<div class="IPBDescription">How do I do it?</div> I'm getting a new hard drive, and I want to transfer all the files from my current one to my old one, including the OS. Running windows XP.
You could get one of those external backup drives with something like 80 or so gig, and transport the most important files to it, then you could put it onto your new hard drive.
Open up your case, look for your hard drive. It is usally hangling below the cd-rom drive area. Then look what cords are plugged into it. There should be at least 1 more of each kind in your case that inst connected to anything. Plug your new hard drive in the same way your old one is. When they are both plugged in, restart you computer using a book disk or cd for whatever OS you want to install. From there tell it to install onto the new harddrive (you'll get a pretty clear choice). After it is intsall, then load up the computer normaly. Go into my computer and simply drag any files that you want to transfer (Caution: make sure youa actully copy the file, not just make a shortcut to it). Do not transfer any windows files or any whole game folders, because you will not be able to use them (becuase of the registry). Steam, Ns, ect, will have to be reinstalled if you are getting rid of you old hard drive. You can still back up things like your config or sprites/modles folders, but the .exe's will not run without reinstalling. At this point, after you have everything copied, shut down your computer and open the case back up. Use a screwdriver to remove your old hard drive, and use the same screw to put your new one in its place. You can then (gently) pull out the cord from your old harddrive, and close the case.
you'd usually put the two drives on the same IDE cable. Normally it's some sort of long flat cable but you could have some round cable. Whatever the case is, it's connected to your hard drive (small drive) with a large connector. These cables have three connectors: the one directly on the motherboard and the slave and master connectors. Usually, the motherboard connector is blue. Of the other two, the middle one is the master and the one on the end is the slave.
Connect the new hard drive. Make sure jumpers correspond to whatever position they are at on the cable (leave on cable select eventually) and then re-install the OS. You'd always want to re-install the OS when changing hard drives, but programs like Norton Ghost (I think that's the one) allow you to copy a partition. I'd suggest reinstalling. It's not a pain and it's always good to prevent any sort of conflict. After that, you just copy and paste necessary data.
with WON hl it didn't really matter, the only thing being that you had to retype your HL cd key. With steam however, I'm not sure. In general, it isn't healthy to change a program from partition to partition, unless you use a program meant for it (which will in turn copy registry and DLL paths)
TalesinOur own little well of hateJoin Date: 2002-11-08Member: 7710NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators
Please don't listen to most of this... for one, if you were doing a clean install, you'd REMOVE the first drive until the new drive had an OS on it, then plug it in to copy everything, after booting off the new drive. Leaving it plugged in while installing the OS, as the master drive, will only make Bad Things Happen To You.
There are many programs for doing just what you want to. DiskImage and Ghost are two off the top of my head. However, it IS best to install Windows cleanly when installing a new component and/or every year.
If you must follow one of the routes listed above, here's the steps left out:<ul><li>When installing the new hard drive, unplug the old one and use its connections. Make sure the new drive is set to Master or Solo, depending on the drive manufacturer.</li><li>After installing Windows, shut the machine down, set your OLD drive to 'slave', plug it into the other ports on the wide data cable. Make sure Pin 1 matches up correctly. Most IDE cables have a tab on the top of every connector to make sure they only go in one way.</li><li>NOT ALL IDE CABLES HAVE THREE PLUGS. Some only have one for the motherboard/IDE card end, and the other for the HDD. Some have up to five, for RAID array usage.</li><li>Look BEFORE you start screwing around. If you aren't sure, get someone LOCAL to help you. HDD installation is not plug-and-play. It takes at least a *little* computer-savvy.</li><li>If you are not sure, at ANY TIME... stop and take it to someone who knows what they're doing. Even if it costs money. If they say 'you screwed up and all your data is gone', don't break down crying. Thank them, ask them to put it into a usable state, and move on with lesson learned.</li></ul>
Comments
Connect old HDD and then copy & paste.
I hope this helped, and wasnt too rambly.
Connect the new hard drive. Make sure jumpers correspond to whatever position they are at on the cable (leave on cable select eventually) and then re-install the OS. You'd always want to re-install the OS when changing hard drives, but programs like Norton Ghost (I think that's the one) allow you to copy a partition. I'd suggest reinstalling. It's not a pain and it's always good to prevent any sort of conflict. After that, you just copy and paste necessary data.
There are many programs for doing just what you want to. DiskImage and Ghost are two off the top of my head. However, it IS best to install Windows cleanly when installing a new component and/or every year.
If you must follow one of the routes listed above, here's the steps left out:<ul><li>When installing the new hard drive, unplug the old one and use its connections. Make sure the new drive is set to Master or Solo, depending on the drive manufacturer.</li><li>After installing Windows, shut the machine down, set your OLD drive to 'slave', plug it into the other ports on the wide data cable. Make sure Pin 1 matches up correctly. Most IDE cables have a tab on the top of every connector to make sure they only go in one way.</li><li>NOT ALL IDE CABLES HAVE THREE PLUGS. Some only have one for the motherboard/IDE card end, and the other for the HDD. Some have up to five, for RAID array usage.</li><li>Look BEFORE you start screwing around. If you aren't sure, get someone LOCAL to help you. HDD installation is not plug-and-play. It takes at least a *little* computer-savvy.</li><li>If you are not sure, at ANY TIME... stop and take it to someone who knows what they're doing. Even if it costs money. If they say 'you screwed up and all your data is gone', don't break down crying. Thank them, ask them to put it into a usable state, and move on with lesson learned.</li></ul>