Hard drive replacement

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Andyf

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My hard drive is really getting senile. The whole computer is massively throttled by it and I spend a lot of time just waiting for it to grind away. So I need to do something about it!

The current set up:
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200.10
Partition 1 80GB: OS
Partition 2 80GB: Media, Photos, work
Partition 3 the rest: Games, programmes


Now windows defrag really won't do any more, its just got gunked up I guess. I recently bought a second drive, also a 500GB Barracuda, but being newer its the 7200.12 revision. I haven't touched it yet. So my options:

1)Do a bit-to-bit copy across to the new one and hope it works better
2)Do a bit-to-bit copy, but with a larger OS partition... so the OS one is always pretty much empty
3)Backup, do a clean install and reformat using both HDs (prolly partitions 1&2 on the new one and the old one reformatted for programmes and games)
4)Any other suggestions?

I'm not keen on 3)... I have no end of useful programmes and things collected over the years that would be a hassle to find again/ reinstall. Plus I would no doubt fail to back up everthing I needed.
How do I do these things anyway?!

Thanks for any help!
 
From what I understand the HDD is just slow, and not "bad". If I was in your position, I would opt for the Clean Install since that drastically speeds up your system (I try to do it once a month), and seeing is how you have two HDD's of equal capacity, you have the perfect setup to do a cleaninstall with a pre-set backup.

My advice is before you even start, take a screenshot of your desktop and start menu and save them on a flash drive or floppy (no need to waste a CD-R here) UNLESS <----- (see "BEFORE YOU START")

I strongly discourage of bit-to-bit transfers, because most of the time a HDD can get so fragmented a defrag is impossible and performance is horrible. They are good for preventing file loss and preserving systems (Say you run a PC shop and a customers HDD is going kaput, a bit-to-bit transfer is how you would fix it, so the customer doesn't loose any files, bookmarks, saved passwords, desktop files, etc). A bit to bit transfer makes a clone of your old hdd, so now your new hdd is just as fragmented and slow as the old one. A fresh install is usually the best way to bring a PC back to life.


BEFORE YOU START
Go to your manufactures website (prebuilds) or Motherboards website and get all of the latest drivers <--- veryyyyyy important!

Stage 1:
In essence, disconnect your current HDD from the system, and connect the new one (leave the old one in, we will use it later. THIS STEP IS MANDATORY IF YOU WANT TO STILL BOOT OFF OF THE OLD HDD. Leaving a HDD connected in a system while installing on another HDD is a surefire way to get the ntldr is missing / an overwritten Boot.ini /bootmgr file) Now install your OS to the new hdd, setting up your partitions as you go. Wait for the install to finish, go grab your drivers, etc, and we shall begin stage 2.

Stage 2:
Open your case back up (unless you left it open the whole time/running a bench setup). If you run SATA then just reconnect your old HDD and take note of the SATA port its connected to. IF you run IDE then remove both HDD's and check the new HDD to verify the jumper setting is set to MASTER, and check the old one and set that one to SLAVE. Now go into your BIOS and set it to boot off of the new hdd (either setting it to boot off of the sata port that you took note of earlier or IDE0 for sata/ide respectively.

Stage 3:
Get to desktop, go to my computer, and start copying your files from your old drive to your new one and partitions. Another benefit of this setup: If something doesn't feel quite right (MISSING A PROGRAM?) go back to your bios and change your boot order to boot from your old hdd and take a look around.


Good luck! hope my advice helped ^_^
 
Another benefit of this setup: If something doesn't feel quite right (MISSING A PROGRAM?) go back to your bios and change your boot order to boot from your old hdd and take a look around.

Thats genius! You, sir, are a hero.

A few things:
-Would I just reformat the whole old HD when done?
-Presumably, I'd need to reinstall all the old goof again on the new thingy: keeping, say my programme partition on the old HD would be tough, as all links are to.. say.. E:, whereas it would now be G: or something..
-The old HD... what happens then, is it just a nice new partition for me to use?
-So I need to get all the drivers... erm... trying to think what.. GPU?... erm... what else? I canne even remember.
-So in windows, HDs just get gunked. I suppose its something to accept. Do I:
1) accept it will happen, and just do this every so often
2) is there any way to stop it happening
3) will having just a bigger OS partition help?


Thanks for the help though, thats a genius idea.
 
Thanks very much for your help- don't worry too much about running around finding things for me...

See, its so long ago, I can't remember all the things I did to set the computer up...

Still, I don't remember having to do anything to get MOBO and CPU working... I reflashed the BIOS back in the day, but I can't remember needing to do anything else.

GPU drivers I will need of course, but I can find those... Not sure what else I would need.

All the kit is listed in the sig anyhoo :)
 
Xp or vista?

9800gt drivers for vista 32bit

And this next one should take you to the page for your motherboard just scroll down and go to downloads and ge chipset, audio, LAN, and wlan

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

I would have given you straight dl links but my itouch hates the asus site, currently in the waitin room at a hospital so I can get a drug test so I can work at bestbuy XD

Sent from my iTouch
 
Thanks so much for posting all of those up. I've got a 'bumper pack' of stuff to put on it, but no doubt it will be a full day of installing stuff!

My living room is a maze of computer components and wires at the moment (recent no POST issues have finally pushed me into taking everything out, cleaning kilos of dust, getting a new case and sorting this HDD out once and for all). Anyhow, the new case is arriving next week, so I think I'll leave it all aside until that arrives- not sure I want to be transfering HDDs with wires all over my desk and improper cooling.

Anyway thanks again for the help, no doubt I'll repost here with some panicy questions when I get around to it.
 
Right, an update, I've installed windows on the new HD, and need to start the slow process of getting everything installed.

Now as for the programmes on the partition of the old disk: is it possible to reuse them without re-installing? That partition is fine, not at all fragmented, its just the OS partition.

Is there some way of 'linking' to that partition? Windows doesn't, of course, know that there are programmes on there...
 
not that I know of, sorry...

well, theoretically it IS possible, you would just have to copy the registry, and the whole windows folder basically, your users folder, and make sure the drive letter is the same as it was on the old os, but even then, some programs (like adobe cs4) link to the machine ID on install, and when you reinstall, you get a new machine ID (at least thats how I understand it)
 
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