Copying hard drives
 

I got a new hard drive, and figured that a quick install of W2K on a third drive would allow me to just straight up copy the old drive to the new drive. This hasn't been the case at all, as it tells me that certain files are in use (can't possibly be true), or that it can't find a certain folder...after it's already started to copy it. This is making no sense, and I'm beyond frustrated with it. This was supposed to be easy. It isn't. How in the world do I do a straight up copy of EVERYTHING from one drive to another? Or, even just a couple of folders (Windows and related directories) that aren't in use.

Thanks.

Your drive shoulda came with a floppy or CD-ROM that has a cloning util like WD's Data Lifeguard Tools has. Check your packaging and RTFM ;)

Sorry, partner. What kind of drive did you buy?

As Holo mentioned, most drives include a utility to migrate everything to the new drive, including the OS.

I've only ever used the Maxtor MaxBlast utility mtself. It worked like a charm. It was slow as the dickens, but worth the effort.

Just take your time and read the instructions carefully

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you cant copy a live OS, the OS has to be off to do it.

boot with knoppix and copy the files across, but that usualy wont work to well, either run the system from the smaller hard drive or set up a new OS on the new hard drive and set the old one as a slave or on the second channel.

safest way to clone a HDD is using a util like Norton Ghost, look that up. I wouldn't reccommend a straight copy *.* command

True, a Windows OS can not be running if you want to copy the drive.

But, unless you want to re-install and reconfigure your entire system, it's not a good idea to setup the OS on another drive when you're dealing with a Windows platform.

The drive copy utilities boot from CD and don't use the OS installed on the HD. Most of them do a sector copy to make certain that you do, indeed, copy everything over.

I figured a linux geek wouldn't need to ask and so the platform is Windows. Installing the OS on another drive means losing all the installs. If the user goes with the migration utility, all that is lost is the time it takes while it copies. You won't lose any data, nor would you need to re-install/configure everything.

Just read the instruction carefully and follow them to the letter and all is well.

Well, I did a clean install, because it was probably needed anyways...been a year since the last one.

The scenario was that W2K was on a spare drive, and I booted with it, and then tried to copy the entire "normal" drive that I HAD been using over to the new drive. All three drives were in the PC, but neither of the "regular" drives were active...meaning that NO files from either unit were in use. I got it taken care of...clean install, and it's a lot faster now!

Thanks anyways, y'all.

I'm glad you got it running!

I second that. Ghost is a great program.


Glad you got it running. A clean install is always nice. You forget how fast an operating system with nothing on it can run.