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Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: violetta martinez who wrote (5339)	8/22/1999 12:56:00 PM
From: wily	Respond to of 110653

I'm not sure I can answer your question, but could you start by telling us what you have done so far? How did you install the new hard-drive? Guess #1: You have both hard drives on IDE 1 (primary) and you set the new drive to be master and the old one to be slave. But then the system wouldn't boot since the OS is now on D: . Guess #2: Your new drive is not the primary master and your old one is. Now you are trying to get your system files onto D: (your new drive). I suspect #2 is what you have done. You could just copy each folder that has program and system files in it from your C: drive to your D: drive. (Note: COPY and paste -- not CUT and paste, so that you are leaving everything as-is on the C: drive). The main folders to copy would be C:\Windows and C:\Program Files, but also do any others that have programs in them. Also copy all the files from the root directory of C: to the root directory of D: (root directory means files that are not in a folder). Then turn off your computer and set the jumpers on your hard drives so that C: (your old drive) becomes D: and vice versa. Check the manuals that came with the drives or the manufacturer's web-sites for the jumper settings. Then next time you boot you will have what you want. I think. You may want to check with Richard or PW to see if there are any catches to this method. I've done this or something similar before and it has worked, but I don't think it is the best method. Another thing you may want to do before doing this is to create some extra partitions on your new drive. You have to erase everything on it to do this. A completely different method from the above would be to: -set your new drive as C:, -do a fresh install of the OS onto it -copy what you need from your old drive or just erase what you don't need anymore (all the system and program stuff) and use the old drive for backup and data. A couple considerations: What were your reasons for getting a new drive? If the old one is very old or very slow, then you probably should get the system onto the new drive. If the OS is getting too big for the drive then the same is true (transfer to the new drive). But if you had a space problem caused by too much data-type stuff to store (as opposed to programs and OS files) you may just want to leave the OS on the old drive and start keeping all your data on the new drive. Finally, you could get a program like DriveImage (PowerQuest) or Ghost (Symantec) which are designed to do exactly what you need. w

To: violetta martinez who wrote (5339)	8/22/1999 5:27:00 PM
From: PMS Witch	Respond to of 110653

New drive stuff... First off, let me be clear I've never done this before. I'll make the assumption that your old drive wasn't living up to your expectations and you purchased a new drive with greater capacity, reliability, or speed. Currently, both are in your system, but you want the new drive to take over the duties of the old. I'd take this approach: Make your new drive bootable drive 'C'. Make your old drive a non-booting drive 'D'. Copy files from 'D' to 'C'. Be sure to copy hidden and system files and directories too. You should be left with the same system, except that needed files are read from the new drive instead of the old. I hope nothing was damaged on the old drive by your efforts so far. Powerquest, among others, make products especially for this kind of job. They're easy to use, and can save you much grief. Cheers, PW. P.S. Windows needs to know what files are on your system and where they are. Copying program files, even to the correct location, isn't enough since Windows needs to know both it's location and how to use it. Your Start menu contains shortcuts. To work as expected, the shortcut must exist and the target it points to must be in also exist, as well as be capable of running. If you copied a program to a new location, try invoking it with the RUN command on your Start menu. If it runs OK, create a new shortcut for it and place this shortcut in (on?) your Start menu. P.P.S. A bootable disk must contain certain files. Not only must these files be on the disk, they must be in a specific location. This is why I recommended making your new disk bootable while it's still empty -- these critical files get written properly first. Isn't technology great? P.P.P.S. If Richard tells you something different, listen to him and ignore me.

To: violetta martinez who wrote (5339)	8/22/1999 8:00:00 PM
From: RJL	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 110653

Howdy, -- Transfering Drives -- Part 1) -- Ensure both drives are correctly attached to your computer. The old drive should still be C: and the new drive should be D:. -- After Windows loads, open the MS-DOS Prompt, and start FDISK. -- If you are prompted on whether or not you are using a large Hard Drive, answer Yes. -- Switch over to the new Hard Drive, and create a partition. -- Restart Windows when the partition is completed. Part 2) -- After Windows loads, open the MS-DOS Prompt, and issue the FORMAT command: FORMAT D: /U (This assumes you have no other partitions, and the new drive is D:) -- When this is complete, issue this XCOPY command, followed by the SYS command: XCOPY C:\. D: /C /E /H /K SYS D: -- Ensure that the files copied properly -- Open up another MS-DOS Prompt, insert a blank floppy disk into drive A:, and issue these commands: FORMAT A: /U SYS A: COPY C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\FDISK.EXE A: Part 3) -- Change the new Hard drive to the Master setting, and the old Hard drive to the Slave setting (if you still want to keep it). See the drive documentation, or the top of the hard drive for specific jumper settings for Master/Slave positions. -- You might have to change the drive settings in the system's BIOS. Most new computers have an IDE auto-detect function which makes things easier. -- Start the computer with the newly created start-up disk in drive A: -- When a command prompt appears, start the FDISK program and ensure that the new drive is the active partition. This is a key step. -- Restart the computer without the start up disk and you should be ready to go, with all the data transferred from the old drive to the new one. Please note: If you are not comfortable with any of the above steps, I highly recommend taking the drive to a trusted computer centre where competent computer technicians can perform drive transfers. This is the best way that I know of to transfer drive data without affecting currently loaded Windows programs. Simply copying files doesn't always work. Good luck, Rich