Would this Work

so im planning on getting a new HD and would like to do a clean install of XP and i was wondering the following is possible.
Key

HD1 = this is the HD that im currently using
HD2 = this will be the new HD

1, buy 320GB HD
2, install XP Pro on HD2
3, copy all programs from HD1 to HD2
4, Reformat HD1
5, move XP Pro and files from HD2 to HD1

any other way it could be done?

 

I would say it is possible. I recommend Gnome Partition Editor for doing the transfer in step 5. It runs off a cd and boots a miniature linux installation with a graphical interface so its easy to use. If you have problems with the latest version in terms of graphics drivers then try an older version, my laptop wont accept the latest version whereas my desktop will.

Grand Admiral

 

okay thanx. any idea where i can get that?

 

I would use Norton Ghost 2003, its super fast and easy.

Just burn an image of it onto a CD... making it bootable... then boot off of it to do a Disc to Disc clone.

Or use DriveImage... same thing.

 

does it have to be burned to CD? i would prefer something that i can just use from the computer instead of having to copy it to CD first.

 

+1 for norton ghost (the only Norton product i recommend ^^) but you have to pay.. (not sure we can talk about crack here...)
you can use it on an usb stick too, but it's quite harder to do if you don't know anything about bootable usb sticks... (and regarding the price of a CD, burnin ghost seems the best solution...)

About your procedure, i would have done like this :

1. copy DATA to HD2 (not programs, but only "clean data" useful like bookmarks, config files...etc...)
2. format HD1 and reinstall XP on it
3. reinstall basic useful programs (firefox, office...) and restore your config files, bookmark...

at this point you should have a brand-new OS with all you need.

4. Install norton ghost and create a ghost of your hd1. then you'lll be able to restore your system in 15minutes really easily.

Advice: Install only softwares and stuff that you can "loose" on the HD1. Keep all your datas on the HD2. Or you can partition your HD1 to have only 25gigs for the OS and the rest for your personnal data. Finally you can create an automatic backup of this second partition on your HD2

 

if im not copying the programs how i will i keep them? sorry i havent formatted anything before.

 

what if i just copy all the programs and all the data over to the second HD and then install XP Pro onto the first HD will it overwirte whats already on there?

 

If you're gonna do that, you really should do a good reformat of the first HD before you install XP Pro.

 

okay this is what i was thinking of doing.

1, defragment the new HD
2, move all settings and files to new HD*
3, defragment old HD
4, install XP Pro on old HD
5, move all settings and files from new HD to old HD*

*any idea what i could use

would this work out okay, or is there a easier way to do things?

 

Excuse me for being lazy and not reading the whole thread, but what, exactly, are you trying to accomplish - a spanking clean fresh install of everything, or just moving your system drive (logical drive, that is) over to a new physical hard drive?

 

right im getting a new HD and i want to do 3 things which are:

1, clean install of XP Pro on old HD
2, move all applications and data onto new HD
3 set it up so that every wednesday all the data is backup on to a seperate patition on the old HD, while XP Pro uses another partition

is all of this possible? is there an easy way of doing it?
can the computer be plugged into the AC but switched when the data is backedup?

 

Why not just do a clean re-install of all your applications as well? Unless they're all stand-alone exe's, they've got themselves wired into the existing OS (e.g., through the registry) and simply copying the files over into a new "programs" directory under a different OS is going to wreak havoc with your system - most of the apps won't work because they won't be able to find the config settings they saved in the registry.

I've more or less tried to get a similar setup going on the vaio, albeit with only one physical drive (set up with 3 partitions as three different logical drives). You may not be able to get a completely clean separation between the system drive (where OS resides) and applications, particularly in the case of apps from Microsoft (some of them just insist on snuggling up to the OS on the system drive).

What I would do in your case is:

1. Back up everything to an external drive - OS, apps, the lot - possibly even just making a clone of the existing drive so that I could just go back to the original state of affairs if I muffed up the following procedures; however, since you're going to want to move your old data back as-is, I would segregate the data from everything else first, and back it up separately, just for good measure;

2. Do a low-level format of the old HDD to clean it off decently, partition it into (at least) two partitions, one as System and the other as Backup, and then do a clean installation of XP Pro onto the System partition of the now-clean old HDD;

3. Install the HDDs in the configuration I want, boot from the new installation of XP Pro, and then re-install all of my applications onto the second, new, HDD - trying as much as possible to enforce a separation between OS and applications;

4. Finally, access the backup of my data files and copy them over to where I want them to be.

With an appropriate backup utility, you could then schedule a regular backup to be made onto the Backup partition on the old HDD. For that, you would first do a complete backup, and then schedule an incremental backup to be done on every Wednesday. Acronis True Home will do this quite nicely.

