My C drive is small and full. There is a second drive which is four times the size and almost empty. How can I transfer all the contents of my C drive to this F drive, make it the boot drive and then reformat the old C drive? I want to avoid the agro of reinstalling Windows and all the other programmes if possible.
2007-02-19 20:17:34 · 11 answers · asked by M B 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
I can recommend Acronis True Image.
xxclone will do the job for free, though.
www.xxclone.com
2007-02-19 21:23:12 · answer #1 · answered by 86er 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You'll have to boot your PC from some other source than the C: drive. Search the web for a program called BartPE. It takes a little time to set it up, but you can boot a Windows-like OS from CD. You can then copy the entire contents of the C drive to the other drive. If you maintain the file structure, you can simply connect the new hard drive in place of the old one. If you have anything installed on the larger drive, it will need to be reinstalled because Windows will be looking for it where it used to be.
Copy and paste won't catch all the hidden and system files, so take appropriate steps, and you may need to set all the accounts to share all files with other users.
2007-02-20 04:26:07 · answer #2 · answered by whatdoitypehere 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Using say Partition Magic, Create a partition on F, which has all your existing F data on it. Move this to the end of the drive and create a large partition at the start of the drive, this will be C drive ..later on. still in PM, copy existing C to the space you created on F. In PM, make your new partition (on F) bootable. Do not remove your files from C at this time. you will get warnings about drive letters etc....Create emergency boot discs in PM...just in case!
Reboot, should now boot on the partition of F (but will now be C) and, as they say, off you go.
2007-02-20 07:49:52 · answer #3 · answered by johncob 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The easiest way to clone a hard drive is Norton Ghost. Its very simple, can boot from a CD or floppy and doesn't cost that much for the home edition. You can also use DD (and open source program), but unless you really like to get your hands dirty its much better to go with ghost. There are a few others that work great too, but I stick with ghost and that's what I recommend.
2007-02-20 04:26:28 · answer #4 · answered by tylw85 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I used Paragon Partition Manager 2005 to clone a WinXP disk. The software was free on a CD that came with Personal Computer World magazine (Oct 2006). It still might be free to download via:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloads/2167398/paragon-partition-manager-2005
2007-02-20 07:39:42 · answer #5 · answered by ROY L 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes you can use a program called Norton Ghost (or any other ghost programs). It creates an exact image (clone) of your hard drive. Be careful with this though as you might make a mistake and create a clone of your blank hard drive ending up with 2 blank hard drives!
2007-02-20 04:20:59 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Combine the two drives with Partition Magic so you would have just one C drive with the size of your present C+F drive.
2007-02-20 08:20:14 · answer #7 · answered by Johnson 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So..
I easily got for free Paragon Partition Manager here http://bit.ly/1k3rYZe
Recommended
Regards
2014-07-25 12:22:57 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can try merge the C and second drive with Partition Magic, just a minute and you will get what u want.
u can merge from C to second drive or From second drive to C
2007-02-20 04:24:17 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
copy c to F and then restart... on restart go into setup and change the bootdrive to F more likely it will be a code.. just choose the more likely F drive.. then open windows and format C and you should be ok..
2007-02-20 04:20:48 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