview and they said you couldnt use any software or hardware because you supposed to be able to tell a customer how to do it with having to make them buy anything else.I can see possibly with the software that sometimes comes with a new drive woulda been acceptable but this question drives me crazy cause I have asked 4 or 5 experienced techs and no one can answer that question

thanks

[Eagle PC Diagnostech]

Copy and paste, everything except the windows swap file.

[alioops]

wouldn't xcopy32 with all of the switches do it? I'm not sure, because i have never done it, i use ghost, but i thought that it could.

alicia

[stevet]

Partition and format the new drive, then boot into Win9x from the old drive. Click Start, then Run. Type "xcopy c:\*.* /h/e/r/c/k d:" (where your old drive is c:\ and your new drive is d:\). When xcopy finishes, shut down your computer and set up the new drive as the primary master and reboot. You may need to run fdisk one more time to make the primary partition on the new drive active.

That's it. I've used this exact method dozens of times without a single problem.

Good luck,

Steve

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Altoplanos Information Systems, Inc.
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho USA
www.altoplanos.net

[This message has been edited by stevet (edited August 02, 1999).]

[dan d]

Originally posted by stevet:
<STRONG>Type "xcopy c:\*.* /h/e/r/c/k d:" (where your old drive is c:\ and your new drive is d:\).</STRONG>

The proper command string is xcopy32 c:\ d:\ /h/i/c/k/e/r/y <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0">

[Platypus]

There's really no need to type xcopy32, as xcopy is a helper file that runs xcopy32 anyway.

I understand there are minor differences between the switches for different versions of Windows, I've seen about five combinations suggested. richkey or hickery is the mnemonic for one, cherky is another that works fine for me under Win98 SE.

[USA 1]

On the XCOPY32
/-y and aslo do this in Windows so you can support log file names. Also copy the original MSDOS.sys onto the new installed drive and then sys it to make sure.Go into fdisk and make sure it is set active as well........

[amcfreek]

yes you have to boot from a floppy in order to make this drive an active bootable partion, as youre c drive. as a d: it isnt going to work dos only alows one active partition to be made bootable! i never had any luck with xcopy alls i got was empty directories , but i have had luck with 3 hard drives one for the operating system, 1 to get cloned and the blank drive, you need a windows 98 machine up and running, have it set to veiw all file extentions and also , copy the root directory in dos, if you use the atrib | more to see if the shr files are copied as well,
just click on the drive to be cloned then choose select all then drag em drop em onto new drive,,, but i will admit xcopy would be ezier, but useing the windows based gui and enableing dma support , should make it a bit faster then running it in dos mode.
my 2k corect me if im right, of left...

[Platypus]

Yes, amc, you're right the 3-drive setup is the way to do it. As you said it's necessary to boot off a floppy to be able to fdisk the new drive with an active primary partition, then re-boot to the GUI so xcopy will use the undocumented switches, they don't work in real DOS.

[grosas9]

connact the new hdd and fdisk and format. then boot from the old hdd with the new one hooked up. got to run and type

xcopy c:\*.* d: /r/i/c/h/k/e/y

it will make a perfect copy

note there is a slash with the c: and a space after the last *. there is also a space after d:....very important