Upgrading my Gateway P-7805 to a 500gb XT

I currently have installed Windows 7 Professional X64 on my 320gb Hitachi Travelstar 7200 rpm hard drive. I just bought a Seagate Momentus XT 500GB hard drive and would like to use it for my main operating system.

Question: Do I need to uninstall Windows 7 Pro X64 on my existing (Hitachi) hard drive before I can do a clean install on the new (Momentus XT) hard drive. I tried to do a clean install with the Momentus XT hard drive without uninstalling and it wouldn't let me.

Would anyone please give me a step by step instructions on how to uninstall Windows 7 from current drive and do a clean install of Windows 7 on to the new drive? Thanks!

 

Download acronis true image and clone the 320GB drive into the 500GB drive. Then swap the drives. You might need to re-activate Windows after the swap.

Download the trial version of acronis. It is a full version that can be used for a limited period of time. If I remember well it is limited to 15 days.

 

Okay, I tried the trial version of acronis true image but the clone version is only available for the full version. Are there any other free softwares....?

 

That's odd. Last time I used it it worked fine. Also not a long time ago a member in the forum reported that it worked for them.

Below are few other alternatives:

EaseUS® Todo Backup Free 3.0

xxclone

Reflect Disk Imaging

Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition

 

Windows 7 has a create image in backup. Use that and then do the restore disk to restore the image. You will need to expand the volume as it will by default make the volume only 320 GB as per the original drive.

 

When I installed my XT, I did a clean install of Win7 x64. I encountered no issues. Also, I have used the trial version of Acronis in the past and it worked. In addition to the programs listed above, Seagate does offer it's own software called "Seagate DiscWizard" which can image your original drive and copy to it to the XT if you want to try that route...

Question... Did you try removing the Hitachi from the laptop and installing the XT in it's place? This should allow you to install windows. After the installation, you can re-install the Hitachi into the second bay (make sure to boot from the XT), copy any files you need over, and then format it to free up all of the space.

 

I tried removing my main OS hard drive (Hitachi) without uninstalling it first and tried to do a clean install on the 500gb XT in its place but it wouldn't recognize the product key. I read in some forums that in order to do a clean install you must first uninstall the window from your existing hard drive first.

I tried the cloning method as Naton mentioned and was able to clone my existing hard drive using EaseUS Todo Backup 3.0 quite easily. I then extended the volume drive to maximize my hard drive's capacity to 500gb. This method was so much easier than doing a clean install. Additionally, I am able to keep my Windows 7 operating system in two hard drive with the same product key (not that I need it but it can be done.)

 

Hi, when I installed my two 500 GB momentum xt in raid0, I had the bios 9C.17.00. Last week I decided to try 9C.23.00. Two days later, I had an error in my array. I did rebuild the array, reformat and install everything from scratch. 12 Hours later, the same error. At first, I thought it was a faulty drive, confirmed because I switch places in the hard drive bays. I installed, again from scratch WIN7x64 and after 5-6 hours, the same error, in the same drive. Then I decided to go back to 9C.17.00. Installed again from scratch, and since two days ago, it´s working without a glitch. Bottom line, using raid0 and 9C.17.00 is a good combination.

 

FYI, per Seagate, XT's should not be used in RAID arrays... That being said, I have two separate RAID 10 arrays in my Gaming computer made up of eight (4 in each array) 500GB XT's and have had no issues. =)

 

@Drift King: were do you get that info? So, how should I configure my p7801u with two-500gb?
Thanks in advance

 

The info came straight from Seagate support. I was using 4 XT's in a RAID 5 array and the drives kept dropping out of the array. I submitted a support ticket and they stated that the drives should not be used in RAID arrays and that only their enterprise level drives were supported. That being said, you should have no issues running these in RAID 1 or RAID 0. These drives have issues with RAID 5 due the APM (advanced power management) used by the drive. RAID 0, 1, and 10 are unaffected. Hope this helps!

 

@Drift King: Yes, It helps. Thankyou

 

Anytime. Glad to help!