transferring OS from one hard drive to another

[deep_sky]

I have two maxtor drives, one a 5400rpm 10.2G
and another one that is a 7200rpm 13.1G drive. Now I want to get my OS from the smaller slower one to the larger faster one. The faster one is already formatted and partitioned. I do have the diskette that allows for file transfer from one disk to another, but I do not know if that applies to OS's. I have win98se and I do not want to install it again if I do not have to. It was a pain due to funky drivers and I would prefer to avoid it if possible. Could I copy everything on the slow drive to the fast drive by the drag and drop method, shut down, hook the slow one up as primary and not connect the fast one at all, then format and repartition the slow drive, shut down, and hook the fast drive as primary and and slow one as slave on IDE1??
I do not have norton so I cannot create a ghost image to do this either.....
thx in advance....

[Target]

Deep_sky...... I'd use the utility instead of the drag and drop method. Its fast, and it works. Drag and drop won't copy over your boot sector and you could miss some files that are active anyway.

The utility works sort of like Ghost and some of the others, cept that it doesn't save an image of your original disk to a file.... it just copies it over all at once, OS and all.

[This message has been edited by Target (edited 12-01-1999).]

[drdeath]

this is what i like to do:

start up your comp and in windows, click the START button and click on RUN. in the run box type this in:

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

you can change the d: at the end if you need to to whatever the letter of the faster drive is. this will copy everything exactly as it is from your little drive to the big drive. then you just shut down, switch the jumpers on the drives, and boot up (make sure to redetect the drives in the bios) and you are ready to go!

[Target]

DrD.... don't you end up with two hard-disks, both with an active partition then? And isn't it possible that it could miss copying some of the files that are in use when you do this from the start->run command line?

Not questioning your method, as much as I am trying to gain a better understanding of it.

[This message has been edited by Target (edited 12-01-1999).]

[dexmax]

There shouldn't be a problem. Boot Win98Se from your smaller one. Copy everything to the larger one, make sure you copy hidden files and system files w/c usual cases you cannot see by default. In explorer--view/folder option/view.

But you still have to copy all the contents, even temp files, of your smaller drive to the larger one, since it might lead to some registry problems and other errors when running your new drive.

Hope it helps. Don't worry, I tried it once and it worked--if it doesn't, i don't know why..

[This message has been edited by dexmax (edited 12-01-1999).]

[deep_sky]

Target.....
The old disk is fat16 with 2Gb partitions. The new drive is fat32 with one giant primary dos partition. Will this create any problems with the copying over. do i need to convert the old drive to fat32 first before copying??

thanks for all the replies guys!

[drdeath]

Target - i originally got this method from the western digital site a few years ago when i got a new drive and wanted to transfer everything over - so its not like, something i just came up with. i have done it many many times, and has worked perfectly every time. it doesnt miss any files cuz they are in use (i believe because it copies them, not moves them) and about the active partitions (thats a step i forgot to mention, you have to make the new drive active w/ fdisk before it will boot to windows) there can only be one active partition in the comp, and when you make the new drive active, it takes the "active" off the old drive automatically.

deepsky - no, you do not need to make the old drive fat32 first. also, if you choose to do it the way i suggested, you do not get any registry errors or other probs like dexmax said you might get. ive done it this exact way about 15-20 times with many different comps, and it has worked perfectly and without problems every time.

[This message has been edited by drdeath (edited 12-01-1999).]

[deep_sky]

drdeath.....
any significance to the sequence of hickery in the xcopy command?? I am not sure I understand the sytax of the xcopy command.....

[Target]

Cool beans DrD...thanks for filling me in

[seti]

Just a quick idea....why don't you download the 15 day trial of Norton Ghost?

[drdeath]

im not sure what each of the little tags means - i know the /e tells it to copy empty directories, and im sure one is for hidden and system files... all that **** after the xcopy is basically telling the comp to copy EVERY SINGLE THING AS IT IS. i cant tell ya much beyond that. alls i know is that it works /forum/smile.gif

[CMonster]

drdeath is right on the money. I used a slightly different method:

c:\xcopy /e/h/k/r/c d:

and then I would transfer the system files

c:\sys d:

shut down, rejumper master/slave, and reboot

sometimes that method gave me problems with Win98, so I have been using "file copy" from the Seagate "DiscWizard" suite (available for free download), which has never failed me - but it only works on IDE drives -no SCSI.

If one of these file copy methods are used and the destination drive is fdisked FAT32 then it wil be FAT32 regardless of the FAT on the source drive.

[Underclocked]

What would be the command for doing this from DOS?

[jbob]

drdeath is correct, I use the xcopy command all the time, it works. by the time you download Norton Ghost, you could be all done with xcopy.

You must do it from windoze, though, xcopy32 can use the /e/h/r/c/k switches. If you boot to DOS mode, you will get an error. Regular xcopy does not support those switches.

If you get an error on boot, you will need to run fdisk, and reset active partition.

[This message has been edited by jbob (edited 12-01-1999).]