Copying Contents of a HDD

[Jamxx]

Just a quick question:

I'm thinking about getting two 120GB SATA 3 GB/sec hard drives for a little summer upgrade as a present to myself for my birthday. I'm in dire need of a replacement, since I'm worrying about my old Maxtor which is an IDE HDD that's been kickin' for about 3 years now, and they only last so long. I'll use this as storage, but I'm just wondering if it is possible to copy this entire drive to the two new HDD's (they'll be running in RAID 0) so that I can set those as my Masters and my current one as my Slave (which is the Master now and only HDD in the computer).

Thanks.

 

[badninja3]

new hdd's usually come with a copying software. mine did. i think u could ghost ur current drive on to ur new one.

 

[Jamxx]

Also, would I be better spending a lot more money and getting two 74 GB Raptors in RAID or should I stick with what I have. What I have is about half as expensive, and it will probably work just as well, right? Since those are SATA 3.0 GB/sec hard drives. Does the A8N5X support SATA 3 GB/sec HDD's anyway?

 

[Tommy Boy]

ohhh yeahhhh.....get the raptors and raid them......that will be blazing fast, you won't even believe it.
As for copying the drive you have now, personally myself, I'd just start fresh with a clean install of XP. Install it on the 2 raid drives then you can install your other hard drive as a slave and copy files you want to keep over to the new drives. Then format the old drive and use it as storage after making sure you have EVERYTHING you want off of it.

Thats probably the easiest way of doing what you want to do and gives you a nice fresh start on some brand new hard drives, instead of the old installation of xp which might be slower and filled with spyware/viruses/unwanted programs that might make it slower.

 

[Jamxx]

I really can't reinstall my XP... I have so many settings and stuff for XP and my programs that I can't be bothered. It's already a clean installation (from about 3 months back) and has no viruses and everything is running great and smooth. I know there's a way to directly copy an HDD and I need some more information on this to know what to do.

Apparently, all nForce4 chipsets support SATA 3 GB/sec, and I have that, so I'd rather do this... It gives me much more space, is 150 bucks cheaper, and I've heard the performance is about the same. I don't need something REALLY fast, but faster than what I have, and I think this will do it. The other option would be just to get a single 74 GB Raptor, or get two 120 GB SATA 3 GB/sec HDD's and RAID them in 0 format... Just looking at that makes my eyes hurt and it definitely doesn't look like English...

Anyways, tell me what y'all think. Thanks!

 

[Tommy Boy]

Well then if your new hard drives don't come with some kind of ghosting software you could get norton ghost to ghost it and then copy it to the new setup.

 

[itturnstoashes]

Disk2Disk is a simple and well layed out program. It's free, and supports XP.
I'm nearly 100% sure it creates a raw backup. Good luck
http://www.duncanamps.com/disk2disk/download.html

 

[kchi55]

just thought i'd let you know, the A8N5X does not support SATAII. sorry.

 

[Jamxx]

Yes, I realized that... but I was looking at SATA 3 GB/sec HDD's anyway, so no worries.

 

[Jamxx]

Oh, and that program you posted, I'm not sure if it is what I'm looking for... It seems like you select files to backup, not just the whole drive. Assuming that it has an option to backup the whole drive (like, select drive C: to backup), would that copy my registry and EVERYTHING that I'll need to just start up my system as those as my masters?

Also, if I'm running RAID 0, then am I going to be treating both of these drives as one single drive? How exactly does it work?

Thanks so much!