Moving C drive to D drive

Ok I got a new 80 gb hard drive that I would like to put in my computer. The old hard drive is a 40 gb. I want to take all my info from my 40 hdd and move it to my 80 hdd. I will not be useing the 40 hdd on this computer after I move the info. Now do I need to format the new drive? Do I new to download my Windows program to the new hard drive before I try to move the data from the old hdd. After I move the data from the old hdd to the new hdd how do I take the old hdd out with out the computer saying it is still there and then change my new hdd to drive C. I don't have a CD burner so I have no way of saving the data on the old drive. Thanks for your time in this matter.



Zuriel

Ok, listen carefully. first of all, open up your computer and disconnect the cd rom, then plug that into your new hdd (this should be set on slave), then in your bios go make sure it detects it. (only do this step if your hdd hasnt been formatted) Resart your computer and go to command prompt, then type fdisk. follow all the instructions, but first you have to make sure your on the right drive. the create dos partition. The restart and format hdd /s. if your hdd says the wrong space repeat step fdisk and format /s. (its ok if its out by a few gbs.

The start your os normally, if its windows you need to format the new drive to fat32 (found in the system tools on the start menu) and when thats complete restart computer, then click on c: on windows explorer and press ctrl+a, this will select all, then copy and paste on your new drive.

Turn off computer, remove old drive and put new one in its place(make sure it is now set to master, plug in cd rom where it was before. go to bios make sure everyting is great, restart your computer and everyhting should be beut.

Sorry if it is written badly, any probs let me know.

Just on another note. if you dont know, look at the cable that you plud into the rom and hdd, on one side there is a red line, this goes closest to the power pluggin on the hdd or rom

:)

Something else i forgot, the cable that goes into you hdd and cd rom has a red line along one side, this line plugs in closest to the power pluggin.

:)

Something else i forgot, the cable that goes into you hdd and cd rom has a red line along one side, this line plugs in closest to the power pluggin.

:)

If this post keeps repeating sorry, but there's something wrong.

I forgot to tell you that on the cable that plugs into the hdd and cd rom from the mother board(or ide card) there is a red line, this line goes closest to the power pluggin

Ascii: That won't work by default your cd rom is a master drive secondary master. Do this instead, put new drive into slave mode (jumper config should be on the drive). Put it on the same daisy chain (conection cord that connects the Motherboard to the HD or IDE cable whatever you want to call it) as the original drive. Boot check to see if the bios recognizes the drive. Go into dos fdisk the drive. Create new partition yes on large block then partition it, (this may take a while) then format it (this also may take a while). Now you need to make your new drive bootable to do that type sys (drive letter). Then turn the computer off pull both hard disks out of your computer then make the new one master and the other one slave, boot it should kick you into dos run the windows cd and run setup. If the windows program is on the other drive go to the d: then fetch it and run the setup from there, once windows is installed or linux (mandrake is easyer to install than windows in my opinion) or the mac os for that matter if you need to remove the drive copy all the stuff off of it onto the new drive and then just take the old drive out. Doing it my way will bump the D: to the E: because the primary slave takes priority over the secondary master.
If you want to use Ascii's way (and I wouldn't see why unless you only have 1 connector on your IDE cable) you'll need to take the drive your replaceing with the cd rom and put it into master mode and make sure to make the new drive bootable with the sys command.

If you have a high speed internet connection and need a quick fix, you may be able to find a file stoage service or a remote server where you can send all your files and folders etc there, and then just replace the 40 gig with the 80 gig hard drive. Then just login to the file storage service or server and download it all back to your new hard drive.

couple of things...

the safest thing to do is disconnect your current drive install your new drive, partition, format and install the os then hook hook up your old drive to the same cable as the new drive (this will be primary slave) restart and you will have 2 hd's both with os'es but only booting from the new drive...you can tranfer your data (not your programs) from the old drive to your new drive

you can't just copy programs because of registry issues...however there is a program called COA which will allow you to copy programs from one drive to another and it will search for registry entries on the old hd and move them to the new hd registry...it's not 100% but it can save a bunch of hours...search at www.freewareweb.com for COA

you can also find a few progs which will make an exact duplicate of your old drive on a new hd...including all the hidden system files and such which you can't normally copy...i've used one before with good success...i can't however remember what it is called...drive upsizer or something..google for it...

suggesting just make new OS in your new HDD(80).. then cut what you need from an old and paste to the new HDD.

Sometime, Hardware has a particular Codder besides its Partition.

and Sometime Clone method wont guarantee they would work for several copyrighted program.

Thanks for all your help guys/girls. But I had to have it done last night and did not get back to this post untill few mins ago. So I did not get to try any of your ideas. I just took the old 40 gig hdd out put the new 80 gig hdd. And just started from the bottom up putting everything back on it. Took longer but it worked. I did lose my dvd program because I cant find the disk but thats fine I only used it a few times anyway. But thanks again for all your help.



Zuriel

Ok I keep getting negs for this being posted in the wrong place. If you want me to move it then when you give the negs how about telling me how to move the post. That why you can be a happy little camper.


zuriel

I don't have a clue what they mean by telling
you that you posted this in the wrong place.
This is the forum for "Newbie Questions".
There isn't a separate forum for hardware/OS
issues, so this seems to be the exactly right
place for your question.

Did they suggest another location?
If you wanted to move it, I guess you could
copy and paste, and then delete the old post.
:cool: