Transferring Hard Drive to new Hard Drive

[Punkycat]

Hello,
I have a 7GB hard drive right now, but I need to transfer it to a new 40GB drive. I am not sure whether to reinstall windows from scratch and redownload everything or whether to copy everything from one drive to another. I guess my questions are:

Is the a free EASY TO USE program I can download to copy HD to HD?
If I do this will the drive have to be partitioned in 2 sections, (like drive C & D)?
If I do a clean install and keep my other drive as a slave when I want to use a program, can I go to the other drive and copy it and then run it to install it on the new drive OR
can I just run it from the other drive?
This question isn't really to do with these other questions, but will help in deciding - I downloaded a program awhile ago (I think it was "ccleaner", but not positive) anyway something I downloaded keeps getting rid of my passwords that I keep saving. Could it be this program, or what kind of program will keep doing this even when you tell windows to save password? If I can't get rid of the culprit, I'll probably do a clean install (although dreading it).


By the way I use Windows 98SE (if it makes any difference on any of my questions.

Thank you for any help and/or advice.
:hmm: :confused: :wave:

[renegade600]

1. you can get software to transfer the info in the old drive to the new from the new drives manufacturers website. Sometimes it even comes on a cd with the new drive.
2. the drive will not have to be partition
3. you cannot use the old drive as a slave and expect to be able to continue to run the current programs installed on it if you are running your os from the new drive.
4. not sure what you are asking but you can keep your old drive as your master and use the new drive as a slave. That is what I did when I was lazy and did not have time to reinstall stuff. However you will lose the benefits of a newer drive that will run things a little faster.
5. programs such as ccleaner will get rid of all junk from your drive, including passwords that were saved in your browser. Some passwords are saved in cookies and cookies are usually deleted unless you specify what cookies not to delete when doing cleanups.

Personally, I usually like to reinstall stuff from scratch when going to a new drive. It gives a lot of programs a fresh start and eliminates any possible nasties from moving to the new drive. However, if you do this, make sure you have all keys and serial numbers for all programs.

[Punkycat]

Thanks renegade600,
Okay you helped me make up my mind. I know that is the best way I have just been dreading it. Anyway, the question, I guess I didn't explain it correctly was: Will I be able to go to the "D" drive (the old one) and get programs I have on it, copy them and then reinstall them on the new drive?

One more thing, I downloaded "Slim Browser" and tried it out today. So far I love it, my PC is running faster and not running out of memory like it usually does. I was just wondering if you are familiar with it? If so, does IE have to be installed, does it work in combination with it or is it a complete program different from Int. Exp.?

Again, thank you for helping me decide and not take the lazy way out.

[renegade600]

you cannot copy installed programs and reinstall them on another drive.

I am not familar with slim browser however, according to their website, you will need msie installed for it to work.

[Cibertec]

I would just buy either North Ghost or Acronis True Image. I think Acronis True Image is cheaper and better but thats just my opnion. Then just do a Disk Copy and that will copy all data and all of your programs. Hope this helps.

[jtdoom]

hi

there is no need to spend money for a drivecopy program, because the manufactor of one of those drives you have will have a diskmanager tool which can clone partitions or entire drives.

You can get this as ISO to burn on CDR, or a file what will make you a diskmanager floppy.

it does not have a file manager like ghost or acronis, nor can it make compressed images, but it can clone a drive just fine, and is free.

[Punkycat]

I was just going to install from scratch to clean out the registry. But when I went to do this my PC does not see the hard drive I was going to install. It is not a brand new one, it was used before. It had Windows XP on it and I don't know if it is even on there or if it was completely erased since I can get it to show up. It is a 40GB drive.

Any suggestions on what I can do. I tried different jumper settings neither worked.???????