Novice Question: Adding a 2nd HDD & Moving HDD1 Contents to HDD2?

[5er driver]

I bought a WD3000HLFS as a 2nd internal HDD for my PC and have not yet installed it. After installation I want the complete original HDD contents including the OS on the new HDD because it has more capacity and is faster. How do I accomplish this? Do I have to remove the original HDD and install the new one and the OS and all my applications on it? Then reinstall the original HDD and format it to wipe it clean? I would like to move the contents from one HDD to the other without having to buy software that would do this. Any advice would be appreciated.


Thanks.

[Know Nuttin]

Use DriveImageXML to copy. I don't know if you can still get a copy of Acronis True Image Home or not.

[redduc900]

Use can also use Data Lifeguard Tools from WD to copy the contents of your old drive to the new one (Drive-To-Drive Copy)...

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&lang=en

[5er driver]

Use can also use Data Lifeguard Tools from WD to copy the contents of your old drive to the new one (Drive-To-Drive Copy)...

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&lang=en

Thanks, I tried the Data Lifeguard, it won't install using Vista.

[redduc900]

Download the DOS Floppy or CD version of the program, then create the disk using another PC w/ XP, W2K, Win98 or WinME installed.

[KTE]

Agreeing with what the above posters recommended - 3 common, free, simple and reliable tools for this are DriveImage XML (http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm), Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools (http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&lang=en) and XXClone (http://www.xxclone.com/index.htm). You can simply copy (clone) the whole primary OS drive over to the second attached drive (the new one), set the new one as a bootable drive, shutdown, swap the drive positions and then boot with the newly cloned drive.

The older main drive will still be intact and work perfectly, so you can move back to it if needed. If not needed, you can wipe it clean after.

Did you use Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2?
What about the CD bootable DOS version, tried that?

I generally use many other "collection tools" to get such jobs done. Tools like UBCD4Win (http://www.ubcd4win.com/) (which uses one of the above linked ools itself)

[5er driver]

Did you use Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2?


Tried it, not supported by Vista. :bang head DriveImage XML worked to a point, the boot partition copied well, the other 2 partitions wouldn't copy correctly. :bang head Then the computer wouldn't boot from the copied boot partition. :bang head Spent the better part of the day trying different options and got fed up with it. :( So I installed the OS on the new drive and most of the programs I have on the old drive. I should finish up today.

[benbaked]

Use can also use Data Lifeguard Tools from WD to copy the contents of your old drive to the new one (Drive-To-Drive Copy)...

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&lang=en

Thank you redduc900, this is exactly what I was looking for. I used Data Lifeguard Tools in replacing a hard drive in a computer this weekend, it took all night but it worked great, the system booted right into XP with the new drive and even had the letter properly assigned as C:. :thup:

[juane414]

Acronis True Image lets you use a full featured trial for 30 days. If you're just doing one transfer, I would suggest that. I've used it in the past and it gives you tons of options. I know there is a lot of good free imaging software available, but Acronis is just easy to use and straightforward in my opinion. At least check it out if you haven't already. I think it's worth a look.