Copying Programs From 1 HD To New HD

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billru44

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Hey,

I need to get a bigger HD, here's the problem though:

My current 30GB HD is almost full.... It's got the OS on it as well as several cool prog's I've gathered through the years....

So, when I get my new HD, what's the best plan of action? I'd rather have 1 HD in my new system...

I can re-install the OS on the new HD, but what about the programs? My brother took several w/ them and several install discs are MIA.

Is there any way of transferring the program to the new HD? I would think to just copy the prog files, but, perhaps the install writes misc. files to other directories (system, registry, etc).

any ideas?
 
Yes, you just need the right software. I personally use Computer Associates Desktop DNA Migrator to do this on computers that I upgrade for customers. It's a bit pricey, but it works flawlessly. I have used other programs and seen significant data loss in the transfer process. Good luck though.
 
Use a bootable partition imaging software like symantec ghost 8.0 or less. Read the image of the partition. Using partition magic or fdisk, format the new drive with NTFS and make sure it is the primary partition. Then write the image to the new partition on the new drive. The partitions do not have to be the same size. Make sure you use ghost 8 or less because you want to be able to create an image from dos. The newer versions do not have the boot imaging feature and its pointless to back up from windows. Also you could use winternal erd commander to copy files directly in dos between partitions instead of using ghost. If using the ghost method...i do recommend a third drive to store the image. The main thing you do want is that windows should not be running because microsoft made the os intelligent and you may end up with problems.
 
But, if i take an image of my current HD and put it on the new HD, will i have problems b/c of the OS?

Dell had put a copy of WinXP on my machine when i bought it (with all the drivers and such).

Basically, I'm building a new PC from scratch. Will i have all sorts of problems b/c of the drivers pretty much wont exist anymore in the new PC? (I'm replacing everything)
 
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