If I...

[Thorn]

If I made a copy of every registry entry, and copied every windows/system file, couldn't I make an exact copy of my old hard drive to a new one (that has already had windows installed on it)?


I see no reason why this wouldn't work, because all files and paths would be in place. with an up to date registry.

 

[peterhuang913]

Nope, you can't do that.

 

[Thorn]

Care to explain?

 

[Peter.Cort]

you could ghost your system, and then load the ghost image onto the new drive, and that would do what you want to i believe. if what you are going for is to switch drives with out having to reinstall windows.

 

[Ste]

Portions of program/application data are stored in the registry, yes, but not all of it..

Thats why you can't do it the way you want.

You need something like clone disk to copy the drive exactly as is.

 

[Thorn]

So, I can clone my hard drive to a new one, so i don't have to install everything again?

And what would that do if the drive I wanted to copy from was partitioned?

 

[Peter.Cort]

as long as the rest of your hardware doesn't change, then yes you won't have to reinstall anything.

and if its partitioned into seperate drive letters, like (for example) you have a 500gb hdd, 250 is drive C: and 250 is drive D: then you can run norton ghost, and ghost C: if thats where all the stuff is, and just move the ghost files over and plop them on the new drive.

 

[Ste]

This doesn't work if your changing motherboards, that is if it is a different Chipset than your current board.

 

[peterhuang913]

Also, if you do change mobos, cloning might make your computer even slower because of conflicts. It is very good to reinstall.

 

[Peter.Cort]

reinstall's are always just a good thing to do periodically if you can manage it.