Lastly, I'm not sure about your question regarding having the computer plugged into AC but switched... - switched what? Switched off? Well, obviously, the computer would have to be on to do the backup, and it should definitely be plugged into AC when you're backing up. However, if I read your question correctly, you should be able to set up a rule that would wake the computer up at the appointed time, have it go through the backup routine, and then shut itself off.

 

wow thats complicated, there is NO chance that i would be able to do that without messing something up.

is there an easier way of doing things?

yeah i would like to make it so that the computer wakes up at the required time for the Backup, would the lid have to be up?

would this help http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_fstw.asp if i installed new HD and then used this program to move all the files and settings over to it install the new OS on the old HD and just use the program again to move the files back?

 

save some data, format, reinstall all your programs. that's the easiest way.
or don't format at all if you find it too complicated^^. Ask a friend to help you is the best way i think. Or maybe you can google some good tutorials.
ps : the explanations of Shyster are quite clear

 

May be you can just image the whole drive to another or do a bit by bit copy.I did that from a 120GB to 320GB and it works fine.

 

It's not actually that complicated - my first big "operation" on a computer was almost precisely that, except that I was doing a factory reset on the vaio I have from the so-called "restore" CDs from _Sony, and I only had one hard drive in the computer (which actually made it more difficult because I had to keep switching drives around on the cable connector).

If you already have an external drive - like a USB drive - it's a piece of cake. If you don't, you could actually do it with just the two drives, provided each was big enough.

Also, if you get Acronis True Image 11, Home Edition it becomes very easy to do. True Image is a very comprehensive bit of software and is generally self-explanatory and easy to use. In fact, the very first non-newbie thing I had to do with a computer was to clone the failing HDD on my wife's computer onto a new HDD, and then swap the drives (which was much, much easier to do on an _HP than on the vaio). I used Acronis True Image for that and didn't have a single burp.

With True Image, you'll be able to either fully back everything up, or make a clone image of your existing setup for backup purposes, do the various transfers between physical disks, and then continue to use the application to manage your routine backup operations - by itself, that would justify the $50 Acronis charges for the software.

To my thinking, the hardest part would be making sure you had all of the installation packages (i.e., CD/DVDs or downloaded self-installers) for all of the applications you want to put back on, and then spending the time needed to go back and update all of those applications as well as getting any updates for the XP Pro installation.

As far as moving already-installed programs around, I don't know anything about using the files transfer wizard at all, or in particular in the manner you've described, although I would be extremely hesitant about doing that in lieu of a simple re-installation of the applications because there's just too much room for an error to occur that would cause mysterious, inscrutable problems with either the apps or the OS itself - here I'm thinking about things like misplaced registry entries, mis-named file paths, and whatnot in addition to any potential corruption of the program files themselves.

ASIDE: I just took a quick readthrough of the website you linked to, and I don't believe that the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard provided with XP would do what you want it to do in any case. That utility is designed to migrate configuration settings and data files, not applications themselves; in fact, in item number 6, the author states:

That seems to pretty clearly state that, while the transfer wizard would move your personalized settings for certain applications over - say, the color scheme that you applied to your firefox browser - it wouldn't move the application itself over - you'd still have to install firefox on the new system manually before you used the transfer wizard to in effect recover your personalized firefox settings.

 

is there a way i could make a new partition on the old HD install the new OS and then just remove the old OS? would this affect any of the applications or anything?

god im really stupid, installing the OS will be fine, its just all the data, applications and programs i have i just dont know how to move them without screwing everything up.

wouldnt having the programs on one HD and the OS on another HD affect it in any way?

i should ask RAMBO how it was set up. ie if the HD was in 2 partitions, i think that could make it easier. wouldnt i then just be able to install the OS in the partition that has the old partition on?

 

i might just leave it the way it is, i dont want to screw anything up.

 

With all due respect armageddonash, get a hold of yourself. We've already told you several times how to move your data & stuff, and that it's best to just reinstall the applications. What is so difficult about that?

 

well for the games that should be okay right?
but its the apps and programs that i have got off the net, it would take ages trying to find all the apps again as i didnt save any pages that i got apps or programs from

 

I didn't say that it wouldn't be a little time-consuming; however, with google and name of the executable, you should be able to find the installation packages for most of your apps in a couple of hours.

Look, if you want a horror story, let me tell you about the first two times I had to do a factory reset on this vaio using the _Sony "recovery" CDs - those CDs have XP-SP1 (that's right, folks, Service Pack 1), so until I got smart and imaged/cloned my system right after I finished updating everything after the factory install, it would literally take me three nights (I work during the day ) to download each and every (*^(^& little update from MS through windows_update, and then I had to get all of the _Sony driver updates, and make sure I slotted those in correctly with the MS updates because some of the _Sony updates were work-arounds for bugs in the _Sony drivers that were triggered by changes in the OS, and then, only then, could I go about recovering my applications, and finally restoring my data from backup.

