Here's What I Want To Do

wonderfullife_2

Hi
I have a 250 Sata Maxtor hd, set as master, and xp installed on it. I have now got a new Seagate Sata 250 hd, which I want to install and set up as master and use the Maxtor as a backup drive, not very impressed with this drive definately prefer Seagate.

Now if I format and install my Seagate as slave, could I transfer xp over to it from the Maxtor, or do I have to do a clean install. I hate installing xp, it seems to take forever, and then you have to install drivers etc.

Do I need any specific software which will do this for me, I have Acronis True Image, Partition Magic, or is there anything else that I need.

Usually I do things the hard way, although I do get there in the end, so I'm looking for the easiest solution



Thanks

Chippy_Minton

Yep, install the Seagate as slave, format it and then use Disk Clone in Acronis TI to copy the Maxtor to it. Then swap the drives as master/slave and Windows should boot from the Seagate, although I've never done this myself.

wolfman

Get using TrueImage!

If it's an old installation I'd start fresh. Setup Windows on your new drive, get it perfect, exactly how you like it, then take an image. That way you can recover Windows in about 5 minutes using TrueImage (instead of hours re-installing) plus it'll be fresh.

If it's a reasonably new installation, still do the above (as in get it perfect then take an image). Switch the drives round, then boot into TrueImage using it's boot disc (can make one in Windows within TrueImage). Select the image you made and point it at your new drive. Wait 5 minutes will it extracts Windows. You're done and you also now have a backup image.

Best thing is to partition Windows by itself. I install any apps on the partition, but keeps any files on another drive (or partition). A good example is my Firefox profile. Firefox sits with Windows, but my profile for Firefox sits on another drive. I do this for Trillian, Opera, Thunderbird, FileZilla, etc... That way if something goes wrong, it's purely Windows and any apps sat on my primary (c) partition. All my settings/profiles/configs are sat elsewhere. Just saves worrying, and makes recovering even quicker.

I've not had to re-install Windows for over 2 years. It's saved me so much time. I usually update my image every few months. I basically revert to my image, run any updates, changes I made etc... then re-image. Helps keep it current.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
Thanks for that, it is a reasonably new install, and its only a small partition, just with xp and I install applications in there.

Now I have no floppy drive so does this cause any problems, if it does then I can fit one if I have to.

Thanks for the replies, and I'm so glad I don't have to install xp again, I hate doing that.

PS Just looked at Acronis, I installed it a while ago, but I've never used it, it looks excellent and quite easy to use.

Thanks again

wolfman

No floppy needed. Open up Acronis in XP, and it'll have the option to burn a boot cd (I'm assuming you have a burner). You can then just boot from that.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
Just created the boot disc, so I'll probably install Seagate drive tomorrow, I'll let you know how it goes, but looking at Acronis it looks pretty straight forward, so hopefully all will be well, I live in hope

Thanks

djohn2002uk

Because one of the discs is a Maxtor you can use Maxblast, downloadable from the Maxtor website for free and it will copy the one disc to the other. You then just need to change the Slave to Master and vice versa.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
Well everything went well, thanks to you all, I now have 2x 250gb hds, both partitioned and setup the way I want them, I put xp on my new Seagate drive, and am using the Maxtor as a backup drive.

So thanks again