Copying a hard drive?

urbanfrit

Does anyone know of a free program which will copy the contents of an old slow hard drive onto a new larger faster drive.The old drive contains XP pro and all my programs.
Any advice greatfully received.

alanrowell

The September 2005 issue (number 211) of Computer Shopper has a copy of Acornis MigrateEasy 7 Personal on it.

urbanfrit

Thanks Alan.
Looks like I've got to wait a bit as all my local shops still have the August issue on the shelves.

Dude

Norton Ghost will also do the job, however it is not free. Although you’re best option may be to install a clean copy of XP and then reinstall all your apps, as this should considerable speed up your computer. You can copy your data from your old HD to your new HD by unplugging your CD/DVD drive and attached the old HD (don’t forget to set the jumper switches on the old HD to what ever your CD/DVD drive is set to).

roger56

If you just want to copy your files (eg word, excel, pdf etc) then most modern PCs have spare IDE connectors and power supply leads internally.
Simply set your old drive to be a slave drive (you will need to move one of the small links on the old drive - some drives have a label showing the configuration of the links otherwise a web search will help). (Its a bit like fitting another CDR drive). NB this method is not suitable for copying software programs or operating systems. Making the drive a slave drive, this prevents your PC BIOS attempting to boot up eg Windows from it.

Power your PC down, remove mains lead from wall socket (safety), open PC and mount the old drive in the chassis, plug in a power lead (typically black,red, yellow wires and the IDE connector (lond 50 way connector, typically grey).

Now close the PC lid and power up.
Go to Windows Explorer and you will find a new drive (maybe E:, F: or similar).
Now copy the files you want. You can leave the old drive in a spare GB if you wish.

The process is simple, I've done it several times. Just remember that it may invalidate your warranty. And be safe, unplug the mains lead before opening the computer.