Replacing HD, the quickes way

[Glytzhkof]

Hi, I'm about to add a much faster drive to my system, and of course I want to use it as the primary drive with the operating system on it.

The question is: If I enable "show all files" in explorer and duplicate all files on the new drive by a direct copy from the old one, will I be able to fool the system so that I do not need to reinstall Win98 or any applications?

(I know how to perform this duplication by first setting the new HD up as a slave, copy all files to it and then make it master etc... The question is if a file copy will "fool" the system, or if certain data will be lost).

[steveakaflash]

Wont work to simply copy all the info to the new drive...You lose partition info. You need a program called "drive copy" by powerquest. You can search for it and find it for about 20-25 bucks, but it does a supperb job. Also search for "ghost" by norton..sometimes you can find a shareware of ghost..both programs clone your current HD, but make sure and read the instructions, because you have to set up the master/slave right to copy the right one and not lose all your info!

Steve

[Glytzhkof]

Lose partition info, are you sure about that? In order to copy to the new drive I will have to create at least one active partition on it. When I then copy files from the old drive to the new drive I would assume all files copied will cause the FAT of the new drive to be updated with the appropriate entries. Has anybody tried this in practice?

Thanks for the info on Driveimage and Ghost. I tried a test version of Ghost, and I will get it sometime in the future. But for now I don't have the time or money to invest in setting this all up. I need a quick and dirty solution (usually these solutions are the ones that end up costing most http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif.)

[smokin1]

I've tried what you are suggesting and it simply doesn't work not all info will be transferred.The suugestions above will make life a lot less painful.
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[drdeath]

I had this problem when i added a new hard drive a couple years ago... i used this section copied from the western digital's site FAQs... this should help:

26: How can I copy the contents of my old Windows 95 controlled drive to my new drive and make the new drive the Master drive?

One of the most frequently asked questions posed to Western Digital Technical Support is how to transfer all files from the old to the new drive and make it the boot drive in Windows 95.

Probably the best way to do this is to use Data Lifeguard Tools to copy your old drive onto the new blank drive. If you use Data Lifeguard Tools, you don't need to follow the manual procedure below. You can download a installation guide here which will detail the process using Data Lifeguard Tools. Note: Data Lifeguard Tools is only for use with IDE drives and doesn't work on SCSI drives.

Here we have compiled a list of steps (that have been tested and recommended by many of our customers) that should allow you to manually copy your files over to your new drive, then make the new drive your primary or boot drive.

NOTE: The following steps may not be effective in your system. Microsoft does not recommend the use of the following procedure, however, results as reported by many of our customers have been very positive. Western Digital makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the reliability of the proceeding information. This information is provided, as is, solely for your information. Please consult your system manual or system manufacturer for product specifications, warranty information, and any further details. We recommend that you back up your data before continuing.

First, install your drive as a slave/secondary drive to your existing hard drive. Be sure to jumper both of your drives properly. See Typical Hard Drive Installation for further information.

Create a Boot diskette (Rescue disk) as follows:

Double-click on My Computer

Double-click on Control Panel

Double-click Add/Remove Programs

Click the Startup Disk tab in the dialog box

Click Create Disk, and follow the instructions

Restart your computer in MS-DOS mode and using Data Lifeguard Tools (run DLGEZ.EXE), partition and format your drive.

In either case, be sure to transfer the system files to your new drive using the SYS command. You can transfer the system files by opening a DOS session under Windows 95 and type:

sys d:
Close the DOS window and double-click on My Computer again. Double-click on Control Panel and then System. Click on Performance tab and Virtual Memory button. Click on "Let me specify my own system memory setting" and disable virtual memory.

Restart Windows 95 and on the Taskbar click Start, then Run and type:

xcopy c:\*.* /e /h /k /r /c d:
and click OK. This command line copies all your files to the new drive. If your existing drive is fairly large, this operation could take some time. Do not power down your system during this operation.

Once this operation is completed, shut down Windows 95, turn off your PC, and change the jumper settings on your drive so that your new Caviar drive is the master/primary and the older drive is the slave/secondary drive.

Turn on the PC and edit the CMOS settings to reflect the change in master/slave drives. If you used Data Lifeguard Tools to partition/format the new drive skip the step in the next paragraph. You don't need to manually set the partition to active, Data Lifeguard Tools has already done so. If Data Lifeguard Tools was used, boot from the new drive and move on to the steps in the last paragraph, otherwise continue below.

Place your boot diskette in the floppy drive and boot to the A: prompt. From the A: prompt, type Fdisk and select option 2 to make the primary partition on your new disk drive the active partition, then exit Fdisk and reboot.

