move a non-boot HD( and keep all files&programs)

[saimyc]

Hi everyone!
me and my sister share a PC that I put a 2nd HD on.
She's moving,I'm going to build a new PC.
I want my HD and I want to move some programs from the C drive to the D and E drive.( many programs I paid for )
Can I install the drive on a new PC with everything intact? what can I do to keep her PC running well? the one I want to remove is set up as slave no boot info on it, or OS.
13 gig partitioned in half.

[howste]

If you just take out the second hard drive, then anything that she tries to access that was installed on it won't work. Probably Windows itself will still work, depending on how things were installed.

Depending on the size of her hard drive, there are several ways you could get the two PCs to have the same setup as the current.

If her HD is big enough to hold all the programs/data from both hard drives, here's what I'd do. Use partition magic to create new D and E partitions on her drive, then copy the contents of your two partitions to her new D and E. You can then use something like DriveCopy or DriveImage to copy the whole setup back to your HD. You'd then have two hard drives with 3 partitions each with all of the current software, etc. installed.

If her hard drive isn't big enough, it would probably be easiest if you had a third hard drive to copy to. First use DriveCopy or DriveImage to copy her hard drive (boot drive) to the new drive. Then create new partitions D and E on the new drive and copy the contents of your HD partitions to them.

If you can't or won't get a new hard drive it could get pretty tricky. The hard part is to get the boot partition onto your hard drive without losing the data on your existing partitions. If you have a CDRW or Jaz drive, you could backup the D and E partitions to disk, copy the boot partition to your disk, then restore the D & E partition info. Otherwise, you have the problem of trying to move the OS without destroying the data already on your disk.

Well, this is getting kind of long. If one of the above won't work for you, post back and we can give it another go. Make sure you include the size of her hard drive and the total amount of data stored on each partition.

Steve

[saimyc]

Thanks good advice so that she could keep some of the utilities I installed.
Original HD total size; 2.37 gig,
free 1.01gig
New HD 13.6 gig divided in half D & E
D has 1.29 used, 5gigs free
E has not been used yet.
I don't want the OS (98SE) or boot partions
can I just install this HD on a new machine, as the slave?
I don't want anything from the C drive either
would removing the 2nd HD harm her pc?

Basicly I want the info on the 2nd HD and the drive itself, I'm building a new machine and have already purchased a HD for it, I paid for the one in her system and the software thats on it so I want it if I can, if I can't I'll just copy the info and ask her to pay me for the drive. I don't have much money so every month I purchase a piece of hardware and soon I'll have everything I need to make a new machine. Thats why I really want that HD Thanks again.


[This message has been edited by saimyc (edited 09-19-2000).]

[howste]

If all you're worried about is if her system will work if you remove the 2nd drive, it's a lot easier. Are there any programs installed on the 2nd drive, or is it just data & files (not "installed")? You could just disconnect the drive and see if everything still works, or you can do a registry search for d: to see if there are any references.

If there are no programs installed on the 2nd drive, it shouldn't cause her any problems at all to remove it. If there are programs installed on the second drive, you could uninstall them, remove the drive, then reinstall them. Or, you could create another partition on her drive with PartitionMagic and copy the program directories to it, then remove the drive.

Steve

[saimyc]

Thanks again Steve, yes not hurting her machine is part of it, and yes I do have programs on the 2nd drive quite a few.
realplayerplus, realjukeboxplus, MP3 files
utility programs, x-setup,freemem pro,I-view ,port detective, packetsniffer, alchemy IP-agent, opt-out, A few small games and setup programs for things on C, and D drives.
I paid for the majority of these and don't want to loose them, some I know how to get back, some I don't.
maybe I should let her keep the drive and just copy my programs? but I do really want to physically remove the HD,if not? Oh well
Thank you again for your help,

Tyrone

[howste]

, I'm building a new machine and have already purchased a HD for it... I'm confused. Does this mean you have a third hard drive, or just the two?

Steve

[saimyc]

Ok , I'm building a new machine, I've purchased a HD for it.
I would like my new machine to have a 2nd HD.
I would like that 2nd HD to be the one I put in my sisters machine.
I want to move a HD( slave ) from one machine to another, still as the slave.
can I do that? something like a hot swap.
ok???
thanks for your patients

[howste]

OK, now that that's cleared up, copy your sister's hard drive to the new hard drive. Move the 2nd hard drive from her computer to yours. That's the short answer.

There are some things you still need to do to be sure everything still works right on your new computer:
• If you have hardware installation problems with the new system, go into Safe Mode and remove all hardware. This will prevent conflicts with drivers from hardware installed on your sister's machine. Windows should re-detect the hardware in your new machine and install the proper drivers.
• If your new hard drive will have more than one partition, the 2nd hard drive must have a primary partition. This will ensure that it will take the letter D: instead of E: or a higher letter. You probably don't need to worry about this, since FDISK does this by default.

Now, for any programs on your D: drive that you want to still be usable on your sister's computer:
• Create a partition using the unused space on her drive. Do NOT use FDISK to do this or all data on the drive will be gone! Partition Magic will do it without damaging the existing data.
• Copy the program directories that she wants to the new partition. The drive letter of the new partition will most likely be E: (C: = 1st HD primary, D: = 2nd HD primary, E: = 1st HD secondary,F: = 2nd HD secondary).
• After you remove the 2nd HD, her drive letters should be C: and D: again, and the links between the drives should be intact.

Here's the short list:
1) Put your new HD into her system and copy her C: drive to it using something like DriveCopy, DriveImage, or Ghost.
2) Remove new HD from her system.
3) Add 2nd partition to her HD with PartitionMagic
4) Copy program files she wants from 2nd HD to new partition on 1st HD.
5) Remove 2nd HD from her machine (done with hers).
6) Put new HD in new computer as primary master.
7) Put 2nd HD in new computer.
8) Make sure Windows installs hardware drivers OK as described above. DONE!

I hope this helps. Good luck http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Steve

[saimyc]

Ok, sounds good, thanks again Steve
It will be about another month before I attempt this, every month I buy another part and soon I will be able to put it all together, hope to be up and running before november.
Thanks again, Tyrone

PS I'm going with the athlon

[howste]

You're welcome. Feel free to come back for more when you get around to building your system.

Steve