anyone know anything about HDD stuff?

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    • anyone know anything about HDD stuff?

      does anyone know how to copy all the data (including installed programs) from one hard drive to another? I am upgrading my harddrive from a 120GB to a 200GB and don't want to install all the programs all over again. The hdd will be used in the same computer and will not be moved. and the 120Gb will be re-partitioned and formated for windows to be installed and moved to a different computer.
    • Probably one of the easiest (and the one I use most often) is Norton Ghost.

      However, that one costs money and only works with NTFS and FAT32. Not only does it work from drive to drive, but Norton Ghost can be used over a network (causing major slowdowns). If you're just doing a drive-to-drive backup, all you have to do is pop in the floppy, set it up, and wait until its done. The network feature is used in schools, big businesses, etc that have lots of computers. Pop in floppies to all the machines, boot them up, and they can all pull the image from the Ghost Server.

      There are a couple others including R-Drive and Paragon Drive Backup

      Paragon Drive backup is better than Norton Ghost if you're looking to modify partition tables on the fly, split partitions, move partitions, etc.

      R-Drive has a suite that includes a nifty program that will search bad floppies and bad hard drives for files that normally couldn't be read (including deleted ones!). I used this a lot when I did tech support for a school. Students would store their final term papers on bad floppies or they'd delete it on accident. A simple run through with the tool, restore, and most if not all of the file was still there. I got to be the hero. :D

      For Linux there's sysresccd.org/index.en.php although they say that it'll also do NTFS. I suggest researching a bit more before you wipe out your drive on accident.

      Also, when backing up a working machine, make sure you're using the same hardware (other than the hard drive, of course)! Older operating systems (95,98,ME,2000) will freak out if they see new hardware they aren't expecting (different north bridge, south bridge, etc). XP Professional seems to be more robust - I've transferred an AMD machine to a P4 with no more hiccups other than it installing new drivers after the first reboot. I was pleasantly surprised.
    • I got norton ghost and used the copy hard drive to a new one, and that copied all of my files. But when I tried to boot my computer up from that hdd it say xp pro is loading, etc.. But when I had to login my name was not on the log-in screen, as a matter of fact nothing but "Windows xp Professional" was.

      hmm??