Change hard drive?

[hoohoo]

I have a 160G hard drive. I want to buy a 500G. Can I move files and stuff from the 160G to the new 500G?

 

[cboucher]

Are you asking if it's possible or are you asking for permission? Yeah, it's possible. There are several ways to do it. The easiest being to just simply install the new hard drive (enabling the appropriate SATA port in BIOS if applicable) and copy over the files you want to keep to the new drive. If you want this new drive to boot and run your OS, then there are more steps.

 

[hoohoo]

I'm asking if its possible. What are the steps to run your OS?

 

[familyman1]

If you want to replace the 160 completely with the 500, install the 500 as a slave and just mirror the 160 over to the 500. You will need drive imaging software to do this. I used Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Tools to mirror a drive that was going bad( bearing was screaming) and it worked perfectly. If you want to just add it in along with the 160, just do what cboucher said and copy only the files that you want.

 

[hoohoo]

If you want to replace the 160 completely with the 500, install the 500 as a slave and just mirror the 160 over to the 500. You will need drive imaging software to do this. I used Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Tools to mirror a drive that was going bad( bearing was screaming) and it worked perfectly. If you want to just add it in along with the 160, just do what cboucher said and copy only the files that you want.

So after I do that I make the 500G the master and the 160G the slave and then format the 160G?

 

[cboucher]

I'm asking if its possible. What are the steps to run your OS?

There are a few ways to do this. One way would be to install the 500GB drive, set it as the boot drive in BIOS and then either install the OS from recovery disk or from OS installation disk (if you have full version OS disk). Then install all programs you had on old hard drive from CD/DVD or whatever the source was. Last step is copying over the files you want to keep from the old drive onto the new one.
Another way would be to create a disk image of the old hard drive using Norton Ghost or Acronis or something similar. Then just install the new drive and restore your previously saved image of the old drive to your new drive using the same software you used to create the image (Norton Ghost, Acronis, whatever...) This way you won't have to reinstall your OS or any programs. You will need a relatively large storage device (external would be best) to store the image during the process, though.

 

[familyman1]

If he copies the disk image directly from the 160GB to the 500GB, he won't need to put it on an external drive. He would be able to boot to the 500GB. It sounds like he wants to use the 500GB as the boot drive and reformat the 160GB. Is this correct?

 

[hoohoo]

Yes, familyman. I want the 500G to be the master and the 160G to be the slave. I'll try your way first as it's more simple. If it doesn't work I'll try cboucher's way. Thanks guys!

 

[dude_56013]

Actually, I'd just do a fresh install, copy all the documents/files over, and then reinstall any programs you had. It'd probably take less time and will be "fresher" in the long run. Just my 2 cents.