There, you think you've got it hard? Please.

Now, that being said, I'm not entirely unsympathetic with your plight; however, if you want your system the way you want it, then you're going to have to do some work to get it there - there's no such thing as a free lunch.

So, first thing you ought to do is make a list of all the apps and whatnot you've downloaded, and that you want to keep, and then go get the installation package off the net, and make yourself an archive copy on CD/DVD so that if, God forbid, your system ever crashed and wiped out not only your hdd but also your backups, then at least you'd be able to put the pieces back together using your archive of the installers.

 

right i think im going to go for it.

what drivers will i need, the XP disk comes with service pack 2, so could i just download service pack 3 and be done with it? i know that doesn it inlcude drivers for the video card, i will have to check what driver im using becuase i havent had any trouble with it so i might as well just go back to that one.

so i wil lwrite down what apps i would like to keep, there are some on there that i dont know what they are for and i dont use them so i might as well delete them.

i will wait until i have service pack 3 and any other drivers i will need before reinstalling XP as i dont have internet access at home how many days do i have before i have to register it?

with the games after i have uninstalled them and reinstalled them on the new HD will i still be able to use the Keygen code that came with the game or will i have to buy another copy of the game?

is it okay installing all the apps and programs on the new HD and keep the OS on the old HD will that slow down performance or anything?

thanx for all the help, i know i have been a right pain but i just dont want to screw anything up

 

@ArmageddonAsh:

Ok, I was goofing off in Staples today, and came across a bit of software that might just accomplish what you're trying to do - including moving your installed apps over.

The app is Laplink PCMover from Avanquest. According to LapLink FAQ 336 PCMover should successfully move most of your applications over, although you may still have some problems with some apps.

By comparison, Windows Easy Transfer (which is the XP downloadable analogue of the Transfer Wizard that already comes on _Vista) will not transfer applications.

Another utility that says it will move (at least some of) your programs is Transfer Your PC from NovaDevelopment.

Keep in mind, I'm just bringing these to your attention because you're bound and determined to move your programs without re-installing all of them; however, I've never used them and don't know anyone who's used them, so I have no idea how well they work, if at all.

Good luck.

 

+ rep Shyster

thanx for the find. i will have a look at them and if i decide to use them i will report back the results

 

Ash, I reformatted my laptop 4 times since I've gotten it because i screwed up the sizing of my Partitions. Two of those times i had to dl and reinstall 20 of all my applications again, which really isnt that hard. Just make a list of all the apps you have and then do a google search and find them. Took me about 1 hour to dl all my apps again and believe me i have a lot. As for your games, as long as you bought them and have the cd and the CD-Key that came with it you can reinstall as many times as you want (except for Mass Effect stupid secur rom thing) but that is the only game that has activation limits. For your data such as music, and documents that you need copy them to a dvd, and copy your documents over to a usb drive and then copy them over after you have reformatted. I think you have like 2 weeks - 1 month to activate your product using the activation key, and that you can do offline. You can always dl the service pack 3 and the drivers at a freinds house copy them to a cd since they arent that big. Most of the drivers you need should be on the driver cd that came with your laptop. I know for my 5793 i had a cd called Device Drivers and Utilities which had all my drivers on it (Video, Lan, Touchpad etc..) Overall I think the amount of times you are going to move things back and forth between hard drives doing a fresh install would guarantee no conflicts, have everything setup exactly the way you want it, and it would take about the same time. When i did all the stuff mentioned above it took me about 5 hours, but that is because installing games takes like 3..
Not sure if your first hd is also 320 are you going to put them in raid?

 

yep i think im just going to save like the docs and music on a couple of USB sticks i have laying around then just install it on the old HD. i should be able to see what partitions i have then wont i? then i just make it so that its 2 partitions one for the OS and one for the backup of my data.

how big should the OS partition be?

i think it should be okay, im going to be buying the new HD tomorrow, 320GB 5,400 from Novatech its like £65 with next day delivery (which i need)

thanx for the info about the games, thats good to know, + rep

 

For my 320 hard drive i formatted it to be 60gigs for the OS and Applications 60 for Music/pics/Docs and then the rest 200ish for Games/Movies

 

that way if my Vista gets screwed up i can just reformat the c drive which is my os drive. And I dont have to reinstal my games and i can keep my music and documents Dont know how this got onto a nother reply my bad.

 

right im going to save all my files to DVd, will this work:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?TDK-16M50

so im going to make the 120GB partition 2 x 50GB, i think thats how much usable space i have (100GB) if not then i will make them bigger. one partition for the OS and the other partition for backup and ill keep the 320GB for all my files, i might make another partition on here to back up documnets and have the other partition to backup all my media.