So I have a dying hard drive due to a growing number of bad sectors and about ready to crash. Im going to be getting a new drive. Is there a way I can copy the data from a dying drive to the new drive and maintain the same windows installation? Or will Windows throw a fit and force me to reinstall?
The file system and Windows seem to be intact and stable. And I would really rather not have to manually move 50 gb of data if there is an easier way to do this.
Or am I better off just copying the drive and reinstalling windows?
2007-07-19 14:13:11 · 5 answers · asked by David 5 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
Windows is actually pretty stable during a re-installation. If you want to move everything over INCLUDING the Windows operating system, the only program out there is Norton Ghost. However, if you have your OS disk, just reinstall Windows from the disk, download the updates, and you can use just about any transfer program to grab your data to switch it over to the new hard drive. (I have no suggestions as to which program to get, as I was given a copy of Norton Ghost and have never bothered to check out the other programs.)
If you do go the route with Norton Ghost, I suggest that you either attach the blank hard drive as a secondary internal drive (E drive, F drive, etc.) or as an external drive. (If external, buy an external case for it, they start around $15.) Once the transfer is complete, you can take the new hard drive and replace the primary hard drive with it. The big fubar that I have encountered is that the computer may still assign the new hard drive as "secondary" and will not boot properly. Just go into the BIOS at boot (when the computer boots it prompts you to hit Esc. or F1 for this) and assign the Boot drive to D/E/F/what ever is appropriate.
Good luck!
2007-07-19 14:41:55 · answer #1 · answered by rec4lms 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Take the 6 Gb hard drive out / disconnect it and see if it still boots up fine, no error messages, etc. It should. If it does then throw your 6 Gb hard drive in the trash or sell it on eBay for $5.
2016-05-17 22:51:02 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the best thing would be if you can manage to get an external hard drive. then you dont have to go through all the hardware installation problems. anywayz. after connecting a external hard drive just start copying straight away. If you want to move files directly it might not let you as you have bad sectors. Best of luck. Thanks.
2007-07-19 14:17:17 · answer #3 · answered by Messenger 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You could try this utility called Paragon Drive Back-up which you can download from http://www.download.com/Paragon-Drive-Backup/3000-2242_4-10636908.html?tag=lst-6-3. It has a 30-day trial period. That should be more than enough days for you to back-up your dying drive and transfer the image to your new drive.
2007-07-19 14:25:03 · answer #4 · answered by Biko 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You need "Ghost" software
2007-07-19 14:17:03 · answer #5 · answered by Bella ♥ Italiana 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