how do i copy data to a new HDD and make it my main HDD

right now i have a 20GB@66mb/s and i just bought a 60gb@133 (although my mobo only supports 100 ) i want to transfer everything from the 20gb to the 60gb drive and make the 60gb drive my master boot drive with out having to reinstall windows. I have already managed to get it installed and running, and i tried copying everything by useing the command "XCOPY C:\*.* F:\ /c/h/e/k/r" in windows, but when i switched it to be the master drive, windows didnt boot up.

So can anyone please tell me a way to copy everything without having to buy any programs or crap

The easiest thing would be to go get a copy of Norton Drive Copy. But there are other ways.

Assuming XCOPY copied all of the files you need (which it probably didn't), you have to make the partition on your new drive the active partition. Using the FDISK command, there will be a menu option called "Set active partition," under which you should change to your new drive.

That may not be enough though. If you ran XCOPY under windows it may not have copied all the required files. If setting the active partition doesn't fix things, then boot from floppy and use the SYS C: command to copy the needed boot loaders to your hard drive (note, this only works on DOS/95/98/ME). If that still doesn't let you load windows, then you're probably missing a lot of windows sytem files. You could try XCOPY after booting from floppy, but I'm not sure if it keeps long filenames (historically it didn't).

Hope something there works for you.

i should probably add that im running Windows XP and that after i used XCOPY i went and took the cable off my 20gb and set the jumper on the 60gb to master. as it booted up it recognized it as the master drive but didnt boot as i said. you are probably right about it not copying all the files.

Most companies offer a free utility diskette that will copy your drive contents to the new larger drive.

For instance Maxtor has "maxblast"

What type of drive did you buy?

If you want to buy software to do the job, norton Ghost is excellent.

lol both of them are maxtor and i got maxblast with it, but i didnt realize it had that option i will see if i can figure that out now

Good stuff.

Maybe backup your important data onto a cdrw before you start trying to clone the drives.

just in case you make a mistake in terms of which is master and which is slave.

Cough. I've done that once.

well i just spent 4 and a half hours useing max blast to clone 17gb of data, but when i set the new HDD to master and disconected the old one, it loads windows, but stalls before loading to the desktop. now im really confused. could this be because i didnt format after doing the XCOPY option, although i doubt it because maxblastor said i would lose all data on the drive anyway. i just noticed another interesting thing that i cant explain. my 20gb drive has 17.6gb used and my new drive i coppied everything to has 18.5gb used anyone got any other suggestions? if not i will just reinstall windows and programs and transfer my MP3s and stuff from the 20gb after

Two little things you need to do before doing the xcopy command.

One is format the driver with the "/s" switch

format d: /s

secondly

attrib c: -rash /S


Any problems ask.



Andy

get norton ghost, that will take care of you...