New HD

ok, im running XPhome, have an old 20GB hard drive that is running at over 95% full. ordered me a new faster HD with plenty of space. here is my problem:


i would like to be able to do a straight data transfer from the old drive to the new drive. XP included.

is this doable?

and if so, can i then set up a partition for the operating system AFTER the transfer is done? (was thinking of running XP on a FAT32 partition, and NTFS the rest of the HD)

and will transferring the operating system with a diskcopy type of thing mess up the registry at all? i mean we are changing a major device (HD).


basically what i want to end up with is my new 80GB HD with a 8-10 GB FAT32 partition, rest of the drive NTFS'd and all the current stuff on my old HD put in the respective partitions.

 

Yes, you can transfer your operating system to the new HDD. However, XCOPY will not do the job. If you have a Western Digital drive, you can get their diagnostic utility (for free) off their website and it will allow you to copy you drive over. It will even allow you to leave the excess of your new drive unpartioned so you can do whatever you want to with it.

If you don't have a Western Digital drive, you will have to use something like Norton Ghost to replicate the data from drive to drive.

Next question... why in the world would you want to have your XP on a FAT32 partition and the rest of your drive as NTFS? I might, repeat, might understand the opposite.. XP partition as NTFS and the rest as FAT32.

Shane

 

Every HD manu. I know of has a free utility that you can use to copy partitions. Not just WD.

 

FAT32 file systems actually have a faster seeking time than NTFS, as long as the file system is small. (either that or my instructor is an idiot) the opposite is true if the file system is much bigger than 8GB,

just thought it might speed up my PC a bit

 

If you did an upgrade from win 98 to xp, that may explain why your drive is still fat 32, but if your running xp, your better off to use ntfs file system. Not only for security and stability, but it's getting to be the standard now. If you upgrade to xp from 98, and chose ntfs file system, it's a good choice, however..The file system remains a little more fragmented than doing a format then re-installing. Still, the upgrade is better in my opinion if you use ntfs. you shouldn't notice a speed difference. Just my 2 cents...

 

yeah, after going back over my books and actually lookin it up rather than trying to quote from memory, the setup i was describing really doesnt make a difference on PC's running over 800Mhz or so, so my 2.4 GHz aint gonna see much change.

still gonna have to play around with splitting up my programs to a new partition without screwing up my registry after i transfer tho, maybe install the programs to the secondary partition as normal, then copy all the old files to the new directory and overwright as needed....

none of the programs have a easily recognizable "saved game" file, or i would just zip em to a floppy

 

Actually, I would copy what you could do a cd or floppy and do a clean install to that new hard drive. However, personal opinion? I would leave well enough alone and use the new hard drive as back up to the old, copy your downloaded stuff, My documents and whatever is irreplaceable to the new hard drive. Portion a segment off the back end and put a second o/s on it in case you get a virus so that you won't lose anything off the affected hard drive.

That way, if something comes in and you have to reformat the old one completely, you still have everything on the new one that you do not want to lose, and an o/s to help you out while you do it. I had planned on doing that myself til my 20 gig seagate bit the dust. I have a second o/s on my 160 gig . I have linux on the back end of mine.

 

Xavious....

The issue with FAT32 or NTFS... isn't about speed, it is about security. NTFS provides the better security, far above FAT32. I don't really think the speed between the two file systems are that obvious. Not until you get into Domains and active directory.

I hope you get your system to where you want it! good luck.

Shane