Adding an extra HDD?

James_Lahey

Device manager tells me I have a "standard enhanced PCI to USB host controller"
But which one that is still eludes me - thanks for the post above but it doesn't sound very simple to me!

I've ordered the pci to usb2 card for £3.50 from ebay as having usb2 ports will help with my other devices (according to the pop-ups anyway.)

Cheapest option in my case would be to buy Sata2 1TB internal drive and clone existing? (I'll be back for step by step idiot guide if/when I get it!)

closed

how much space is free on 160 and 500 drives? Do you expect the data size to grow?

What type of data is it, and are you prepared to lose any of it if a drive fails?

which operating system, XP?

James_Lahey

C (alleged - 160GB) 49.3gb free of 148gb (various programs photos etc - most important photos etc.are backed up on other members of family's comps but would rather not lose.)
E (alleged - 500GB) 113GB free of 465 (mainly media converted from old CD/DVD into avi/mp3 format - could reconvert but would be a pain/slow.)
Would rather not lose anything but wouldn't be the end of the world if i did (hence me not backing up before now.)

Operating system Window 7 pro (64bit.)

I do expect the data size to grow slowly which is why I'm looking to upgrade storage - but as you can see there's no real rush

closed

If the machine is anything bought in the last 6 years (or more), it's should be usb2 - If it came with Window 7 preinstalled at manufacture, I'd be very suprised if it usb1.1

You have 100Gb of data on C and 350GB on D, so 450 in total (which you could possibly thin out) - that should fit on your 500GB drive.

One possibility is

Install search everything on the c drive to enable rapid file searches - link is earlier in the thread.

Cleanup any rubbish/temp data with ccleaner, and by manually searching for (big) files that aren't needed.

Buy a 1TB or bigger portable usb drive (ebuyer do usb3 (backwards compatible with usb2) for <£70, or elsewhere) - portable drives are smaller, quieter, and dont need external power supply.

if the new usb drive came formatted as fat32 (they often do), copy any data that came preinstalled on it (eg backup software), somewhere, then quick format it as ntfs.

Install macrium reflect free or similar on the 160 (c drive).
Create a macrium reflect disk image of the 160 (C drive), save it on the usb drive (essentially one big file, provided the new drive is ntfs) - This is not the same as cloning, very important, you don't want or need to clone - it's a backup. Macrium has 2 options, clone this disk, or image this disk, you want to do the image. Should take around 1Hour with usb2.

create a macrium boot cd (option in the software - other tasks menu, create rescue media)
Copy everything from the 500 drive to a folder on the new usb drive (2-3 hours at usb2 speed)

Be careful at this stage when removing the usb drive - use the safely remove hardware if you pull it out - you don't want to corrupt anything and lose that 350GB of data which was originally on the 500 drive - double check the data is all there and readable, because the next step is going to wipe the 500 drive.

Remove 160GB drive, store somewhere safe
install the 500 drive in it's place, this can now be your new c drive
boot from the macrium cd and restore the disk image of the 160 stored on the usb drive, to the 500
remove cd, reboot into windows (now stored on the 500 drive)
copy the 350Gb of data you backed up earlier from the usb drive into a folder on the new c drive (500)
reboot machine

you will then have

1 500GB internal, with operating system, all programs, all data on (from both disks)
1 or more TB external. (with 550GB free)
and a backup of all of your data should any drive fail. (ie you have it in 2 places)
and a 160GB with anything that was on c originally stored away somewhere.

You could also then use the new usb drive to do system image backups of other machines, space permitting.

You could later reuse the 160GB inside a usb caddy, once you are happy everything is working, for further backup

Buy a tub of blank dvd's (£8-10 for 50) and backup the really important data to them

Another possibility if you have the windows dvd, is reinstall a clean windows on the new drive first, then you don't need the disk image, other than for backup.

James_Lahey

Top advice closed - I'll save this thread until I'm ready then have at it, under 70squid would suit me just fine

Many thanks.