Dumb laptop question about trading hard drives...

[KarTek]

OK, my laptop is a few years old and the HD is maxed out completely. I want to drop in something like an 80G (it's a 20 now...) and I;m trying to figure out how to move the OS and all the stuff over to the new drive so I can install it. The laptop is on my network so I can store things on the other computer temporarily.

How does one do this???

[Jorn]

You can buy a portable 160gig USB2 drive for less then $100 now. Saw them for sale at Best Buy.

[thorsen]

Most replacement laptop harddrives include a cable that you plug the new harddrive into and software that automatically copies all the data over.

Option #2 is Norton Ghost and a network share.

[gmercoleza]

You can also ghost to a bootable CD.

[G-Benz]

Posts #2 and #3 are both very good and easy ways to do this.

I did the USB drive option, since not only can I move data from a smaller drive to a larger one, but if I have to clean off a machine for malware, I can upload the non-infected files to the USB drive and reformat the hard drive. When I'm done installing the OS and other software, I can restore the files.

The USB drive also makes a great backup for a massive media library. But just in case, every month, I burn CD backups and store them away.

[Ara T.]

You can't really just drag everything off the old HD and put it on the new unless you have some special programs like Norton Ghost (which is a POS).

What i'd do is just save all your documents, pictures, music and reinstall windows on the new HD and just copy above mentioned items onto the new installation. The machine will perform better anyways since you basically have to reinstall Windows every coupla years or so because it gets so bogged down with crap.

[diametricalbenz]

You can Ghost the system onto the new HDD attached to a USB to 2.5" HDD adapter but I have never done it. I usually use the system software to reinstall and then move everything over.

[kknudson]

Purchase a USB drive enclosure for the old drive.
Note you need one that holds the 2.5" drive factor.

Physically swap the drives, use ghost or ?? (new HD may include something) to move the image from the NOW external to the new internal.

This also gives you a small USB drive, I use mine to backup the new hd (at least the OS partition).

[KarTek]

Thanks for the help guys!

[KarTek]

OK, so here's the latest... I got me a new 80G hard drive and I found some trial software to move the system to it. Now, everything worked fine except that when I take a look at the new drive, it's formatted at 20G... So, I lost 3/4 of the drive! How do I re-format it properly? Any ideas?

[kknudson]

Probably whatever software you used, created a partition = to the original.

Suggestions.
Something like Partition magic allows you to change partitions on the fly.
(I haven't used these in years so I have no recommendations, I do know there are some freeware versions).

My recommendation.
Create a second partition in the open area, put your Data there.
I also have a "Program Files" directory for "Some" programs, many that I am just test driving for example.
You do have to go into many programs and define their various directories to point to the new drive letter (I like E: always saving D: for the CD, I do this to be consistant)

How
I may have moved it in my program list structure
In Administrative Tools
Computer Management

In this program you will see Disk Management

You should see the HD, with an unformatted area.

Right click and you'll have options ....


Any ??, leave a note

[KarTek]

Hey, thanks so much for the tip! I got it all worked out and the computer is running better than ever. The new HD is 4 times the size of the old one and turns 5400 RPM compared to the old ones 4200.

I never knew about that utility. I'm just out dated. I was trying to open a DOS prompt and type "FDISK"... Doh!

[kknudson]

My Pleasure, glad to help.

And the thankyou is appreciated