Windows 95 should boot from the new hard disk. It is a good idea to allow Windows 95 to determine your Virtual Memory settings. To do so, double-click on My Computer, then Control Panel and System icon. Click on Performance tab and Virtual Memory button then Click on "Let Windows specify my own system memory setting."

[krusty]

Actually..You can do it exactly as you have described!!. You have to have the same number of partitions on each drive & copy primary partition to primary, secondary to secondary ...... if you want all the shortcuts etc to work. The difficult thing is knowing which partition is which once you have the drives installed.

The primary partition on the boot(master) drive will be "C", primary partition on slave drive will be "D". Second patition & rest on primary will be will be "E","F" etc. & the Second/Third etc. partitions on Slave drive will follow.

Of course if you only have one partition on your hard drive then this has been a waste of time & just do as you said. The only file that will not copy is the swap file but this will be automatically recreated.

The new "C" partition will have to be made bootable at some stage.

From what I have heard the DOS XCOPY method drops any long file names you may have which can cause problems.

[Glytzhkof]

Thanks to everybody who answered. Krusty: I'm in big trouble http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif, I've got seven partitions. Guess I'm gonna get really confused if I start up with 14 partitions...

Maybe I should just put the new drive in as slave for the time being, and then reinstall when I get some more time (like that will ever happen http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif).

Anyway: thanks for all the tips.

[Petros]

I would suggest just getting a little shareware program called transx95. That is what I used and it worked just fine. It makes an exact copy of your old drive onto the new one.

Try going here to download it:
http://www.itechs-systems.com/pages/demo.htm

[Ed_S]

I'd recommend DiskClone by Quarterdeck. Works great. Single floppy, dos-based program.

1. Install both drives, jumpered correctly.
2. Boot using DiskClone as boot disk.
3. Follow the instructions.
Finished.

Notice that I didn't mention fdisk, format, or partition. Program will do it & copy your partitions, allowing you to resize.

Another advantage is that nothing is installed, therefore nothing to remove.

BTW, Krusty's description of drive mapping is accurate, but there's another way. Assuming the older drive will be used a slave after new one is online as master, just repartition the slave using fdisk but WITHOUT a primary partition. This way master will be C D E etc, and slave will follow instead of using D for it's primary.

[Glytzhkof]

ED_S: thanks for the tip about the drive mapping. I've got the new drive lying next to me here in an anti-static bag. The old drive will indeed be set up as slave on IDE 1, and it will be used as a storage for backups and installation files. Here is the entire setup as I've planned it:

IDE 1, master: IBM 9,1GB, 7200RPM, ATA66 HD
IDE 1, slave: WD 3,2GB, ATA 33 HD

IDE 2, master: Mitsumi CD-RW 8x4x2
IDE 2, slave: Mat****a CD-ROM

Anything stupid here? I'm all ears and grateful for every tip.

[Glytzhkof]

Case closed! It is up and running, and MAN what a difference! The system is flying.

[Glytzhkof]

It was said: "Let there be a new hard drive. With 2MB cache, 7200rpm and ATA 66." And there was a new hard drive, and there was much rejoicing... For a while...

To cut the ****: I am unable to get my old Western Digital Cavier 33100 and my new IBM Deskstar 22GXP (DJNA-370910) to live happily together on an IDE. The old WD is set up as slave, but is not detected even when I use the "slave present" setting on the IBM disk. If I put the WD as slave on the secondary IDE my BIOS still doesn't detect it, but Win98 does.

[BBA]

I read the first couple of replies.

I did not read the rest, so if I repeat something, Sorry!

I see you managed, but for future reference:

Yes, it will work from within windows with the exception of copying the swap file, BUT, the following must be true:


1. The drive is partitioned and formatted in a compatible file system to what you are currently using.

2. The drive you copy to will have to be partitioned with no other drive attached to the system at the time, so FDISK.EXE can mark the partition as "ACTIVE" or you must remove the other drive after formatting and mark the drive as active with fdisk.

3. The drive you copy to will have to be set a s a master drive on the primary controller to boot from it.

4. A complete copy of the windows directory is done, minus the win386.swp (swap) file. The swap file can not be copied while windows is running, but you dont want to copy it anyways, as a fresh swap file will be automatically created the first time windows starts.

5. The entire program files directory is copied over.

6. The view/options/view settings are set to show all files and not to hide file extensions for known file types.

Thats all! Done it at least 50 times!

BBA

[This message has been edited by BBA (edited 08-18-99).]

[Glytzhkof]

Finally everything is working http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif. Thanks for all the suggestions. I created a single extended partition on the slave drive (Thanks Ed_S).

[Ed_S]

Good to hear everything's working!
Glad to have helped a little.