Transfering files from one HDD to another

[Stguy045]

Recently my hard drive became defective on me. Because having a working computer is so important to me, I installed an old 8 GB hard drive for temporary usage. Since then I have reinstalled all my drivers and collected the basics of my most used programs (this is the part of reinstalling that is a pain in the ***). Now that my new hard drive from newegg just came in, I was wondering what would be the best way to switch primary drives. I want to use this new one as my one and only drive, so im taking the old 8GB. Is there anyway I can save/transfer my programs,drivers and other software to this new drive? I know I'm going to have to reinstall windows, I just want to know if I can save all my other software.

Thanks,

St

 

[carnageX]

Norton Ghost (transfers only data) or Acronis True Image (tries to tranfer empty space as well I believe). I've used Ghost, and I can vouge that it works fantastically.

 

[Stguy045]

Will I have to reinstall windows to the new hard drive if I use Acronis?

 

[carnageX]

No; that would negate the point of using either program . They're meant so you can either make backups of your entire drive, or clone one drive to another. Used Ghost just this last week on a work PC as well. No programs had to be reinstalled, Windows didn't have to be reactivated or anything. Cloned, unhooked old drive, booted off of new drive, and worked fine.

 

[Stguy045]

******. I will try Ghost if Acronis does not work

Wow, that was fast!

Thanks!

 

[carnageX]

No problem, good luck.